Worst MMO Ever? - RIFT

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From being sold as a physical game in major gaming shops, to a free steam game run by Gamigo, oh how the mighty have fallen.
So, is RIFT the Worst MMO Ever?
Many thanks to the Patron and Twitch subs who make my content possible
Death of a Game: RIFT - • Death of a Game: Rift

[@Ea_Rapture]

"The burning village looks fine" Me after every dnd session.

[@SephPumpkin]

Haha I love that

[@Robocopnik]

@LizzybellGaming Of course not, you need those to bring the fire to the next village.

[@JohnSmith-ox3gy]

Jesus guys, that was supposed to be a relaxing shopping and personal quest session!

[@MiqoteMonk]

You smell, Stinky.

[@Ea_Rapture]

@@MiqoteMonk no u

[@jimjones9631]

Rift was one of the best mmos that was run by one of the worst companies. It had so much promise that was squandered because of incompetent management.

[@JoshStrifeHayes]

I got the same feeling, rift trult was ahead of its time.

[@AstheaTV]

Exactly this! The management at Trion was literally crap. The game itself was brilliant, the way Rift implemented burst damage and burst healing, coupled with the vast amount of abilities, gave you so much freedom and fun while playing. It also had a very good balance between casual and hard content as well as very unique and fun ways to level, even power level. I have yet to see an MMO coming even close to that. Truly a shame Trion sold the game away to an even worse company ... :(

[@adgato75]

@@AstheaTV Well , Trion fucked it up badly even before they sold it. All of the players knew what was up , even years before the sale.

[@Masheen]

@@AstheaTV I guess you haven’t played eso. XD

[@AstheaTV]

@@Masheen I have, ESO is a catastrophe of a game, imo, I preordered the game back then. I was so dissapointed that they fucked it up that badly. :/

[@NighttimeNubbs]

To their credit I was able to remember the villain's name purely because how bad it was, which tops plenty of games whose villain or even characters I forget shortly after.

[@LunatheDergbold]

I remembered it solely because he has the same name as a yugioh card i use a lot.

[@fertolinio9555]

@@LunatheDergbold THE KING BABY

[@YatsuraHeadOn]

regulos

[@ValiduzZ]

Half way through the video i scrolled down to read the comment; Spotted this and i had forgotten the actual villains name but i do remember "Generica" and i'm sticking with it.

[@thebusiness8212]

It’s like when I played Mass Effect Andromeda and they were talking about the antagonist species the ummm… the uhhh…. Yeah those guys. Forgot they even existed or were a thing for over half the game.

[@daddyespressodepresso2207]

had to come back to this one to mention this "Have you ever had a hobby that you really enjoyed, but then one day you stopped, and you just have no interest in returning? You don't dislike the hobby and you'll speak of it fondly you've just not got any burning desire to pick it up again" Until the first time I watched this video I hadn't found the words to describe how I feel about Graphic Design ever since I stopped working in the field, but this, this is it. This is *exactly* how I've felt about Graphic Design for the past several years and I just wanted to thank you for putting words to a sentiment I hadn't found the words fer yet.

[@LWolf12]

How I feel about writing. Loved to do it, had so many ideas. Granted it was cringe fan fic, but I liked doing it. Then I stopped for a bit, thought I'd have a short break, and never got back to it. I like the idea of getting back into it, but I can't find that spark to.

[@furiousapplesack]

I feel the same about video editing. 20 years on and I still talk about it on occasion. I could do it again any time I choose, but... nah. I'm good on that.

[@daddyespressodepresso2207]

@@furiousapplesack funny enough video editing and post production FX is what kept me in the field for a couple of years after I stopped working in Graphic Design. So same, haven't done any real video work in years and I'm good on that too.

[@ChristmasLore]

It has to do with skills, and "Skill", I think. At one point, you just reach a point, you're not just good enough, but actually very, very good. Getting any better would either involve life changing changes, or monetary expanses you're not ready/able to make. That plays a lot into this over all feeling, I think. (You've mastered the field, and brains are inquisitive, always curious entities. They have no interest in repeating tasks for ever on end, they need to learn something new to thrive)

[@Shiirow]

" You've committed the cardinal sin of _boring me_ " - Emet-selch after playing Rift.

[@dedexter88]

gold

[@tavernadodevilhunter6732]

i see you are man of culture as well

[@Funguspower2]

I miss him 😭

[@fizzplease6742]

@@Funguspower2 But you do remember him :)

[@Kairos_Akuma]

It made me chuckle xD Emet will be remembered.

[@marcinjanke]

One of the best MMOs I ever played. Played at launch. It was packed and fun! I miss it. Now it's an empty shell of what it used to be.

[@plagues-haze-3987]

TERA than BDO is the best for me

[@TheKountdown]

I know how you feel man. This was one of my favorites and to see it like this sucks. My friends and I talked about going back for the past few years but now I know we can't.

[@VheeShane]

I too remember the release, there were SO MANY players it was like being at Nagoya Station

[@ultravioletcatastrophe]

god, I remember those times, being fully immersed in this at the time gorgeous world and just being obsessed with this game despite being a casual pleb. Started playing shortly before it went F2P and from there on it was downhill all the way

[@DoorknobTheOgryn]

True ...I loved it and it feels dead

[@larryboles5064]

As a former developer on rift I think you nailed it. I worked on the game before launch and up till just after Storm Legion came out. Yeah all of the teleporting around totally breaks the player out of the story. Its jarring and provides no context for what you are doing. here is a baddy, go punch it in the face. But at the same time it does keep you constantly moving around, keeps you interacting with things at the expense of the story. *If it's not clear yet, I'm a story writer but I also worked on the rift system and on raids. Story is important to me but I understand its not the end all be all.

[@inceneration]

Sure you are a developer of rift xD You make me laugh dude xD Everyone who worked on Rift has signed an NDA so even you saying that would be a lawsuit. But its all good... I also "worked" on Rift before and after the release of the last expansion."jk ofc" And if you are the story writer on rift you didnt do your job anywhere near good enough to call yourself a story writer xD

[@sufficientphrase7769]

Dude, take two seconds to google before you rip into someone for no reason. He is a dev@@inceneration Also, rarely does an NDA say you can't talk about having worked on something. It prohibits giving trade details and spoilers. Are you 12?

[@Mizwiz117]

this may be a year old comment but thank you, i enjoyed the story and came from wow just to play it. I really enjoyed the game and how it was built

[@MrExpresate]

@@incenerationhow long do you think NDAs last? Do you think he wouldn’t be able to put his experience on a resume? There is nothing illegal about saying you worked on a game. If he’s a developer, his name is even in the credits.

[@EnraiChannel]

@@inceneration NDAs are not indefinite unless maybe if you are working for CIA or FBI or any other alphabet soup organization. Also vague stuff is usually ok; I have been under NDA two times in my life, both having some variation what can and can't be said.

[@mattbuergel8487]

IMO Rift was fantastic. I played at launch, quite a bit. It was one of the first MMOs of its type to allow you level in so many different ways legitimately. I loved the classes. There was a lot more of an emotional connection when the game first came out. It took a LOT longer to level, and it was a very social game. It's totally different now.

[@dusksentry5836]

"What was the bad guys name" Me: regulos. "I said it at the start of the video" Me: regulos. "Can you remember?" Me: regulos. "No. Exactly. So I award this video regulos out of 10" Me: goddamnit that's not even a picture of regulos!

[@ZacharyKatzStein]

Yep

[@MalekitGJ]

I just blurted "Generica" when he asked, ngl.

[@rubhan94]

@Dusk Sentry same lol.

[@creativedesignation7880]

I could only remember Fred.

[@darkmatter411]

same here, you member? coz I member

[@mojko8358]

jokes on you, I remembered the bad guy's name. It was Fred

[@JoshStrifeHayes]

It was indeed.

[@reaperx7026]

I thought it was regulas

[@ryuno2097]

@@reaperx7026 I think it was Bob from marketing.

[@graden2203]

Wrong....it's Gamigo

[@dervakommtvonhinten517]

@@JoshStrifeHayes wait it actually was? i only wrote that as a joke xD

[@lairdmichaelscott]

I recall in the early days we had a valley below us where the bad guys were pouring through from a magic gate. I was charging down to fight them and looked around. Hundreds of other players were with me -- and there was no lag, none. It was amazing. I finally stopped playing when I had trouble keeping up with what to do after switching between three totally different builds (in addition to all the other games I was playing).

[@realdragon]

I like how giant two headed abomination that takes 15 minutes to kill gives 95 exp but some random humanoid enemy that takes 2 minutes to kill gives 110 exp

[@kalorathekau]

All things considered, this struck me as actually quite a positive review. I think that there are so many BAD mmos, that even being "good but not great" is something of a rarity.

