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Κυριακή 17 Απριλίου 2011

Rift (video game)


Rift (previously known as Rift: Planes of Telara) is a 3D fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) from Trion Worlds Network, that was released March 1, 2011 in the United States, March 2, 2011 in Australia, March 3, 2011 in pan-European countries, and March 4, 2011 in the United Kingdom.[1]
Contents [hide]
1 Gameplay
1.1 Setting
1.1.1 Rifts
1.2 Character Customization
1.2.1 Classes
1.2.2 Physical Appearance
1.3 Weapons
1.4 Subscription
2 Development
3 Reception
4 References
5 External links
[edit]Gameplay

[edit]Setting
Rift is an MMORPG set in the fantasy world of Telara, which is the focal point of different planes (worlds). Through the actions of the death god Regulos, these worlds have now invaded Telara, causing rifts to open. Opposing Regulos are two factions: the Guardians and the Defiant. The conflict between these two factions serves as another source of tension and gameplay. Players have the role of Ascended: resurrected soldiers whose task is to defeat the forces of Regulos and cleanse Telara forever of his threat.[4]
Guardians are those who follow the way of the Vigil, the gods of Telara. They include the high elves, the Mathosians (a race of human-like creatures), and dwarves. Guardian ascended were resurrected by the Vigil after dying during one of the earlier conflicts with Regulos. Players who choose Guardian fight and die against one of Regulos' commanders, only to be brought back at the beginning of Rift.
Defiants are those who put their trust in technology as a way to conquer the forces of Regulos. They include the Eth (a race of human-like creatures), the Bahmi (resembling giants), and the Kelari (resembling dark elves). Defiant ascended were resurrected after a cataclysmic battle that has all but decimated Telara. At the beginning of the game, players who choose Defiant are sent back in time from this point to the beginning of Rift, allowing them to fight alongside the Guardians.
[edit]Rifts
Rifts are areas of elemental instability that represent the intrusion of elemental planes into the land of Telara. Once opened, these rifts begin to spawn monsters that proceed to march towards important points on the map. It is then up to players to defeat these monsters and to close the rift. If rifts are left unchecked, the invading monsters will eventually conquer large portions of the map, killing and significantly impairing the players in that area. Entering the area surrounding the rift will trigger a prompt that allows the player to join a public group, rather than forcing the player to manually create a group. Players sealing the rift are rewarded for many things including healing, attacking and buffing. The severity and locations of the rifts are entirely dynamic. Rifts of six different types (earth, fire, air, water, life, and death) are possible, and rifts of different types will oppose each other. In addition, Non-player characters hostile to the player may engage rift invaders.
[edit]Character Customization
[edit]Classes
Each character chooses between four different callings: Warrior, Cleric, Rogue, or Mage. Each eventually gains access to nine (when counting the pvp soul each calling can get) different 'souls' from that calling, which have trees to which they can allocate a number of points gained each level. Rift's soul trees have two levels: branches, which are the specific abilities/bonuses that the player allocates the points to, and roots, which are the soul's base abilities that are unlocked as the player allocates a certain number of points into the branches. All races may become all classes.
The soul system allows players to customize their characters to a high degree. The player chooses three souls from within their calling, and allocates earned points into talent trees for each soul. A player wishing to tank may select justicar for its defensive properties and ability to heal the group as it deals damage, sentinel to increase his healing capabilities, and shaman to increase his melee damage output (thus increasing the amount of damage-based healing and threat generation). A character may have both justicar and sentinel, but have more points allocated into sentinel than justicar, and then choose warden as the third soul for its burst damage and heal-over-time spells, to make the character more of a healer than a tank.
Players may also keep up to four different soul configurations (called roles), which may be activated whenever the player is not in combat, meaning a player can switch from a healer to a damage dealer as the group needs. Because the player's abilities come from the points allocated in the soul trees, two roles that share no souls will literally have no abilities or bonuses in common with each other.
[edit]Physical Appearance
Rift's character customization allows players to alter specific aspects of their avatars. Characters may change hairstyles, facial features, height, sex, tattoos, and skin colors during character creation. Once set, these attributes cannot be changed in game. Each race has a limited skin color palette and set of race-specific features. For example, the Bahmi's hairstyles for females include numerous bald or almost-bald options while the high elves have hairstyles that contain flowers.
[edit]Weapons
At launch, Rift included approximately 12,000 [5] weapons which you could equip to your character. Weapon rarities are common (white), uncommon (green), rare (blue), epic (purple), and relic (orange).
[edit]Subscription
After initial purchase, Rift requires a monthly subscription fee for continued play, or buying prepaid game cards for a selected amount of playing time.[6]
[edit]Development

[hide]System requirements
Minimum Recommended
Windows[7]
Operating system Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7
CPU Dual Core 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz
Memory 2 GB RAM 4 GB RAM
Hard drive space 15 GB free HD space
Graphics hardware Nvidia GeForce FX 5900, ATI/AMD Radeon X300, Intel GMA X4500 with DirectX®: 9.0c, June 2010 update Nvidia GTS 250 or Nvidia GTX 200M with DirectX®: 9.0c, June 2010 update
Sound hardware DirectX 8.1 compliant card
Network Broadband internet connection
Rift has been been in development since 2006 and has undergone extensive alpha testing, with beta testing finalizing the stress test portion of development.[8] Trion Worlds CEO Lars Buttler has stated that Rift has a budget of "over US$50 million".[9]
A trailer featuring game footage was released for the Electronic Entertainment Expo in late May 2009 and was featured on the 2009 Spike TV Video Game Trailers program.[10] The preview was viewed favorably by 1UP.com.[11]
[edit]Reception

The game has been well received by critics, currently holding an overall score of 85.07% on Gamerankings based on 28 reviews.[12] GamingExcellence gave the game a 8.2/10, calling it "one of the best MMOs released in years."[13] PC Gamer UK gave the game an 85/100 saying the game is "Absolutely colossal, Rift aims high and hits its mark, proving that there’s room to grow within the traditional MMO format."[14] GameSpy gave the game a 4/5, but with the reviewer stating that "Rift itself merely delivers commendable refinement" and also questions "how well its initially refreshing concepts will hold up after months of playtime"[15] IGN gave the game an 8.5/10, stating that "soul building is very flexible and rifts are great fun" and that although "there's not a lot of originality[,] [...] everything works exactly as it should"; and concluding that "Telara is a worthy alternative to Azeroth for anyone looking to explore a new world."[16]

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