I love the look of the world, it's gorgeous on ultra, but very playable on low settings too. As I'm in need of a motherboard upgrade, I'm playing on low. Ultra though I still have a higher FPS than I do in other games, even with a busy beta weekend on a full server.
Telara has the feeling of a world in crisis., something so many MMO's fail to capture - the tension and upheaval. I love the worlds MMO's designers have put out there, but ones like World of Warcraft, I've never felt the tension between Qeynos and Freeport or between the Alliance and Horde (I've read all the books and it's absent from the game), the impending doom that is supposedly always threatening. I've actually enjoyed the changes they've made in Cataclysm, but still there doesn't seem a huge threat of destruction, like I feel in RIFT.
(Beginning of a rift outside Meridian)
RIFT, you feel it. The rifts can't be ignored, well they can, but if you don't stop them, the quest area/zone you're in can be controlled by an invasion. The NPC's get into the fight and if they die - you can't turn in your quest or travel or stand in one place for that matter! You literally have to be involved with what's going on. It's not safe to go cruising down the road or afk in a quest hub or out in the world as you may run into an invasion force and you're dead! They attack everything - the mobs roaming around, other rifts - its a world in continual chaos and it's awesome! During beta the sky has been black a few times with the number of rifts they were throwing at us, but how wonderful when they were all cleared - the land was at peace, skies were blue - a sense and feel of we've saved Telara for another day!
