For two MMOs in the same genre — fantasy — LOTRO and RIFT offer wildly different experiences. Neither are necessarily better or worse in my book, but as I flip between them every night, I’m acutely aware of the difference.
LOTRO is the more serious of the two, the one that’s much more grounded in its world. Its IP dictates a cohesive narrative that makes it easier to understand where one fits in, and the world seems far more vast and real (for lack of a better term). It’s like a good drama movie: usually deeply satisfying and memorable, yet it takes some personal energy to push myself into a long play session. LOTRO isn’t a light-hearted affair, and its combat, text, and mechanics require some attention and patience.
On the other side of the divide is RIFT, the hybridized love-child of WoW, EQ2, WAR, and Scott Hartsman’s genetic kookiness. If LOTRO is a rich drama, then RIFT is a popcorn action flick. It’s more accessible because of it and more instantly satisfying, yet perhaps not as filling in the long run. While LOTRO is more rigid in its class design, RIFT sits back, kicks a boot up on the table, and drawls, “Whaddya want, pard’ner?” I like fighting much more in RIFT, because the animations are more engaging, the fights go a LOT faster than in LOTRO, and because I’ve tailored a build to fit how I like to do combat — not the other way around. RIFT has some sense of world and lore (I do read it, and especially like the scripted events), but it’s much more of an arcade experience, through and through. If you like big numbers, flashy words, and goofy achievements, it’s for you.
Both the drama and the popcorn action flick appeal to me, which is why I’m greatly enjoying each of these (and I fear for my time once TSW comes out next month). I’ve gotten much more into achievement hunting this time around in RIFT, which has actually opened up parts of the game to me I ignored or didn’t notice the first time around (more on that some other day). LOTRO puts me in the shoes of a mere mortal — talented, but mortal nonetheless. RIFT casts me as the fantasy equivalent of a superhero, just perhaps without flight and all of the emotional baggage. It’s the KA-POW! to LOTRO’s elegant blade thrust.
And while I mentioned RIFT as the descendant of WoW, EQ2, and WAR, I think it surpasses each of these titles in ways that aren’t often acknowledged. Saying “RIFT is just like WoW” is kind of a disservice to both of those games. RIFT looks and handles so much better than WoW, while WoW has a much larger world and far fewer dynamic events.
It’s shaping up to be a good gaming summer. I’m about halfway through the Great River for my Captain, after which I’ll be primed for the expansion, and I’ve almost hit 37 with my Cleric in RIFT. I’m not so much worried about levels there — I anticipate hitting 50 within another two zones — but I do want to explore all of the zones, do my achievements, and get in a good spot to head into the expansion when it happens. That’s a lot of ground to cover, and even though I’m making good progress, I’m not sure I’ll be done by the end of August.
If only we could have Rift’s combat mechanics, class flexibility, and dynamic events in LOTRO’s game world!
” Saying “RIFT is just like WoW” is kind of a disservice to both of those games.”
I agree with this, because it is so often oversimplifed into a soundbyte, without even an implication of the reasons why Rift is the way it is. MOre correctly, Rift is a response to Wow in ways that a game like, say, EVE Online might not be, and in a number of ways it out-WoWs WoW. In another sense, though, Rift is missing something that WoW once had but has now (debatably) lost. This is often framed as some kind of sandbox elements, but I think it’s better described as non-linearity. MMOs in these days where every scrap of info is on the web for looking up before the game’s even launched have to work very, very hard to maintain even an illusion of choice. Rift, for all its emphasis on its so-called dynamic events becomes just as linear as WoW after not very much time at all — more so, because WoW has by far the more varied world (not bigger, necessarily; it might be, but it certainly feels a whole lot bigger.) I’m hoping that Storm Legion (an unfortunate name that sounds like that of a white supremacist group,) helps to alleviate this issue of Rift’s.
I’m honestly, not sure how you manage even two titles. I was playing STO all weekend, trying to get a handle on the Duty Officer mini-game, and neglected SWTOR completely. I did both STO and and WoW for a while, but I’d been playing WoW for years, and was really only logging in for raids and the time. Same with Rift and WoW, I finally dropped WoW completely, then Rift when SWTOR, came out. Rift didn’t hold my interest (or Sctrz’) past our first max level characters.
Rift is fantastic until you hit 50. From then on it’s only fantastic for a given value of fantasy, that being Elite Dungeon/Raid play. I also found that the main thing I liked (huge, chaotic zone invasions) turned out to be a function of player population bubbling. Once the population spread out, the zones quietened down enormously, which I didn’t find to be much fun.
I think most comparisons between MMOs are largely fatuous and lazy. Someone might well make the point that all detective novels owe a debt to Poe and Conan Doyle, but would they say “Parker and Paretsky? Nothing but Holmes-Clones” ? Not if they didn’t want people to laugh in their faces they wouldn’t. Variations on a theme are what popular entertainment is all about.
“RIFT looks and handles so much better than WoW”
“Looks” is pretty subjective, since they use different art styles. The character models in Rift, as an example, are pretty bland, while in WoW they are cartoony. Which is better?
And with “handles” you’re going to have to quantify what you mean. Rift is very, very good, with an interface that is responsive on the level of WoW, something that LOTRO does not have, but to say “so much better” leaves me wondering what you are talking about.
That pretty much sums up my feelings on the intangibles of both games. LoTRO requires a lot of patience to get into, but it’s quite rewarding if you do. I found the moment to moment gameplay of Rift to be quite a lot of fun at first, but somehow the world just didn’t suck me in at all. I stalled out in the mid 30s on my main.
Rift, I found, had many things that WoW could profitably imitate. WoW is already doing some of that, with group looting and scenarios (sort of). Now if only WoW could add (off the top of my head):
– Dynamic events (of course)
– Casting at target of target
– Better macros (Rift’s just seemed to work better for me)
– Looting while mounted
– Separate (unlimited) storage area for quest items
Pingback: » Blog Archive » RIFT’s Burning Question – What to do at 50?