My experience in the TERA Open Beta

xposeidon

WARNING: Wall of text ahead.

I know what you're thinking, not another "fanboy", "hater" thread but hey, I see many  threads out there already so I figured I'd go in depth and give you my honest opinion of the game. Please forgive my grammar, I'm at work so and don't have MSWord here.

I had tried TERA CBT5 before but didn't get past level 10, I didn't have enough time. Either way I decided to give it another shot this weekend since they added a lvl 20 tutorial, and also trying another class is never a bad thing.

Character customization is do-able, not too detailed but good enough to differientiate characters. I couldn't figure out on this beta how to manage my characters size (I thought this was there) it did not matter since I was satisfied when I saw my character, I chose a High Elf, Male Sorcerer.

First off, the Tutorial was a nice addition but not perfect. It felt a little incomplete with a lot to desire. For new gamers it could be a little chaotic with so many skills, not knowing how to remap and getting used to the aim system and UI interface. I had played however so this wasn't a problem. Though with my new class I was a little loss with my skills and didn't want to go through the trouble of reading what they did since I would learn anyways leveling up. I actually died once on the tutorial against the boss but an NPC got me right back up, so that's good. It shows the game isn't an easy ride.

Back to the newbie zone, I knew what to expect here as I've heard it before and played it before. I went ahead and did my quest grind, skipping as many optional quests as possible and only doing the ones that yielding the most experience. I stopped every 2-3 levels to take a rest. Also many of the quests were fighting for mobs, try to kill a boss first, at points I kept wishing the system was like GW2 and the content would scale and reward everyone, but I'm used to this old quest sytem so I worked with it.  I have to admit the first impression is very disengaging and to a lot this is a deal-breaker.

So what kept me playing? Well for one the promise that at level 20 the game gets really fun, second the combat is very engaging, playing a sorcerer was very different from playing a slayer. As a slayer I focused on being closer and knocking down my enemies where as in sorcerer there was more kiting, of course to be expected. With more skills it gets even more immersing, and third the graphics are the best I've seen in an MMO, getting new gear/getting to a new zone was always something to look forward to.

Finally at level 11 I left the newbie zone, not to come back again the rest of my playtime. I continued the main quest, got my mount, my pvp scroll, and left to the new area Lumbertown.

First thing that happened when I got my quest, on my way across the bridge I was ganked by a level 24 Slayer (I was in a PvP server) This guy was just ganking so many new players it was ridiculous. Of course this was sort of expected in OWPvP, the community was split half and half mostly, a lot of helpful players and the other more hostile, any sort of complain or question someone had they told them to either go to PvE or quit playing. Again this was just half of the people.

My level 11-20 experience wasn't very exciting, I was more on a race with time to experience the higher level, however it was easier to find high-yielding exp quests so it was okay. I mostly skipped over reading quest text, watching cinematics, the storyline wasn't just appealing to me and many will agree, the game is more about the combat/graphics.

Once I reached level 20 I stopped the quests, and in many other games I would've probably quit. However I still was searching for that higher fun level content. So I figured I'd give PvP a try. I went to a 18-22 level area and became an outlaw plenty of times and attacked people. I'm all about the PvP in a game so I wasn't leaving without trying it out. Of course I wasn't going to gank like many, that's not me and takes no skill. I looked for even and fair fights.

I must say the game started getting more appealing here. I had plenty of close and fun battles, dodging and kiting my enemies, Rearraning my skills and using what worked better. As a sorcerer I had 2 dodges at level 20 and worked around that, sadly all my dodges were backwards only so enemies that know my class knew what to expect. Also my internet isn't top notch and this was greatly affecting many of my battles when the keys took a while to respond. Either way it was entertaining, when the battles were even. At one point I did manage to 2vs1 but plenty of times I got overrun by the majority of players, being an outlaw makes you a wanted target and everyone will pretty much be after you. Didn't help tha I was so squishy  so having a warrior/lancer close was asking for death.

After that I went ahead and continued to the first dungeon, BOL forgot what it stands for. The mobs were pretty standard and easy to kill here, the bosses were a little stronger, specially since the tank couldn't manage aggro. At one point I had to tank and being so squishy whenever the boss could get to me the damage was huge, I had to manage my dodges really well to survive and this was pretty cool. No longer standing in one place dps'ing, tanking, or healing. There was a lot of moving around. Also the healing class seems sort of complicated and different, something to look out for.

