At Pax Prime 2014, Trion Worlds announced that the second expansion to their free to play MMORPG hit Rift, subtitled Nightmare Tide, will be receiving on October 8.
Like the base game, Nightmare Tide will be available to players free of charge. As the title suggests, this expansion will have a decidedly aquatic theme to it, allowing players to do battle on the Plane of Water, a realm described as being “a realm of nightmares, dreams, madness and danger where you’ll encounter new foes, new allies, and confront plots that threaten the entirety of existence.”
According to Joystiq’s coverage of the expansion, Nightmare Tide is being designed to accommodate both the typical MMORPG gamer who skips over all story elements to get right to the action and his atypical counterpart who prefers to absorb the game’s lore and plot. However, Trion have gone the extra mile to make Nightmare Tide’s plot as compelling as possible so that all but the most ADD-afflicted of gamers will have difficulty ignoring the story.
One example of this is an encounter involving Skelf, a species of humanoid sea creatures who have a habit of murdering newborn babies that they deem to be the weakest of the bunch. Should the player choose to save one such baby, the grateful hatchling will follow him or her around, apparently gaining an increasingly important role in the story as a result.
Other details include the expansion world’s size, consisting of three zones that are “deceptively huge,” as well as an improved mentoring mechanic, which allows players to adjust their character level to match their friends. A new minion system allows players to capture critters that can be tasked with fetching items, and players who attain a character level of 65 will unlock five master skills alongside their usual skill trees. Lastly, a new type or rift, called Nightmare Rifts, will be introduced, presenting unending waves of enemies to serve as the ultimate test for masochistic players.
Although it is over three years old, Nightmare Tide is sure to increase the longevity of Rift.