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My TERA CB5 Review
A couple of dislclaimers before I get started: I'm an unabashed themepark fan who currently plays TOR. Although I have some issues with that game, I still enjoy playing it. I also came into this CB5 weekend with basically zero interest in TERA. I've never been a fan of Asian-style game due to the art style, silly over-sized weapons, ridiculous-looking armor (or lack thereof), and the excessive grindiness. Now that I've gotten all of the asian-grindfest stereotypes out of my system, here is my admittedly very limited view based on 24 levels as a Priest and a pre-conceived dislike of the game to begin with:
Character Customization: 7/10. Fairly deep customization, facial templates and then numerous sliders to further customize eyes, nose, mouth, chin, cheeks, even eyebrows. Another postive is that all races can play any of the 8 classes. Two negatives were that all body types/sizes were the same for each race, and that 3 of the 7 races were gender locked (Popori, Elin, and Baraka, I believe). Other than that, very solid options.
Graphics/Sound: 8/10. The game really shines in the graphics/sound area. The graphics are very crisp, colors bright, and great music/ambient sounds while out in the world. The art design, although a bit on the cartoony side, fit the style of the game, and didn't come across as too "WOWish." There were some cutscenes and voiceover lines when speaking with questgivers, but I found these to be more intrusive than anything else. They really seemed to break up the flow of the game more than enhance it. However, in terms of graphics, this game is pretty damn impressive, particularly in regards to world design (below).
Gameplay: 7/10. This game plays like your basic themepark, quest-driven MMO, with two exceptions: One negative and one positive. The negative is that the questing in this game, is, well...mind-numbingly dull. Like, take all those boring "KIll X of Y" quests that you hate about WoW, and extrapolate those to 90% of the quests in TERA. There are the occasional escort quests or "find objective" quests, but for the most part, the developers of this game seem to want to show off their combat system, so naturally, they overload you with the killing quests. Unfortunately, you find yourself in too many situations where you kill a certain amount of mobs, turn the quest in, move on to the next zone, and kill the same type of mob, either renamed or slightly re-skinned. I was very disappointed in this aspect of it, but I'm hoping that improves as you get into more difficult content.
So why did I give the gameplay a 7/10 when the quests suck in this game? That's because there are other ways to enjoy this game beyond the usual quest grind. At around level 16 or so, I just said "Screw it" and decided to forego most of the side quests, and simply concentrate on the main story quests, while exploring around and grinding interesting-looking mobs. Then once I was in my 20's I was able to do some dungeons and grind out BAMs. I was only able to do one dungeon in this game during the weekend, but it was a big improvement over dungeons in other games. A lot of fun, extremely challenging, and based much more on twitch mechanics and reaction time than just a simple dps race or tank-and-spank until the boss is dead. And the BAMs? Great fun. Everything they are cracked up to be, and worth a lot of xp. The only issue is whether soloing them is efficient due to how long it takes to burn them down. So overall, this is the first game I've played in a while where the grinding of mobs seems to hold more enjoyment than just questing your way to the level cap. At least in the first half of the game.
World Design/Enviroment: 9.5/10. Quite frankly, this is the most impressive world that I've seen since LOTRO. And although this game gets (well-deserved) publicity due to its combat system, the world is where this game truly shines. I had more than a few jaw-dropping moments this weekend where I came into a new area and just panned my camera around to take it all in. I don't get to do this nearly enough in MMOs these days. The world is MASSIVE. From what I counted, there were 19 or so zones (with some zones unnamed that possibly will be there for the last 20 or so levels of the game?), and each of the zones were split up into these sub-zones (5-6 of these smaller sub-zones). Not only is it massive, it's wide open, seamless, and explorable.
Once you leave the starter area, you can go off exploring, and very few places are off limits to you. The only issue you'd run into is the obvious level of the mobs as you explore. On more than a few occasions, I would pinpoint a mountain in the distance that I wanted to check out, just to see if I could, and I'd make my way over to it. To my surprise, most of these mountains had ways for me to access them and get up to the top. In many games these mountains serve as zone boundries, but in TERA, many of them are explorable parts of the zones, which I absolutely love.
