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The Casual Review.
F377F4N
Member Posts: 9
Well the time has finally come, and I will have to admit this month seemed like a long chore. I am going to do my best to review TERA and not have a biased opinion on any one particular game mechanic that may have effected my experience in the game.
I must also state that I did not get a ton of time to really experience every facet of TERA either. Partially due to me not really liking it overall. That really had an impact on the amount of time I actually wanted to log in to the world. Don't get me wrong there are plenty of great things in TERA, just not enough to really capture me and me alone.
Visuals and FPS
Graphics - Gorgeous! The graphics in TERA really define what the new age MMORPG is going for. The only issue I had with this is it seemed everything had a brightness to it. Even in darker areas, objects and characters seemed to shimmer.
Animations - Animations are pretty repetitive, you are only given so many skills to utilize and chain them, so this is to be expected.
Textures - Nothing really seemed new when switching zones. Yes the landscape changed but, the monsters never really did.
Variety - Like I stated in textures. Not much changes zone to zone. Jaydrea killed what resembled elk from level 1 to level 30.
Lag - There was none which as nice.
Music/Sounds
Variety - Not very much variety in the music, I even resorted to listening to Pandora after a while. Also the voices of the characters were quite annoying making yelling/grunting noises every swing of the weapon. It was a very anime'ish voice as well.
Intensity - There was some intensity in the music that was present, it was also quiet calming at certain points as well.
Quiet periods - There wasn't to much, mainly because the music just looped over, and over, and over again.
Voice acting (if applicable) - None
PC/NPC variety - Not very much in the way of unique NPC's that really stood out to me.
Battle sounds - Very repetitive.
PVE
Quest types/variety - The quests were extremely repetitive. Either kills this, of collect that. There were a few talk to this person, place this over there, and report to this person quests thrown in. Nothing very innovative. However I did do some forum digging and this game is not very well known for its questing system but its end-game content.
Events - I didn't really run into any events as I went along. The developer did have a 50% bonus experience event going on these past two week though.
Dungeons - The dungeon that I experience was linear, and easily powered through by a team of 5. It only took about 45 minutes with me dragging my feet in on purpose for screen shots, and just general laziness. The groups are pretty forgiving and quiet, they just left me behind as I was wandering around and I don't really think I did more than kill the bosses. I let them handle all the trash mobs. To me this is unacceptable to allow someone to not be a part of the team one bit. My goal was to get kicked or talked to but that mission was not a success.
Storyline - The story is pretty lazy IMO. Something about claiming the land and being at war. Their is a storyline quest but it wasn't very clear as to what Jaydrea's purpose is. It may clear up as you progress through the game, but I didn't really express much interest in it.
Extras - I saw a lot of cash shop extra's in the game, and some of it I liked and some of it I found weird and annoying because I liked to be immersed in the game world not distracted by a rainbow afro'd, sunglass wearing, head phone wearing, big bird mount.
Combat style - Combat was smooth, it was more action oriented. Utilizing the left and right mouse buttons to perform actions while keeping your reticle on the intended target. You then have a hot bar with extra skills. Those skills all chain in together so realistically you can hit the number one, then just use spacebar to chain through all of your skills. So it is
PVP
Variety - I have to admit I never had a chance to get into the PvP scene. I heard a few things about it and I will have to really try and experience it, since the game is F2P. I heard two distinct things, one is that it is all player skill based, and two that it is gear based. I never like hearing these two things together. Because it tells me the only people that how PvP is balanced are the guys dominating PvP because they have the knowledge and won't let the under dogs in on it. I can't trust the official forums on this obviously, so I will just have to write and update someday when I do actually get into the PvP on TERA.
Fairness - Refer to Variety.
Crafting
Types - I know that there was one thing I crafted and that was an avatar weapon, other than that I collect a ton of materials as I wandered through the zones.
