It’s a terrible feeling, having a review hanging over your head.  Or perhaps a better term is “perched upon your shoulders” like some sort of raven, pecking at you every now and then.  A constant weight that is always reminding you to get it sorted.

It’s a stark contrast to its reason for being there.  I’ve been playing a lot of RIFT since my last two entries in my multi-part review.  I’ve been enjoying myself, because it brings back familiar memories of playing WoW back in Vanilla while being fresh enough to remain engaging and full of plenty of lore for me to feast upon.

The problem was that this article was meant to be describing my experience at high levels of RIFT, comparing it to my initial impressions and discussing how the gameplay changes as your skillset expands.  After over a month of play, however, I’ve not yet managed to accomplish this goal.  It took me a little while to realise that this needn’t be the burden I had imagined.

As I have said before, with any MMO, there’s far too much for a single review to fully encompass.  What I hadn’t considered was that the bulk of this comes not from describing the gameplay or other core elements, but from the glut of content that gets added on.  From content patches to expansions, an MMO is never really finished in the same sense that most other games are.  You’d need a continuing series of reviews for each and every batch of new content to remain relevant.

I know that I would have sung WoW’s praises right up until the end of Wrath of the Lich King.  Things started going downhill in Cataclysm and when those fucking pandas came along, I had all but given up hope.  What use would my initial impressions of that monstrous game be to anyone buying today?  Sure, the core gameplay might be the same (or at least vastly similar) to what I discussed, but Warlords of Draenor is a drastically different game to the original WoW.

Getting back to RIFT, however: what was I to do?  I could continue to churn through level after level, all the while trying to get to this temporary end-game so that I could judge it, only for it to become irrelevant anyway in a few months.  What was the point?  Not only would it be mostly pointless, I found that it was starting to detract from my enjoyment of the game.  I wasn’t playing for fun any more – I was playing purely to progress.

That’s not what RIFT is about.

RIFT is a game about flexibility.  It’s about making your own choices and experimenting with them.  More so than any other MMO I’ve played, this is a game designed from the ground up to give you complete freedom.  Too many times I’ve fallen into the trap of making my reviews a list of features that a game offers, making them seem little more than a checklist of what’s good and what’s not.  That’s not going to fly for RIFT.  There’s too much and it’s far too intertwined to separate into components which can be judged independently.

So instead of all of that, I’ve metaphorically said “screw it” and decided to give you this huge spiel.  Can I tell you what RIFT is like at end-game levels?  No, and I don’t think that was ever a goal I could have achieved in a reasonable time-scale.  I mean, sure, if I had a year to get fully engaged and engrossed, but I’m already playing one MMO seriously – there’s just not enough time in the day to devote my life to two.  I tried that once with WoW and SW:TOR and both of them suffered for it.  Never let it be said that I do not learn from my mistakes!

Were it not for Final Fantasy XIV, however, I would strongly consider devoting my time to RIFT.  I know for sure that I will keep coming back to this game, simply because there is so much to offer for literally no cost.  And heck, if I want to invest money in it in the future, there’s a cash shop readily available.

The real question that my review should answer is this: is RIFT worth your time?  Should you play this game?  My answer to that is an unequivocal yes.  There is literally no reason for you not to at least give it a try.  Take a look at the world on offer.  Let it capture your imagination and hold it for far longer than a F2P MMO has any right to.  There’s breadth and depth in RIFT that rivals any AAA title and you do yourself a disservice if you don’t at least give it a shot.  It’s not perfect by any means, but show me any MMO that is and I will piss a rainbow.

Sadly, this means that the fourth part of this article will not be forthcoming, since I’ve more or less wrapped everything up.  But maybe somewhere down the line, you’ll see a new piece from me.  I could eventually end up at the end-game, having reached it at my own pace.  For now, I’m happy to enjoy the journey without worrying over-much about the destination.  If you want to know more than I could ever hope to cover, check out the official RIFT website and maybe give the game a go.

Take that, you stupid raven.

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