Not only is the world massive, open, and seamless, but it's also ALIVE. It's got a great energy to it. From the music playing when you enter a town, to npcs that roam around, to the mobs out in the plains that not only roam in a patrol, but will actually break into sprints or attack town guards from time to time. The mobs don't just stand there waiting for someone to come up and attack them. They MOVE. I can't stress enough how alive and immersive this world feels. They really did a wonderful job with it. And this is the exact reason why I could forget about doing many of the quests and just go out exploring and killing my way through the levels, rather than taking the guided, hand-held themepark tour that we call "questing."
Combat: 9/10. It's pretty much as good as it's been advertised to be. The combat is responsive and quick-paced once you get a full assortment of abilities. I was skeptical of the rooting effect while attacking or casting, but found that it really didn't bother me too much, and being as how nearly all the skills are insta-cast, it made sense for the sake of balance. The combat animations are impressive, the mob AI's and attacks are really fun, and they really did find a way to prevent me from staring at my action bar for cooldowns. This is the first MMO I've played where I found myself studying the movements of the mob more than my action bar, trying to time their attacks based on their "tells." Skill cooldowns are not a hinderance in this game. They either don't exist, or they are so short that it doesn't matter. Casting times are rare for combat abilities. What all this means is that instead of checking your action bar during combat, you are actually looking at the action unfolding in front of you and reacting to it.
My one complaint, and it's a very minor one, is that it can get a bit tedious at times while you are grinding regular quest mobs, because you don't one or two-shot mobs in this game. You have to wear them down bit by bit, using aim, reaction time, the right attacks, and in the case of my priest, a shit load of kiting.
Speaking of my priest, I was interested to play a healer because I was wondering how they'd handle the "aim and fire" combat with a healer. Surely they weren't going to make healers aim for their targets, were they? That has to be a nightmare. Well, they do make you aim, and believe it or not, it's fun as hell. And not nearly as difficult as I thought it would be.
From the small amount I played (24 levels), I had one "single target" heal that actually healed two targets of your choice within 18 meters of you (3 glyped). What you did was click the heal, and then "paint" the first target by hovering your aiming reticule over the first ally. This then auto-locks the target for you. Then you hover the reticule over the second ally you'd like to heal, and it locks them as well. Now you either click the spell button one more time, or just click your mouse button, and both targets are healed for a big amount. I was also given a couple of nice AoE HoTs to use as well. So, in this game, like the rest of combat, healing isn't just a matter of standing in one spot and watching for low health bars. It's also about movement, positioning, and reaction time. And it's very fun.
Crafting/PvP: Didn't partake in too much of either, so I won't give a score. I'll say that the PvP combat felt very good, and was very reactive and twitch-based. I have heard from some players that the open world PvP still leaves a bit to be desired, and that battlegrounds are non-existent. This game screams PvP, so I hope they make whatever changes they need to to make it successful.
Crafting doesn't look very impressive. I didn't score it because I only crafted a few things, but from what I've heard, most of the crafting while levelling revolves around making useless tier items that you combine with dropped tier items of the same kind for enchanting. I hope they expand and improve upon this. I do like the fact that you can do any or all of the crafting and gathering professions that you want, however.
Polish: 7.5/10. Pretty polished game. Noticed a few bugs and glitches, like occasionally on my horse, his feet didn't appear to be firmly on the ground, as it looked like he was hovering a few feet off the surface when running. Also had an issue where the game would temporarily freeze up on me for a few seconds while standing still. Never happened during combat, though. Another thing I'd like to see is them to improve upon the crispness of the graphics and textures of distant objects. Whereas most games, when you see mountains and scenery in the background, it seems a bit faded to represent it's distance from you, in TERA instead of just faded, it seems a bit blurry as well.
Fun Factor: 8/10. Like I said, even grinding in this game is fun, despite the quests being dull. I think a lot of developers tend to forget about how important world design and environments can be in making an MMO fun for players (I'm looking at you, BioWare), and how it can frequently overcome other shortcomings of the game. Maybe I place more of an emphasis on the way a world LOOKS than others do, but for me personally, I had a blast just exploring this massive world. On more than a few occasions I found myself uttering, "Wow, look at that!"
