So Tera is now free to play…
So I thought I’d talk about Tera today – or rather Tera Rising. It’s gone free to play as of yesterday so I thought I’d give you a quick heads up and a quick recommendation. This is reposted and edited from my FB community – but I figured I’d share it here too, as you guys might be interested! (Hope that’s okay!)
So, as fans from my FB page might know – I have a weakness for very grindy MMO’s.
And WOOOOAH MAMA! – is Tera grindy.
It’s also entirely action focused which for me sets it apart from a lot of the crap that I find myself playing (cough, Order and Chaos, cough). And has a hypnotic flow to the grind which I really like. This isn’t a game about just queuing up attacks and letting the CPU do it’s thig – this is about dodging and striking and using your skills and reflexes to get ahead.
I much prefer this approach. Because it’s action focused you feel like success and failure is more to do with your own ability rather than some hidden dice roll – this is particularly true when it comes to BAMs (big ass monsters) which, though meant to be tackled in groups can, with skill and perseverance be taken down solo (usually with plenty of air punching when you succeed!) and so in this respect Tera feels much more hands on that your usual MMO fare.
I dabbled in Tera for a couple of months as a subscription game (as I often do with MMO’s) but, as much as I enjoyed it, I couldn’t justify the cost. Now that it’s free, I think I’m going to pick it back up again.
Some words of warning though – your grind to the 20’s ISN’T very interesting. The game is pretty enough, and the combat satisfying, but you do have to churn through a whole load of enemies and possibly the most unimaginative and downright archaic quest structure I’ve ever played.
Seriously Tera is all about not reading a damn thing and just moving on with the monster bashing.
In fact it’s so bad, you can find yourself playing it without really paying any attention whatsoever – a bit like Dynasty Warriors… (little DW joke there… *cough*… anyway…)
I know I’m not selling it very well but listen – Tera really comes alive in group play at higher levels. If you can get to this stage, Tera transforms from a very mediocre experience into a massively satisfying (and pleasantly difficult) group combat experience – and so it’s well worth persevering to get to this stage.
As much as I hate to say it, sometimes I get the feeling that the dynamics of group battles in Tera are so good that I wish PSO2 might have been similar.
Knowing how much of a raging fanboy I am for PSO, that’s a SERIOUS compliment! 😉
The free version also has a new mode specifically geared to group play and competition, which the subs version was sorely lacking when I was playing – so that’s a big big plus for the longevity of this game.
If you have a bunch of friends who are willing to go all the way along side you (no, not like THAT forgoodnessake!), I heartily recommend it.
You can download it here by the way. Its IS free remember, so why not give it a shot?
ILJG runs the I Love Japanese Games Facebook Page.
His views are not those held by Rice Digital or it’s partners.
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