Tera Open Beta Preview

     This beta got off to a very rocky start. I tried to log in as soon as the servers opened but...not surprisingly...they were overloaded with people trying to get on all at once. Now that's to be expected but I thought that they would be better prepared to deal with so many users seeing as this wasn't their first beta test. If that wasn't bad enough, lots of people including myself had technical problems updating and getting the game to launch. Even removing and spending hours reinstalling the whole game didn't help me. Thankfully En Masse did get a patch out out fairly quickly to solve the issue, but by then I had missed out on the per-order early start for the event. So obviously by then my excitement had been somewhat diminished, but minor issues aside it didn't let that ruin my overall experience.

      The biggest update that I saw for the open beta was the new prologue opening which gives players a taste of higher tier combat by staring with a level 20 character of their chosen class along with those skills and leveled equipment. This was a nice opportunity for new players to see what they can aspire be right away and fight some powerful monsters right away. Of course once the section ends you get dumped back down to level 1 but it is good at showing what the game has to offer. However I did have a few minor complaints with it. A small irritation was that I couldn't remap the skills to a more natural location for me. Instead of showing how you came to be shipwrecked on a beach the game only provides a single line of text beforehand and some vague exposition in the quest text. Not only that but the ending of the prologue just sorta happens, the screen suddenly fading to black while I was in the middle of fighting a massive monster. The following cutscene, while nicely drawn and voice-acted, doesn't really explain what happened to you exactly, making it sound like I had died somehow. Again there is a little exposition in the quest text, but the first time through I was legitimately confused as to what happened to me to cause such a huge level drop. Overall I liked the new opening segment but felt the execution and presentation could have been improved. Maybe that will be fixed in the future since this was still just a beta test, but even if they keep it as is that's not a deal breaker in my opinion.

      Another change and likely part of its westernization, was switching the economy from a pure gold system to one using copper, silver, and gold like in most mmo's out there. Personally I didn't mind the old system and some items still felt overpriced. Every class got one new skill and warriors in particular got an overhaul, giving them an “edge” system where certain skills build up a warriors “edge” points which can then be spent to use some of their more powerful skills. Enemies and bosses were supposedly buffed and made to be tougher but I didn't notice much difference, at least not in the early levels. There were a number of other tweaks and additions to the game but for the core experience was pretty much the same and that's perfectly fine with me.

There was so much to talk about last time that I ran out of space so I'll say it now: Tera is absolutely gorgeous! The vistas are breathtaking and the creatures are much more diverse and creative than just the usual vermin, wolves, and orcs found in the majority of fantasy games. If you look close the models are not the best but they look fine and fit the rest of the world perfectly. Odds are you'll be too busy enjoying the combat to really notice but if you can take a break to actually take in the world around, you won't be disappointed. Some big name actors like Michael Hogan and Claudia Black have lent their voices to narrate some cutscenes as well as a couple main characters that players will meet. To be honest I thought that the original actor for Commander Samael did a fine job (being a complete arse!) but Hogan does an admirable job as well. The music is still good if standard fare though I wouldn't blame players for muting it so they can listen to their own music while questing.

      As of this posting the head start is beginning soon for players to create and level characters before the game officially is released. I hope that you have enjoyed reading these previews and look forward to seeing you all out there! Happy gaming!

Official Tera Website 

Tera Closed Beta Preview

While I'm working on my first game review for the site, I thought it would be fun to do a preview for the closed beta of Tera in the meantime. Tera is an Asian MMO being adapted for the west by En Masse Entertainment and Blue Hole Studios. The closed beta was open to anyone who pre-ordered or received a key by email and I took part in over the last month test finished last weekend. Despite not having enough time to see everything I got a pretty good look at most of the various features and gameplay. The developers are planning to add lots of new changes for the upcoming open beta test so I'll be sure to do another update for that too. But this preview will just be my first impressions of what was available at the time.

First things first let's get one thing straight, this is an Asian style MMO. Most of the quests early on consisted of killing the X number of Y creature, though they kept the amount reasonable and didn't feel too grindy like in most Asian MMO's. For better or worse I was just clicking accept and not even reading the quest text so I have no idea if there was a good excuse to do them. The interface and controls do take a little getting used to and are not as polished as in some other games. While not the best looking or hardware intensive, Tera offers some truly breathtaking and creative lands to explore. And it does offer some very interesting features and changes to the standard MMO gameplay mechanics. Any fans of World of Warcraft or similar MMO's will either find this game a refreshing change from the norm or will physically reject it like a vampire trying to eat an entire loaf of garlic bread in a tanning salon. But I think if you give Tera a chance then you might just be pleasantly surprised, it really does has more going on than sexy girls in skimpy outfits.

