Filled with sprawling worlds ripe for discovery, teeming with thousands of new people to meet, and capable of sucking up entire months' worth of playtime, massively multiplayer online role-playing games offer one of the modern world's most extreme forms of escapism. Join GameSpy columnist Leif Johnson as he turns a critical eye on the biggest and best of today's MMORPGs, and quests for the virtual worlds most worthy of your time.
Selectively Multiplayer
Call me antisocial, but I have a soft spot for solo instances in massively multiplayer online games. Yes, I realize that this quirk means that I sometimes miss out on the whole "multiplayer" vibe, but sometimes -- just sometimes -- I like to enjoy my favorite virtual worlds without worrying about preteens griping about my damage or numbskulls breaking my crowd control spells. I can't be the only one. Thankfully, the new one-to-two-man dungeons in Trion Worlds' Rift are made for people like me. They're also more directly designed to seduce a quiet casual base that hasn't received much endgame attention in Telara until now, which could mean a significant boost to Rift's player base in the coming months.
Rift's test shard currently showcases two "Chronicles" for one or two players in preparation for patch 1.5, each aimed at letting new level 50 characters nab some basic raid gear without having to worry about groups or enlisting in a raiding guild. That means that both are easily soloable if you're decked out in the game's fanciest trappings, but they provide a satisfactory challenge if you've just hit the level cap. I had the perfect character to test this content -- a forgotten mage that struts around in the same non-enchanted gear he was wearing when he hit the cap. I use him mainly as a bank mule these days, and I only prepared him for the journey by snagging a cheap pair of epic shoulders off the auction house. If the developers at Trion Worlds have an idea of a "new level 50" in mind, surely this is it.
The outlook seemed grim at first. I zoned into the gloomy Hammerknell: Runes of Corruption Chronicle, which acts as a kind of preview for the Hammerknell raid instance -- and wasted no time in botching the first pull. But I dusted myself off, whipped out my creaky crowd control abilities, and soon found myself speeding through the instance until I stood before Murdantix, a hulking dog-man-thing boss best known from the Hammerknell raid proper. His bark here is now much worse than his bite, and the four or so non-player characters assisting me ended up dealing about as much damage as I did. This breezy combat extends to the instance's few remaining encounters, even when your scrappy dwarves decide to hang back while you forge ahead alone. Even the fight against King Molinar (the Chronicle's only other boss) is rendered easy, thanks to an obvious gimmick. By the time I'd turned in the quest and looted my last plaque, I'd only spent 30 minutes total in the dungeon.
My dinky mage got slapped around a bit more in the second Chronicle, Greenscale's Blight: The Fallen Prince. I can't say I didn't find the shift welcome. This is essentially a two-man version of the 20-man raid instance that was released back in March, complete with altered versions of all five bosses (including the jolly green dragon himself), which means good news for casual players who have always wanted to experience endgame content but don't have the time. With its superb voice-acting, varied encounters, and wide range of trash NPCs, this is the better of the two Chronicles by far; just don't expect huge leaps in difficulty from Hammerknell. While I always seemed to lack just enough power to survive most of the boss encounters (even though I was using my most solo-friendly build), I could tell that Greenscale's Blight would have been a cakewalk if I'd only brought a friend. Indeed, when I tried the same instance with my warrior for kicks, I plowed through most of the content with only a deep scratch or two.
In short, only the freshest level 50 characters will find much challenge in the current Chronicles -- and two players will find them downright easy -- but it's hard to argue that they're anything but good for the game. Lore buffs will enjoy the interactions between key figures from Rift's storyline that used to be the exclusive territories of raiders, casual players can experience a taste of what raiders enjoyed in past patches, and everyone can walk away with plaques for decent gear without having to wait in an instance queue or suffer through pickup groups. I've heard a few complaints that solo instances somehow produce poorer players, but if my experience is at all indicative, Rift's versions only force new level 50s to learn how to play their classes better. In both Hammerknell and Greenscale's Blight, I relearned how to use crowd control abilities that I halfway forgot I had, and the tougher battles accustomed me to greater challenges than I'd encountered in the rifts of the open world.
I've also heard complaints that these instances belittle the grand achievements of the venerable raiding elite, or some such nonsense. Get real; you can only run each instance once per day, and the gear you get is on the low end for the raiding crowd. In other words, this is Rift's version of the revamped troll dungeons that were released in World of Warcraft back in April. If you want a harder challenge, you can skip these and jump into the new master-tiered dungeons that will be released in the same patch. Chronicles merely provide a fun way to narrow the gap between the increasingly godly gear of the raiders with the people who have just hit the level cap. As an added bonus, you can even gain reputation with the Runeguard dwarves in the Hammerknell Chronicle with every run.
All in all, Chronicles provide the first real proof that Rift might be able to curb the inevitable exodus of players to Star Wars: The Old Republic. Now we just need more of them, and maybe the same sort of story-based progression with them as I experienced in the The Lord of the Rings Online. I'll be honest: I've been having a hard time forcing myself to log into Rift, but this extra bit of variety is enough to make me want to spend more time in Telara. If I want to raid, I can raid. If I want to run five-man dungeons, I can do so with varying levels of difficulty. And now, if I want to enjoy the fun of an instance on my own schedule, I can just pop into one of Rift's Chronicles. Once patch 1.5 drops, I have a feeling that I'm going to start playing a lot more Rift. Will you?
Leif Johnson remembers getting excited about Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative just because newscasters called it "Star Wars." Today, he confuses people by saying he's from Chicago while speaking with a Texas accent. Find out what he's doing over at his blog or follow him on Twitter.
Spy Guy says: Wow, these Chronicles sound flat-out awesome! How do you feel about them? Are they a relief, or do you think they're a detriment to Rift's true endgame content?
