Gamespot Score: 7.5 (Good)
My Score: 7.7
(+)Pros: - Unique skill-based combat that completely deviates it from many other regular MMORPGs, - Stellar visuals, all in environments, characters and monsters, - Great dungeon experiences, - Party focused events are fun and require different jobs, - You aren't restricted to certain things other MMOs probably would, - Massive PvP scale.
(-)Cons: - Gets a little slow paced after you hit 25, - Since it became globally free to play, the lag was OP, - Rehashed versions of the same skills means that you actually don't have as many different abilities as you think.
Gameplay time: -
What is a game review? A game review is somebody's OPINION about a game, it is not FACT. Somebody's "9/10" maybe somebody else's "7/10", because the other person didn't get that much fun out of the game. However if somebody's "9/10" is somebody else's "5/10", then you know there might be some disagreement there. If a "9/10" becomes a "1/10", that's just being biased. Now with that out of the way, I'll say this up straight, "Tera Online -Rising-" was voted as the current BEST MMORPG that is free to play out there right now. This, is their opinion, and to me, that is just wrong. I thought "Tera" was a great game and I really anticipated it, but honestly, its not the best after I've played it. It has many things that make it fun, but being the best free MMORPG? No, far from it actually. Its a triple A production title, but sometimes, that kind of thing doesn't really matter, though it does play a part of the game.
To its credit, "Tera" actually has a story, albeit a pretty uninteresting one at that. It talks about a world that the gods created in harmony, and they started having arguments with each other. To separate the world that they so happily created themselves, they created the different races, each bearing their own traits. The Humans, High Elves, Castanics, Amans, Barakas, Poporis and Elins. The races had wars with each other in retrospect like their gods did, but it didn't last for long. Many were killed, and now a new threat has arisen, the Argons. The Argons are a demonic race that just want to destroy anything, and its up to the seven races to team up together to face this common threat.
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| Hey there sexy, welcome to "Tera"! |
The one unique thing about "Tera" that everyone knows and wants to try...is the battle system. This is easily one of the most in-depth and non brain-dead battle systems available to any MMORPG at the moment. Whenever you battle or fight monsters, you have to study their attack patterns and memorize them. You attack the monsters as per every MMORPG, but when the monsters telegraph their attacks, you either move out of the way or dodge. This makes the game rather easy if you know what to do against every monster, and eventually, you'll walk over most of the huge hulking monsters that take forever to hit you. The small nimble ones however, can still prove to be bitches. Skill based gameplay in MMOs is starting to become staple for attracting hardcore MMO fans that want something new, and I think that is completely acceptable. I hope to see gameplay similar to "Tera" in future MMOs....though improvements can be made. I'll explain later.
There are 7 classes total, with the 7 races I explained before. Warriors, Berserkers, Slayers, Mystics, Sorcerers, Lancers, Archers and Priests. Berserkers and slayers are your melee DPS, warriors are your evasive melee DPS class with the most mobility, mystics are support classes with buffs and debuffs, sorcerers and archers are your ranged DPS with a variety of physical and magical damage, lancers are your tank class, while priests are your traditional support healing class. Nothing too ground breaking, except that having a party of lancers of priests can be really broken. Though this is a skill based game where you won't take damage if you're good, priests and lancers are still a godsend, and in a PvP, the party with lancers and priests always wins.
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| Well there's always the Elin for you lolicons. MOE MOE KYUN~~ |
"Tera" is 20+ GB. Yes, it takes ridiculously long to download, which means that it must have a ton of content and look ridiculously amazing, right? Fortunately, the answer to that is yes. "Tera" is beautiful, everything about it. The characters, environments, and even the monsters. Hell, in some situations, the monsters look so badass that they could kill a hundred players by themselves (only to get soloed by a single dude). Main cities look beautiful, and some of the landscapes are breathtaking. Character customization isn't amazing, but you can make some pretty sexy women or uber cute Elins. Dungeons are a complete blast, with tons of variety added with a boss at the end of every one. These are of course, required with a party, and this game has some really fun party based activities (gotta love the first time when I fought basilisks).
Another really great thing that "Tera" does for the players, is for the fact that you aren't really restricted to doing whatever you want. Since the game IS skill based, you can explore far and wide, take on monsters 10-20 levels higher than you, as long as you have the skill, you can do it, even though it takes awhile. This pretty much makes exploration A LITTLE worthwhile, and the game has a lot less "invisible walls" than you think. Massive PvPs are also fun. These require parties, and fighting other parties depending on the varying combination of classes or race types can really make this a fun experience. Its always fun to have different combinations every time you go for a fight and beat up some of those other players.
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| Fight! Fight you fools! |
As I said, "Tera" has its set of flaws that I think prevent it from being, you know, amazing. First off, the game gets slow paced after a certain level (around 25 for me). It takes longer to kill stuff, and the need for parties get higher and higher as you proceed. Of course its fine if you have friends playing with you but solo players can really have it rough here. Since its release as a free-to-play game, the game also had some issues with lag, with lots of players complaining on forums. I too, experienced lag and a friend of my DCed almost every 5 minutes. And the thing that bugs me the most is the fact that most new skills you obtain are just upgraded versions of old skills with an additional number to prove that its "stronger".
"Tera" is a beautiful free-to-play game that looks visually stunning. It's combat system draws in new players and keeps them engrossed in it, though in the long run interest may dwindle. New strategies are required for different enemies, but with the reskins of similar enemies and putting them on a higher level with different names there's really not as much to go around as you think. Well, since it IS free to play, it won't hurt to give it a shot.
Happy gaming!
