Rift going free to play

[Multi-headed Cow]

As seen http://www.riftgame.com/en/promo/freetoplay.php there. It appears to be the most free free to play I've ever seen. Only limitation on completely free players APPEARS it's going to be 2 character slots per server and 3 bag slots and no access to the 4 expansion "Souls" (Sorta mini-classes). And if you own the base game or expansion those limitations are removed.

Tried a little bit of it myself so far (You can start playing now with the "Trial" version which lets you play to level 20) and it's basically a straight WoW clone, but a well made one. Has some public quest nonsense in the form of the rifts, and seems to have some relatively neat player housing (Pocket dimensions with placeable items) and I have no idea on the PVP. Almost exactly what I wanted from a free MMO, scratches my unseemly occasional WoW urges and doesn't require $15 a month every time I wanna mindlessly grind.

On top of that, there's a promotion running from "Raptr" which will give you the base game, expansion, and a month of play time for free. http://raptr.com/game/Rift/rewards/rift-storm-legion
Got my free copy from that so I should be completely set once the game goes free to play. Quick rundown on what to do:
Step 1: Download the Rift trial and make an account. It doesn't need the full game downloaded to start playing since it'll stream and download shit in the background.
Step 2: Download the Raptr desktop app and make an account.
Step 3: Launch it and have it "Scan for games". You want Rift to show up under the "My games" button on the desktop app. If it shows up, it sees it.
Step 4: Leave Raptr running and launch Rift. The launcher/patcher doesn't count, you have to actually be able to hit the "Play" button and get to the character select screen
Step 5: Watch the lower righthand corner as Rift starts. You should get a popup telling you a shortcut to activate the Raptr overlay. If that shows up, Raptr's correctly watching it.
Step 6: Either play or idle Rift for 16-ish hours to reach the "Experienced" rating on Raptr. Once you do, go to the promotion page while logged in and get your videogame key.
Optional Step 7: Delete Raptr and burn the garbage account and garbage email you made to get the key.

Raptr nonsense wasn't too big of a pain in the ass and Rift itself seems like a good WoW-style MMO, so I'm pleased. Hope it works out well for them 'cause that free to play model seems generous as hell. Even better than STO's which was the previous most free MMO I'd seen.

 

[Zed]

Rift is one of the best MMORPGs I've played. The souls system is pretty cool. Zones are pretty varied and you can easily quest to max level if that's your thing. PvP battlegrounds feel like classic WoW battlegrounds. Raiding feels a little more everquestish than WoW (big open spaces, 1 big boss-battles), but I only raided the first couple of raid dungeons. The 5-man dungeons are pretty good. They were really challening when the game was new (was among server first max level, of course) but I think they have nerfed them a bit by now. Crafting is solid, too.
The worst thing about the game was how many servers were dead. I think they have free server transfers though...

 

[Rahdulan]

Their F2P system seems really fair [so far] with subscribers only getting additional benefits instead of core features being locked from F2P players in fear of devaluing the subscriber's status. On the other hand, they've already announced that they will be selling gear in the shop so they've maybe already crossed the line for most people. My personal problem with RIFT is that there's really nothing that will make it stand out as a game in this day and age unless you're really strapped for cash so you'll settle for anything just so you have something to play. Had this F2P transition happened about a year ago it would've had a much larger impact.

 

[Scruffy]

Tried a little bit of it myself so far [...] and it's basically a straight WoW clone

which is appealing because...

 

[Zewp]

Thanks MHC. I was going to wait for it to go F2P before downloading it, but I guess I might as well do it now while I can get the game plus expansion for free.

 

[asxetos]

i managed to get the storm legion expansion for free using MHC's way. thanks!
if you like wow, you will love rift. just imagine a wow clone with much more outdoor open-world gameplay.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Played some more. Getting near level 15 with a character. Getting MMO as fuck and starting to scare me away again. I've got something like 15 quests in my log and they're basically all "Kill woozles" and "Collect widgets" and I haven't read a single piece of text anywhere related to any of the quests I just click the buttons and aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

 

[Zewp]

Yeah, it's pretty generic with very little redeeming factors. I think I'll stick to Neverwinter for now.

 

[Grunker]

I'll redeem the raptr thing just to have it handy if it becomes relevant. Which server, MHC?

 

[Zewp]

The raptr keys ran out yesterday already. I was 4 hours away from getting one when they ran out. Now there's a lot of assholes selling them online.

 

[Grunker]

 

[Grunker]

Multi-headed Cow - Codex server?

EDIT: And are we Guardians or Defiant?

 

[Humanity has risen!]

What a bad, generic, soporific game. Everything about it is trite, boring and forgettable. The pretty environments are the only redeeming feature. Just another dumbed down theme park MMO where it's impossible to die that does nothing special.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Multi-headed Cow - Codex server?

EDIT: And are we Guardians or Defiant?

No idea on a Codex server. The server I started with my few buddies was Seabreeze. And as far as I know Guardians and Defiant doesn't matter. I think they can group and guild and everything together. If you gotta choose though Defiant seems cooler.

 

[Zewp]

But is it a PvP server? I miss the open-world PvP of games like WoW. I might stick it out just for that.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Yep, it's a PVP server.

 

[Grunker]

Is that an American server? 'cause I don't want to live with sucky ping

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Of course it's an American server. I am an honorable and glorious American.

 

[eklektyk]

soooo hows crafting in there??? p i miss my old ultima days ...]

 

[fizzelopeguss]

I didn't get far in the beta, a bit boring from what i remember. And warhammer esque PQ's are fucking garbage in every game.

 

[Mangoose]

I didn't get far in the beta, a bit boring from what i remember. And warhammer esque PQ's are fucking garbage in every game.

They were actually fun in WAR though.

But honestly I am very well done with the tab targeting, aggro-tanking theme park. Rift does it all well, yes, but it really doesn't do anything at all that is unique and significantly affects the game. The soul system is interesting but in the end you still have a typical MMO class, at best a hybrid, with a few extra tools.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

I didn't get far in the beta, a bit boring from what i remember. And warhammer esque PQ's are fucking garbage in every game.

They were actually fun in WAR though.

 

[fizzelopeguss]

downloaded their lvl 20 trial thing...dodge button plz.

 

[Minttunator]

Surprised they survived as P2P this long. I played Rift for a while during beta - it's definitely one of the better WoW clones out there, but still much too similar to WoW for my liking.

 

[rashiakas]

It has changed a lot since beta though, still a wow clone, but if you prefer something with more then 3 abilities to press like every new action mmo has it isn't all bad.

 

[Minttunator]

It has changed a lot since beta though, still a wow clone, but if you prefer something with more then 3 abilities to press like every new action mmo has it isn't all bad.

I'm sure you're right. I actually thought Rift was pretty decent, even during beta - and from following the state of the game on MMO news sites, it seems to me that Trion pisses all over Blizzard with their content updates (i.e. they actually bring out more than one content patch per year). I was just too burned out on WoW to play something that similar at the time Rift was released. I might give it another shot once the F2P goes live.

 

[rashiakas]

Yeah I had the same experience as well. Sadly, Rift servers are pretty empty, at least in EU. I heard US servers are a bit better populated though and I guess when f2p goes live this will get better.