Replaybility/Longevity: 7/10. I took points off here due to the drab questing, and I fear that many impatient MMO players will not give this game the chance it deserves because they'll come in with the themepark mentality that they've got to grind through all the quests. This will bore many of them and I'm worried that some won't even make it past the starter area. Which is shame, because this game really is a fun game with a great design. I do think that they are going to need to add more "themepark" content (dungeons, raids, battlegrounds), but I'd also like to see them add some other open world, non-instanced features like GM events, improvements in open world PvP, maybe some sieges and things down the road. This game has a ton of potential, and they've nailed the "basics" so far. Now they just need to add to it.
tl;dr Overall, I give it a solid 8 out of 10, but that is strictly based on what I experienced first hand this weekend, which isn't even half the content of the game. It's an incredibly fun game, and one of those world environments that I'm actually going to MISS. That speaks volumes about how much fun I had. It was a very pleasant surprise, and a much better game then I expected. Is it worth paying a subscription for? Yes, I really do think it is. But they'll need to continue to add content on a regular basis to ensure they keep those subscriptions.
Thanks for reading, and feel free to correct me on any misinformation in my post, as I've not been following this game very long.
Comments
this game is marred by the trappings of WoW, no matter how it's dressed up. homing skills that literally zig zag with the target character, stand in place to fight, tank n' spank grouping structure so casters/ranged are still just planted in one spot for the most part. boring design overall outside of the not new, not great "action" combat.
[mod edit]
Thanks for the review. Am I going to address any other comments? No. It's been covered plenty.
Just not worth my time anymore.
Jesus, I guess so. The haters will flock to a positive review like a shark on an open wound. Anyway, that was my review of 24 levels of gameplay, which I definitely enjoyed. Excuse me for having fun, I guess.
[mod edit]
The "fast paced combat" is subjective. Compared to some games its' slower, compared to others it's fast. I found some BAM fights to be very action packed as well as some pvp fights but they lasted longer than battles in other games. This is a good thing to my thinking.
allowing you not to move with abilties is also a good thing.
I would agree with removing lock on skills.
Other than that I would say his review is pretty spot on if one can do EXACTLY what he did and divorse themselves from the questing or do the quests as a means to an end.
The world is huge and the monster hunter type battles can be a lot fo fun.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
I hope you're not a GW2 fanboy, otherwise your comment is pretty lol. Watch out on that aim-based tab targeting.
Pretty much give up pointing out who wrong people can be anymore, i mean i still click quote but when i start to post its come to the point why bother? They aren't going to view this game any different no matter how much logic i put in to it ( Note I'll still reply to well thought out arguements just lot of them aren't as we can see from the 2 post here)
To OP its refreshing to have review on people who enjoy the game for what it is. And your missing out a lot if you haven't pvp, trust me in pvp (as in max lvl or pvp with some one same lvl because the lvl scaling is horrible and hope get fixed) its a completely different game. At least for me a lancer, everything you do in PvE you don't do in pvp. Ironicly if you play defensively as a lancer your pretty much screwed, watch the 2 lancer in my guild pvp makes everyone look so bad XD But ya game really shinys in PvP, PvE at least in my prospective is much better and more challenging than any mmorpgs i played (challenging as it takes skill not artifical challenging where its your gear isn't good enough) even the lower lvl dungeons feel really well designed. But PvP make current PvE looks like a joke lol (for me) however i do know from guildie that hard mode dungeons are much more diffcult so looking forward to that.
Glad you enjoy the game, might see you around ^_^
Lock-on skills,
I have played all five betas as a mystic (some other classes as alts). My mystic is level 38, farmed all the dungeons, PVP a lot, from 1v1s to huge battles.
Lock-on in this game certainly feels odd theoretically since things are aim based, but it is definitely needed for healing and for the most part the classes that recieve the lock-on skills.
For sorcerer's they do not have many lock-on abilities, but it is simply a skill that allows them to kyte and deal some damage. This does NOT make them overpowered for they are squishy and rely on long cast times plus luck (crits). As a mystic I can take literally no damage from a sorcerer, except for the lock-on skill and it is not too powerful, I can neglect the damage until I've been hit by it three times or so. It also helps them to have a shot at killing a melee class because it allows the sorcerer to damage the melee creating a sense of possible kill unless they are caught, which usually means death.
Archer recieves a lock on multi target spell that does VERY little damage. I would suppose its general purpose is to gather large groups of mobs, kill small mobs, or in PVP hit a target to remove their movement speed (if you go without being attacked or attacking for a short while you return to out-of-combat speed).
