Rift: Planes of Telara Preview
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Final Thoughts Just to touch on a few final points. Crafting was in and I tried it to the extent I could. I chose to be an Outfitter (think Tailor in WoW), Runecrafter (Enchanter in WoW), and Butcherer (Skinner in WoW). It's easy to grasp and felt particularly polished and easy to do, if not somewhat standard. I liked that you can some money back with crafted recipes (not as much a money sink as say in WoW from my initial impression), and with skins from Butchering, I was able to make magic soft goods, which could then be broken down into magical ingredients I could transform into Runecrafted items that gave stat enchantments to other items. My only problem was backpack space!
An additional note on crafting. I should say though that the items I made for my level were only just usable for a short while. Had I not spent so much attention to this aspect I would have outleveled them before they were usable. This is a main problem in many MMO's and especially prevalent in WoW, which somewhat defeats the purpose of crafting armor and weapons. While this is not so much a problem with enchanting-like professions that make additions to current items, there could be completely different stats or bonuses for crafted gear that make them viable alternatives, or else highly customizable in other ways such as additional ways change look and feel. Alternative stats could be things such as (find rare item +2), (spot collectibles easier), proc bonuses to node gathering, or certain other proc effects or even synergies with one another that just aren't available on other stuff. Simple main equivalent stat changes IMO aren't enough for the effort involved. If they do stay the same way, then the stats should be increased for the effort spent to keep it worthwhile for several levels - that plus some other customization possibilities (maybe for an appearance tab?) would be a cool way to keep players invested.
As for the tutorial sections and two initial faction choices, let's say that I was more impressed with the (bad) faction, the Defiants. The guardian intro FMV was perhaps a bit more cheesy and I would have liked to see more visual differences between the two main choices in terms of races, maybe even a few more races as well. I'm also not sure yet how the interaction between the two will play out. And then there's the random name generator. Let's just say while they were names that could theoretically be pieced together in an alternate world, a name with seven syllables and 15 letters doesn't exactly fly off the tongue. See the screen.
I also did not try the dungeon experience though I saw a lot of groups forming for one called (Iron Tomb), so have no comments on it. After writing this I did check out some Youtube videos and that dungeon at least looked to be standard 5-man raid fare. The end game is also still somewhat uncertain though I do now know they will be giving PvP levels once you get to 50.
What *is* certain is that the beta has convinced me to pre-order two digital collector's editions and even in the hypothetically implausible event the game lacks sufficient end game content, it will be a month well worth the money. If you're interested in a great new world to explore, then I'd recommend checking out Rift: Planes of Telara whenever you can. It has that certain something.
