Tera is different yet the same. A mixed bag of great, good and poor. Still, worth playing.
Excellent graphics and innovative combat system. Bizarre world and character models. Super dull traditional questing. Good world Pvp, but sparse team based pvp. Amazing looking bosses. Solid dungeons. No traditional endgame with raiding.
Tera Review:
Tera's world and graphics are absolutely beautiful. Tera's gigantic enemies or Bams(Big Ass Monsters, that are spread across the world) are awesome looking and are very challenging. And while the amazing graphics, Bams and innovative combat system are all big pluses, the game has some equally big drawbacks.
The combat is action style and the melee animations look outstanding. Sorry to say the caster animations and spells look bland(small glowy balls of magic being thrown around.)
The "True action combat" Tera offers is the highlight of the game aside from the graphics and environments. And while the combat mostly looks and feels very good, there are some issues many will have with this system especially coming from other popular mmorpgs. For the most part, you cannot move and cast/attack simultaneously. You also cannot walk backwards, very similar to Vindictus. If you push the back button, you just turn around and run the other way. This can become a "why can't I do that" nuisance. There are also no strafe buttons, which also will be a concern to many mmo players. Still, the combat is innovative, different and fun.
The questing in Tera is fairly bad, or standard, depending how you look at it. Exclamation points and quest text is pretty much it. If the story and lore was immersive and pulled you in, it wouldn't matter as much but unfortunately, there's not much story to be had. Thus, not alot of lore and immersion. The poor questing really stands out as a sore thumb because of this and there's nothing really thrown in there to break it up.
The endgame in Tera is mostly high lvl dungeons and world bosses/bams. No raids yet. But they are rumored to be coming soon. Still, not alot to do in endgame and that also hurts longterm playability.
As far as PVP goes, Tera is merely just okay. There is a form of battlegrounds but only accessible at max level. There is no arena-style ranked competition mode or anything truely unique as far as team based pvp. However, Tera's world pvp is what shines. There aren't any factions so anyone can attack anyone which brings some really tense moments to the game. Guilds can also declare war on other guilds. This is an innovative feature that really adds to Tera's active world pvp community.
Another interesting twist is there's also a political system in Tera, where players can run for vanguard of certain zones and are elected by other players. They can change laws of the zone and raise /lower vendor prices.
Tera has amazing graphics, and a unique action style combat system. The gameplay is good but has some issues such as not being able to attack and move simultaneously as well as not being able to strafe or walk backwards. The lack of a vast endgame and the poor questing and storyline really hold Tera back. But with the gorgeous graphics, a unique political system, good world pvp, Big Ass Monsters and the fact that the game is free to play, Tera should not be missed..
Scoring Summary:
-Graphics 9.5/10 Gorgeous world and design
-Gameplay 8.5/10 No strafing, walking backwards.. Still, The combat is slick, innovative and just plain fun.
-Animations(movement and combat/spell effects) 8/10 Melee animations are great, but spells and bow attacks just don't show nearly as well.
-Questing 5/10 Traditional quest text. Some cutscenes but No innovation. Very repetitive.
-Immersion(storyline, lore, environment, soundtrack) 6.5/10 Just not alot of story or lore here. It's a shame because the world is interesting and beautiful. The political system bumps it up alittle, though the soundtrack is forgettable.
-PVP 6.5/10 Unique and active world pvp with a non-faction attack anyone implementation as well as guild vs guild waged wars. Tera's version of battlegrounds only available at max level.
-PVE (dungeons, bosses and endgame) 7/10 No raids as of yet. Only Dungeons, and world bosses/Bams which have low drop rates. However, the dungeon bosses and Bams can be quite impressive
Score: 7.5