Rift (video game)

RIFT
Standard edition cover art
Developer(s)	Trion Worlds
Publisher(s)	Trion Worlds
Distributor(s)	Trion
Composer(s)	Inon Zur
Engine	Gamebryo
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows
Release	NA: March 1, 2011 AU: March 10, 2011 EU: March 11, 2011
Genre(s)	Massively multiplayer online role-playing game
Mode(s)	Multiplayer

Aggregate scores
Aggregator	Score
GameRankings	85.20% (41 reviews)
Metacritic	84/100 (59 reviews)
Review scores
Publication	Score
GamePro
GameSpot	8/10
GameSpy
GamesRadar
GameTrailers	8.2/10
IGN	8.5/10
PC Gamer (US)	85/100

Rift (previously known as Rift: Planes of Telara and as Heroes of Telara before that while still in alpha testing) is a fantasy free-to-play massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by Trion Worlds. Rift takes place within the fantasy world of Telara. The game was released in March 2011.

Two competing factions, composed of a selection of races and classes, battle each other and the enemies who emerge from dynamic "rifts".

Telara is the focal point of the elemental Planes: Air, Fire, Water, Earth, Life, and Death—and one point where every one of these Planes intersect with each other. Each Plane is governed by a dragon-deity, a personification of that elemental force. Through the actions of the Dragon of Extinction, Regulos, the various dragons have united in an alliance known as the Blood Storm, for the purpose of invading Telara and gaining use of the intersection of all of their realms. In the past, the Blood Storm was defeated by the inhabitants of Telara with the help of the Vigil, the most powerful of the native gods.

Regulos was cast out into the elemental Planes, while its five compatriots were trapped within Telara and chained beneath a ward designed to close Telara off from external threats. However, Regulos had recently gained entry to Telara, destroying the ward and causing rifts to open, feeding the strength of the trapped dragons and allowing their minds to enter in a bid to destroy Telara's defenders. Players take on the role of the Ascended, resurrected superhuman warriors tasked to defeat the forces of Regulos and cleanse Telara of the threat of the Storm forever.

Opposing Regulos within Telara are two factions: the Guardians and the Defiant. The Guardians piously follow the religion of the Vigil, the supreme gods of Telara. They include the high elves, the Mathosians (a warlike culture of humans from the north), and dwarves. Ascended Guardians were resurrected by the Vigil after they died at the hands of Regulos, during his return to Telara. Guardians fight and die against one of Regulos' commanders, only to be brought back at the beginning of Rift.

The Defiant are those who, for cultural, historic, or personal reasons, do not follow the religion of the Vigil and have put their trust in science and technology as a way to conquer the forces of Regulos. They include the Eth (a highly advanced human culture from the south), the Bahmi (descendants of interbreeding between Air spirits and humans), and the Kelari (animistic, cabalistic dark elves). Ascended Defiant were resurrected through technology based on the study of the soul-structure of ascended Guardians, in an apocalyptic future in which Telara has nearly been consumed by Regulos. At the beginning of the game, Defiant faction players are sent back in time from this point to the beginning of Rift, allowing them to fight at an opportune moment in Telara's timeline, to overthrow the religion of the Vigil and defeat Regulos.