Mystics have by the most lock on skills. As stated earlier when a mystic uses an offensive lock-on they are put into combat movement speed and will become more easily attacked by an opponent (makes using lock-ons in PVP riskier). They mystics also do not have a group heal so their lock-on heal is their only way to heal mates, and that sometimes include healing multiple mates (paint one guy, next guy, next guy, use heal). The mystics have a lock-on poison (dot), sleep, root, and fear, all of which (can) target multiple opponents. Sounds crazy, but the mystics are a mobile healer class that is constantly running all over the place (always got a slayer/warrior breathing down my neck) and has to stop healing in order to use these skills.
Priests are similar to mystics for heal and sleep, do not have the rest for the most part.
Now lock-ons do NOT mean a definitive hit. If someone targets you with a lock-on, you can run out of range and not be hit by the skill. If you pay attention the person who casts a lock-on on you, you can time an evasion skill that will cause you to be not hit by the lock-on skill. As a mystic I try and sleep my opponents healer, but it is generally a given that as soon as I throw a lock-on them, they are teleporting/escaping/backstepping away immediately. The only lock-on ability that seems to hit the vast majority of the time our heals, cleanse (not sure of actual name) is high success rate as well. Also range is quite short in this game so it is not hard to be out of range of them in a moment's notice (21-24 range max, I think).
Hopefully this clears some things up.
Popori Mystic, lvl 38, Jagged Coast, You all fat.
Glad to see you starting to wane yourself off of the SWTOR teat, whether you realize it or not.
@ OP. Almost spot on to my opinions. The questing is basic generic questing. The storyline questins is good, not bad, but not great. It's a amazingly polished MMO. The engine/game seems to fun great on a huge variety of machines even with the amazing environments and details. En masse seem to take charge when it comes to westernizing some of the mechanics(drops, enchanting RNG etc). Plus it seems the developer is taking a proactive stance to fixing things consumers think is right. I mean how many developers would have the guts just remove BGs to revamp them because the player base pretty much hated them.
Also so farm in my experience this game as some of the coolest NPC models I have seen. There is vampirish style area in one zone that has these awesome looking vampires, they have suits on, with a top hat and a pimp cane. They have these jesters, that are super tall and skinny, complete with shoes with bells, the funny hate and stripped outfit and their attack animations are funny as hell. The minions with the jester NPCs were these little girls that looked like little red riding hood(but their outifts were purple), they were holding a picnic basket in one hand and a cleaver in the other. When you killed the minions they would slump to a sitting position and their heads would pop off and roll down their bodies to sit upright in front of their feet, was just Lol.
In another area I ran into these mobs that had a skinny/raggad looking fellow with a big fat slob type guy sitting on his shoulders and the fat guy would fight. When you killed them the fat guy would fall and squish the skinny guy.
This was all just in the first half of the game.
I'd say the only other thing I am concerned about is how they treat pvp. Atm its pure "just kill for the hell of it". I will be interested in the revamped BGs and how that leads directly to the politcal system(the two tie into eachother). Also will be curious if they expand guild war fights to effect/interact with a guild if they have a vanarch and in charge of area.
Though on this website, its considered almost blashpemy to say anything good about a game that isnt GW2.
damn dude did the Tera devs sleep with you girlfriend or something, that was pretty harsh. we all have different standards, I didn't like the beta 4 test I had. but I am up for hearing other peoples opinions.
Great write up, OP!
I will definitely give this game a try.
Yeah, it's sad to see. I like to read arguments if they are reasonable, but I don't see any call for the personal insults. That's just sad. Just report and move on, I guess.
I appreciate the effort you put into your writing, OP, and I will try this game for myself.
Nah, I wouldn't necessarily say that, as I still enjoy that game for what it is. I will say that TERA's strengths as a game definitely illuminate TOR's weaknesses as a game. The major example of that being the open feeling of the environment, and how much more alive it is in TOR's. However, I also find a lot of things in TOR I wish were a little bit more well done in TERA. Still, I like to go into these betas with an open mind and divorce myself from games I've already played in order to look at it with a fresh outlook. And, I'm glad I did in TERA's case. I think En Masse did a really nice job with this game, even though I do have some concerns.
Ya I agree from the little I did play cause I want it to be new when I play it .
Glad to see the BAMS and dungeons are fun.
I think sadly a lot of people will not try this or quit due to the amazingly bad job on the questing, it is the weakest part of this game by far
But I am looking forward to a game that finally challenges people, I am hoping that even tho 1.7 million people wont buy this game , that the community that does play wil be closer and play longer then the free month due to the challenges it offers.
