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Tera first impressions
This is my honest first impression of Tera so far where I have a level 25 ranger and level 14 warrior and these are the pros and cons which I will go into more detail later.
Pros:
*Action combat
*Stunning and colorful graphics
*Unique political/guild system
Con:
*Quests feel grindy and repetitive
*Lack of a compelling story
*Lack of items
*Unbalanced classes
*Unbalanced servers
*Same starting areas and quests for every race/class
The action combat in this game is a notch better than other mmos but not revolutionary. I personally don't think it's that much better than your typical mmo but there is a difference and it makes tera more unique.
The political and guild systems are pretty cool imo and have a korean mmo feel to it. Your guild can own certain regions, tax people, and fight for the right to rule and also has the guild bank where everyone can deposit but only the guild leader and certain officers can withdraw. Guilds may also declare war on up to 3 other guilds for some crazy battles and since each guild can have hundreds of people it will be interesting to see big guilds battling it out. These are features that traditional korean mmos like atlantica online had but american mmos are lacking and features I personally like.
The quests and leveling are really nothing new and the vast majority of them consist of killing x of this and collecting y of that and report to the next quest giver for more of the same quests. There are some unique quests like tame x number of animals, escort this guy to x, or defend this area for this amount of time but for the most part you will be doing the same thing over and over again and the creatures you fight aren't even that different. You may need to dodge a little differently for each creature but they are overused. The same tiger you fought at level 10 you will fight again with a different skin at level 20. Only good thing is you will never have to grind on creatures without quests as there are just barely enough ample quests to keep you going.
There is very little story in this game and I have never needed to actually read the quest details other than the objective. There is also a lack of items in the game and until you reach max level, the all of you items you will be using will be from quests as the unique items dropped from monsters usually aren't any better for the same level requirement. So lets say I have a bow with 10 req i got from a quest. That bow will very likely be better than a bow with level 10 req I get as a drop from a random mob.
The classes are also very unbalanced and changes your experience of the game pretty dramatically. I tried toe warrior which is the hardest class to play in the game and the archer which is the easiest and there is a world of difference between the two. With the archer I have never died, had use bandage/potion or even have to rest to recover hp/mana
because I very very rarely get damaged since creatures will never get near enough to damage me. As an archer I have 2 step back dodge abilities, a slow trap, and a chance to knock down an enemy for a couple of seconds which makes the game super easy and leveling much faster as there is no down time to heal. As a warrior I would have to heal after every couple of fights which is super annoying and come prepared with bandages. On top of that I would actually have to dodge attacks from monsters since i'm always in melee range or otherwise get penalized greatly for taking damage.
Even in PvP or endgame despite being the hardest to play you get no benifits later on as a warrior. I dueled warriors a couple level higher than me with my archer and won most of those fights without getting a scratch. For those people who play warrior class in every mmo but want an easier time you will not like this and for those who play the ranger in every game and want a challenge this would also suck for you.
The two PvP servers are the only ones with a decent amount of people are the most worth playing in. For those people who don't like PvP servers you will be stuck in worlds often with 1/3 or less the amount of people. Luckily PvP servers don't actually differ much from PvE and most people do not kill random low levels anyway as there is no reward for doing so unless you just find it funny but I have no encountered this yet. There have been some people who come in groups of 2-3 and disrupt soloers from questing though.
The starting areas and quests you do for every class and race are all the same. Luckily each race/class has as pretty different feel and the combat you do will feel quite different too so it makes part for it a little.
Overall my first impression with the game is ok and hopefully the game will just keep getting better and better. Guild wars 2 won't be out for a couple of months anyways and I think tera is better than diablo 3 as I tested that in beta so if you're on the fence on getting this game I would recommend it if you're just pretty bored but don't buy it hoping for great
Comments
sounds about right.
First off, whats up with the white background.....
anywho, It sounds like the calsses are distinct. Thats a good thing. I don't want all the classes to be the same. I played a Warrior in beta. I never had to heal. I dodged almost every attack (or used the flurry that you only take half damage.) So its a harder class, but is that bad?
Good review. Also, I assume it's got a white background because he wrote it for another site or blog or just in Word and pasted it here afterwards.
I havent played Tera yet, but the guild PvP kinda reminds me of how Eve Online does it. Corp vs Corp.
I also agree that it can lead to some huge battles.
One thing You didnt mention and other dont mention it much, but how is the crafting?
Unbalanced classes? I dont see it and I am already level 54. Every class can beat another In pvp And each class has their usage, I am not sure where you are getting unbalanced from, How far did you get in the game to make that assumption?
No kidding... it says right at character select that Warrior is rated 5 stars in difficultly which is why I play one. It's an absolute blast to play so far.
If you're stopping to heal every couple of fights...you're not doing it right. Sounds to me like you're failing at dodging + not taking advantage of the gathering buffs(which stack btw). The game is a breath of fresh air compared to the typical tab target fest that the other MMOs are doing.
I saw that 5 star difficulty and wanted to test it out first cuz I wanted a challenge then tested the 2 star archer to see the difference and there really is a difference. I can fall off the highest cliff to 1 hp and find out I heal pretty fast killing mobs and hoping they will drop a health boost cuz they will never touch me anyways while with warrior I prefer to heal to 75% hp before i engage a new mob.
What I'm trying to say is at least for pve for the casual gamer who loves playing warrior in every mmo they probably won't enjoy the game as much and for the hardcore gamer who loves playing archer in every mmo they would not find it challenging enough.
Probably eventuallyl in pvp everything evens out though if you know how to play each class and get the right equipment for them.
I think I see wht you're sayin. Seems like its more of an issue ov getting that across to the player rather than a fault of the calsses.
I'm a fairly hardcore gamer myself and the warrior seemed too easy to me. i was a bit let down like "if this is the hardest class, what is the rest like?" I was never in any danger. But I quit at 16 and never got to where the game gets interesting, or so Ive heard.
For a experience mmorpgs player thigns won't get hard till 30+ when mobs start moving lot more and hits way harder. 40+ soloing is really hard because of how hard th mobs hits and the dungeons get way harder as well. For casual player things get tougher around lvl 20 when they get their first BAM and dungeon. As far as 1-20 should be easy unless its people who almost never play mmorpgs or play games much.
In my experience, I does not take more than 10 levels of a game before I get what its about. Most of them are pretty easy for the first few levels, but 20? Not in my experience.
Terra gives you the tools to completely avoid attacks if you get the timing down. So if your a gamer who can see attack patterns, the beginning zone is pretty easy. Im really curious how compelling the game gets after lv 20, and Im saddened that I didnt get the chance to find out. I just dont know if I want to drop money to find out.
The game does get better at level 20+ and you should be able to get to elvel 20 in a day no problem.
I think the warrior sounds fun.... even in the promo video they said.. "if you want to stand still and kill stuff you'll lose".
I'm not sure when it became wise to judge class balance by early impressions of each's own low level gameplay. Somehow this is always acceptable when reviewing new MMO's but by the same token would induce major eye-rolling if you tried to say something like, "my level 19 rogue 1shots everyone in warsong gulch, this is a 1shot nuke class."