It's almost cocky in the way Rift: Storm Legion ignores innovations other MMORPGs have made this year in story, combat, and progression that might win over players. Instead, it clings to its subscription model and established traditions with all the confidence of an exclusive club. Perhaps that's exactly what it's become, even more so than its self-proclaimed rival World of Warcraft. Trion established long ago that the pleasing its devoted players is its core concern, and Storm Legion buries our plates with endless servings of favorite courses and tops it off with a couple of desserts. Few expansions have taken the word so literally.



The new continents more than double the size of Telara's existing landmass.
In some ways, that's a pity. Rift still buckles until the same dull combat that's always made me reluctant to surrender myself to it, and movement retains that curious feeling akin to jogging through the shallow end of a swimming pool. The core 1 to 50 leveling experience in the old continent of Mathosia remains unchanged in essence by Storm Legion, down to its signature spawn density that'll have you bumping into enemies just by backing up a few steps. That's what makes the new continents where I made the trek from 50 to 60 so inviting. Taken together, they more than double the size of Telara's existing landmass, and they allow a great range of choice in finding the leveling sequence that's right for you.

Life and Death

On the one hand there's Dusken, the death-themed seat of power for Queen Miela of the Kingdom of Pelladane. While dressed like a porno director's vision of Joan of Arc, she barks out commands for routing the dragon Crucia (the antagonist of the expansion). On the other side of the geographic ring stands Brevane, a lush, life-themed continent that caters to the traditional fantasy lovers among us, filled as it is with towers impossibly perched on narrow crags and a tangled mess of titanic red vines that holds the countryside in bondage. At times I feel as though I'm wandering through Salvador Dali's conception of a fantasy world, and each new landscape of untamed flora and towering bones betrays a clear imperative to distinguish Rift's art design from its predictable fantasy cousins. As a bonus, all this space allows Trion to space out quests and their accompanying foes a little more, but leveling itself is such a slog that I found myself shuffling back and forth between the two for the best XP.

"Yeah, I'm a bit of a Brevane man myself."

A huge chunk of the leveling experience still revolves around tedious, thinly veiled "kill x of y" quests.
That variety would suffice if some of the content weren't so dull. Not all of it -- the titular rifts that spew out enemies remain good attractions (even though they're largely soloable these days) and the leveling experience as a whole benefits from the dynamic and sequential Instant Adventures introduced in December of last year. Even more exciting are the new Hunt Rifts, which turn the rift concept on its head by letting us yank out raid-like elemental lords from the rifts above rather than waiting on yet another soloable invasion. Still, a huge chunk of the leveling experience still revolves around tedious, thinly veiled "kill x of y" quests, known now as Carnage quests. They're technically optional, but the leveling's so slow that I usually found myself doing them for the payoff. The other option is to spend significant hours leveling through dungeons and PvP.

On the bright side, Rift took a few pages from Guild Wars 2 and introduced open tagging for mobs to encourage cooperation, and and removed the need for most questgivers by activating Carnage quests once you kill one of the relevant enemies. Even so, the numbers involved suggest that Trion's either lampooning the entire concept or trying to make them so boring that players will abandon them for more dynamic content. Moments after I'd complete one Carnage quest that demanded the slaughter of 20 legionnaires I'd activate another asking me to kill 30 soldiers. They're shameless filler, and they drag Rift's questing experience down to a depth of monotony that even TERA could never achieve.

A Rift of One's Own

It's perhaps no surprise, then, that I spent the majority of my time in Storm Legion's new Dimensions, Trion's innovative take on player housing. For the princely sum of 500 platinum I secured my own instance of the Stone Flask Tavern, long one of my favorite spots, and made it all my own. Using trees, furnishings, and basic building materials that I bought from either NPCs or from other players through the auction house, I transformed the bleak Scottish-style landscape into a wooded pine wonderlands, and over the course of three hours erected a sprawling complex that stretched all the way to the stop of the setting's famed cliff.