The dungeon was 5-man and very rewarding, in the end I was left with a good impression and wished that TERA just got rid of the whole first 20 levels because yes, it did get better for me. After all that's said I'm still not sure if I should get the game, How long will the PvP fun and dungeons last I'm not sure. Maybe I'd be able to cope with the whole quest system. Either way I'm holding off for next weekend before I commit and try out GW2 beforehand just to be able to compare and decide wether to buy 1 or both.

Hope you enjoyed reading, cheers

Edit: Please do not in anyway think this is a review of the game, as the title says "My personal experience", Im not generalizing the game for everyone or saying it will get better for everyone, we all have our personal opinions and if at some point it seemed like I spoke for everyone then I'm sorry I couldn't make it clearer. Again I'm not embracing or hating the game, just my honest experience of my gametime in TERA.

Leucent

I m glad you somewhat enjoyed it, but please everyone reviewing this game don t say it gets better after 20, because for alot of people it doesn t including myself and many people I know. Just say it got better for you. It s misleading to say, without a doubt it gets better.

Sephastus

Originally posted by Leucent

I m glad you somewhat enjoyed it, but please everyone reviewing this game don t say it gets better after 20, because for alot of people it doesn t including myself and many people I know. Just say it got better for you. It s misleading to say, without a doubt it gets better.

Did you do dungeons or BAMs after you hit 20?

Valkaern

Originally posted by Leucent

I m glad you somewhat enjoyed it, but please everyone reviewing this game don t say it gets better after 20, because for alot of people it doesn t including myself and many people I know. Just say it got better for you. It s misleading to say, without a doubt it gets better.

Same here.

I was kind of looking forward to this game, thinking at the very least it would be different and another potential candidate to pass the time for a month or two. It wasn't.

I assumed I was doing something wrong at first, like accidentally ticked 'endless tutorial' or something at character creation, as my entire experience was plotted out for me with no room for deviation. It was the epitome of bland linear task grinding, which I was amazed to see in 2012. It felt like they'd streamlined WoWs questing system to be even more simplistic. Why? The developers idea of adventure is apparently jogging back and forth a lot. How could a game this shallow have taken so long to create? And the loot, how boring is it seeing the same 1-2 items over and over again?

We had very low expectations going in, but I was expecting the combat to live up to it's reputation at least. Surely that would be what made this game worth playing. Instead I found a game that played exactly like a typical tab target game, although instead of tab, I used mouse to select my target by pointing it, and moving out of effects had an animation of dodging rather than relying on normal character animations as I'd move out of the way. Yeay? Here's a game selling itself on it's combat, yet it felt like it was trying to force a square peg into a round hole. It just felt clunky through and through.

Despite not being a large fan of either game, I have to admit DCUO & DarkFall (actually even DDO) allseem to have been more successful in the action combat department. Those at least felt like their own systems rather than some pseudo action system with an identity crisis. It almost felt like the game would have just played better if they didn't try to force it into an 'action' combat system...which apparently means facing your target rather than facing it and selecting it...really? What exactly is the benefit of disguising targetting like this? Does it fool people? It felt exactly the same to me but with the added awkwardness of going out of its way to avoid hard targetting. 

I won't go into the community as that's bound to vary from server to server, and I'm sure there are some good people playing this, and I know I saw one person regularly answering questions and being helpful, but the rest of the messages scrolling past seemed unusually mean spirited and anti-social. 

I did, however, enjoy seeing that WoW had been replaced in the inevitable general chat beta 'discussions' by GW2. It's been WoW for so many years this was a nice change of pace.

All in all, I couldn't find anything that this game was bringing to the table that hadn't already been done better elsewhere, and  we unfortunately (we were hoping this would hold us over for a few months at least) cancelled our orders. 

We clearly had a horrible experience with Tera, though I'm sure some people have had much better experiences with it and are possibly even enjoying the hell out of it. So before you start foaming at the mouth in defense of the game, just remember me not enjoying it doesn't in any way detract from you enjoying it. We're allowed to have different experienes and opinions.

Deron_Barak

Thanks for the review! The "after 20" comments are because if additional activities not available until about that level as well as the "opening" of the zones.