[@chronostasis9510]

I mean, this game would be a banger, but in 2005

[@ppsarrakis]

@@chronostasis9510 no computer could run this game back then... the performance was shit when i played..

[@RadimentriX]

@@ppsarrakis first time i played it was with a gtx 570. i think the card did never run that hot with any other game. it still played fine but damn, that heat... hardware from 2005 would drop out of its slots on the mobo if ordered to run the game xD

[@damianmaglione4418]

Come join us in Telara rift is still going strong in 2021

[@JasonLudeli]

It was a lot of fun when it came out. Tried it again recently and some of the changes really didn't sit well with me and I couldn't bring myself to play long enough to adjust.

[@vepristhorn8278]

I played a tank in this game and my most memorable tanking moment ever was in the is game: I was the only tank fighting an open world boss with a crap tone of healers and and unknown number of DPS, I went head to head with this Giant scorpion with my HP bouncing around so wildly from so many healers as I worked to keep aggro.

[@brykanst9071]

lol rift was the only game that as a mage i could main tank raids at least post first xpac but was always a raid healer since it was a easier role to do with a shitty PC

[@kulrigalestout]

I was the guild's Archon, and it always made me smile when the DPS would post their big dick numbers that were only made possible by me doing the right thing at the right time. I wish more games had a dedicated Support role that actually mattered.

[@gamerelated8985]

Your lying.... Big time none of the world bosses can be solo tanked.... No matter if you have 50 healers they all have debuffs that stack eventually you will be one shotted....

[@weasle5022]

Reminds me of WOTLK WoW, when Paladins we're stupidly powerful. I would tank ICC 25 man with another tank, hed take 1 enemy, id take the other 15, so funny. Even joked with my mate in PvP as a pally healer, we did 2v2 and he died, so i said look how dumb this is, and stayed alive forever while 2 dps wailed on me. Fun times, wish WoW was still good but i'll never go back to "omg your only ilvl 50 we need ilvl 60 !!!"

[@greyed]

In a later video you talk about the quit moment. Here's my quit moment with Rift. I had leveled my chosen class to max level. Sorted the abilities on my bar in a way that made sense to me. Then realized that I would never, under any circumstances, use the abilities out of a certain priority list. So, I set about making a macro which triggered those abilities in that specific order. I literally was playing max level Rift doing this: 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 I even PvPed with that macro and never was there a time that I wanted those abilities to fire in another order. I was, and am, a fan of MMOs that provide a way to reduce the massive button clutter than is the poor legacy from the early MMOs onward. I'm glad that I could have a 2-skill combo where I don't have to take 2 separate keys to fire them off. It is one of the pain points I have with FFXIV. But on the flip side, if your abilities have no situation where you would want to fire any of them out of order? There's no thought to be had there. That was when I quit Rift.

[@codysnowden231]

I had the same exact quit moment. When I realized if I wanted to be even a tiny bit competitive, I had to macro all my buttons to a "single target" and "aoe" macro. Incredibly effective, but absolutely killed any fun I was having. Edit: this was after I had already played at launch and had quit and come back for the Storm Legion xpac I think it was.

[@franslair2199]

This is very dependent on the class. I played cleric. Shaman was about alternating lightning and ice themed abilities, and there were charges and cooldowns to consider. It couldn't be macroed like this and considered the hardest cleric set to play. Inquisitor as a ranged dot class was about keeping your dots up and then casting non-dot filler spells (this part could probably be macroed). Druid was pretty simple and I macroed him as you describe, one priority list attack button, rest of the bar about cooldowns, support spells, summoning different pets, etc.

[@rickcharlespersonal]

What I love most about these videos is that although MMOs are not my thing, I enjoy exploring the often well-crafted fantasy worlds while having Josh slog through the actual game so I don't have to.

[@evilsdemise1287]

Rift was good when it released, then SWTOR came out. People forget how huge SWTOR's release was. And GW2 came out too. We all left for those games. In other words, Rift was a rebound MMO after breaking up with WoW at the time, and like most rebounds you're only there until something better comes along.

[@kaiosun]

swtor got close to wow numbers like 10-11mil and dropped to 2mil in 1-2 months. I heard rift was much better in last beta and they nerfed everything + selling the company was the last blow, I did play rift when it launched.. all those life time subs whining "don't play if you don't like it" well sucks to be them

[@hakarthemage]

@@kaiosun That's because levelling in SWTOR was amazing but the raids were broken at the time, the pvp was laggy and beyond that there really wasn't much to do besides chasing cosmetics and doing the space combat minigame. When the game went F2P they had the audacity to paywall extra action bars. The actual DLC story content later on was good though and the game seems in a better place now but nowhere near it's release numbers.

[@TheRockLobsterMafia]

@@hakarthemage I know. I wish at this point they would make a SWTOR 2

[@theFrozeman]

Yeah, if I remember right, the game was fantastic, especially the versatility of the class system and the addition of the support role. They had some neat ideas, like a dodge tank, a couple variations on something that resembles a modern WoW Discipline priest, and a Bard that had a bunch of 10ish second duration party buffs with a meta buff that scaled based on the buffs you had up. The open world rifts came in solo, group, and full on raid difficulties which was neat. The big problem was that the launch for SWTOR was after the first raid tier was on farm, but IIRC before the second was released. I jumped ship to SW, and by the time I realized that it wasn't going to have any longevity, my Rift guild was dead and WoW's next xpac was getting close. RIP RIFT

[@evilsdemise1287]

@@theFrozeman Playing Bard was my favorite. Still haven't found that in any other game to date.

[@Rhaevyn13]

I miss this game so much. When it came out, zones were PACKED with rifts and the quick, popup join was so refreshing, big groups of people taking down rifts. Ended up forming raids and you could do this for hours if there was an invasion going on. There were some serious RPers to be found almost all the time in the Taverns, it was just a FUN game. Then it died and part of me went with it. It's a graveyard. I would play this again in a heartbeat if the game was somehow revived. No game ever has offered a wardrobe system like RIFT. It should be an industry standard IMHO.

[@jayroc2387]

Totally agree with you I remember how many people used to gather at the Rifts and how packed the zones were, was the only other mmo that took me and my friends away for some time I always wish they would of kept up with it cause it had SO much potential.

[@copper7733]

Was a great game when it first came out.. Lot's of fun! Kinda died though!

[@SentinelFury]

The battlegrounds were also dope, and imo RIFT’s class design was the best and most interesting out of any mmo I’ve ever played.

[@borisgrozni386]

Neverwinter online picked up wardrobe system

[@ericb3157]

oh, yes, i remember that! being able to wear fancy clothes essentials OVER armor, so you could look good without sacrificing defence, was VERY nice!

[@lisat4334]

To be fair: The "DLCs" you found on steam are mostly the subscription options - that's not a DLC ;). Summing those up is pointless. Thanks a lot for the vid though. It's been a while since I last played, gonna give it a go though. I was laughing so much when for the first few levels you just autofight everything and wonder how long the combat takes - it's hillarious. I wonder if that's a bug though. I thought if you autospend your points into your chosen soul combo it would place the relevant skills in your bar automatically (including those from level up). Did you accidentally swap bars or why did this happen? Next to Vanilla WOW this was my favourite MMO, I just loved the class system. Playing a (low) dpsing healer in raids was huge fun. Leveling my rogue as a teleporting, high speed, tank - also great. I've tried so many MMOs since then and none had anything comparable - so sad.

[@danwahl5477]

Yea, pretty stupid he made a big deal about the price of the dlc without actually reading what it was.

[@ChaoticNeutralMatt]

@@danwahl5477 I mean I don't expect him to be perfect with these videos, but certainly well enough. And I haven't been disappointed.

[@lindsywhiting3936]

@@danwahl5477 Yea, it was very strange and hyperbolic. I usually like this guys reviews but that was...dumb. And the combat; you get skills and he seems to be ignoring them somehow and just auto-attacking.

[@0816M3RC]

@@lindsywhiting3936 Even him realizing that wouldn't save this game.

[@kinkypinky2021]

He admits in the video he didn't find the abilities system until later on because they were not automatically in his toolbar

[@silentsnooper3307]

When I played Rift years ago, I had a lot of fun. The talent tree combos were fun, the dungeons/raids were fun, etc... and the thing that stuck out to me.... I'm an explorer at heart. I go where most don't to look around and see what's there... Rift rewarded exploring! There were little artifacts you could find and click on hidden all over the place. Behind trees, under rocks or bridges, in jars, etc. There were several times I climbed hills and found a cairn on top that I could click on for loot, just... out in the middle of nowhere. THAT'S what I miss about Rift. I wish more games would reward exploring. I even got off map in a few locations and occasionally found an artifact spawn offmap (likely a remnant of the map making process), but STILL! What game has that quality now? None that I can think of. :(

[@badlandskid]

Yes. It was a fun game. Finding a difficult cliff to climb and discovering a cairn to loot was a nice touch. Or a puzzle to solve to open a door. What sucked about rift is that they tried to be wow.

