So I tried Rift...

Some days ago (I think even yesterday) Rift was on Steam for some little Euros.
Well, to make it short: I bought it. Just to check why people like it. At least I know what _I_ don't like...

For example: I don't like it if you buy a game and have, after activation, to buy playtime. But, my fault, I should have known the fact that there are two x two versions of the game. And two of them are without playtime. This decreases Steam's "big deal" to the magnitude of a coconut, seen from Alpha Centauri by a blind extraterrestrian mole far under the earth, by night.

Ok, no problem for me: I paid and, BAM, started the installer and... "UPDATES NEEDED - SHALL I?". What a question: If I press "No" I could only play "Rift - the Launcher Adventures", but that's not so funny and so I said "Ok guys, let's play Patchamon - gotta patch 'em all, hu?". So it did.... and did..... and did.....


PICACHUUUUUUU, finished.
And go. Right into the game - almost no loading time. Yes, ok, the RIFT-logo took some time, but I think the devs made it that way to remind oblivious gamers and pott heads (and probably: both) of what they loaded. We all know those situations when you start a game and look at tv and after some moments you think "Oh man, what did I start? Why is my screen black" and "Damn, I should have gone to toilet a couple of minutes ago... oh, too late". Problems that nto only raid player know.

Well, ok, I landed directly on the character screen. I saw some little buttons on the bottom and a nice building. Great. As I managed to forget for one second what game I started I thought I was watching on the screen of "World of Architecture Craft" or "Building of Conan" or "Lord of the Stones", which would also be a great music themed game. But in the end I realized I had to create a character.

I'm not one of those guys that are not uninformed when they play I game so I knew that I had only 4 archetypes of classes at the beginning. No problem: I created a mage, no, wait, a warr... no, rogue and... AHHHHH, forget it. Mage. Good. Now some detailed char settings. As I'm a professional I perfectly know what I want.
I wanted the random button and, tadaa, my char looked like the vegetarian vampires of the filmed female orgasmus called "Twilight". Good one, along with a white robe I'm as cool as a pinguin in a refrigerator at the north pole. Party on, ... wait, I needed a name. No problem, I've got a random generator. Ah, cool, pressed and...

What's that?! Is this a name or a disease? What is the purpose of having such a name? Does the random generator consist of facerolling the keyboard? When I put my keyboard on the ground and jump on it, I get better names. Even if my cat walks onto it. So I toke something with less than 95% consonants: Nocturnis. Good. Ok, right into the game. Ah, the movie begins...

In the following minutes I saw the story. As I was watching and zapping TV, too, the pictures merged and so I build up my very oft Rift story.
In short: "Osama Bin Regulos decided to start a final strike against.. whatever. I think against some blue guys jumping from tree to tree and plugging their wand into birds or something like that. Ok, no problem: The Not So United States of KickmyAssistan have no clue how to manage the financial crisis the God caued and so they're looking for answers.
Sadly their Gods - the guys who caused that damn crisis - turned very silent and now two factions think that THEY have the best solution. The one called "Bareback Obama" with his Democratwards and the other side, the Boston Defiant Party with their Failicans. While the Failicans say "No, wait, we need far more war as we need ressources to solve our problems, stupid!" the democratwards say "Aww, come on, finish your QQ and beat it: Nobody likes us as one bomb causes ten terrorist, idiot!". A big war started.

As it seems that I chose to be one of those democratwards I saw a body on the ground, rescued by some kind of Angel Dust drug promo figure like the Santa Clause of Coca Cola, I was taken to another place and a very strong voice told me that me - and the other 500 people that landed in the last two seconds -  is / are the last hope of Whatsoeveria, the world I'm fighting for.

Good. Ok, understood so far. But then: 20 fps. 20?! I am playing Deus Ex on max resolution and settings and have far more than 60 fps. But I knew that I wouldn't be happy with my Intel Core Duo at > 3Ghz and my Ati 5870. So I activated the wonderful low renderer. This turned my Rift into a MineCraft with AntiAliasing. Well, better, but not that wonderful. I changed it back and took minimum details. Ah, 60 fps. Phew. And still better than the crap before.
Now I'm ready to play....

Let's take at the UI.

First I thought that I was playing an alt on World of Warcraft as I, closely following the story, forgot what I was playing. But I soon realized that I wasn't in WoW, but in Age of.. no, wait.. Aion.. no, wait... Rift, right. It seems that the UI concept is as established as round wheels and liquid water. Ok, no problem: Good things will survive. Like cancer or republicans.
To make it short: I had no problems to fit in into Rift. The only thing that disturbed and confused me was the fact that some things that are basically the same like WoW have other names. But this is also based on the fact that they _seem_ to be the same, but are a little bit different. For example: The soul concept: You get one build after the other, but every "tree" has roots and those roots get enabled for points you spent in the tree. The more points you spend on the tree, the more roots you get.
Linux user know: roots are important and nobody should have direct contact with roots. So like it's in Rift: You don't have all roots, you need to develop your character.

But: While World of Charcraft has different builds Rift has different "Classes". Every soul tree has its own class name. Regarding to a mage this would been that the fire mages could be a class on their own, like "The Magical Lighter" and the Frost mages "Refrigator of Death" and the Arcanes "1111111111112".
As I said, Rift is a little bit different and so you've got the possibility to pick two classes at the same time. Yes, in World of Buildcraft you can also spend points in different trees - but now (not l ike in the past) you need to spend a lot on one tree first before you can spread to another tree. In Rift you can spend points in all trees at the same time. Plus: You can have tree active builds, yes, but there are far more trees than only three. Having three activated is funny, but you can also change later (for an amount of gold) and try something different.

Ok, after these little differences - there are far more - I got my first quest, did my first quest and started to explore the world. The rifts are an interesting concept well knows from games like WAR. Situational quests that happen and everybody can join and take part. Nice graphics, that's for sure - but after some time it's a little bit boring, like always. I mean: Even Lotro got boring after a couple of minutes. But, like in Lotro, there are here and there nice new things that when you see them you stop and say "Wohoo!". Good, keeps game interesting.

After the short movie telling me what I've done - I dunno, I think I did something, closed a Rift or found a stone or took a breath - I landed under a bridge. Or near a bridge. Like in reality. You can save the world but later they forget you and you land under a bridge, alone.
But no, I wasn't alone, I had a quest giver and, BAM, party! Again.

The quests are mainly "kill x of these" and "collect y of those" and "click here!" and "save there...". But some quests are also like "Walk into the light". Good, as I'm catholic I've got problems to trust people saying to me "Walk into the light" but this time it was a good decision.
The zones are designed in a dynamic way. While I was selling some crap I got the message that I accepted a quest. Accepted a quest?! For what? Because I was selling items? Did I turn to the crap selling fairy Sellor Moon?
No, I was taking part at an invasion. As i'm living in Germany I decided to not take part at the war and to reap the fruit of other people labour. Perhaps I could go there after war and build up schools or fountains.
Without doing anything - I even had problems to figure out where the war was - I finished the quest. Great. I think that's how a real war feels like. Everyone cries, someone dies and you get the Silver Star.


Later in the night I finished playing. My first feelings were.. strange. On the other side a lot of aspects attract me. Other distract me. I mean: If I want to play WoW I could play WoW.

I will see if I will give it another go. I will update if so...