Review: Rifts: Promise of Power
Score:
91%
Version Reviewed: MMC
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Where do you start with a review of Rifts? (Near the end? - Simon Pegg)? It's a problem because there are so many things that make Rifts. The first one is probably the one that caught everyone by surprise - the simple fact that it is Nokia and the N-Gage that has the very first computer version of Rifts. Kevin Siembetta, the creator of the paper based Rifts RPG system, has long turned down deals from development houses on various platforms. What was there about Nokia and Backbone (the developers) to go ahead with the feisty Finnish Platform?
The sheer scale of this mobile game is worth mentioning as well. RPGs generally have a few types of characters. In Rifts you have 5 proto classes, and each of those can be customised into a wide range of classes. There are 12 of these classes, each of which has their own history and specialities. In the sourcebooks of Rifts, there are pages and pages on each of them, from the mega armour and rail guns of the Glitter Boys to the drug induced frenzy and strength of a Juicer. Suffice it to say, all of this detail has transferred to the N-Gage in glorious detail, with Nokia, Backbone and Siembetta working alongside each other for the last 18 months to make sure of two basic things; that Rifts players would not notice a single thing missing; and that non-players would be pulled into the Universe of Rifts and never want to leave.
But most of all, it's just very, very playable.
The Background to Rifts
Rifts is set on Earth. An Earth at some point in our future, after a huge disaster has released a bundle of psychic energy that cracked open the ley lines of the world, opening rifts to another dimension and allowing all manner of beasties and things to crawl through and invade the Earth. With these rifts cracking open, the majority of technology on the Earth has collapsed, leading to an almost medieval level of existence for the majority of the population. These shanty towns sit awkwardly alongside the remaining military grade weaponry and technology that some people still hold on to, and the re-awakened power of magic in the human race. If you are resourceful enough, then these are all available to you.
With a set-up like this (and a gorgeous introduction sequence on the MMC going over this again for newcomers to the Rifts world) there’s a world of adventures that can take place. For years, players of Rifts have made their own scenarios and adventures, from single night quickies to massive campaigns that last many months and years. As well as building these plots and adventures, players have been known to start a single character, and continue with that character slowly building up their experience and skills over a series of adventures in their playing groups for a number of years.
Getting all of that experience (and the richness and detail is also reflected in the sourcebooks from Palladium) is a daunting task. And it’s one that Rifts fans will know has never been done on a computing platform before. Until now. Rifts and Nokia might not have appeared to be the perfect match when it was announced, but the team put together by Nokia has pulled it off. N-Gage God-like Producer Shane Neville, Backbone Creative Director Trent Ward, and the man himself, Kevin Siembetta, are all massive Rifts fans, and sat down to make the game they thought every RPG fan would want to play.
You want the super short review? Put simply, this is the game every RPG fan wants to play.
Getting Along with Rifts
But Nokia aren’t making an N-Gage game solely for the Rifts players – the majority of N-Gage owners are not likely to be Rifts players, so all this glorious background and depth of the pre-existing game cannot be assumed. What they can assume is that people are familiar with a computer RPG and what you can expect to get from that. And here Rifts manages to be easily accessible without knowing anything about the world before you start.
Rifts on the N-Gage opens with you taking the role of a mind-wiped prisoner. A fellow prisoner has a plan to break out, and he's taking you with him. It's a great and simple principle - you learn about Rifts the game as your character learns about the world of rifts. This little prologue covers character control, fighting and using your inventory of items. It's fast enough that if you decide to go through the game again (maybe you want to make different decisions or try another character class), it's not intrusive to work through the dialogs again.
You watch the world from a third person perspective onto an isometric view of the world. This leads to probably the one tricky thing about the controls. Both the N-Gage and N-Gage QD control pads are designed to go up, down, left and right. The Rifts isometric view is designed to go up-left, up-right, down-left and down-right. You can either aim to hit a perfect diagonal control each time, or remember if up will send you walking up-left or up-right. If you’re interacting with scenery, doors, chatting to people, or engaging in pretty much any activity, this is the ‘5 key. And that’s it for moving and exploring. Managing your inventory is from the soft keys in a regular menu system.
The combat system is probably one of the most well balanced RPG systems I’ve seen. Control-wise it’s very similar to when you walk about in the adventuring section, but rather than both you and the enemy moving at the same time, you switch to a points based “turn about” system, similar in ways to Pathway To Glory. You have a number of action points and movement points to use up. And these can be for getting into position, firing a weapon, repairing your armour, throwing grenades, casting spells, hiding… It’s very smooth, and while based on a rather large isometric grid, incredibly tactical. And when you finish combat, you switch back to ‘free’ mode and can walk around the Earth with the same look and feel and graphical depth.
This graphical depth is incredibly rich, and a reason why Rifts is a massive game (32MB MMC). Now that might not seem much to the DVD packed console generation, but don’t ever forget that this is a mobile phone we’re talking about here. This is a big game. Heck, the demo alone is 20MB. The artists have been working just as hard as everyone else in the team, and it shows.
The story itself develops over time, and part of the fun is actually discovering the story as you progress through the game. And while this review is going on a fair bit in terms of words, I’m not going to spoil the surprises too much. After all, the game is designed to ease you into the Rifts world, so why waste the effort the designers have taken? Suffice it to say you’re going to be visiting some amazing scenery, and become a regular little globetrotter around the world.
Summary
Absolutely huge, with a lot of care and attention from every member of the development team, pretty much sums up Rifts. Having met and spoken to Kevin, Shane and Trent at various periods over the development of Rifts, it’s clear that they’re knowledgeable about the game and the N-Gage system, mad keen to make it a success and chock full of ideas. They’ve gone all out to make the best RPG game possible, from one of the best RPG universes. There’s no doubt in my mind that Rifts is the game of the year on the N-Gage, and probably the number one game for the N-Gage so far. The question is how does it rate against other console and PC based RPG’s? Top Ten? Top Five? It wouldn’t surprise me.
Put simply, this is the headline game for the N-Gage and I’ve no qualms in awarding it a score of 91, and putting it on top of the pile of MMC titles.
Reviewed by Ewan Spence at