GB Feature: Rift: Planes of Telara Preview

After spending some time in the closed beta test of Trion Worlds' Rift: Planes of Telara, our own Tyson McCann has cranked out a four-page preview of the soon-to-be-released fantasy MMORPG.
Rifts are elemental vortexes that open up in the sky seemingly at random all over the land, distort the surrounding area for a brief time, and provide both public grouping and rewards for participating in quelling the invading demonic forces.

I usually don't buy into dynamic content hype until I see it, mainly because something like this hasn't been executed to this degree yet but you know, it's actually really, really fun! For example you'll be off on a quest and suddenly a minor rift appears somewhere in the distance and beckons (you can see them clearly). You might see some people running toward it and can't help but feel a little curious. Soon you'll join a public group of many fighting waves of invading creatures until a final boss is defeated at which point the rewards come. The whole process is usually only several minutes.

At other times a major inter-zone rift event begins that you'll automatically become a part of with rifts opening up all over (you can also see them on your map), monsters running from them to wreak havoc on the open road and in towns, and an end (boss) that needs to be defeated. How much you participate in these events determines your reward(s) to some extent, which makes participation even for events well above your level fun even if you get the minimum rewards.
He's also added eleven new screenshots to our image gallery.