[@lysandersensale2792]

I remember getting addicted to wandering the mountain ranges in the good (human?) starter zone cos they had loads of artifacts. What a ridiculously silly way to spend time.

[@badlandskid]

@@lysandersensale2792 guardian

[@deepwaters3335]

I am new to Rift and love it, come back!

[@schroecat1]

That lack of emotional engagement you highlighted was introduced later, after the game had significantly decayed. Originally there was no instant adventure option, but finding things to do with other players in a disorganised fashion wasn't hard because the Rifts and Invasions happen constantly. The most epic MMO experience I've ever had was my first zone-wide Invasion event. Rifts open up all across the zone, monsters come flooding out of them and they make it impossible to continue questing normally until the invasion is contained. They would literally take over towns and mass murder the NPCs until they were stopped, and the game emotionally incentivised you to do it. It felt like a big deal, like the characters really were fighting off the apocalypse. And every zone had several different events like this that could occur in them, so it wasn't the same thing over and over. You could also just join and leave other people's groups with the click of a single button, and the game incentivised you to do so. Additionally, the core storyline quests were fantastic, leading the player to explore the world and learn about what was happening and why. As I'm sure you can tell I'm passionate about this game, but I don't play it anymore because every time I go back it just feels empty and reminds me of the great times of the past that will never come back.

[@davidcampbell9931]

Yes, Yes, Yes. Also i'm extremely frustrated and annoyed at how clueless josh seems to be. No abilities? Okay you fixed that later. However, spent the majority talking about 'raids' that he joined through the "Instant Adventure" menu. The 'Raids' you were in were added much later so Trion could recycle content that was too hard for 99% of the players to experience. They weren't meant to be raids, they were meant to allow players to level up alternatively. Yes the game is on life support, but the bulk of your video is wrong solely because you couldn't break outside the thought that you knew. The encounters in IA's scale yes, but are tuned so that 1-2 players in a group of 20 could do them. How can you be invested in something if there is no potential for failure? That is a problem with IA's for sure, and now that the game has been out so long it's starting to be a problem in actual raids at endgame. Admittedly you probably never would see an actual dungeon group queue before level 65. Normal dungeons are 10x harder than IA's and i'm fairly confident that if you went in with 4 other new/leveling players you would become emotionally invested in the success/failure of the group. In the IA's most the stuff you took damage to would of been a 1 shot in the real versions at release. You'll never know the emotional roller-coaster of fighting that giant squid in a 20minute encounter with 0 deaths in raid. Only so that when the boss is at 0.5% hp a player in your group uses their charge ability and dies in one hit to the bosses breath attack, preventing everyone from getting the 0 deaths during encounter achievement. You stood in that attack for what seemed like an eternity. I can understand why you aren't emotionally invested, but the video was 99% you talking about how certain things that felt wrong to you didn't live up to your expectation. The problem with this is that the things you talked about weren't what you thought they were. The class and ability system of rift is by far the biggest draw to the game as far as combat goes. You didn't even use an ability the majority of the intro. Facing difficult quests/dungeons/raids that get you invested in others/achieving a goal which help you get emotionally invested in the game... Again, you did none of it. You went to the thing purpose built for being able to jump in/out of without any consequences and then talked about how there was no emotional investment. There is just so much that is left out about rift. Spent 30 seconds of 44 minutes talking about the main draw of the game for combat. Never experienced dimensions (personal housing). Never experienced dungeons. Never experienced raids (of course, but at max level they happen all the time) Never experienced (afaik) a true story quest line. No mention of artifacts. No talk about guilds. Never even visted the first main city (which is in the first zone out of tutorial). Like, most of the praise given was about how good the world building was but you never even glimpsed the world. You opened the map and saw a gigantic world then looked at 1/5th of the first zone, proceeded into instanced content and complained about how the content was instanced.

[@RandomPlayIist]

Man spot on, great memories of those zone-wide invasions. The only thing similar I've found since then is Guild Wars 2 and their open world meta events. They also have level scaling to the zone but it's automatic. Rift really was great in its heyday. Trion pulled some greedy shit and killed the game fast right after Nightmare Tide. I saw the writing on the wall with the earrings debacle so I left.

[@Nitidus]

@@davidcampbell9931 Thank you, you found the right words expressing why I has a bad feeling about this review. MMORPGs are so huge, it's impossible to get an actual impression of the game from just one few hours long session. At least if it's a somewhat serious game, not something like Fiesta or such. I REALLY wished he would have accepted the one guy's invitation in the end who wanted to take him on a tour through the game. This also and especially would have been great for the viewers. Do you still play Rift? Are the things you talk about still as enjoyable today?

[@scottwarren3948]

P

[@alanogy]

Yes, from the beta until the first expansion it was amazing. Beautiful art, quality of life features, finding yourself healing a raid group at level 9 to close a rift. And everyone working together to stop the invasions - I forget the zone, but it had werewolves and an NPC named after Suzanne Vega at the center where it took a bunch of players to get rid of those elite invaders. It remained great F2P, but felt grindy in the first expansion; combat was kind of like this video - mobs with very high HP for no particular reason, go kill 30 of them. Last time I went back they had an underwater expansion and I gave up. But it was a beautiful game 10 years ago.

[@Quiiescent]

I still think RIFT’s soul system was one of the most creative designs I’ve ever seen. There was so much opportunity for self expression, especially in PVP. It left such a strong base to be built on, as well-shame the management of the game wasn’t quite there. I still miss it.

[@SapphireDragon357]

@@Knonme21 Yeah that was always frustrating. I get that having such an open system like that would be so very hard to keep balanced, but the solution is not to nerf anything that beats your max point ability in damage.

[@BiggerPeel]

To this day RIFT is the only MMO I have ever PvP'd extensively in. The souls system was so good.

[@jonathansoko5368]

As a current player, it's still good.

[@bellacose3837]

Trion's issue is they took RIFT's profits and used it to seed a ton of awful MMOs, most that didn't launch, rather than reinvesting it back into content. By Nightmare Tide, Trion was in Dire straights and was more worried about Archeage being their savior, and went full in on wringing out every drop of money out of the F2P aspects of RIFT.

[@OldFellaDave]

Yeah, min maxxing and the inevitable 'balancing' killed any innovation in the soul system. I loved Reaper Tanking 'back in the day', it was awesome pulling crowds of 10+ mobs to solo tank and grind for XP ;)

[@armita611]

I was so (likely irrationally) excited for a second thinking I remembered the villain's name but you were talking about Regulaos or"Generico". I was thinking about the tutorial area's first "hard" enemy Frederick or "no one scary has the nickname Fred".

[@bel.niente]

Same 😆

[@TheACed7]

What made Rift great for me was that it allowed me to level my character up to max solely through PvP. Not only that : it encouraged me to grind battlegrounds so that I could buy new pieces of PvP equipment. The Soul diversification was outstanding : as a Rogue I could reroll into ranged DPS , melee DPS , tank , support , offtanks with crazy DPS - you could never bore yourself because your playstyle was extremely flexible.

[@Sarkubocael]

The thing that stunned me as a wow player at the time i was playing/trying this game out, the spell casting, the mages/casters actually use the staff when you have one equiped to cast a spell, while on wow its been a decoration since 2004...

[@alanogy]

What struck me as a player about to quit WoW during the beta at the end of 2010 were the quality of life changes (auto-grouping so you wouldn't have to worry about tagging, clicking once to sell all gray items, I forget what else), the RIFTS and invasions, the triple soul trees, the art, and the chloromancer who could heal by doing damage.

[@happybalint]

I know right? I've seen some alpha footage of WoW and characters actually used their weapons to cast spells. I have no idea why they changed that but it always bothered me.

[@PrimePalYT]

maybe they are eventually making that every race can be every class and this exact change would help blizzard team a whole lot of work from animating wand/staff actually being used in every single class.@@happybalint

[@terraglade]

Rift was my "mmo for a summer" i got invested into a roleplaying guild with twice a week meetups. It was a fond memory at best after so many years. I stuck with it for 2 or 3 months and slowly drifted away as another semester of high school started. Here i am, probly 9 years later, smiling and remembering those simpler days.

[@JoshStrifeHayes]

That sounds like the best way to play the game

[@ExtremeConing]

I remember marrying a "girl" in game with my whole clan attending. I miss Vittles "she" was a real one

[@yourtrappedinmygenjutsu]

@@ExtremeConing Haha its so sad that it was likely some old dude but hey at least you had fun

[@EvanBear]

@@yourtrappedinmygenjutsu Hey, female gamers do exist :P

[@Rhaevyn13]

@Rent Free We definitely do, and I'm also a grandmother!

