Walking the floor at E3, I came across a very interesting looking booth. It was decorated with flora from nearly the ceiling all the way to the ground. A half built stone path was laid down over some kind of forest floor. And huge tree with the game’s logo stood in the middle of all of this. Standing atop a large tree stump, a man began speaking, telling us of a new MMORPG set to be released in 2011 for the PC. The game he was speaking of is Rift: Planes of Telara.

From the get go, you can see that the graphics in this game are stunning. As we are shown different areas of the world, they all appear clean and vibrant. The in game graphics are no better than those found in World of Warcraft or Aion, but they are no worse either. Rift seems to be on par with the standard MMORPGs out there, and I will get back to that point in a minute. We are shown some game play footage of characters attacking a monster and we can see the familiar classes found in other games. From what we are told, these monsters that you will deal with are coming from rifts that are appearing all over the world of Telara, threatening the balance of life there. These rifts are forming bonds between Telara and other planes of existence. We are told that there are a total of sic planes, but we are told of only two at the time; the Plane of Life and the Plane of Death.

It is the player’s duty to tackle these monsters and close these rifts before it is too late. Closing a rift is pretty much the equivalent of a raid and players will be rewarded for helping along. It should also be noted that these rifts can open in random places which will affect the general area by changing the landscape around. And just as they can be sealed, they can also reopen as well. To help close these rifts, players will chose from the different races on Telara. There are the Bahmi, Eth, High Elves, and Mathosian, with two more races yet to be unveiled. There are also four classes for players to chose from; Warrior, Cleric, Rogue, and Mage - and from these classes there will be up to four “callings” for them to choose from specific to each class. Each of these decisions are ultimately made from the two ruling factions on Telara; the Guardians and the Defiant. In other words, it is pretty much your standard MMORPG.

Back to the game, we are reminded that Telara is a living world when we see footage of a rift tearing apart a forest, opening a new raid and new sets of monsters for players to attack. With random events like this taking place all over the game world, it looks to deliver a new experience every time a player logs in, hoping to keep things fresh and interesting. As the presentation ends, I found myself wanting to know more about the game. So I did my research and found more info on the official website for Rift: Planes of Telara. It was pretty much equal to what was shown on the expo floor, but it still looks like an interesting game.

But back to the point that I started to make earlier - if Rift: Planes of Telara sounds awfully familiar, that is because it is. I don’t think that Trion Worlds, the company behind Rift, wanted to stray too much from the familiar. One main reason why this could be is because if the player is all ready familiar with the style of play, there is no need for any kind of learning curve when it comes to picking up and playing the game. And I really can’t blame them for that. If they want to take the safe road when it comes to making a game, I can’t judge them. I just hope in the end it doesn’t end up being all the same. From the preview, it looks as if they are trying to do something different once you start getting into the game, and I hope they do. If they don’t, I don’t see much success for a game being released in an increasingly saturated MMORPG genre. Keep your eyes open in 2011 for this one though; it does look promising.