Of interest
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I played a bunch of Tera this weekend during their beta test. I was able to get an archer up to level 12 and I had a great time. I wanted to share some of my thoughts about the beta with you guys. I should mention that I did not try any of the PvP and I’ve heard that’s something Tera does very well. My take on the beta is based on a purely PVE experience. I’ll start with the stuff I liked.
First of all Tera is the best looking MMO I have ever seen. It’s just fucking gorgeous. The crazy thing is that not only does the game look amazing, but it also runs great. I can’t believe how fast this game loads and how smooth it runs considering the visuals.
I have to say the best part of Tera though is the combat. This is an MMO but it plays more like an action game. There is no hotbar clicking here. You assign skills to your mouse buttons and the number keys but the real fun comes in building triggered skills. Essentially you create long chains of skills that you can trigger with a press of the space bar at the right moment. For example my archer started fights with a basic arrow shot, then I tap space bar and she moves into a melee attack with the bow, tap it again and she fires an explosive arrow at the ground that throws her back and gives her some distance, then another tap triggers her charged shot and so on. These combos are totally customizable. You just select a skill and then select what other skill it should trigger.
Since dodging and blocking are so integral to combat in Tera you can fight monsters that are much tougher than you are. If you play smart and dodge their attacks you can take on monsters way above your level. This game isn’t about standing in one spot and taking your licks until the monster is dead. This is an action game and how well you play has a lot to do with the outcome of a fight.
With all that said, I did have one major problem with the game. The quests in Tera are horrible even by MMO standards. From 1 to 12 I saw nothing but kill, gather and fetch quests. I know it’s a joke by this point but I was passing notes between NPC’s who were literally standing ten feet from each other. After a couple levels I wasn’t even reading the quests. Just click accept then check the map to see where I had to go. Maybe I’ve been spoiled by SW:TOR and its fully voiced and interesting quest chains. Tera suffers from the worst sort of old school MMO grind bullshit. As bad as the quests were I kept doing them because I wanted to keep fighting. But there is something wrong with an MMO when you would rather grind than do their quests.
In the end I’m actually excited to play more. I think between the combat and the art I could probably play Tera long enough to max out a character. Would I stick around much after that? Probably not.
-Gabe out
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*EDIT* Follow up
"NEWSFLASH, I made some people angry. I know it’s hard to believe. It seems a lot of people are upset about my post regarding the TERA beta. I’m a little surprised considering I talked for three paragraphs about how amazing the game is and then gave one paragraph about how I didn’t like the quests. If your take away from that was that I shit all over the game I think you’re probably just spoiling for a fight.
I tried to make it clear that I had only played from level 1 to 12 and so that was all I was really basing my impressions on. Some people have told me that’s not fair and explained that the game “doesn’t really get good until level 20”. That may be and I’m certainly hoping to see that stuff during the next beta but I think it’s fair to talk about a person’s initial impressions. That 1-12 game is your introduction to the game and the world. A lot of people will make up their mind about a game during that period. If you have some awesome stuff it might not be a bad idea to front load a little bit of it.
The reality is that I loved TERA and I was disappointed when the beta weekend was over. I’ve got my calendar marked and I’m ready to jump back in for the next one. You can like something, and still talk about what you think are its flaws. Honestly if I hadn’t liked the game I wouldn’t have given a shit about the quests being boring and I never would have talked about it on the site. But I loved it and so I did care and I did want to share my thoughts.
So there you go. I hope that clears things up.
-Gabe out"
http://penny-arcade.com/
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TERA Online (Read 1004 times)