Well, it's probably going to be more of a niche title, as I'm not seeing a great deal of hype for it, aside from people discussing the combat. Seems that it is hurt by the asian grindfest stereotypes, and honestly the questing doesn't really help in terms of dispelling those stereotypes.
But, niche isn't necessarily bad. In fact, it can make the community stronger because only the people that truly love the game will be playing, and since they won't feel the need to open up 8000 servers at launch to accomodate all the hype that the game has produced, the servers that they have should have a healthy community.
And you're right, there are still a lot of gamers that enjoy challenging content. I wasn't one of them until I tried out TERA. Now, I kinda do want that.
The worst thing that happened to this game was Aion. Aion really screwed over western audiences acceptance of eastern developed MMOs. They took so long in making the neccessary changes that would make it more acceptable to western audiences that people just left in droves. Things like huge quest gaps where you are forced to grind mobs, horriable RNG and penalties on certain mechanics, drop rates etc.
some people really make me wanna puke! literally.
so far this is the best Review of Tera, and it has been many.
The unfortunate truth is that to enjoy this you must bear with it until level 20. At that point a new world opens up to you.
I fully planned to play GW2 but at this point I will not have the time because I do not want to waste gaming time on something that is so subpar to me. Hell I already decided my GW2 class, weapon combos, in a guild.
Guess I do not need it anymore.
It feels like I am playing MMOs for the first time again.
i know exactly what you mean. i also intended to buy GW2, but lately the more i read and found out about it, the less i like it.
i will stay with Tera, my review would ve been exactly the same, or very similar with the author of this thread.
im gonna wait 2 or 3 month after GW2 is released , before buying it
I have a budget that allows me to play two MMOs. I'm currently playing TOR ( I know, sue me), and I was going to do either GW2 or TSW as my second. The gameplay videos I've seen of TSW have been disappointing, and I'm not a huge fan of this non-progression, carebear, everyone-is the-same BS that GW2 is doing. Originally, I was considering that as my second option due to it being a nice-looking game and B2P. But I'm beginning to think about just paying the extra sub rate per month and going with TERA as my second game. I was that impressed with what I experienced this weekend.
To the poster above that said that Aion was the worst thing that happend to TERA, I think that is a good point. I also believe that the KTERA launch didn't help either. I know it had some issues due to lack of content, and got a bad rap out of the gate. It's a shame, but I still think many people are equating the two games. I know I was.
The reason why big websites do not review betas is because they are incomplete projects. It's like if you were given one chapter of a book an author is working on and asked to give your opinion. You wouldn't tell the world the book sucked based on this one chapter, youd' tell the author what you hate about it.
Website: http://www.thegameguru.me / YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/users/thetroublmaker
Imo, im not sure if anyone else noticed, but the en masse company during the beta weekends made adjustments based on the complaints. and i think the developer's are quite malleable which can tend to be a good thing rather than having a game who ignores its community or editing based on their own ideals they actually listened to the player's....the negative point to this is everyone is diferrent...like WoW if people find it tough the game will get easier and easier if the dev's caiter to everyone.
Ny friends quit SWTOR and other MMOs in the past because it was way too easy
We do like fun dungeons and the like, I really do think this game will keep us interested for sometime to come, even tho improvments are needed.
I do hope this game does dungeons and combat right, and that it gets high reviews because of it, because I would like to see other games take this route.
I am getting very bored with the WoW type combat whcih require very little timing, thinking , esp for healers and DPS all you do is go through your rotation and repeat it for maximum DPS.
Same as healers not much exciment in most mmos, no skill needed , just cycle as well.
I understand MMOs are not meant to be all out FPS style combat, but I do think they need more then simple tab, 1,2,1,2,1,2,3 meachanism involved.
True lol aion is brought up a lot whenever people talk about korean games. Although from what i see Tera is pretty much aiming to break that. So far EME already take out one of the worst RNG in enchanting in Tera, added on that we have lvl 60 and nexus which is queen of argon part 1 patch at lauch and koreans only got it last month which means we are really close to Koreans verison. Won't be surpised if we end up on equal footing with KTera which is what they are trying to aim for. Ofc might be 1-2month delay for westerization which isn't that bad compare to half a year or more behind. And the fact they westerizning it instead of stright porting over is a big plux.
review by an unabashed themepark fan who enjoys playing swtor
ill pass