User blog comment:Crazy sam10/Buried new weapons and map load screens revealed + possible addition of Mule Kick/@comment-10261308-20130701214508/@comment-3967954-20130703154339

The rift is the giant hole in the earth that you can see at the spawn area, not the map itself. Richtofen's objective is to "mend the rift" - the hole in the earth is so big that it could potentially destory the world - whereas (I think, anyway) Maxis wants to destory it so that Richtofen's army of zombies will die. Everyone else on earth will die in the process, but hey, acceptable losses, right?