Importance - This game does not put a huge emphasis on crafting at all. Normally games will have a crafting quest line to assist players in getting acquainted with how to craft. TERA does it kind of different it gives you a quest or two, one of those quests is how to gather materials and the other is, well, I don't recall a second quest now that I am typing this.
Difficulty - Can't really tell the difficulty when I don't really know how to craft. I also have to admit I did not put much effort into this either, my understanding is that crafting should be pretty straight forward.
Community
Friendliness - The friendliness of the community was something of a middle ground. Not many people talked in chat, but when they did it was either about erotic roleplaying, or it was some sort of crazy argument that ended in rough erotic roleplaying. This kind of confused me a little bit as to whether these people were just eight year old children or if they were adults acting like children. When I did ask a question be it through chat I was always given an answer and of course trolled with the usual slander.
General chat activity - Adding onto the paragraph above, general chat was never plagued with bots, but with looking for group requests and guild advertisements. Even being on a US east coast server you would get random foreign languages in their as well.
Guild helpfulness - Now I did join a guild, pretty much right from the get go and I hence left general chat behind to a more well quiet channel. The guild I entered into wasn't of to much use I did ask them a few questions about the avatar weapon, what end game is supposed to be like, and what the zones start to look like later on. All of these questions were answered in a timely manner so I will give them that. However it didn't ever seem like a lot of people were online at any given time. Which I understand it could be a small guild, but the roster was almost 300 people, and the max I ever saw online was 10 included myself. So it seems population is low at any given time. I do know the life cycle of server populations that right before and during an expansion is when the servers normally are packed, then in between expansions everyone ventures off to other games. I have been playing this game only a few weeks away from a massive expansion pack that drops in two days as of writing this. I would expect a guild to be in sixth gear, moving everyone in the lower levels up, so the guild can experience the new content together.
Random acts of kindness - None literally, none. I randomly would emote a hello, or a wave to someone and I would get zero response. I even died on purpose to see if someone would help me when I did the old /yell HELP! I died as they walked on, only to come back and kill the monster that doomed me to the grave. I am guessing that person was a bot.
Economy
Is it corrupted? - No it is definitely not corrupt.
Is it easy to buy and sell? - I am not to sure on this, I tried to stock up on stuff to sell but the menu itself would not allow me to post anything. I am guessing it is level restricted or subscription based.
Auction house - There is one and it has plenty of stuff for the low level players.
Zone variety
Is there a variety of zones? - The zone variety is there, that is not in question at all.
What themes are there in each zone? - Most of the lower levels are of forest and plains theming.
Ease of mobility - Mobility is very simple since you get a mount almost right from novice area.
Size of zones - Small and really restricted. I hated this I am not even going to try and wordsmith that. I hated the restriction each zone presents. You get roads, and not much off of the roads are canyon walls. This makes the zones super packed full of mobs and you don't even have to leave the road for. There are a few areas that are larger off the roads but they are few and far between. This may change later on in the game or maybe the zones I was exploring were just designed that way. It makes it very easy to quest and grind if you really only have a few minutes though so for a casual gamer stand point, I guess it could be a good thing,
How many zones are there? - This is a good thing TERA has quite a few zones to it. I explored 5 so far and there are plenty left for me to see.
Character customization
How many class types? - 9 the reaper class however is only unlocked on the Elin race, when you already have a character at least to level 40.
How in-depth can I customize my character? - There really isn't to much in the way of customization to your character only about 8 options per slider.
How can I further customize my character (Dyes, Armor, Weapons)? - Every time you change armor and weapons it changes on your character I always like this. You may also dye the armor. Also there are costumes "although not very immersive" in the cash shop.
How many races?- there are 7 races, you have the humans, elves, the other elves, demon giants, furry animal, and of course the anime girl race. I could use their appropriate name but seriously, these companies need to start getting more creative.
Level progression
How slow/fast do you level? - This all depends on the style you want to play. You definitely level pretty quick at first with questing. It starts to slow down however in the mid 20's. Big Ass Monster grinding is the path I believe most levelers are going. It takes about 12-20 BAM's to level you each time.