How's that for waking up on the wrong side of the bed?

Tools allow you to reposition or resize anything with remarkable freedom.
The charm of Rift's Dimensions lies in their sheer flexibility. When player housing appears in many other MMORPGs (such as Lord of the Rings Online), you're usually stuck with predetermined slots for particular types of furniture, resulting in predictable layouts for most houses. In Rift, the wide range of tools allow you to reposition or resize anything with a remarkable degree of freedom (including in mid-air), and I've seen many players take advantage of this to create brilliant jumping puzzles and labyrinths that arguably outshone the core game itself in terms of sheer fun. Weekly leaderboards enhance the experience further, giving us reasons to keep our dimensions fresh to keep fans coming back. It's a shame that decking out your dimensions this way takes a hefty sum of cash. All players get a free dimension from with a quest from their respective faction cities, but cobbling together a dimension that players actually want to see takes piles of platinum and -- more importantly -- the space that only the larger and more expensive dimensions can bring.

Let's Get Along

All of this new territory has brought a startling emptiness of the formerly bustling capitals of Meridian and Sanctum. Facing pressure from the Storm Legion (or, more realistically, from a decline in player numbers), Telara's two factions have set aside most of their differences so players can buddy up in guilds and dungeons. The NPCs aren't so open-minded, though -- you'll still get your tail whipped if you're a Defiant intent on touring Sanctum with your Guardian questing buddy. The upshot is that most level-capped players spend their time in the new capital of Tempest Bay, a beautiful, sprawling affair that better recalls the expanses of World of Warcraft's Stormwind or Guild Wars 2's Divinity's Reach than the cramped strongholds of Telara's past. The change marks a welcome improvement in the queues for random dungeons and PvP warfronts, although you'll still experience an epic wait if you try to queue for anything specific.

A prettier spot for standing around and making Bieber jokes in chat.

I was more impressed with the seven new dungeons.
The new PvP warfront of Karthan Ridge, meanwhile, isn't a massive improvement over the existing options, but its fun mechanic of hauling stones to destroy the enemy Power Core elevates it above mindless deathmatch slaughter. At its best, it serves to add to variety already found in Rift's warfronts. I was more impressed with the seven new dungeons, particularly in the challenges they pose for players grown too accustomed to familiar boss battles. One, Storm Breaker Protocol, even features an early "Gundam style" sequence where players take down a boss using power suits, although bugs currently plague it to the extent that the cannons sometimes won't fire, effectively rendering one of the bosses almost invincible.

Battle Mages!

The new dungeons and warfront provide ample opportunities to try out the new souls, all of which mark welcome improvements for their respective classes (or "callings"). I especially loved the mage's new Harbinger soul, which turns the former spellflingers into battle mages with conjured weapons that often outperform the mundane swords and maces of their warrior counterparts. For their part, warriors receive a new Tempest soul grants the formerly melee-bound class stunning ranged options. Rogues and Clerics get new souls that complement their existing playstyles. Clerics, for instance, now channel heals through other players while challenging the damage those players receive back to themselves, and Rogues can dish out flame-based AoE through the Tactician soul, vaguely reminiscent of engineers in other MMOs.

Crucia has a lovely singing voice for a demon-dragon thing.

This may seem like a given, but the best way to sum up Storm Legion is that it's an expansion for players who love Rift and want more of it. Where most expansions attempt to transform and refine gameplay, this one seeks only to enlarge it. Its sole (and worthy) contribution to MMO innovation lies in its spectacular player housing, and that doesn't change what Rift is at its core. I doubt it'll be enough to win back people who've left out of disillusionment with one feature or another, but for those who're still here it's a keeper.

Is bigger really better? Yes, it kind of is. As long as an MMO adds a new area with a new look and a new story, that's exactly the kind of fuel I need on my fire to keep me happily grinding away. Of course, it won't blow my mind like something really innovative. What say you? Is more of the same enough?