The lure of a new, fresh MMO is just something I can never
seem to resist. Other than the fact that it’ll easily keep me engaged for hours
at a time, I get to play with old friends that somehow always reunite for the
next big release. I’ve played most MMOs worth playing, but it’s been quite a
while since I’ve played a Korean-style one.
TERA has already been in ‘retail’ in Korea since January of
last year and has had plenty of time for updates and polish; and so far that
stands out in the first 25 or so levels of the North American version. This isn’t exactly your typical MMO
though and it boasts an entirely different combat system. You don’t simply just
tab to a new target and start hitting buttons and see numbers, but instead you
have to aim your swings, arrows, or magic. There are a few lock-on type skills,
but you still have to aim and hover over the target for a split second to get
the lock-on and I did find myself trying to move away too quickly without fully
locking on sometimes. Once you get the system down it feels really nice. The
learning curve isn’t too steep, yet it will feel awkward for a while when you’re
trying to adjust to it.
Overall the game feels relatively easy (at least it did for
me as a Priest) while you’re leveling. I found I could run in circles and take,
literally, zero damage and kill an entire pack of mobs. This changed a little
around level 20 as the mobs get a little more advanced. PvE in general was more
of the same you expect in an MMO. For being a ‘Korean’ game there really was a
lack of a grind and most people reached the cap for open beta (level 32, which
is just over half way to level cap for retail release).
The game got really interesting when we did the first
dungeon. Clearing the trash mobs was really easy, most of the time I spent
adjusting to actually being in a group and learning how a lot of my other
skills worked that I didn’t get to use while soloing. The first boss seemed
easy enough until the second phase when a giant, possessed rock-monster shows
up. He decided it was a good idea to jump across the room and land right on top
of me. The combination of not knowing what the hell was going on and trying to
figure out what skills I’m supposed to be using in the situation lead to me
dying pretty quickly. Someone managed to resurrect me with a scroll and only
for me to die again relatively quickly. We did pull through and kill it
somehow, sans healer. Our second time through the dungeon went a thousand times
more smoothly and we even manage to do it with a slayer and berserker tanking.
The other major PvE aspect of the game is BAMs, or Big Ass
Monsters. Yes, that is what they’re actually called and they are just that.
They’re mini-bosses in the open world essentially. They all have a TON of HP
and hit like trucks. The first few I fought were with a random archer and it
took quite a bit of time to kill. It probably had to do with the fact that we
really only had one person doing damage and both of us spending half the time
dodging attacks. They’re tons of fun and it’s a cool way to change up the usual
XP grind. I could see these being a great source of XP if you get a good group
together to farm them for a while. The ones that I had killed were worth about
the average quest turn-in in terms of XP, which seems pretty worthwhile.
Now onto the fun stuff, PvP! There are no factions in this
game; there’s no horde vs alliance, order vs destruction, or elyios vs
asmodeans. You can ‘flag’ yourself for pvp and kill anybody you want. There are
penalties and drawbacks to doing this, but nobody really seemed to care that
much. I honestly don’t know a whole lot about the karma system in place with
PKing another player other than the fact that your name turns red and anybody
can attack you at that point. You can lose the ‘karma’ by grinding out some
mobs for a while just like you would expect. My first PvP encounter went
horribly wrong for me as I quickly blew all of my mana and had no idea how to
react to certain things. Also, fighting a person against fighting a monster
really changes the way you need to aim. I wasn’t sure if I needed to lead the
person or try and be aiming right at them when I cast and I’m still not 100%
sure about which to do. Now, 10 levels later, I stand a better chance of
holding my own now that I know what I’m doing. I still run into all the
annoying issues that you would expect with any PvP system. I’ve been ganked
while ressing another player, I’ve been swarmed down by a group of higher level
players running around PKing, I’ve had countless numbers of people run into a
camp or town when I was winning the fight just so they wouldn’t die.
Regardless, the PvP is still rather fun and I can’t wait to get my full group
together for some real fights. I’m really looking forward to a lot of the
conflict and drama involved with the FFA system that I’ve missed since the days
of Lineage 2.
I think TERA is going to end up doing rather well for
itself. It’s a polished game and brings a lot of new or less often seen
features to the genre. I don’t know what to expect for the endgame, especially
with the speed at everyone is leveling so far. A large majority of people hit
the level cap of 32 in the beta and that puts them more than halfway to max
level for retail. I guess I’ll just have to find out in the next month or two.
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