What is the level cap? - 60 as of this write up.
How do I level? - Questing, gathering, and grinding.
Server populations
The server I was on it was pretty high.
RL Aggression leniency
This was actually a saving grace, I was easily able to find a quiet nook along a cliff and walk away from the game. Only to return and see I was still alive. If I was actively engaged in combat it was a little tougher, and when I was in the dungeon it was impossible like most times to get away from the game.
Keyboard/mouse efficiency
This was pretty fluid once I got the hang of the TAB key and its purpose in this game.
Knowledge databases
There is plenty of knowledge about this game out there. Is it worth the money? - It's free so yeah why not.
Special events and bonuses
Events are there I just wasn't playing during one. Then the fact you can buy XP bonuses that can help a casual gamer get up to speed quick.
In game travel options
There are teleports, gryphons, and mounts.
In game Currencies
You have your standard gold, but you also have the cash shop, and some tickets you get daily in the mail. I am not really sure what they are used for yet.
Longevity/Re-playability
I probably could not just start all over again. You would literally be playing the same zones and quests with just a different combat style.
The Verdict
TERA is a game that attempts to stream line the leveling process so gamers can enjoy the endgame faster, It does so by making easy to complete quests that offer massive amounts of experience. They also add in the incentive to grind Bad Ass Monsters. With wonderful graphics, character designs, an easy to master combat system, and easy to navigate zones, TERA is definitely a game worth giving a shot. But be warned of the raunchy behavior and sexist remarks you will no doubt encounter. This game is not even remotely close to child safe. So if grinding away at giant monsters with partial AI is your thing, than this game is for you. I will give it a 5 out of 10. There are too many negatives for me overcome to really want to play in the long run.
If you wish to see more visit my blog at http://www.thecasualmmo.com
Comments
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Good review but the end score of 5/10 is way too low. The combat could be described more as well as it is far better than 90% of the MMOs out there.
Also, the variety in mobs is HUGE. I haven't seen a single MMO with so many completely different mobs and BAMs. I think there are atleast 50 different looking mobs, not just textures but completely different, and maybe 10-15 BAMs. Much more than games like ESO.
Finally, something you dont mention is the cash shop. It is good that it is definitely not F2P but is probably the most immersion breaking I have ever seen. You can get a police car mount, police uniform, beach outfits, banana styled swords and all kinds of ridicilous and completely out of place fluff crap.
Still the good outweighs the bad and the game is a solid 7/10.
My gaming blog
The big thing to remember is that no game is ever going to get a 10/10 in my eyes. 5/10 is only based off of me. I am not a professional gamer I am a working man with a child and wife. So based off the gameplay I was able to experience in a month that is the score I felt it deserved only in my opinion. With all of features available that I was not able to get to and if I had a better community to play with I am sure the score would be much higher in my mind.
So when you read this review keep that in mind please I am not saying this is a terrible game just I had a bad experience the first time up.
So what is the highest score you have given a game, and why? What is your favorite MMO?
--------------------------
Playing:
FFXIV, TERA, LoL, and HoTS
My Rig:
GPU: GeForce GTX 770, CPU: i7-4790K, Memory: 16 GB RAM
I can summarize that review for you.
Asian solo grinder with decent combat.
Thats pretty much all that needs to be said about this game.
FFA Nonconsentual Full Loot PvP ...You know you want it!!
Despite sounding low, this is more how scores should be like instead of the constant 8 and 9s out of 10. 5/10 means pretty average. 1/10 means terrible.
I agree with this, Athisar.
Some of the scores on this site are amazing. I believe WildStar got an 8.8, and now there are columns talking about that game as if it's some sort of cautionary tale. How can they justify an 8.8 for WS?
I've never played Wildstar, but 8.8 does seem a bit high for a game that's had so many problems.