[@ChrisWhiton]

I had a similar experience. I remember a slow crawl to level 10 or 20 (I can't remember) and then I joined a raid at the suggestion to people in zone chat. I was powerleveled so much that I was just LOST after I got out of my string of raids. I don't think I logged in again after that day.

[@kerianhalcyon2769]

Man that class system is a far cry from when it started. I remember back when you could pick a bunch of different classes of different alignments regardless of race or faction, including Necromancer, which some people did while playing as the de-facto good guys the Guardians (we were chosen not for our virtue but for our might!). Seeing only four with an optional, payable fifth is a far cry from when I first got interested in Rift.

[@peterpetersen8988]

Not sure if anybody cares but I re-tried the game like 8 months ago and you technically still have the freedom you had when the game released The builds and classes you choose at the beginning are just based on actual builds by players like a guide but you can also go into the skill tree and freely combine your classes skill trees in combination of 3s For example as rogue assassin/nightblade/marksman could be changed to assassin/bladedancer/saboteur or any combination you like They still added some skill Trees you only can use with money for example a tank sub class for mages or a heal sub class for rogues

[@py_a_thon]

The Chloromancer mage was such a fun take on how to create a different type of mage archetype. They were like a resto druid combined with any other mage spec you wanted to combine with it.

[@Haphazardization]

Way to use big words to sound extra dramatic but you are simply wrong. While the rest of the game is a shadow of what it once was, the class system is still the exact same. I was a founder when it came out and go back to it about once every 2 years hoping to recatch some of that initial enjoyment.

[@py_a_thon]

@@Haphazardization Literally the only reason I stopped playing that game was because the PvP lobbies emptied out, and there was no way to turn of xp points (so you could keep playing the honestly really fun pvp modes they had in the level 20-60 range). Dragon Age: Inquisition is mostly single player yet "stole" the idea of rifts, and the storyline is solid. If you wanted some kind of RPG to get a bit of that Rift mode again then that game is honestly quite fun for a singleplayer-ish game.

[@normalmighty]

I remember RIFT making for easily my most fun weekend of the year when I first played it brand new. After a 30 hour straight session, I closed the game feeling like I absolutely loved the experience, and then I never opened the game again. I don't even know why anymore, for some reason the game just didn't leave me wanting more.

[@Manus_Factum]

This perfectly sums up my experience with the game

[@xXbaker1025Xx]

To me RIFT has always been the true "We have WoW at home."

[@tovick1643]

Problem is, it was a great wow contender for some time, but it didnt hold on too that entirely imo...

[@Ahov]

Rift was better than WoW for a couple of years. I played WoW from WoD until Mythic Helya in Legion, and I can say Rift had more challenging fights such as Planebreaker Abominus, Inyr'kta and Binding of Maelforge. The various classes were also within 5-10% of each other at the highest level of play. The combat was not only insanely fun but also complex and deep, with room for innovation.

[@TheFudily]

@@Ahov I think the best thing Rift had over WoW was my forum guide to 1-button Mage PvP builds.

[@Jason_Fairtex]

This maybe the best comment on KZbin

[@koffinkat666]

No way, Rift was Waaaaay Better than WoW when it first came out. They were the first to do world events right!

[@snowpanther7076]

The early combat problems was strange because I started playing just after this game came out and I had abilities on the hotbar from the moment I entered the map

[@tobarstep]

The one thing I remember about Rift was that you had fall-through macros. Meaning, I could put pretty much all my abilities on one or two buttons in order of damage done and just spam them and it would use whichever ability was off cooldown. I was able to take down hordes of mobs that way.

[@DemonicAkumi]

"what was the bad guy's name? I said it at the start of the video. Can you remember?" Frederico I think? "Regulos/10" Oh, that one.

[@charlestrudel8308]

the half humour worked with you too.

[@CanYouResistClick1ng]

I was able to answer it right away. Idk maybe I'm just good at paying attention and remembering things.

[@StupidButCunning]

As someone who played Rift since Launch, I can confirm the business decisions killed it. All the good devs saw where it was going and jumped ship and those left were so impressed by their own work they consider themselves better than anyone else. This happened even before Rift was sold to Gamigo. Trion gained so much money from the cash shop but used it to invest in other failing projects. They pushed out a very lackluster expansion with Nightmare Tide where they effectively ruined their entire game with the initial patch. With Nightmare Tide, they increased everyone's health to be of Tank level, but did not proportionately increase healing. They removed the stat that prevented tanks from being crit, and replaced it with a stat that gave a flat constant damage reduction. This led to tanks in the best gear being one shot by Expert dungeon bosses due to an unlucky crit. They also made their well-established and adored PvP gear system obsolete and only used for aesthetic purposes. There was no longer PvE gear or PvP gear. There was just gear. Everything was consolidated which meant the best gear in the game came from raiding, and raiders could steamroll PvPers in PvP content. Further on this, they changed how scaling worked making any creative builds worthless. You either spent your points FULLY in DPS to kill things quick but die quick, FULLY in healing to be immortal but you can't hurt anyone, or FULLY in Tank to take slightly longer to die but ultimately be useless. With these changes, PvP went from skill-based to gear-based and people left in droves. During the first weekly livestream after Nightmare Tide went live, someone pointed out to the Devs these various issues with play, and asked what their plans would be to address this in the future. The lead dev responded, and I quote "We're not going to change anything because you worded it as if there's a problem. This is the best Rift yet." After a full expansion of incredibly mediocre, lootbox abusive techniques (which I feel certain were related to the timing of them bringing on a former Activision executive to their board of directors), they promised a great new expansion to fix everything. Promises of grandeur led to many people pre-ordering. Then it was delayed. And delayed again. And delayed yet again. Then it was released with less than 10% of the content that was promised. The little bit of content they did release completely broke the class balance system at end game and Clerics become quite literally immortal. This was the final nail in the coffin for Rift. Not long after, they were sold to gamigo and countless bugs arose. Gamigo shifted everything to the cloud so the gameplay was often very laggy and unstable. The cash shop kept putting out new lootboxes with a rare chance at cheaply designed reskins of already existing content, but the experience degraded immeasurably. As a side note, you spoke of raiding in Rift as if Intrepid Adventures were the raid system. They are not. The raids are truly challenging and well designed, much like most of the dungeons. The Instant Adventure and Intrepid Adventure systems were used as a way to combat how Rift's poor decisions and failing to retain people with rising competition led to lower numbers of active players. First shards were shut down and consolidated. Eventually only a single PvP shard remained, and a handful of PvE shards. IA gathered people from all levels and scaled them to the level appropriate for the region they'd be in. It also served as a means to offer extensive experience and quickly get people to end game content. Problem being that Rift's true strength was the adventure you had during the leveling process. The PvP was a fantastic system prior to Nightmare Tide, but PvErs had little to do after beating all the raids and acquiring the gear they wanted outside of making an alt, which happened for most players. Working on Dimensions can be fun for some people, but eventually there won't be anything to do so fast tracking to the end is something I view as a mistake.

[@MutatingManiacGarr]

You forgot about the incredible amount of reputation grind the new expansion brought, that, SOMEHOW, was even worse than grind before that. To achieve ANYTHING you had to either pay for expensive reputation boosts or farm dailies for months...

[@abderianagelast7868]

That developer attitude you mentioned is almost exactly what I see in the Dead by Daylight developers. Admittedly, I wouldn't mind seeing that game dropped down a few more pegs so they actually have to improve it, but that's because I love the idea of the game. Their execution has been lacking over the last couple years though, and especially since their last anniversary. There's plenty of videos about their attitudes though, I recommend looking into that when you get the chance. Rift seems like a game that deserved that treatment far less.

[@milesrout]

The game was ruined long before Nightmare Tide. The first expansion was horrible. The game was basically ruined when the only raid available was Hammerknell for months. They released so much brilliant content at a good pace and then everyone was sitting there at 10/11 HK unable to beat the final boss and just NOTHING came out for ages.

[@ChaoticNeutralMatt]

This is tragic, but not uncommon.

[@kikidevine694]

You're describing most of the mmo's in existence

[@DarkRequiemFilms]

I had the collectors edition for RIFT when it released. Long lost now, I don't even remember my login info.

[@Spidahman4283]

I just rewatched this and remembered what you said about the raids and the voice acting. That wasn't always the case with bosses. But Nightmare Tide was a horrible monster that gave us that one thing. An overarching villain that didnt take himself too serious and actually was super sassy towards us. It was great. I miss Rift.

[@deepwaters3335]

Come back and play, I just started.

[@fredhurst2528]

I know this video is old but I had to comment that it made me laugh that a long time MMO player took so long figure out that he was not using his abilities simply because they were not called skills. Josh, you are just precious.

