Rift: Crucia's Claw

In order to get players interested, MMOs have to make a lot of promises and deliver massive amounts of content, or at least enough to last a few years of intense activity. Hence, it’s usually a monumental task to develop them, since a lot of time and money are required to attain success. As an example, Rift: Crucia's Claw supposedly had a budget of over $50 million, which is not something your average developer can afford.

Now, Rift: ECHOES OF MADNESS represents the latest addition to the game and it is basically a large-scale patch, which adds a lot of content and many other improvements. However, the core gameplay mechanics have remained the same, which is a good thing, considering the fact that players are quite satisfied with the game as a whole. On the other hand, a bit more content never hurt anybody, so this is a welcome addition to the popular MMORPG.

In case you are not familiar with the game, most of its mechanics are very similar to what you might have seen in titles like EverQuest, LotR Online, and World of Warcraft, but there are some key differences as well. Probably the most obvious of them are the actual rifts themselves, which are basically portals that open randomly around the game world, spawning monsters and various evil creatures. This makes for a very dynamic world and quite the exciting PvE component.

Just like in every other MMO out there, it’s all about getting more powerful the more you play, which is achieved by gaining experience, improving your stats, and equipping better gear. The latter is won by grinding, which means that you have to participate in raids, or just wander around killing mobs in order to scavenge gauntlets and boots off their corpses.

Visually, it is quite clear that the designers did their best to present you with a highly-detailed world, since everything looks like a set in a movie. Not only that, but the actual models, animations, and special effects are good-looking as well, although you need a decent computer to handle all the details whenever something exciting is happening on the screen. Besides, a great majority of the monsters in the game are downright huge, so many polygons are usually displayed at once.

In the end, Rift is the kind of game that can occupy entire months of your life, so it’s only natural to be picky about stuff. However, the developers did an excellent job at portraying the world and making the experience feel worthwhile, even if there are some bugs and mistakes that can annoy you from time to time. Hence, if you want a solid MMORPG with plenty of content, this is definitely one of the better choices you can make.