In this weekly feature, I recommend game soundtracks. I share a few of my favorite tracks, talk about why everyone should listen to the soundtrack, and a little bit about the composer. This week's choice is RIFT by Trion Worlds.
OF SPECIAL NOTE
This game holds a special place in my heart because it changed my life. I first learned about Extra Life in the fall of 2013 and registered to participate only a few weeks before the marathon day. I raised a few hundred dollars and had fun. One of the items they gave out to participants that year was a starter pack of items for the game RIFT. Since it was free to play, I installed it and gave it a try in early 2014. I played casually here and there until early 2015 when I joined a guild and took a break from Lord of the Rings Online. That's when I met a silly prankster who was running the raids for the guild. I moved over 800 miles in 2016 to marry him, and the rest is history. While RIFT has since been bought by Gamigo and exists in a sort of maintenance mode of operation, I still log in almost every day for the daily calendar, minions, and special events. The little guild I run now is full of ghosts, but I'm not yet ready to let go. If you still play, let me know!
THE STATS
Name: RIFT
Developer: Trion Worlds
Publisher: Trion Worlds
Release Date: March 1, 2011
Genres: MMORPG
Composer: Inon Zur
MY FAVORITE TRACKS
(The full list of tracks are linked by playlist below... and I highly recommend some good headphones to best enjoy all of the subtle elements of the music!)Defiant Theme
(Length: 1:03) This will forever and always be my favorite RIFT track. I spent a LOT of time in the Defiant city of Meridian where this music plays. It's just hard to beat! (And way cooler than that Guardian music.) Why haven't I made this my ringtone before?
(Length: 3:28) This is my second-favorite track, but my favorite region in the original zone of the game. The wintry, dangerous mountains and forests and ice of Iron Pine was so much fun to quest through! Not only did the terrain make it difficult to get there from here (not unlike my home state of Vermont), but there were always rifts opening, invasions flooding in multiple directions, and oh yes -- let's not forget the dragon trapped beneath the tarn...
(Length: 3:27) I never finished everything in this area, and I regret that. A vast, open expanse of land covered in hills and waterways, dotted with enemies, home to the dwarven bastion of Hammerknell Fortress which was sealed and abandoned to the horrors within (and a 20-man raid), and many hidden secrets abound if you know where to find them! This track always makes me think of Lord of the Rings -- sounding like it could easily be the backdrop for some of the ruined and forgotten places of Middle-earth.
(Length: 3:41) This was the second area for my Defiant character, and I am ashamed to admit I couldn't figure out how to get there the first time. I actually took the hard way OVER a mountain that wasn't actually meant to be climbed over. But that was one of the fun things about RIFT -- you could go wandering off the beaten path and find hidden things, only some of which were intended to be found for puzzles or achievements. There's a lot that happens in Stonefield, especially during a zone event. My advice? Go hang out with the dancing squirrels above the waterfall until it blows over. You weren't living if you didn't get the "Dances with Squirrels" title!
(Length: 3:30) I was never a huge fan of this desert area, as the story didn't feel compelling, but the music always matched the environment really well. It tells you you're in a dry and dangerous place without having to see it for yourself. For that, I share the track here. There are some great themes in use, and the instruments are well-balanced!
You can listen to the complete playlist here:
WHY DO I RECOMMEND IT?
A lot of people skipped this MMO for various reasons, and I always thought that was a shame. It fell prey to the same problems facing a 2-party system: A subscription-based model only nets serious players; when you go free-to-play you offend those subscribers even though it brings more players to the game, often resulting in the serious players going elsewhere. There's no real happy medium there, and while I feel like I got a taste of the game's best time of life I know many older players said the game's management and development shifted drastically once they dropped the subscription model.
All that to say: People who skipped this game missed out on an amazing OST. I spent SO MUCH TIME in this game (Steam says 2,495 hours) that I know the music as if I had performed it myself. I purchased the Harmony of the Planes OST on CD from Amazon a couple months ago (the OST covered in this entry) and am so glad that I did. There are two soundtracks available on Trion Worlds' bandcamp: Planes of Telara (like the CD, but missing the Stillmoor track), and Storm Legion.
THE COMPOSER: INON ZUR
If you're a gamer, you've heard his music. In fact, if you watch movies and TV you may also have heard his music as that's where his composition work began. However, these are the titles you'll probably know best if you're reading my blog: Crysis, Prince of Persia, Dragon Age: Origins, The Lord of the Rings: War in the North, Dragon Age II, Dragon's Dogma, Fallout: New Vegas, Fallout 3, Sword Coast Legends, Fallout 4, Syberia 2 & 3, Fallout 76, The Elder Scrolls: Blades, and the recent Outriders. For more info about him, check out his website!
If you like what you heard here, use the links I shared above... or go play the game while you still can!
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