I thought I’d post some initial impressions on TERA since I know some on us were interested in it. I didn’t take any screen shots since you can find streams, videos, etc all over the internet.
[Disclaimer]
This is my opinion. I realize some people will like features that I don’t. Additionally, thus far I have played to level 10. Please realize that there might be some small errors in here. I was jotting notes as I played but the reality is I still only have 5 hours and 10 levels invested. I do plan on trying to hit the cap (Level 22) before the end of the test.
Servers came up at 4pm and there was an immediate queue. There were only two PvE servers and one of them was down so everyone was trying to cram on one server. One neat feature that they had is that if you stayed in queue longer then 10 minutes, you got a buff in game that increased your experience by +10% for every minute in the queue. I had a buff of 23 minutes so I would assume I was in the queue that long. Simple, yet eloquent, way of rewarding poor souls trapped in a long line. Why don’t more games do this?
The character creation was typical for a Korean based game (think Aion). There were 7 playable races: Amani – look like dark elves, Baraka – giant humanoid bears, Castanics – demonish humanoids (have horns), Elins – 12 year old school girls (I’m not kidding), High Elves, Humans and Popori – little animal like midgets. Customization was fairly typical. I think it was fairly normal for a Korean game although for some reason I expected more. I chose a Popori so some of these might be slightly different for other races. You can chose from 20 presets or chose one of 12 options each from: Faces, Tails, Adornments (tattoos, etc), Fine Details, Outfit and Voice. Overall the customization was fine. Nothing earth shattering or innovative but certainly better then we have seen from games like SWTOR or even Aion.
TERA Online -- Character Creator
There are 8 different classes:
Warrior – Evasion Tank / DPS
Lancer – Absorption Tank
Slayer – Burst DPS (Leather Armor)
Berserker – Burst DPS (Metal Armor)
Archer – Ranged Sustained DPS
Sorcerer – Ranged Burst DPS
Priest – Primary Healer
Mystic – Support Healer
Clearly the “holy trinity” is alive and well in TERA. For my time in the Beta I chose to be a Sorcerer.
Once in game I was greeted by a typical starting area filled with tutorial pop ups and random trolls spamming general chat about random nonsense. I’ll try to break up various gameplay features so this is easier to follow.
UI/Controls/Combat
The first few minutes in TERA are awkward. The control scheme is completely different then most people are used to. The game does not have auto attack or sticky target. In fact, the mouse is completely disabled as a method to interact with objects. The only time the mouse will become active is when you enter the Menu screens by hitting ESC. Other then that the mouse is used to control the camera angle and hot key attacks. In order to interact with objects you have to press “F”. It takes a few minutes to get used to but is not that hard to adjust to. Those of you who have played Darkfall, the control system is fairly similar.
The rest of the UI is very basic. You have hotkey skill slots on the bottom center similar to any other game. These include hotkeys for mouse button 1 & 2 and tab (No tab targeting remember!!!). There is no flash here… just very simplistic. The screen layout is also similar to your average MMO. Character information is in the top left corner including Class, Level, Health, Mana and various group options. The MiniMap (includes mob locations and resource nodes) is found in the top right corner and also has the Battleground queue, Personal Shop and various buffs. The bottom left is where the chat is found and it is very customizable. Actually one of the better chat windows I have seen. Finally there is a map HUD in the middle right that shows your location relative to the rest of the world.
This is the best image I could find of the UI/Screen layout:
The combat in this game was one of the main reasons I wanted to try it out. On paper, it was something different for a theme park game and I was hoping it would provide some engaging combat. Having just been playing hours of Kingdoms of Amalur, I thought I had a good idea of how it would play out. To reiterate, the combat system does not have an auto attack or a sticky target. Instead you are given a crosshair similar to an FPS game. When a target is in range of the crosshair, a circle will enclose it advising you that you can hit your target. Sounds great on paper right? Have visions of engaging combat where you are circle strafing your enemies? Unfortunately, this isn’t how it plays out. PvE wise, the npc AI is so bad, that they literally just run at you in a straight line. I never had to adjust my crosshairs at all.
Additionally, the game has auto-face. I don’t understand why a game who removed sticky target kept auto-facing in. Even kiting mobs is a snooze fest since you literally just run from the, rotate your camera so the crosshairs target the mob and then activate your ability. To put it in perspective I found the KoA combat to be a lot more fun then TERA. After about 5 levels of this I was completely bored of the combat. Now, having said that, clearly this will be different in PvP with players actively strafing and potentially high level mobs will as well. But PvP is apparently not available until level 40 and I can’t see how I could stay engage in the combat long enough to want to reach it. This was a huge disappointment to me.
Questing
Questing is an absolute snooze fest. I guess I should have expected this but I was hoping for some more engaging quests that actually drew me into the game. Instead I was met with “go here and collect X twigs” and “go here and kill Y bears”. Ignoring the tutorial quests, the story quests line was completely uninteresting and I found myself confused as to which quest was even for the main story line at points. They were all so basic and barely told anything resembling a story.
Another thing that infuriated me was the necessity to constantly send me back to the same areas after I completed a quest. I would go out and kill 10 Deer, come back and turn in the quest, only to be sent back out to kill the same 10 Deer or to gather something in the exact same area. Why couldn't I do them both at the same time? Why do games continue to put in this crap?
Once again this is only the starter island. Maybe everything changes once I head out into the “real world”. Personally, I find this unacceptable. If a game is trying to draw players in based on their initial experiences then this stuff doesn’t fly. I highly doubt things suddenly change at higher levels.
There are cut scenes at points. However I didn’t find these at all interesting. I felt like I was watching a Japanese movie that was dubbed in English. None of the voices seemed to match the characters that were speaking. It just seemed odd. However this kind of stuff is fluff to me so I didn’t really care too much but I thought I would share.
Visuals/Graphics/World Design
Visually, the world of TERA is absolutely breathtaking. There was one point where I stood atop a peak and looked out at the horizon and said “wow” aloud. It was gorgeous.
The character models are of a personal preference. I dislike the anime-ish theme and I could see myself becoming annoyed with it long term. Specifically with the speech of my character. When the Popori gathered a resource node he would giggle and clap when he finished. Really? I mean, really? However I concede that people do love this kind of stuff so it may be their cup of tea. The models themselves are well done and match the world around them as far as being first class.
Combat animations are ok. I expected more over-the-top visuals but they pleasantly surprised me in that they were pretty normal and not overly flamboyant.
NPC models are well done. Unfortunately these are rehashed over and over. I would kill a deer in one area, head to the next, only to fight another dear (with a different name!) that was one level higher. I think there were literally 7-8 different models in the whole opening zone.
Conlusion
I went into the beta with an open mind. I had literally read nothing about the game prior. The only advance knowledge I had was that the combat system was supposed to be “Awesome!!!” so I wanted to give it a try. Unfortunately, I was utterly bored after the first 10 levels. Between the simple combat system, the non-engaging storyline, repetitive quests and npcs I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’ve done all this before and could not see a reason why I should keep playing the game. In fact, it made me want to play Kingdoms of Amalur more. An
MMO making me want to play a RPG? What is going on here?
Now as I said, I play on playing until level 22. If anything changes I will be the first person to say I was wrong. My initial impressions, however, are not very good.
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