Tera is a fairly straight forward fantasy-based MMO. I’m
told it is a Korean MMO, though I haven’t done ANY research on the game. It
came out earlier this year (May, I believe), and what little I know about it
has been its combat system which has been mostly praised from everything I’ve
read. The game definitely has a distinctive Asian theme to it, that’s both
pretty and colorful, and the game itself is gorgeous.
The reviews I read indicated two things: first, the game’s
combat system is very good. And second, the game’s leveling system is about as
generic as you can get. And now that I’ve spent some time in the game (I have a
Priest at level 26) I can say both of those statements are very accurate.
As First Impressions go, Tera is a little bit of a mixed
bag. Like every MMO I’ve ever played, you pick a server, and create a
character. You have a good variety of characters you can make, and you can
customize the characters more than most MMO’s I’ve played. And you can make
some very cool looking characters in the system—it’s better than SWTORS by far,
while offering considerable flexibility. And it gives you a chance during creation
to view the character under multiple different types of gear which in itself is
useful to people who care a lot about the look of their characters.
Character classes seem fairly varied. You have tanks
(Lancer, Warrior…though apparently there is some debate about the effectiveness
of Warrior tanks); Slayer and Beserker for melee DD, Sorcerer and Archer for
Ranged DD, and Priest and Mystic for Healing. This is actually one of the areas
where the game really shines: because of the way in which the combat system
works, there are a lot of new ways that a class can distinguish itself compared
to a lot of other MMOs.
The game starts with some ‘epic’ cut scenes, and a rather
bewildering ‘Prologue’ which also serves as a form of tutorial. I’m not sure if
this was just for the 7 day free-trial, but the Prologue makes your character
level 20, with a full set of abilities, and then shows you some of the basic
mechanics. I did this as a priest, and I was a bit frustrated by it mostly
because in the end you fight a boss as a healer, but actual healing didn’t seem
to work. In hindsight, I think I understand why…you can’t heal NPCs not in your
party…but it never TELLS you that.
The story itself is rather bland and doesn’t really explain
things very well. Basically there are two sleeping titans, who formed the
continents (or, I think ARE the continents), and now some new island has
formed. And the combined nations see this as a threat of some form, though I
have no idea why. An expedition was sent, yet everyone died. So, now you are
part of a second expedition of level 1 characters who will have to succeed where
all of the established veterans failed. And while you are there you are to find
out what happened to the leader of the first expedition that was with you in
the prologue.
This is where Tera certainly missteps. The graphics are
pretty, and the art style is great. Yet the story and presentation is lacking
in every way. Most of the quests in the prologue involve you being sent from
person to person to person, not really doing anything but running back and
forth and reading quest text. And this definitely follows with the ‘and the
questing is as generic as it gets’ point above.
Tera is a quest-based leveling game that is definitely very
WOW like in regards to leveling and execution. You go to an area. You receive a
group of quests to kill/collect something with genetic quest text that you can
fully ignore, and then you run in a circuit doing everything the quests ask you
to do. Then you turn everything in and move on to the next area. There is
actually LESS variation from what I’ve seen than WOW…WOW had the benefit with
Cataclysm of revamping the questing system and using new scripting tech to
increase the types of quests they could present. Tera shows little of that. It’s
‘kill 10 things, or ‘collect 5 things’, or ‘kill things till you get ‘x’ drops’. It’s simple, and mindless, and deliberately
designed to flow easily. But even at its best it’s as generic as it gets.
On the plus side questing help is very useful and things are
easy to track. Hyperlinks in quest descriptions allow you to identify
objectives, and follow things; and you can easily arrange the orders of quest
in your screen however you want. And the quests are definitely designed to flow
together—though they are generic and boring, they are designed to be
inoffensive as possible. So when combined with the combat system the game
actually flows pretty well.
And speaking of the combat system, Tera’s is good. I’ve seen
several classes now and the game rewards being actively engaged with one’s
target and situation far more than most MMOs. And skill very much reflects on
how well you do rather than gear and mindless stats. Gear lets you do things
faster, but not necessarily ‘better’. This is because positioning, avoidance,
and maneuvering is more important in the game—you avoid damage by NOT BEING HIT.
And a lot of the game’s mechanics involve maneuvering into positions to attack
(say from a flanking position or from behind), all while avoiding being hit yourself.
Combat therefore takes a bit more time in Tera, but it’s more engaging and more
fun, and feels much more mindless.
Then there are the BAMS, or ‘Big Assed Monsters’—their name
not mine. These are larger mobs designed to be taken by a party. They are
basically like mini-bosses (though some of the lower level BAMS I’ve
encountered actually have more mechanics that saw an old Molten Core boss in
WOW. I’ve killed some of these solo—but this can take 10 to 15 minutes to kill
and I’m not sure that the rewards are worth it. The risk involved is relatively
high, but it’s also good practice and I suspect this is fairly indicative of
the game as a whole.
At this point I’ve gotten at least one class to Level 26
(Priest) and I’ve played several other classes past the starter area (Lancer,
and Sorcerer). Each of these classes plays different from the other, and in
ways that I like. The start zone itself doesn’t change though. And I suspect
that the level grind pretty much has the same problem SW:TOR had—it seems very
likely that you will have to follow the same level path through the game, with
only a little variation to keep things moving.
Despite these minor problems and nick picks the game has
proven to be very fun and I’ve had a blast playing it. It may be generic
question, but the combat and new scenery makes the experience as a whole
anything but boring. And now seems to be a good time to be playing it. The
server I’m on seems active and lively, and there is plenty of content to see
that is new. I’m looking forward to checking out some instances as a healer
(healing in this game as a Priest is definitely more involved), and I’m interested
in seeing if some of the higher level content shakes things up a bit.
I don’t know how long I’ll be playing this. Certainly up to
the time of Guild Wars 2. But, who knows, I may end up keeping up with the game
past GW2 if the end game is interesting and accessible enough. It certainly
seems like the game will keep my attention at least to the level cap at 60.
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