If you don't like or care what those things bring that's fine but fit most it's a big plus.

kanezfan

I didn't get past level 3 or 4. Why should the onus be on us to get to level 20 to start seeing something other than kill 10 rats? Why are you people OK with this? If you want me to buy your product, you better damn well make sure I like it right away. Why should I have to do any work to PLAY A GAME?

Te each his own, this game isn't for me, same old crap we've been playing forever and I predict F2P within 6 months and 100k people playing it. If you like it, then I sincerely hope it does well so you can have fun with it for a long time.

Leucent

Originally posted by Sephastus

Originally posted by Leucent

I m glad you somewhat enjoyed it, but please everyone reviewing this game don t say it gets better after 20, because for alot of people it doesn t including myself and many people I know. Just say it got better for you. It s misleading to say, without a doubt it gets better.

Did you do dungeons or BAMs after you hit 20?

Yes I did, as well as my wife and 9 of my guildies from other games. We all came to the same conclusion, it really doesn t get any better, all those things we ve seen a million times before, and it s no different in this game.

elocke

Originally posted by Leucent

I m glad you somewhat enjoyed it, but please everyone reviewing this game don t say it gets better after 20, because for alot of people it doesn t including myself and many people I know. Just say it got better for you. It s misleading to say, without a doubt it gets better.

^^This.  And yes, I did BAMs and dungeons after 20.  Got to 22.  Just didn't find anything else to keep me in the game to be honest.  Like it lost all appeal suddenly and became tedious.  For me.

Sovrath

Originally posted by Leucent

I m glad you somewhat enjoyed it, but please everyone reviewing this game don t say it gets better after 20, because for alot of people it doesn t including myself and many people I know. Just say it got better for you. It s misleading to say, without a doubt it gets better.

That's silly.

What they should say is that it "gets better and here's why".

then just let people decide for themselves.

The game does open up after 20. so this is a change. Whether it's better or worse is up to the player.

Saying "it gets better for me" still doesn't help anyone.

elocke

Originally posted by Deron_Barak

Thanks for the review! The "after 20" comments are because if additional activities not available until about that level as well as the "opening" of the zones.



If you don't like or care what those things bring that's fine but fit most it's a big plus.

However, a game should grab you on the first 20 levels, not after.  Aion had this same issue.  Everyone kept saying wait till 25+ and it gets better.  Why should I waste my time playing if it doesn't get better till later?  Seriously, you could literally auto ding a new character to 25 in both of these games and the learning curve wouldn't change nor the gameplay.  Bad design, if you ask me.

rexzshadow

Originally posted by kanezfan

I didn't get past level 3 or 4. Why should the onus be on us to get to level 20 to start seeing something other than kill 10 rats? Why are you people OK with this? If you want me to buy your product, you better damn well make sure I like it right away. Why should I have to do any work to PLAY A GAME?

Te each his own, this game isn't for me, same old crap we've been playing forever and I predict F2P within 6 months and 100k people playing it. If you like it, then I sincerely hope it does well so you can have fun with it for a long time.

Coz working toward an reward later one is how many things in life works and some of us don't mine working toward some fun in a mmorpg. Is it that hard to understand?

and omg other genie in here, i guess all the market anyisist can all quit their job with all the people on the forum been able to tell the future.

@OP glad you have fun, and great job on the pvp lol. Just to tell you though Sorc are completely broken in PvP, in a fair fight no one should be lossing to a sorc at this lvl. They don't pick up till lvl 48 when they get all your useful skills. However again skill off sets a lot of stuff =P i know i got kited to death by the most experience sorc in my guild lol. first time i fought him couldn't even hit him once o.-

Leucent

Originally posted by Sovrath

Originally posted by Leucent

I m glad you somewhat enjoyed it, but please everyone reviewing this game don t say it gets better after 20, because for alot of people it doesn t including myself and many people I know. Just say it got better for you. It s misleading to say, without a doubt it gets better.

That's silly.

What they should say is that it "gets better and here's why".

then just let people decide for themselves.

The game does open up after 20. so this is a change. Whether it's better or worse is up to the player.

Saying "it gets better for me" still doesn't help anyone.