In my view anything above 8 should be what the number says - something absolutely brilliant. A 9 should be one of those games that stands out well above others, like the best game of the year. It's a shame we just about never see scores below 6 (i.e. no game is average or worse) because people view 7/10 as pretty bad when it should mean it's very good.
While I have found my return to the game a more pleasant experience, I still have problems. Crafting has problems as to starting it. I tried to start to do weapon crafting and when I go the "recipe" for a bow I start to get mats. That's when my trouble started. One mat needed to be refined from a raw material. Ok, well I had plenty of the raw material, but found no way at the moment to refine it. So I spend time going through the npcs till I found one that sold refining kits. Fine, I thought let's get start. Well when I tried the different spot to try and do it I found I couldn't use the refining kit. This sucks. Community, not sure I want to waste the time asking in game due to being either ignored or getting assine answers. First mmo I ran into that doesn't seem to have proper crafting trainers. I play WoW, Aion, FFXIV and LotR . Never had problems starting a crafting profession in those games. I'll well come any response to my problem, which in this case is refining Sun Essence.
WoD, Wildstar both got rave reviews at launch. ESO received terrible reviews and that game is so much more interesting. I never listen to reviews.
Looking forward to: Crowfall / Lost Ark / Black Desert Mobile
This isn't a signature, you just think it is.
There is a NPC in Velika that give you the crafting quest. He has a quest icon above his head but he is not shown on the map so you just have to look around for him. If I find him today I will post his location. I have found people to be very helpful in game so if you have a question just ask somebody.
That's pretty much how I felt about this game... I say that the combat is unique and I can see how people might love it, but I honestly didn't care for it that much. I appreciate what they were trying to do, but to me the controls seemed too loose and unpolished.
There was another MMO I played back in the day that had a similar control system (but it died off pretty quick) I can't recall the name of that MMO, but to me it had a much better version of this type of combat. (Now it's gonna drive me crazy if anyone knows the name of an mmorpg that was about maybe 4-5 years ago with basically the same combat system please tell me lol)
Edit: I found the game! Just had to dig through some of my old posts on here haha
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chronicles_of_Spellborn
^ I don't understand why that game flopped honestly. To me at the time it looked great, had fun combat, seemed very polished. If someone could take that system and expand on it I believe it would be a great game.
--------------------------
Playing:
FFXIV, TERA, LoL, and HoTS
My Rig:
GPU: GeForce GTX 770, CPU: i7-4790K, Memory: 16 GB RAM
I think a 5/10 is a totally valid score. His experience of the game was average and thats what the score represents. Wasnt good, wasnt bad, it was average.
Was a good review, I would mind reading another one.
And OP dont let people pressure you into second guessing how you reviewed it.
"I understand that if I hear any more words come pouring out of your **** mouth, Ill have to eat every fucking chicken in this room."
It flopped because Chronicles of the Spellborn was garbage. I think I lasted 45 minutes to an hour in that game. I had to find the class that I enjoyed playing but I made it to almost max level in Tera after I found that class. I think you may have just played the wrong class.
I also don't understand Boneserino at all. He will preach how good Archeage is but when say Tera is an Asian grinder with decent combat. Hell, Archeage is a asian grinder with shitty combat.
Review was decent though. I commend you on that OP. Keep up the good work.
what this guy said..
I miss Tera a lot and I hate to see where has gone.. with all this PvE.. when the game came out Open world was alive.. Open world PvP was alive.. Guild Fights where present.. and none of that is really there anymore.. when I came back..and at the time I was on Feral Valley, before it all got Merged to Mt T.
My recollection of the combat is that it was very clunky. Has something changed with the combat since release?
Epic Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAigCvelkhQ&list=PLo9FRw1AkDuQLEz7Gvvaz3ideB2NpFtT1
https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos?&sort=-downloads&page=1
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you playing an MMORPG?"
+1.
OP, good review.
Epic Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAigCvelkhQ&list=PLo9FRw1AkDuQLEz7Gvvaz3ideB2NpFtT1
https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos?&sort=-downloads&page=1
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you playing an MMORPG?"