Only 5 days remain to pre-purchase En Masse Entertainment’s TERA-Online. With several other options appearing on the horizon, The Secret World and GW2 to name a couple, is TERA worth your $50?
My Experience
I always had plans to play TERA. My brother and I found the game interesting and the combat worthwhile. As soon as the opportunity presented itself we grabbed a digital Collector’s Edition. Upon entering the first and second Closed Beta Tests, we both took a step back. Happy with our choices for each character race/class combination. We knew what we wanted to play and were ready to do it. We hopped on during CBT 4 and 5 to test random questions we had and, as every beta tester should, look for bugs.
Skip to the Open Beta Testing. We chose the RP-PVE server Celestial Hills as our TERA home. Knowing the general type of community from the forum I didn’t want the sour community taste you would find on the PvP, and some PvE, servers. The server community for Celestial Hills is wholly helpful, considerate, and gregarious. If you enjoy the cut-throat, crass, and vocal community that gravitates towards the PvP servers. Join them now. You’re missing out.
Quest Content
Aside from the main quest line, which is pulling together and becoming interesting, there is little desire or necessity to read the quest material. Modern MMOs that rely on the quest giver system have streamlined how the player references to the tasks. With a simple click your minimap will pinpoint almost every objective. Abridging the process to kill or collect these orange dots on your map. Good job.
I sometimes enjoy the “monotonous” grind found in games. Especially if the mobs I’m fighting deliver at least one of two things:
- Random rare loot
- A challenge
Thankfully both are common and often paired in TERA. The main quest line provides numerous in-game cutscenes, though there are unfixed issues with audio sync on some. It’s easy to overlook, but it would be better received if fixed.
The Combat
Action style combat, the selling point for most players when talking about TERA. Never worry about tabbing or clicking on a target during combat. I have heard players complain that the combat lacks in certain areas. That not having the ability to jump and shoot a bow, or throw a spell, or charge an attack diminishes the feeling of “action”. I understand why they’re saying. Games like Dragon Nest and Continent of the 9th, boasting action combat, have delivered aerial displays of martial expertise. Why not TERA?
This is all I can say. TERA doesn’t feel built to take advantage of a jumping system. Most of the environment has invisible walls and non-climbable terrain. The falling physics is bizarre and emulates the feeling of gliding to the ground. Players who enjoyed Vindictus would be inclined to appreciate the combat of TERA.
Depending on your class you will get a different action experience. Of all the classes, I enjoyed Lancer the most. It creates a level of intensity when blocking massive attacks that would obliterate others.
Dungeons
There has yet to be content that my brother and I couldn’t duo. Him, playing a Warrior, and I, playing a Lancer, have jumped every hurdle we come across. The first dungeon players can tackle is the Bastion of Lok (BoL), aka the “Secret Base” (SB).
With a handful of HoT potions we combed through the instance at level 22. It took a couple of hours, but we did it. This, for us, solidifies the game in many ways. We don’t want to look for a group sometimes and the fact that we can two man the content is a major selling point. We tested this out later on the next dungeon Sinestral Manor and were successful again.
Misc.
The political system won’t be seeing any action until the head start, at the earliest. It’s very possible we won’t get a glimpse until May 1st.
I took a much closer look at crafting and found it to be easy to jump into, but nothing spectacular.
The enchanting improvements are nice, with no drawback to attempting an enchant.
The LFG system is hit and miss. I didn’t use it, but I heard both complaints and admiration for the tool. I’ll get back to it.
Having channels should be a must for content that requires multiple groups to fight the same targets. GW2 is taking us in a new direction for open group play, but the channels are a nice way of alleviating that “why is there always someone killing what I need to kill?” feeling.
I made a guild of 2, take a guess at the other member, and my goal is to run for office of somewhere. See what the political system has to offer. Exarch Thrangis! I like the ring to it. If only the game had Dwarves.
Should you Buy it?
Well yeah, I bought it didn’t I? You should always follow my example.
I’m joking. At least partially.
TERA is going to get some flack from the general MMO community for putting a lot of typical, traditional, MMO mechanics into their game. But, overlooking that it has a lot to offer. I would recommend this game for anyone who felt let down by SWTOR, not from any personal experience I had in SWTOR but because of the number of players that have come over from SWTOR. I noticed quite a few. If you dislike subscription games, hold out for GW2. If you love GW2, but love subscribing to games (those people exist!) definitely give TERA a shot.
If you didn’t get a chance to test out the game in the OBT last weekend, sorry you missed out. You’ll just have to browse through the experiences of others to see if you’ll enjoy it. :)
Dive right in
- TTred