[@Spacesnakes474]

I really would have thought the fact that he had a finishing blow ability would have been a give away that he had abilities he wasn't seeing haha. (I know your comment is as old now as this video was when you commented, but here I am)

[@umbreonandespeon]

You're just upset bc he said you weren't scary, *fred* 😤

[@otal2294]

I think hes playing as a new player would. Unless you're TOLD or Shown in some way the skills page you wont exactly not know where it is, and probably most people wont interact with it!

[@FlyteTeleus]

Are you implying he's role-playing in a MMORPG as a new player?

[@dandldoouu5911]

@@Spacesnakes474 makes me wonder if he played his first character (pre youtube) to lvl 16 with nothing but auto attack :D

[@Nobleshield]

The original RIFT was an amazing MMO, as perfect a WoW clone as ever was done; it truly was a better WoW than WoW. Just Trion was a terrible company and completely ruined it after. To this day though as a die-hard WoW fan the "vanilla" Rift has been that only game that ever got me to quit WoW to play it.

[@borisgrozni386]

TRION actually borrowed a lot of money to put into marketing campaign for RIFT. Time passes new games comes out and money had to be turned back. Then it came F2P and all bad things..

[@clackking]

Same

[@consistentlystupid4726]

I agree in that it was the best "WoW" clone by far. It expanded upon a lot of what WoW was doing and the ability to customize your class so much was amazing at the time. I played Rift in the Beta but didn't have enough money to reliably sub to an MMO at the time and I regret never getting to play it at release.

[@DAS1337]

I actually think WoW fans ruined Rift, and then went back to WoW.

[@Ishmachiah]

@D3Sync - 100% this.

[@KrazzeeKane]

Great video but the first part of this was actual pain for me to watch, I wanted him to figure out to use his abilities so, so badly lol. Watching him die over and over was rough, poor guy learned the hard way

[@sirprize5191]

Yeah how can an mmorpg player not notice the red skill icon at the bottom skill bar

[@androkles04]

Damn, seeing the patreon page on this video, and then the one of the most recent videos. Such an impressive growth. Well done, Josh.

[@Shiirow]

R.I.P Freddie, he died of boredom simply because you were never going to be a challenge.

[@BM03]

This game did so many things ahead of it's time, it felt like The WoW Clone WoW Kept Cloning. Did things like AoE looting, crafting from bank and wardrobe system where anything you pick gets added to your collection way, way before WoW did. The dye system was better than what I've seen in MMOs around still, I have yet to meet with a housing system (dimensions) that allows it's amazing amount of freedom, the class tree was impressively robust in options AND it had not just "that one support class that people are still having second thoughts about inviting (AKA "The Bard"), it was a DEDICATED party slot. It's worth mentioning it's key binding system should be standard. I know I kinda recently saw it elsewhere (I think WoW?) but being able to change keybindings by hovering the mouse over the hotkey on the screen instead of going down a list should be the NORM with how quick and intuitive it is. And they did it since day 1. I honestly feel like if I had known it was going to just DIE, I would've actually "mained" this MMO back then and gone super hard on it. Because now, the experience just can't be re-lived... So much regret.

[@spookyfish24]

I played a bard during Nightmare Tide because I didn't think anyone would want me to raid with them. Came to find out that it was an in-demand support class. lol There was SO much I loved about that game and miss. The transmog and housing systems are far and away better than anything else I've had in WoW or FF14.

[@bloodchoke]

I pvp'd as a bard. The few videos I ever posted was a couple library runs.

[@Emajenus]

The problem with the talents system was that metas formed relatively early. It basically invalidated most choices outside of the meta. It was a great game, though. So many good memories.

[@BM03]

@@Emajenus I didn't really hit endgame but I didn't find this to be the case. As long as what you used made sense you didn't seem terribly limited. A main tree to focus on and two trees mostly for passive boosts that enhance your main is what I figured worked the best. Third tree was mostly passive fluff but even the second tree usually allow to provide decent utility. At least that was my interpretation of the system when I played back then. And last I played Nightmare Tide (or something like that) was new.

[@3rdcain356]

Back at launch we used to say "they stole all the good bits and did it better"

[@marklar2440]

I played the crap out of this game, and my most active period was during the Storm Legion expansion. The wardrobe system was incredible! The cloth armor in particular made me angry at WoW for re-skinning the same stupid robes over and over again. You nailed something I could never articulate... I just never felt invested in the world, and never felt truly attached to anything in it, including my own characters. So many awesome systems & visuals, but in the end I just never felt anything connect me to the world it was set in! Thanks for the video, I can finally articulate my feelings 10 years later hahaha. :P

[@Xzpswagger]

Its so crazy how you described the issue Rift when I just clicked this video thinking "oh yeah, how did I completely forget about Rift?! I remember it being such a fun game."

[@DutchSkeptic]

Fun fact: "regulus" roughly means "petty king" in Latin. Not exactly an awe-inspiring name for the evil dark overlord threatening the universe. 'Regulus out of 10' is the best rating for Rift.

[@0Fyrebrand0]

I believe that would be the literal translation -- "little king" is what I found when I looked it up -- but "prince" is more of an accurate meaning. I don't know if the character is basically the "prince of evil" or "prince of darkness" or something, but it's a name that denotes royalty at the very least. So, I didn't find it a bad or forgettable name, myself.

[@marykateharmon]

If I recall the lore correctly, (I couldn't get an account during the time when it required pay, but I read through all the lore in the really cool website they use to have while imagining what soul combinations I'd go with for each calling. Favorite one I had in mind was a Warrior Paladin-Paragon-Beastmaster), Regulus had been a prince who decided to seek out dark arts and so betrayed his home and home to become the ruler of the death domain. So the name then makes sense. He's one of the few if only domain rulers that use to be human.

[@philtertop]

basically it's regulus as in regal not as in regular

[@viddeliten]

Oh, I need to reread Harry Potter now because I totally misread Regulus as ordinary

[@stolarjm]

To be fair, those DLC included a 12 month sub, so in actuality there was only maybe ~$50 worth of DLC listed there

[@gardian06_85]

also stated it as a "bundle" when that isn't what steam bundles look like, that is just a list of DLC.

[@kakazu50]

12 months + 1 month for 9.99E. So total 13 months inflating that price

[@mistywww3199]

@@-------------764 maybe finish the video before commenting

[@JensenSarpy]

Yea, that's what I noticed.

[@hellan7344]

its 550 euros????

[@fyre9123]

I played Rift from 2010-13... even had a wallpaper from the game as my desktop BG. Sad to see how hard it fell. Watching this makes me feel both the urge to play it again, but also the knowledge that I'd just be disappointed and would be better off not bothering. May as well leave it with the positive memories I had instead of ruining them.

[@pharynx007]

i played rift when it first came out, and from day one, i felt the same way. "it isn't bad, it is fine" i LOVED the unique class system. that was the main draw for me.

[@bl8388]

A friend said it was awesome. I casually played several days thinking the same thing.

[@drkmgic]

watching rift just breaks my heart. my first mmo i actually commited so much time on

[@Kryptic1046]

Rift was great. Played at launch, left for a bit, came back during Storm Legion and had a blast with it for a long time. It makes me sad too when I see what it's become. It didn't deserve the awful fate that was thrust on it. .

[@17thknight]

Same. I put so much love into that game. I learned to tank and I'll never forget when we were doing one of the end game raids and our main tank went down and I had to immediately jump in from being off tank and everyone cheering for me as I practically learned the fight while doing it was incredible.

[@Denominus]

Rift was also very much in the "World of Warcraft" genre of MMOs. The only players interested in that genre of MMO are either playing WoW, or taking a break from it. A lot of Rift's playerbase just went back to WoW, again.

[@sciencethygod]

I mean their catch phrase for the adverts before and during launch was "We're not in Azeroth anymore", they where not trying to fake not being a wow clone :V

[@burgertim7878]

I know I did.

[@foxdavion6865]

Or went to play FFXIV, the more casual catgirl alternative. Seriously, in that genre there is only WoW and FFXIV. And the only thing stopping ex-WoW players leaving FFXIV to go back to WoW now is the fact the decided to quit WoW because the feel Blizzard perminantly messed it up. Rift is also the most steriotypical example of the 3rd generation of MMO, ironically being one of the last examples; Which half were WoW clones and the other half licenced IP games, all of which were rushed, all of which went overbudget and all of which claimed to be WoW killers to which all of them crashed and burned so hard they either bankrupted their developer or lead to the publisher quietly looking for ways to make their money back somehow off the tiny population left behind after the first month of release. It was games like these that turned most gamers off MMOs, but it was also the era of the MMO cash grabs and trying to replicate WoW success. But, since Battle Royals became a thing, they are the current target for cash grab games; MMOs quietly returning to passion projects while no surprise, the cash grab focused MMO studios have swappped from MMOs to battle royals, Trion being one of them.

