TERA review in progress – Part 1

It's important to note that each class in TERA has its own form of defensive maneuver.  For instance, the Warrior has a roll dodge, the Archer has a tumble backward, and the Lancer has a giant shield block.  In addition, each class has different attack speeds, some slower than others.  To help you get accustomed to each class, TERA offers a playable prologue designed to give you a taste of what each class has to offer towards the later levels.  In the prologue you can test the waters with each class before you begin the grind to max level.

Following the short prologue, you'll be sent to Island of the Dawn, or noobie island.  This island functions as a basic tutorial — teaching you the basic mechanics of the game: the combat, how to get quests, where to buy skills, etc.  It serves its purpose.

What it leaves out are the BAMs, or bad-ass monsters.  These BAM encounters serve primarily as boss fights.  While soloable with some classes, these usually require groups to work together to take them down.  Not to worry, you won't run into these in the early levels (I'm level 19 and I still haven't encountered one).  Though I hear the real action starts at around level 20, so I'm getting close!

At around level 11, you can get off the noob island and travel to your first major city: Velika. Outside of BAM encounters, a lot of the leveling seems to be traditional MMO grind: get a quest, hunt a mob, return for loot.  Will this change as we progress into the later levels? This is something to keep an eye on heading into the mid-levels.

Aside from gameplay, TERA is one of hte prettiest MMOs I've seen in a while. In my experience with MMOs, I've found many (mostly western) to have a more dull, grayish color scheme to theme.  TERA is alive with color — vibrant and nice to look at.  The environment isn't all that's fun to look at.  Character models, particularly the female elves and humans, aren't hard on the eyes.

TERA has been out for less than a week and I'm level 19, so I can't talk much about end-game content except for what I hear.  I heard that there are no end-game raids, which has me a bit nervous.  All I can say is that in the now, I'm enjoying my experience. In the current form, where I am, the game is as polished as you can ask for from an MMO.  I've ran into very few bugs and have had no problems logging into servers.

To this point, TERA has been a fun play. While it borrows a lot of already seen MMO concepts, it also redefines an entire genre's combat system.  Is it enough to carry it against other heavy hitter MMOs?  We'll have to continue exploring to find out!  Check back next week for part 2 of our TERA review.

Looking to redefine the MMORPG experience En Masse Entertainment released TERA last week, an action MMO that rids itself of traditional MMORPG combat, and instead, replaces it with real-time skill-based combat.  While a lot of TERA is comprised of features already seen in many MMOs, the game takes these elements and either polishes them or provides a unique twist that makes the system fresh again.

These days, MMORPGs usually follow a simple formula: Go to NPC, get quest, perform task, return for XP and reward.  In a sense, TERA doesn't deviate from this course.  You have quest givers marked with an exclamation point, waypoints showing you where to go, a traditional HUD, etc.  These are features that simply work.  There is a reason most, if not all, MMOs have it.  So in that sense, you can't blame En Masse for not trying to reinvent the wheel.

That's not to say En Masse has created another WoW clone.  In fact, they have taken quite a different approach, especially in terms of combat.  As I mentioned, TERA features an all-new action, real-time combat system that takes player skill into account just as much as character skill.

Combat in TERA relies on your ability to actively aim, attack, and defend against enemies.  Using your cursor you must accurately aim at the enemy and click to attack.  Mix in some active abilities, chain attacks and defensive abilities, and TERA's combat is perhaps the most welcomed change — espeically in an MMO genre that has grown stale with auto attacking enemies.  There's no pressing a button and waiting.  There's no randomness in terms of you hitting or missing; if your target is over the enemy, you'll hit it.  If you aren't in front of the enemy, they won't hit you.

TERA isn't just about aiming and clicking.  Abilities can be chained into combos that dish out extra damage.  You can set up your abilities in a way so that after using one skill, you can hit 'spacebar' and perform another skill immediately after.  Not only does this add more damage, but it makes the combat in TERA more smooth and seamless.

Like most MMOs, TERA is based off of your traditional roles: tank, healer, and dps.  These roles are spread over a few classes like Warrior, Lancer, Archer, Mystic, etc.  Many of these classes are similar to what you'd find in other games, but as I said, it is the combat that separates these classes.  Between the active dodging/blocking and attacking, TERA puts a nice spin on the otherwise overdone class archetypes.