The role-playing game, Rifts, definitely has its share of fans. It's easy to see why, after 14 years of success in the pen-and-paper realm. Creator Kevin Siembieda has carefully crafted an amazing fantasy world filled with intriguing scenarios and amazing characters. Nokia and developer Backbone look to duplicate the RPG in digital form with a licensed N-Gage title due out summer 2005.
Rifts will encompass a tactical role-playing style, which has proven an extremely genre on handhelds. Advance Wars, Final Fantasy Tactics, and Fire Emblem were all big hits on Game Boy Advance, but N-Gage has yet to see a title in their ranks. The Rifts world is perfect for this type of game, however. The fact that it's made exclusively for the N-Gage platform only serves to sweeten the deal.
The game takes place over 300 years into the future. Humanity hit its golden age, but the rebirth of magic caused things to go horribly awry -- essentially wiping out the world. Two hundred years into its dark era, tears in space and time called Rifts, emerge, emitting gruesome creatures. These range anywhere from cyborgs to demons, and even include some angry gods. In the N-Gage game, your party will square off against these enemies and many more.
You will have control over some of the most popular characters in the series. Glitter Boy is covered in shiny, laser-proof armor -- making him both impenetrable and rather slow. The Juicer is an augmented individual, drugged to give him some amazing abilities. The consequences, however, are a reduced life span. The Mind Melter is a psychic gal -- in fact the most powerful one in the books' universe -- which brings with it immense power. As you can imagine, each one of these will demand their own strategy in battle.
Gameplay hasn't been totally ironed out, though we were told it would take place in a 3D world. Whether the characters themselves would be 3D or not remains to be seen, though the genre standard is usually for 2D sprites -- even on PS2 (La Pucelle, Disgaea, etc.). It is known that gamers can compete via Bluetooth, or go head-to-head on N-Gage Arena. It's also clear that Nokia's expectations are very high for Rifts. The game's producer, Shane Neville, told us, "We're not just looking to make the best N-Gage RPG, but the best RPG of all time." Did I mention he's been playing Rifts since the beginning?
So, why is this the first emergence of Rifts in a video game? Siembieda told us it wasn't for lack of offers. However, he was waiting to see someone come to him with the passion and focus of this team; he wants his universe done justice. He told us, "If they can pull it off, it'll be awesome." We happen to agree.