[@ErioArubino]

I actually played it before I started playing wow

[@shwaynorris]

The thing that killed Rift was its lack of endgame content and what there was being too easy to complete. In every other aspect Rift absolutely destroyed World of Warcraft. Endgame is what keeps MMO's alive and well unfortunately.

[@ShadesApeDJansu]

【Shades Finnish Pirates】I rememebred the of the villain of the start when you asked it at the end thus he was Regulus, remembering the name made me think all you have said about Rift and the name is ominously fitting. Just a regular MMORP, too regular and the main villains name could have been Standardo also for the rift experiences sake. I should have watched the video little longer, Regulos ok you made your point and i failed to remember the villains name correctly

[@SilexProductions]

Started watching this series, and I was nervous when I saw that you had RIft on the list. I actually have a similar background with MMOs as you've mentioned in your videos, World of Warcraft, EvE, Runes of Magic, Rift, Guild Wars, Guild Wars 2, OSRS, and ultimately I feel you were really really fair to Rift. More than fair, you raised really great points, kind of highlighting what I never could really put a finger on, ultimately the story was just forgettable, everything around the story was just the opposite. The gameplay was great and fun, the instant adventures were a favorite of mine because I could find a group and still be antisocial, abilities felt fun and chained, UI felt great, systems flowed into each other and meshed, and finally, the skill tree system is and I have always felt this and likely always will, is the example that games should follow The skill tree system felt varied, I could build what I wanted, I could make a build that put me as one of the best in the group, but it's my own. I actually ran into someone once that had the same build, but 1 point different, I figured I'd try out that build and see how it worked and it absolutely tanked my DPS and it wasn't a bad point choice, it was simply just the correct point for him, not for me. It highlighted to me how your build could be unique as to mold around individual playstyle and still be effective and gave me a sense of individuality and uniqueness, even though I'm not the only person with the same soul setup. I had to balance my choices, one more point in that tree to get the skill that I need, or a point over there to get the stats or buff I need, it felt like your choices had value, and the game did absolutely nothing to limit you on it, and not in the style of Path of Exile, where the choice is sink or swim, it's your choice, it gave you the choice, then let you redo the choice when it went south. Ultimately, it's been probably about 10 years since I've played Rift, and I miss it, not for the story, but the mechanics, the guts of the game, and above all I mourn the skill tree system, because I feel we'll never really see one that compares well to what Rift did.

[@serendipitygaming6785]

The thing with Rift is that it's like a girlfriend that does nothing wrong and there is nothing wrong with her, and she's perfect in almost any way, But it's her parents there is something very very off with her parents not sure if they will kill you at night or something but something is off... And that was Trion world's.. good at making games and bad at managing them and that is what is wrong with Rift.. it's parents

[@morcossthegreat7960]

If you think rift is bad try both versions of archeage lol

[@serendipitygaming6785]

@@morcossthegreat7960 Archeage is like Rift's adopted sibling Lol Fucked over by trion as well.

[@LikaLaruku]

But who is the worst parent? Trion or Gamego?

[@toastedbabybuns1000]

@@morcossthegreat7960 I spent thousands of hours on AA and can agree, AA could've been the next big MMO but they fucked it over so badly with P2W it's almost unplayable now.

[@attila535]

@@LikaLaruku Calling gamigo a parent is an insult to parents worldwide. Gamigo is nothing more, than an abusive pimp, who works his girls ragged.

[@OldFellaDave]

I'm with the other 'Originals' - the game at release was AWESOME! Had a huge community, great questing system, the Souls system that was lightyears ahead of any other MMO, Public Rifts, Invasions, Dungeons, Raids plus a plethora of other incidental stuff you missed in your review - the sparklies you had to find collected for achieves in each zone (and physical rewards, titles etc), puzzles, exploration, shit - even reaching he highest point in a zone etc Rift was the MMO that invented most of those. I remember well the point Rift began to decline. One week our Guild was raiding, opening 25 man guild rifts ... then a week later we couldn't form a raid ... within a billing cycle no-one was playing anymore. You are right in that we got sucked into other newer MMO's. SWTOR was the big one that drew the most people away. I was one. But SWTOR had its own spectacular fall as well. People returned to Rift - but it wasn't the same, the feel was gone. Max level people had no desire to go through all the low level content again, especially after seeking out all those quests, content, achieves, puzzles etc on one toon, I know I didn't. Raids couldn't be filled and 5 mans were the best you could do ... the 1st expansion was still some time off. Thats when I last seriously played the game. I've gone back a couple of times, but I am soloing it when I do, it's deserted ... and I only last a couple of hours and I forget it again ... it's still on my hard drive. Rift deserved better

[@bensterWasHere]

I just discovered u recently. Ur content is awesome

[@EnraiChannel]

I remember playing this for a month or two, apparently before it came to Steam since I didn't find it on my library. I don't remember disliking it, but looking at this video I don't really remember anything about it other than the fishing minigame. So spot on for that part.

[@zzJ3RKzz]

Almost 2k hours in, countless max level characters, such a sad thing to see how this game turned out. Stopped after best in slot gear was gotten from loot boxes. Miss this game so much, really wish a good ip would take it over

[@Fame_Rate]

how you can do countless chars with countable time? :P smartass mode off

[@zzJ3RKzz]

@@Fame_Rate people on the internet choose the stupidest shit to be upset over

[@h3m1v33]

you could never get BiS Gear from lootboxes lol, Not even now. you could get the previous Tier If a new raid launches, for absurd amounts of Money or get a free Ride through the previous Dungeons and get the Gear for free. you got Tons of guilds and pugs doing that, equipping undergeared Players for free cause they could and were Nice people.

[@zzJ3RKzz]

@@h3m1v33 around nightmare tides expansion was when I quit. Almost 99% positive at the time BiS gear could be obtained through loot boxes off of in-game store. If not BiS, a step right below it. Was definitely something that shouldn’t have been in the game

[@h3m1v33]

@@zzJ3RKzz Theres a huge difference between BiS and a whole Tier below BiS.

[@toastedbabybuns1000]

I spent hundreds of hours just decorating my dimensions, and still have super fond memories of 20 man raids. If there's ever a Rift 2, I'd play it in a heartbeat. A shame you didn't mention other amazing aspects about Rift like the dimension system.

[@thunberbolttwo3953]

Or the transmog system.

[@JBBrickman]

I actually did remember that the villain was called Regulos because its such a unique name lol

[@Tosnoob]

It will stay in my heart as the first MMO that allowed me to play my favourite class, a rogue, and do my favourite activity, tank. And just for that I'll always cherish my memories.

[@cobblergrudd7387]

this game had the most satisfying cleric I've ever played

[@Qatch1140]

i loved the traditional purifier/sentinel/warden healer build in raiding, and i played the hell out of inquisitor in pvp. using fanaticism into nysyrs rebuke was sooooo fun every single time man...

[@Boogerslov]

@@Qatch1140 Druid all the way bay bay!

[@mazfgit]

On release the cleric was the best DPS class in the game. Was a lot of fun.

[@kyndread71]

I played an assassin/rogue/archer character, and DAMN was it fun!

[@reyalexandro]

I loved Rift. A shame they didn't put out more content fast enough. Their class system is still my most favorite to date. Still a top 2 MMO for me.

[@laszlokocsi1825]

Yepp ther was sooo much choiches in the talent tree

[@uncletrashero]

Rift was decent, but SWG was the ultimate mmo

[@uncletrashero]

@@FeewRift if you compare it to vanilla wow release schedule, it would look pretty reasonable, but the problem is the market had already evolved and people expected much more much earlier. Rift release endgame was so desolate most people only lasted a month or 2 and then got bored. LONG LONG before any of the major patches actually added end game substance. the only reason people lasted that long in vanilla wows terrible endgame (before MC) was because they had never experienced that before and had no other games to turn to. But when Rift came around, there were already other options for them to move to, so what worked for wow in 2004, wasnt going to work for Rift.

[@uncletrashero]

@@FeewRift well im just relaying my experience. i got Rift the day of release. i hit max level in a few weeks. for a month or so after that there was basically nothing but pvp, then they added some high level "raid" rifts but it was just more of the same thing that already existed (already spending all day doing rift repeat rift repeat rift repeat, so adding a slightly larger Rift was VERY lackluster). I uninstalled after about 2.5 months. WoW came out in 2004. Rift came out in 2011. at that point wow was already on its 4th expansion, Cataclysm had released a few months before Rift, and people were disappointed in that expansion within a month, even though they had already migrated to their (current) content release schedule bringing out the first Raid within a few months of expansion open, and people already were quitting wow in massive numbers because they were bored of the extremely content lacking wow expansions. Rift tried to get by with the same poor content release timing as WoW was already proving was insufficient. It still to this day surprises me how many people still play WoW. but hey there are still people playing Rift too, so its clearly common for some small group of people to hang on to dying games '\_O_/' we dont even have to bring up classic wow, we can just point back to the infamous moment at blizcon when the wow dev told the crowd "You dont know what you want". He was right. But humans are often very stubborn idiots so they will hang on to their pride by hanging on to their dead games and proudly pronounce "what are you talking about WoW is still great! lots of people still play!" mmmhmmmm just people who cant accept reality and move on. SUPER common in human history.

