Since I can remember getting my first
copy of World of Warcraft back in 2004 fall. I remember the
excitement and the burning desire to jump right into a world of high
fantasy and rich adventure with my brother and close friends. Yet
there was still a massive air of curiosity and ignorance at the same
time. The term MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer online Role playing game)
was still relatively young with few predecessors with the exception
of Everquest and Ultima Online the latter of which I never played.
Needless to say, the experience for me was magical, it was engrossing
and was an experience like none I had experienced in my gaming
experience. I was hooked, the urge to progress and enjoy an adventure
with close friends where you could conquer dungeons and enjoy the
rewards and wonderful loot with friends stole many a sleepless night
through university.
Fast forward 10 years later, there are
now so many MMORPG's available to play it's like just a different
flavored jellybean or like trying a new potato chip, you know the
basic taste but you just need an experience of the new flavor just
like the old Vanilla coke experience, you know it's technically the
same but still different. This is the way I view all new MMO's with
curiosity yet a strange sense of familiarity and here I am finding
myself trying the not so new but free-to-play MMO known as TERA –
Fate of Arun.
First impressions -
How do I begin? the game is simply
beautiful, although I don't have the opportunity to enjoy the game in
4K glory, I am happy with playing at 1920 x1080 and the game is still
very pretty. The textures are well animated and the character models
are simply beautiful. The character customisation is relatively
detailed, there is plenty of options for facial customisation . The
facial sliders are a nice touch but I am disappointed that there is
no option to change eye color, nor height/build of the character.
Still, there is plenty to do such that you can tailor the character
to your liking and the base models themselves are nice enough to
look at. The enemies are equally impressive, although a lot of the
enemies are re skinned or slightly re-textured variations there is
enough of a variety to keep you visually engrossed. Moving on, the
environments are also impressive, with a nice balance of green and
built up areas to feast your eyes on. However, the areas do seem
familiar and not as memorable as some landscapes that might be found
in older games such as World of Warcraft or guild wars 2. The capital
cities are nice in their own right, but they lack an outstanding
sense of grandeur when compared to the warcraft capital cities and
those of Guild Wars 2 they just seem far too linear and flat to
trigger that memorable jaw dropping experience like when I first
explored Stormwind nearly a decade ago, and Divinity's reach or
Lion's Arch to name a few. It seems the scale was just not so
impressive nor outstanding to me.
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The Elf capital city of Allemantheia, Trade Broker district. |
Combat mechanics and game play -
Like most MMO's the interface is
similar and if you have even played one MMO, or any modern day RPG
for that matter you can pretty much jump and hit the ground running
with little or no learning curve necessary. Each individual class is
created utilising their own special mechanic and skill set that has
enough variations and skills to make no class too similar. The combat
is well thought out and is a combination of an MMO with a ton of
skills per class and also utilises a real-time combat system that
allows for twitch/clutch game play given your ping is decent enough.
My experiences with an average of 261 ms was definitely playable in
PVE but I would assume PVP would be a different story when match made
with a player below 100ms. Therefore, all ping arguments aside I am
very impressed with the combat system, it's smooth enough to feel
like guild wars 2, yet offer plenty of skills to challenge the
skill set of a veteran World of Warcraft arena player. There is a
happy medium with TERA's combat system that makes it stand-out enough
for me to play the game continuously and not get bored. I must
mention that I have not tired all the classes but from what I've
tasted so far with the Lancer, Gunner and Sorcerer. Each are a treat
to play and offer engrossing play styles without replicating one
another's play style too much.
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TERA UI - Fighting fantastic monsters known as BAM (Big Ass Monster) |
A big question that tickled my
curiosity before I even started playing was how much the game is
going to be reliant on the holy trinity stereotype, one that was
heavily a focus in World of Warcraft, but rather abandoned in such
games like Guild Wars 2. The holy trinity system, for those who are
not familiar is a parties requirement for a tank, healer and damage
dealer roles when adventuring in parties greater than two. It wasn't
much of a surprise that it eventually dawned: whilst the trinity
system is alive and well, it is not so dependent to dub a lot the
mainstream content unplayable such as experienced in games where the
trinity is a must and the logic is upheld beyond one's skill
requirement. I think the TERA development has done a fine job in
retaining it's heritage but not to put extreme emphasis on the
requirement for all roles except maybe in the very endgame raids.
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Some Cool stuff can be obtained through the online store. |
TERA does not adopt a pay to win model, but ELITE status definitely saves time and assists with the levelling process. The vast majority of real money purchases is based on aesthetic and vanity items for you characters, not to mention fantastic mounts.
In conclusion, I can say that TERA is not for everyone, it definitely is a great free to play MMO, but it falls short in areas of depth. If you are a sucker for pretty characters and especially like playing a female character with all the crazy costume customisations which I honestly think is awesome, then certainly go ahead and give it go. Another note for players outside the US you may have a difficult time against other players if you are into PVP as the NA players will most definitely carry the advantage in ping, Lastly, the western version of TERA is influenced by it's Korean heritage but because Enmasse owns the rights to the US release, content will likely be lagging by around 6 months or so for new classes just like the brawler and gunner. On the bright side, it does give players a chance to prepare what might be install for the near future. TERA is definitely a game worth trying but far from the best MMORPG's currently available.
Tell me what you think? :)
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