It's called RIFT for a reason.
A tear in reality, a gateway from which monsters from other planes emerge to attack the inhabitants of Telara, the world in which this game is set. That's what a rift is, and these events deserve their top billing.
At first glance the rifts are not dissimilar to the dynamic events of Guild Wars 2, in that they appear across the zones and can be taken on by any passing player(s) without any pre-requisite quest. However, the events in GW2 are generally fairly static in that they focus on one specific area or target, whereas the planar monsters of RIFT are more inclined to explore their surroundings. While a core group of mobs remains at the rift itself other mobs will from time to time come through the gateway and go off to attack other parts of the zone.
This leads to some interesting and unexpected situations. My first encounter with one of these invasion groups came during an escort quest some distance from any open rift. The NPC I was escorting was, as is usually the case, suicidally overconfident of his ability to punch monsters to death, and I was running alongside (or where possible ahead of) him trying to keep him alive long enough to complete the quest.
All was going well until we ran into a group of 5 or 6 mobs who proceeded to kill him, and then killed me as well. I initially thought this was part of the quest - the final group of mobs that often appears just before reaching safety - and it wasn't until I was on my way back and ran into the same mobs, in a different area, that I realised they weren't actually part of the quest, but rather a roving group of invaders from an open rift.
Silverwood seemed to be ground zero for planar activity that day, since a little later I saw another group of invaders attack and kill several questgivers and vendors at a small hub in a different part of the forest. That startled me, since it's relatively unusual for these kind of events in MMOs to actually impact NPCs. Of course they'd respawn eventually, but not until the hostiles had been dealt with.
It's not just friendly NPCs that the planar monsters attack either. Other mobs in the zone often aggro on the invaders, and on several ocassions I've found myself fighting side by side with hostile mobs against this common foe. Needless to say, these alliances are very very short-lived.
These are interesting fights. Some rifts can be solo'd, whereas others are more suited to groups as they include elite enemies. It's still possible to take some of these larger rifts if there's no one else around, with skill, luck and/or a level advantage. After killing 3 waves of enemies there's a further timed wave which, if dealt with quickly enough, leads to a final bonus boss which can then (hopefully) be killed for an addtional reward.
While all this is happening the rifts are still spawning invasion groups as well. On one ocassion I felt very lucky that the invaders emerged on the far side of the combat area from where I was, since it would have gone badly for me if I'd suddenly had another six enemies to contend with.
The rifts add a lot to the game, making zones more dynamic and unpredictable in a way that's often sadly lacking in most MMOs. I don't go out of my way to take on every planar manifestation I see on my travels, but if I'm in the mood for a greater challenge than my quest log is offering I don't have to look hard to find that so long as there's a rift nearby... and there is always a rift nearby.
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