[@uncletrashero]

@@FeewRift i dont know where you are going with this but the point is THE ONLY THING BESIDES PVP (which was horrifically unbalanced worse than any other pvp game ever) TO DO AT END GAME IN THE FIRST FEW MONTHS OF RIFT: WAS MORE RIFTS. so it was fucking boring. thats just the facts, evidenced by the MILLIONS of players who quit in the first couple months, citing EXACTLY that reason: "The PvE endgame sucked. the pvp is too unbalanced.". Though I will say 2011 was a year when a LOT of really amazing games came out, so Rift had some hard competition. Remember SKYRIM came out shortly after Rift.... not to mention: MINECRAFT, TERRARIA, Dragon Age 2, Crysis 2, Oh yeah and SWTOR which was a far better MMO game and which STILL crumbled in a couple months for exactly the same reason: Boring endgame. I know you clearly have some attachment to Rift, but thats no reason to convince yourself that reality didnt happen, that millions of players quit for something OTHER than their stated reasons: the endgame sucked. instead you can just say "well I liked it." and move on and accept that you are a rare minority, and the majority do not like things the same way you do. its pretty simple.

[@GeorgeWurthmann]

Have you considered analyzing tibia? I don't know if it makes sense for him to be in this video series of yours, but it would be very interesting to see you analyze this game that was so much a part of my adolescence.

[@lovebus00]

I remember teh pvp being really fun because of the theory crafting you could do for your classes. I also hilariously remember the disparity between the tech faction's capital vs the spiritual faction's capital. The spiritual faction's capital was a largish temple that was basically one big room. The tech faction's capital was a sprawling magitech city with sky scrapers you could go inside, alleyways with missions, it was actually kinda insulting.

[@Banditman]

One of my guild mates at the time who was trying Rift with me, back when Rift was at it's peak, said something that really resonated with me: "Rift is an MMO without a soul". And he was right. (Rift players will also see the irony in that). It just didn't have any emotional attachment. It was beautiful. Balanced. Had some incredibly forward thinking systems, especially with regards to classes. But it just didn't make me feel anything.

[@loukes116]

Just like New World

[@-JustinCombs]

I had a massive a connection with the game, perhaps the community. We were pushing for world first hammerknell back then and got stuck at 11/13 when vudu and his team took the W. Just sayin, I felt a connection!

[@shawnb9921]

You should've tried playing a Bard while listening to the Tenacious D soundtrack.

[@NotSoSerious69420]

@@-JustinCombs I feel like that’s abit different from what he meant. It is super fun watching/participating in a lot of different games systems/races but that doesn’t mean the game has soul. Just like modern WoW or CoD for the last 10+ years.

[@kikidevine694]

Too easy to walk away from.

[@tylerbee]

80% of the costs of the 'DLC' is a 12 month sub/patron pack. If you take that way it isn't bad at all.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

a 12 month season pass and a 1 month season pass. The 12 month one is basically a discount for when buiying more.

[@KraftLawrence1]

And the other two were actual expansions, no different then WoW having made you buy BC and WOTLK separately. *edit* NVM, im an idiot and read the screen wrong, those were just mounts/cosmetics and a couple weeks of sub time.

[@TomBushy]

A lot of your metaphors really hit home for my experience with Rift... I've played a thousand hours, i remember doing all nighters regularly, and yet, i have zero memories about the game itself. I can name a dozen indie games I've played for 10 hours that i can describe more vividly than rift.

[@Tanglewalker]

This one always makes me sad, because this game had probably the coolest class system to ever appear in an MMO. Being able to choose your own build, putting specs together piecemeal style, was so damn cool. Being able to play every role as every class (tank, heal, dps, support) was awesome. The very fact there are support classes in general that aren't just healers, but actually exist to provide buffs and debuffs. There was so much that was just really fun and interesting. I really wish this game had done better.

[@TheAsylumchild]

Regulos sounds more like medicine for constipation than a world destroying villain. Wait, maybe he was trying to destroy the world with constipation.

[@gicupurice9304]

he is a bad ai that had the task to ride humanity from constipation and so he chose that the best way was to destroy the world

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

The name sounds like he is just some regular guy with bad breath. But they probably went for something like "the regulator" as in he regulates the universe or whatever...

[@corpID]

Regulos or Regulus is latin and means something like "small king" or "lower king" which makes sense though ^^

[@LasherTimora]

I don't know where you're getting that from, "Regulos" just sounds like a generic fantasy name to me.

[@corpID]

@@LasherTimora i had Latin in school for years, also you could just have googled it: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulus_(disambiguation) Most "Fantasy" names have their roots in other languages

[@13191215]

Me and my wife had so much fun in this game around 2011-2013. I remember loving this game so much... I still play it from time to time just top off my nostalgia meter. I do the same thing with 3.3.5 wow.

[@Skyflarie]

Solid choices there!

[@Gumbatron01]

I remember playing it and finding it fairly enjoyable. I think it was much better back in the day, as was WoW

[@damasterpiece08]

wish more channels learned from you in regards to analyzing and evaluating all the aspects of a game. graphics, combat, fanservice and monetization is not enough and most of them don't even tag them anyway

[@canadianreserve]

Probably one of the best MMO's I played after DAoC. Amazing class and ability system I ever experienced. Only reason I left is that I was on a PVP server, and the class/gear balance was very very slow, so I dipped.

[@canadianreserve]

Agree, balance was always a problem in Rift. We never realized we had it so good in DAOC.

[@planescaped]

The rift event reminds me of the invasions in Tabula Rasa... My god there were a lot of MMO's... I think the oversaturation of the 00's and 2010's is honestly what killed the genre. Speaking as someone who used to play UO, SWG, EQ 1 and 2, Tabula Rasa, Earth and Beyond (no one remembers that one lol) CoH and Vanguard Saga of Heroes, I know I personally became overwhelmed by the sheer number of new releases and the never ending stream of MMO's. While I was playing Vanguard I had a realization of how vapid and throwaway pretty much MMO's were, and realized there was never going to be that great MMO everyone wanted. Another one was just going to come along, everyone would get shiny ball syndrome, the current game would be abandoned and the cycle would repeat ad infinitum. Now everyone's waiting on Ashes of Creation and Star Citizen to be the one to finally do everything right... when they're just the next shiny ball rolling past. >__> MMO's just felt like an endless stream of mediocre time-sinks that never seemed to reach their potential and were depressing by design... Once the novelty wore off I realized I did not like the genre, and haven't played one since.Nothing instills a feeling of ennui quite like an MMO.

[@RandKin]

I also remember UO. Think I started with The Second Age? Mad respect. Still one of the most interactable MMOs made, which is kinda sad.

[@misanthropicattackhelicopt4148]

The problem was they all copied wow system so it just felt that you were playing wow but with a different skin.

[@straightupanarg6226]

This is the best post about MMOs I've seen. MMOs are "depressing by design." I was a GM with Verant, and an endgame raiding Shadowknight during the PoP era. When I stopped playing EQ, I vowed never to play another MMO (I've since added gacha games to that vow). But I've watched enough reviews to notice certain trends, and I'm convinced that was a good decision.

[@sabbracadabra8367]

Vanguard made MMOs feel pointless to me too, and yet I loved it. But I think EQ was better because it somehow didn't feel pointless. There was a lot more depth and mystery to the world, and things were harder to achieve which makes them more meaningful accomplishments. I loved Vanguard and Rift, but having quest hubs with constant new items, is just not what MMOs are supposed to be about. The whole point of EQ was to be like the Hobbit or a text based adventure, but with graphics. That's what made it so special. All the other MMOs miss the whole point, they gamify the whole experience and that's not what EQ was. And EQ is the one that captured people the most, it's the one the WoW makers played and wanted to remake in their own way, and that's when it all went wrong.

[@ikikaera3402]

To be fair maybe once Star Citizen actually releases we'll live in a word where an MMO hasn't released in several decades.