Unlike most MMORPG's out there, Tera forgoes dividing players between two opposing factions. This means players can choose any race or class they want without worrying about being forced onto a particular side. There are seven races in all, ranging from the usual fantasy standards like bland humans and absolutely fabulous high elves, to some very...unique ones like the Popori (chubby little anthro animals) to cute loli girls with animal ears and tails called Elin. Every race can choose from eight classes that fill a variety of roles. For example Lancers excel at tanking being equipped with heavy armor and large shields which can absorb tons of damage while returning it to anything unfortunate to be directly in front of them. Warriors on the other hand are all about quick attacks and staying mobile to keep foes off balance. Personally I preferred playing a melee character because they seemed to take advantage of the unique combat system (more on that in a bit) than the ranged classes which just felt pretty dull in the early levels.

The biggest selling point for Tera is its much more active combat than in most MMO's out there. Rather than just targeting a foe and trading blows until one of you dies, Tera plays more like a third person action game in the vein of God of War or Ratchet and Clank. Combat felt very fluid and fun as I rolled out of the way of an evil tree creature then unleashed my own flurry of blows to its exposed flank. Every enemy attack has a tell that every class can either dodge or block, making it possible to avoid most if not all damage that would have been inflicted. And you'd better watch out when their eyes give off a red gleam or be in for a world of hurt! Most ranged attacks have to be manually aimed like a third person shooter, so good aim and leading targets is a must if they want to actually hit anything. Position is still important as attacks from the side and rear seemed to increase the chance of landing crits than simply wailing on them head on.

Even though it's not as interesting or flashy as the combat, I really enjoyed how crafting and equipment was managed in the game. For one thing players can harvest any raw materials found in the field and use them to craft anything, so long as they have the needed materials and proper recipe which can be bought or found as drops. Not only that but you can also extract crafting materials from any equipment you don't need or can't use instead of just selling them for a a few coins. For gamers like me who are always running out of bag space this was a great addition! Not only that but in the main town(s) you can change the look of weapons and armor with various templates while still keeping their stats...for a price of course. Tera also has loads of stuff like gems, enchantments, and glyphs to customize your character to better suits your play and increase their stats.

Guilds are no longer just to help players complete quests and raid dungeons either. Any guild can now declare war on another anytime! This war lasts for the next 24 hours where members of both guilds can attack each other on sight for points, with guild leaders worth 10 points and everyone else just worth one. When time is up the points are tallied and whichever guild has the most is declared the winner. Not sure if there are any rewards beyond bragging rights but that can be reward enough right? Another intriguing feature that sadly didn't seem to be running during the closed beta was Tera's unique political system. Apparently players can either be voted or fight their way into office and run one of the many towns/regions in the world. They can collect taxes, open shops, and more. But if they can't get enough votes or policy points then they will be kicked out of office. I'm certainly interested to see how this will turn out once the game goes live, as I've never heard of an MMO doing this before. Games like EVE have given players a lot of free reign but not quite like this that I'm aware of.

A couple PvP servers were online for the betas and while I did create some characters on one of them I didn't spend a lot of time there. Personally I've never been a fan of PvP because I prefer to quest and level up without worrying about getting jumped by higher level players. But the biggest reason is because PvP servers tend to (at least in my experience) attract the worst kinds of people. And sure enough there were plenty of high level players camping outside the entrances to towns and ganking any low level players who had to pass through. Chat wasn't any better on PvP or PvE servers, there were the usual trolls and spammers filling the channel with the usual internet forum trash. But don't take that as any indication how the community will be like. This was just a beta and many of those people shoould be gone once the game launches and requires a subscription to play.

Overall though I very much enjoyed my time with Tera and are looking forward to seeing what the developers have in store for the upcoming open beta. There is certainly plenty of balancing that needs to be done for the classes (some skill cooldowns felt too short/long), the economy (identification scrolls were waaaaay overpriced), and even some quests were just unreasonable. One of the biggest changes planned is going to be a retool the starting area(s) so that players can get into the action quicker and get a better introduction to the world. Considering the game waits until you get off the starting island to really explain anything it would be nice to have some exposition upfront. Sadly there wasn't enough time for me to see as much as I would have liked to, but I can't wait to play some more! :)

Reviews Coming Soon!

Well here it is, my first ever blog!

There are a few reasons why I decided to start this blog. There is a huge backlog of games sitting on my virtual shelves that I've either never played at all or left unfinished due to gamer ADD, and it would be a shame to never finish them at least once. Then I got to thinking why not work on my writing skills and write reviews for them too? Not to mention it will be a good, ready made portfolio should any future employers in the game journalism or other business.

My plan is to pick one game to review and play it for a month. That should give me plenty of time to finish (or at least finish most of it) and then do a full review on it. My writing skills are a little rusty and I don't have a style or gimmick like most reviews do, so any feedback and constructive criticism is certainly welcome!

Hope you enjoy the reviews and find them informative too. Cheers! :)