It s not silly, all I hear is the game gets better after 20, well it doesn t for many people. I got to the magical 20, did some dungeons with guildies, did some BAMs, did this so called amazing OWPvP, did what apparently everyone is raving about. In vent we all said, this isn t anything different from 99% of the games we ve played in the last 4-5 years. Hence why I said say it got better for you, not it definately is a better game. To many it s a been there done that moment.

Sarand

@OP.

 

Nice personal review. Just so you know though, the game STARTS to get interesting at 20. id say more like 21/22. You stopped just before you got into the BAM quests. Killing those guys solo (game registers it as a 5man quest) is the most rewarding thing i have done in tera so far. Dont get sat on by a Kumas!

Sovrath

Originally posted by Leucent

 

It s not silly, all I hear is the game gets better after 20, well it doesn t for many people. I got to the magical 20, did some dungeons with guildies, did some BAMs, did this so called amazing OWPvP, did what apparently everyone is raving about. In vent we all said, this isn t anything different from 99% of the games we ve played in the last 4-5 years. Hence why I said say it got better for you, not it definately is a better game. To many it s a been there done that moment.

My point is that saying "it gets better for me" still doesn't do anything or explain anything for anyone to make an informed decision.

I've seen many people say "it gets better at 20". Leaving it at that doesn't help. tacking on the "for me" doesn't help.

Going into detail about how it gets better will allow people to make a better ifnormed decision.

Deron_Barak

@Elocke

Agreed on the first point, there should be BAMs and a dungeon after you leave the island. I'm simply saying how it is.

I played Aion a year strait from launch. Leveling curve could be compared after Aion's xp tweak but the actaul gameplay is much different to me. The only similarity is that at the time Aion's combat system took more timing than regular hotkey based games. TERA goes beyond that IMO.

xposeidon

Please do not in anyway think this is a review of the game, as the title says "My personal experience", Im not generalizing the game for everyone or saying it will get better for everyone, we all have our personal opinions and if at some point it seemed like I spoke for everyone then I'm sorry I couldn't make it clearer.

Again I'm not embracing or hating the game, just my honest experience of my gametime in TERA.

BadSpock

OP if you enjoyed the game and want to see more I wish you the best of luck and hope you continue to enjoy it.

Don't let these forums convince you otherwise.

Always take anything said here with a grain of salt.

Make up your own mind, play for yourself and see whether or not YOU enjoy it.

The experience and opinions of others can be a good stepping stone to answer questions and provide insight to aspects of the game you may or may not have personally experienced, but again don't let anyone else try and dictate your opinion for you.

 

Deron_Barak

On a related note, would having the BAM/dungeon content sooner really help someone who doesn't like the game otherwise? If you don't enjoy the general gameplay in TERA enough to level to that point I'm not sure having that content at level 11 would help.

At that point it's a player issue in just not liking the game, to each their own. To claim that it's the games fault though is kind of silly IMO.

Kyleran

Good write up OP.

Unlike many others, I didn't find it difficult to 'wait' to level 20 before getting into the BAM's and other group content.  I was content to acquire my new skills, fold them into my rotation, try different tactics on various mobs and generally learn how to play my class more effectively.

So after starting on Thursday, I was about level 23 and decided to team up with some guildmates and we spent 3 hours or so running quest/BAM/5man content (with 4 people) and I have to say it was a really good time.

Still need to queue up for some of the dungeons, but after last nights run I'm feeling confident enough in my Mystic that I'm pretty sure I can keep my team alive.  (the targeting to heal is still a challenge at times, especially when the action is furioius)

But to each there own, Tera is fun for those who enjoy what it has to offer and at least for me, will prove to be entertaining for a few months regardless, which is all I really expect anymore from MMO's these days.

 

eddieg50

    Yea the first 11 levels on the Island are painfull, first there is the confusing beginning tutorial with 8 million people running around trying to talk with the same quest giver and you get these skills you know nothing about WTF,  and you get to fight a BAM so cool, then BOOM you are dropped into the game at level 1 and so begins 11 long levels of linear questing with tarrable LOL quests and thankfully you leave the Island.                 You get your horse (very cool) and you are dropped into a sand box world!!!   You leave the castle and there is no one, I mean no ONE, no monsters , no quest givers just a few people trying to figure out what to do next LOL-  Now dont get me wrong this is a breath of fresh air after the first linear levels where the only good is the combat,  it is now fun to ride your horse around checking out different areas.  So this game gets very sand boxy after the island is a nice change.     I will say for all you soloers-STAY AWAY- This is not a fun game for you, like Shadowbane you are going to enjoy this much more in a group.   If you are a casual player-STAY AWAY-,  you prob will never get beyond the first 11 levels