[@user-tx5sx3mj5z]

28:47 This dialogue is funny enough that I'm vaguely tempted to give Rift a try

[@YadonTheCat]

It's had the opposite effect on me, makes me want to never try it

[@epic321123]

Regulos is such an irregular name that I actually remembered it at the end

[@DaxterL]

old video but i had to rewatch at least a bit, because recently a coworker of my bf just gave us a box of bunch of games, and there's ton. And in there, was a big box of Rift, with a giant ass poster that also doubled as the world map and i was like "i think i saw this somewhere, this has to be an mmo"

[@SonOfAntalis]

Chloromancer was hands down my favorite MMO Class I have ever played. Heal by dealing damage was great. Loved playing Rift when it first came out.

[@itrow9526]

Same

[@waterdrew]

And op as fuck lmao. I would top the pvp charts in healing AND Dmg. so much fun.

[@codysnowden231]

Such an amazing class, was absolutely my favorite in the game too.

[@Plankstv]

I played Rogue. SabDancer was peak. Good times.

[@Vinterloft]

I was in the developer alpha of Rift and may have had a helping hand in that :P played Chloromancer/ Warlock/ Archon for most of it and most of my feedback went towards those. I am very happy with how it turned out. Early on the attacks felt too light, but with more crit camera shake and noise to the beam spells it felt better to play than most other awakenings

[@avidspider]

The whole "Rift mechanic" spawned from Warhammer Online's Public Quests. These same sort of quests sorta carried forward the "theme park" dynamic questing we would see in Guild Wars 2 and ESO. Kinda cool how this stuff evolved over the years.

[@Tallial]

Subscription was NOT optional when Rift launched, was a hard requirement. Was no free to play option at all back then.

[@RickReasonnz]

So many years I dedicated to this game. It's lull makes me very sad indeed. Hammerknell was one of the best raid instances I've ever experienced. So many quality-of-life improvements. MEEAAADDD. It was the best years of my gaming life, and I miss it greatly. Pyrochon, greatest raid class ever!

[@corriban]

Oh man how much I loved this game. I was hooked the moment I noticed that my favourite thing in any game, exploration, actually gets properly rewarded. In my first hour of playing in the open world I decided to hardcore parkour up a huge mountain. There were quite a few jumps in there that couldn't have been intended that way but still somehow worked. And what do you know, all the way up there was a chest with epic items I couldn't use yet. It felt SO rewarding. I haven't come across another game doing things like this since then. I know GW2 has jumping puzzles but it's a fleshed out and advertised feature there which takes away from the whole experience.

[@norrgrd]

Exactly this! And all of the secret puzzles and stuff. I really enjoyed Rift. Also all "Server first" messages when you crafted something etc was really cool :)

[@toomanyrifts_]

Man I miss this game. Literally named my channel after it, and the years of fun I had with it. Not just one of my favourite MMOs ever, but one of my favourite games, ever, period. What happened with Rift Prime, Trion's Fall from one of the best MMO Companies to well....dead. And Gamigo. So sad to see Rift with them.

[@jonathansoko5368]

Since most of the games core is still intact, I firmly believe that in the right hands it can be saved. Itl never get the attention back, but the game is still good and hasn't been gutted.

[@Fame_Rate]

i found some of the designs pretty odd. but the game in itself was fun. i was playing a year or so and had to stop because of movement for work, less time etc etc. then i remember it went f2p. i never tried it again

[@mayuzumiis]

I love how you advocate for accessibility options for every MMO you play.

[@Bishop2155]

The first battle you had with that ghoul thing reminds me of wows undead starting area

[@linkaiser5759]

I am convinced the giant demon crotch boss was intentionally made to be at that very specific level just so you'd constantly be thinking that you're fighting his dong.

[@RicoRaynn]

I loved Rift for about the first 8 months it was out. Trion ran it into the ground with their management choices. Still one of the best leveling experiences I've had in the 40 plus MMO's I've run thru in the last 22 years.

[@Barnesofthenorth]

I honestly don't even remember how long I played, I just remember sitting in a snowy town having long since got bored of going to the rifts as it was the same thing constantly and deciding "ye this is enough". Like you I enjoyed my time with it, but just nothing about it really encouraged me to keep playing it beyond that. I can't even remember what level I got to now, so I have no clue if I just reached the end of the story, or the grind got to bad and I stopped because of that.

[@Barnesofthenorth]

I actually felt that Warhammer Online did raids and things quite well for early levels. I had end-game dungeons, but it also had a load of lower level ones for each area, and hidden powerful bosses to fight. That way you could just go right for the end game ones, or you could enjoy lower level ones with lower level people as you levelled up.

[@MattGambler]

Binging you atm, very nice stuff! But - what is the bad guy's name at the beginning of the video? Please, this video could have been about Zelda OoT, Dark Souls or World of Warcraft and I still wouldnt have remembered it if I hadnt known before I started watching already

[@Zyantastic]

This was one of my favorite mmo's back in the days. I remember playing it with my much older sister who i had just gotten back in touch with. I dont remember the graphics being this mediocre but the game was great regardless. I had so much fun, the first ever RIFT i closed dropped me an epic lvl 50 mount that was worth a ton, and my sister had apparantly been trying to grind it out for some time when i started playing. I left when the game went f2p because they promised there wouldnt be advantageous or pay2win items in the coming cash shop and fast forward to it going f2p the cash shop introduced, came filled to the brim with a bunch of p2w and pay4advantage stuff. thats when i knew it was over. And its really a shame what became of it. I think it was one of those rare gems that had massive potential.

[@RC-tf6mr]

I feel like there is so many MMOs and eventually you move on for whatever reason but at least you have some good memories playing with your sister.

[@blazed85]

Try to look around for another game to play with your sister. Even if it isn't a MMO.

[@hamsterking5]

This was one of the few games i remember playing where healers were dangerous. I had a build that could res and heal half a raid party (12 people) in 3 casts

[@mythmurzin]

here is where the problem is. the people who actually made the game, the UI people, the class people, the graphic/visual designers, the systems designers... all did extremely well at their job. what they lacked was the compelling story line and unified story with progression. it felt like each area you went to had its own story, which prevented the emotional investment. it didnt feel like each area was building on top of the next. and then other mmo's that all excelled at one thing released robbing it of its playerbase. rift did everything very well. it did not do one thing great. and the story was lackluster. that was the real problem, the story and zone to zone progression. that and the eventual money grabs.

[@sdswood3457]

Also; watching this video I was laughing so hard from the very beginning like "dude... is he not using any of his abilities? Is he just.. yep he's just basic melee'ing. Oh my."

[@Demiga1276]

I can't believe how incredibly sad I became watching this video. This game had so much potential, and it was really fun when it came out. It's absolutely a shell of what it once was, but I do login every few months and play a bit for the nostalgia.

[@oldschoolrivethead]

Is it a shell because you never see any other players? Or do you mean the gameplay has changed since launch? I haven't played this since probably 2012 and think it could now be a fun mostly-solo experience, unless the gameplay has actually been ruined somehow.

[@Nikapocalypse]

Thanks for calling out subtitles/accessibility. I don't personally have a need for them, but it's so important. It's rediculous how hard it is to get on priority lists.

[@codafett]

I remember seeing nonstop ads for this thing. I always wondered what happened to it.

[@teirdalin]

I remember when Rift came out and I was there day 1, coming over from WoWeecraft. Played for like three days and then went back to WoWzerscrafters. The gold farmer spam that was just endless on day 1~2 didn't help.

[@BurgerwithPeanutButter]

Honestly, I think their class system was one of the best, and still is. Watching this actually is kind of making me want to play it again.

[@deepwaters3335]

I am an older gamer. I love Rift cause I can play it many different ways, I can explore while finding strange items, do quests at my own speed, or instant adventure for a total blast. I love Rift. I do wish more people were playing the game.

[@HeyCutie90]

My friends and I came from a PvP guild in Aion and treated Rift like a waiting room for Guild Wars 2. Personally, I got extremely invested in it, it felt like a new WoW. Unfortunately none of my friends did and they all went to Guild Wars 1. I joined a raiding guild and became one of the best DPS warriors in the game, super into PvP and endgame content. Then they nerfed warriors pretty hard. Then there was a lot of drama in my raiding guild. Both things collided around the time Tera came out so I quit and went to Tera. I never got into that one, tried GW2 for a while and it didn’t click with me. I often missed the friends I made in Rift but when I went back it wasn’t the same. I started playing League of Legends in 2012 and still play it to this day. Didn’t play an mmo again until I started New World this month and I’m actually really enjoying it.

[@rangelvictor5759]

To those of us that played at launch it was an amazing experience. Rift-ing through each zone with an army of mmo comrades, we conquered all the rifts. Unfortunately it didn't last. It was fun the first month, then it quickly fizzled. I still treasure that adventure.

[@LikaLaruku]

I'm pretty sure I played it at launch. I still have some funny screencaps of bugs I reported, like when your face or torso went missing while riding a mount.