This is especially true when reading it straight through, as nearly every game concept and mechanic is hurled at the reader before the idea (usually expressed as abbreviation) is explained or defined.Īn omnipresent huckster atmosphere permeates the book. Reading and referencing the book becomes a sort of hunting exercise. Some things are buried in places which might make sense but aren't where you'd actually expect them to be.
However, the book frequently references terms you would not know unless you were already familiar with Rifts (much like this review probably does, but hopefully not as prevalent). The big picture of the organization can be summarized as: Setting, Characters, Kewl Powers, Enemies, Equipment, and finally Rules. Then there's the overall organization of the book. It's nice to see what was considered important in the editing and proofreading process. For instance, the Glitter Boy Pilot character class (a character type devoted to piloting a legendary suit of mechanized power armor) may not get the skill to pilot their power armor, but the editors made damn sure to let the reader know that "Glitter Boy" is trademarked by Palladiumbooks, and every use of the word Rifts has a registered trademark symbol next to it. However, I should note that while a multitude of blunders exist, the editors made sure that every trademark and registered trademark symbol is in place. It really gives the whole thing an amateurish instead of "Ultimate" feel. I have to say the sheer number of errors ranks as the highest I've seen in an RPG product, and I have a collection of between 600 and 700 RPG products. There's at least one instance of columns being randomly switched around, and many errors have the appearance of being things which were overlooked while cutting and pasting from other sources. Many of these are typos which existed in text copied from the 15 year old first edition of the book. To continue with the bad, errors abound in the book. They are simply absorbed as part of the text and look like large paragraphs. Charts are not offset and placed in actual formatted charts, for example. However, most formatting looks like it was done by tab spacing in Word. The book feels durable whatever cover variant you have, and my copies have already endured a LOT of page flipping with no sign of stress. Art is generally placed well, common enough to break things up, but not so common as to feel obtrusive. There are also 3 color plate sections of 8 pages each spaced evenly through the book. The book itself is 376 pages long with simple double column text. The regular version has an art cover and is $33.95 US MSRP, while the "Gold" version has a leatherette cover and is $70.00 US MSRP. The only differences between the two variants are the covers and the prices.
One is a collectors' or "Gold" edition and the other one is the regular version. There are many drastic changes in the rules, and the timeline has been advanced almost 10 years from the original starting point of the old Rifts rule book. The first thing I'll get out of the way in this review is the debate on whether this is genuinely a new edition of the game or not. Occasionally in my review, I'll save a few keystrokes by abbreviating references to Rifts Ultimate Edition as "RUE." When I heard about a new edition of Rifts, the hype was enough to bring me back.Īs you may have guessed by now (the title may have been a hint), this is a review of Rifts Ultimate Edition, the latest version of Palladiumbooks' most popular RPG. As they say, familiarity breeds contempt, so I lost my enthusiasm for Palladium products and stayed away for several years. I was one of the first adopters of the original Rifts in 1990, and followed the line fanatically and faithfully for many years. The longer you stay in a fight with Darius, the more likely you will lose, as his damage scales off of how many auto-attacks he’s gotten off on you and his Crippling Strike and Apprehend help him keep enemies from escaping and within his range.I've played Palladium games since I was first introduced to the system in 1986 by way of the Robotech RPG. His ability to deal damage to multiple enemies as well as heal off that damage makes him a worthy contender for one of the best team fighters. One of the most consistent and reliable top laners, Darius remains by and far the best fighter in Wild Rift.
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