Arkinia

Originally posted by eddieg50

    Yea the first 11 levels on the Island are painfull, first there is the confusing beginning tutorial with 8 million people running around trying to talk with the same quest giver and you get these skills you know nothing about WTF,  and you get to fight a BAM so cool, then BOOM you are dropped into the game at level 1 and so begins 11 long levels of linear questing with tarrable LOL quests and thankfully you leave the Island.                 You get your horse (very cool) and you are dropped into a sand box world!!!   You leave the castle and there is no one, I mean no ONE, no monsters , no quest givers just a few people trying to figure out what to do next LOL-  Now dont get me wrong this is a breath of fresh air after the first linear levels where the only good is the combat,  it is now fun to ride your horse around checking out different areas.  So this game gets very sand boxy after the island is a nice change.     I will say for all you soloers-STAY AWAY- This is not a fun game , like Shadowbane you are going to enjoy this much more in a group.   If you are a casual player-STAY AWAY-,  you prob will never get beyond the first 11 levels

WHAT? As soon as you leave the island, there are a few quests you need to complete withing the first major city, granted, they are designed for you to visit the various NPC's. Your last quest is to leave and fly to Lumberton where you immdeiately are given several quests.What game are you playing?

Kehdar

Originally posted by Arkinia

 

WHAT? As soon as you leave the island, there are a few quests you need to complete withing the first major city, granted, they are designed for you to visit the various NPC's. Your last quest is to leave and fly to Lumberton where you immdeiately are given several quests.What game are you playing?

 

He missed the pegasus  

Laughing-man

I'm confused about a few things, first of all Thank you OP for your post, its rather well thought out.  Secondly, people, its his opinion, you can't say its not "factual".   So to everyone whos saying "you can't say that its not true" it is true to him, and its his opinion post, sorry thats how this works.

I'm curious about how everyone is upset with the questing...

Did everyone get heated about RIFT having the exact same questing?

How about WoW when it came out, having the exact same quest structure as DAoC?

Why is it SUDDENLY now that an action MMO comes out, everyones harshing on the linear quest design, which EVERY SINGLE GAME HAS!

This makes no logical sense.

Deron_Barak

Yeah if you travel north out from Velika you get into mid 20's territory, even some BAMs, not a good idea if you're 11 lol.

@Jetrpg

Unrelated. FFXIV's problem was it's entire gameplay. TERA's stated problem is not introducing it's full line up of actvities until 20-ish.

StyleGaming

Originally posted by elocke

However, a game should grab you on the first 20 levels, not after.  Aion had this same issue.  Everyone kept saying wait till 25+ and it gets better.  Why should I waste my time playing if it doesn't get better till later?  Seriously, you could literally auto ding a new character to 25 in both of these games and the learning curve wouldn't change nor the gameplay.  Bad design, if you ask me.

Just like SWTOR was? Had my attention from 1-49.  Then hit 50 and everything was on repeat. I personally would rather have the game get better and better rahter than get the best part of the game from the start.

SirBalin

Originally posted by xposeidon

WARNING: Wall of text ahead.

I know what you're thinking, not another "fanboy", "hater" thread but hey, I see many  threads out there already so I figured I'd go in depth and give you my honest opinion of the game. Please forgive my grammar, I'm at work so and don't have MSWord here.

I had tried TERA CBT5 before but didn't get past level 10, I didn't have enough time. Either way I decided to give it another shot this weekend since they added a lvl 20 tutorial, and also trying another class is never a bad thing.

Character customization is do-able, not too detailed but good enough to differientiate characters. I couldn't figure out on this beta how to manage my characters size (I thought this was there) it did not matter since I was satisfied when I saw my character, I chose a High Elf, Male Sorcerer.

First off, the Tutorial was a nice addition but not perfect. It felt a little incomplete with a lot to desire. For new gamers it could be a little chaotic with so many skills, not knowing how to remap and getting used to the aim system and UI interface. I had played however so this wasn't a problem. Though with my new class I was a little loss with my skills and didn't want to go through the trouble of reading what they did since I would learn anyways leveling up. I actually died once on the tutorial against the boss but an NPC got me right back up, so that's good. It shows the game isn't an easy ride.

Back to the newbie zone, I knew what to expect here as I've heard it before and played it before. I went ahead and did my quest grind, skipping as many optional quests as possible and only doing the ones that yielding the most experience. I stopped every 2-3 levels to take a rest. Also many of the quests were fighting for mobs, try to kill a boss first, at points I kept wishing the system was like GW2 and the content would scale and reward everyone, but I'm used to this old quest sytem so I worked with it.  I have to admit the first impression is very disengaging and to most this is a deal-breaker.

So what kept me playing? Well for one the promise that at level 20 the game gets really fun, second the combat is very engaging, playing a sorcerer was very different from playing a slayer. As a slayer I focused on being closer and knocking down my enemies where as in sorcerer there was more kiting, of course to be expected. With more skills it gets even more immersing, and third the graphics are the best I've seen in an MMO, getting new gear/getting to a new zone was always something to look forward to.

Finally at level 11 I left the newbie zone, not to come back again the rest of my playtime. I continued the main quest, got my mount, my pvp scroll, and left to the new area Lumbertown.

First thing that happened when I got my quest, on my way across the bridge I was ganked by a level 24 Slayer (I was in a PvP server) This guy was just ganking so many new players it was ridiculous. Of course this was sort of expected in OWPvP, the community was split half and half mostly, a lot of helpful players and the other more hostile, any sort of complain or question someone had they told them to either go to PvE or quit playing. Again this was just half of the people.

My level 11-20 experience wasn't very exciting, I was more on a race with time to experience the higher level, however it was easier to find high-yielding exp quests so it was okay. I mostly skipped over reading quest text, watching cinematics, the storyline wasn't just appealing to me and many will agree, the game is more about the combat/graphics.

Once I reached level 20 I stopped the quests, and in many other games I would've probably quit. However I still was searching for that higher fun level content. So I figured I'd give PvP a try. I went to a 18-22 level area and became an outlaw plenty of times and attacked people. I'm all about the PvP in a game so I wasn't leaving without trying it out. Of course I wasn't going to gank like many, that's not me and takes no skill. I looked for even and fair fights.

I must say the game started getting more appealing here. I had plenty of close and fun battles, dodging and kiting my enemies, Rearraning my skills and using what worked better. As a sorcerer I had 2 dodges at level 20 and worked around that, sadly all my dodges were backwards only so enemies that know my class knew what to expect. Also my internet isn't top notch and this was greatly affecting many of my battles when the keys took a while to respond. Either way it was entertaining, when the battles were even. At one point I did manage to 2vs1 but plenty of times I got overrun by the majority of players, being an outlaw makes you a wanted target and everyone will pretty much be after you. Didn't help tha I was so squishy  so having a warrior/lancer close was asking for death.

After that I went ahead and continued to the first dungeon, BOL forgot what it stands for. The mobs were pretty standard and easy to kill here, the bosses were a little stronger, specially since the tank couldn't manage aggro. At one point I had to tank and being so squishy whenever the boss could get to me the damage was huge, I had to manage my dodges really well to survive and this was pretty cool. No longer standing in one place dps'ing, tanking, or healing. There was a lot of moving around. Also the healing class seems sort of complicated and different, something to look out for.

The dungeon was 5-man and very rewarding, in the end I was left with a good impression and wished that TERA just got rid of the whole first 20 levels because yes, it gets better. After all that's said I'm still not sure if I should get the game, How long will the PvP fun and dungeons last I'm not sure. Maybe I'd be able to cope with the whole quest system. Either way I'm holding off for next weekend before I commit and try out GW2 beforehand just to be able to compare and decide wether to buy 1 or both.

Hope you enjoyed reading, cheers

Edit: Please do not in anyway think this is a review of the game, as the title says "My personal experience", Im not generalizing the game for everyone or saying it will get better for everyone, we all have our personal opinions and if at some point it seemed like I spoke for everyone then I'm sorry I couldn't make it clearer. Again I'm not embracing or hating the game, just my honest experience of my gametime in TERA.

Why do people like you roll on pvp servers...you are a pver...like it or not...you would have enjoyed a pve server more.