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First impressions...
DeaconX
Member UncommonPosts: 3,062
Okay, firstly... I think they simply missed their calling as a console MMO...
It apparently plays GREAT with a controller. It's kind of crap with keyboard and mouse.
The good: Environments are just beautiful. Amazing graphics.
Character models... I really, REALLY didn't like the style of but that's all personal taste... just not for me.
I haven't had a lot of playtime with it but as a game designer, it had me shaking my head. As a narrative designer it had me facepalming.
You get in and the first 5-8 quests are pointless 'go talk to this NPC now' missions. Really terrible. You want me to talk to the medic tending to the wounded from a shipwreck? I wonder if I'll have to go find bandages, or help you save their lives somehow... no? Oh...
So... you had me pick which of 4 outfits I'd like to wear at the start of the game - just to give me a very femanine one with better stats 5 NPC convo's later? That's pretty lame... but....
The keyboard controls are all over the place and you have to access some skills with the F1-4 or whatever, PLUS the regular numbered keys... a little odd and combat is definitely not as fast paced or reactive as GW2's for instance... but...
...so after running around a bit and getting over the very weak tutorial which did nothing to immerse me and bring me into this world or story, I'm set loose in the game world. Hey, that looks like a very nice vista at the edge of the cliff right there! Let's run to it! ... Wait... INVISIBLE WALLS EVERYWHERE?
...I could go on like this but I think you might be getting bored by now. I know I was.
BOYCOTTING EA / ORIGIN going forward.
Comments
[Deleted]
That's because he didn't even spend enough time in the game to even figure out what was going on or that he was still in the prolog and not even playing the game yet.
Seriously who writes a review of a game based on less than10 minutes of play. At every point of your review you make some comment that is either wrong or misguided....even the 4 outfit comment was wrong. You weren't choosing from those. It was showing you what higher lvl outfits might look like ffs.
The Tutorial Is horrible, everyone agree's on that part of the game. It sucks ass. It is not an indication of how the game actually plays. We as the TERA community want it removed...
Wow.... Those outfits were to give you an indication on how your character will look as he/she progresses through the game. Outift 1 is the starting outfit, Outift 2 is around level 15 and so on. Those are not the only outifs obviously, just an indication on how that characters armor tends to look as she progresses through the game....
For some reason you can't rebing keys in the tutorial, hence why most of us hate it and want it gone. Combat is much more reactive then GW2's having played them both and not just giving them 10 minutes, no actually playing them. TERA destroys GW2's combat it actually requires thought process.
The tutorial takes about 10 minutes to do. The island of Dawn takes about an hour. I know you didnt get off the island of dawn so. Yes there are invisible walls there to prevent idiots from doing something stupid and then complain that they did something stupid. But your correct there are to many invisible walls in the world and it can get frustrating. You won't find them as abundently later on however, only in places you would find them in other MMO's as well.
No you couldn't because you hardly played the game at all. I bet your entire playtime is under an hour. If you want to review a game and actually have some merit play it. Don't spout off like you know what your talking about you just sound moronic.
For those that are truly interested in TERA. Go watch some PvP video's and some BAM fights/Dungeon runs. Manaya's Core is a good one to look up. It shows off TERA's combat and difficult encounters.
"In the immediate future, we have this one, and then weve got another one that is actually going to be so were going to have, what we want to do, is in January, what were targeting to do, this may or may not happen, so you cant hold me to it. But what were targeting to do, is have a fun anniversary to the Ilum shenanigans that happened. An alien race might invade, and they might crash into Ilum and there might be some new activities that happen on the planet." ~Gabe Amatangelo
So I went back and counted...
Your first 8 'tasks' or missions are all 'Go talk to an NPC' as you can see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLVJM-NOXTw&feature=player_detailpage#t=152s (I'd mute the talking guy though)
The 8th one gives you your items and armor with better stats, replacing the outfit you chose in character creation and thus making it really pointless in the first place.
Then you go on to a total of 6 more 'go talk to NPC' tasks (literally all you do is get bounced around talking to NPC's) which is really not a good way to immerse a new player into your MMO...
Then finally you see some basic combat.
As for the invisible walls, it comes after the tutorial area. I don't have a video of someone running right up to the cliffs but you'll just have to take my word for it, or not... I also tried to jump off a bridge just to see if I could, and couldn't. Perhaps the world opens up more later on.
Also, this wasn't a review... it was a 'first impression.' These were my first impressions of playing for about 15 minutes and I'm simply saying the game didn't do a great job of hooking me - it didn't feely 'sticky'.
The outfits showing higher level - that I didn't realize... still a little odd but alright, it's not a big deal.
Either way, I'm giving the game more time when I can, but thus far the only thing that's actually impressed me about it is the beautiful graphics.
BOYCOTTING EA / ORIGIN going forward.
Enough with the faces, this isn't reddit.
Anyways, first sentence, those are outfits so you can see some armor styles and see if they look good to you.
Second sentence, you can remap all the controls, TERA has the most customizable UI on the market.
Third, you know why Island of Dawn has invisible walls? So everyone doesn't jump off the cliff in the beginning then ask GMs or complain in game they are stuck in the water.
Ten minutes on the prologue isn't really a good way to judge the game, the only purpose the prologue really has is to show you level 20 skills without having to level to 20 so you can see if a class is right for you or not, the prologue is entirely skippable if you didn't know. Just log out to character selection, log back in and it gives you the choice of prologue or island of dawn.
That being said...even the island of Dawn or the first 20 levels aren't good enough to judge the game. Sadly the good part is at the end, I wish theyd just do away with levels in an MMO, you'd retain such a larger playerbase.
That's all fair enough - but I'm just trying to say the game doesn't do a great job off the bat getting a player in and really making them engaged.
One of my best friends told me 'The game gets good at level 20 and on' and I asked him if that didn't seem kind of absurd and sad - like a big missed opportunity.
Perhaps as I play on, I will end up liking it. But as a first impression it definitely feels lacking.
BOYCOTTING EA / ORIGIN going forward.
Thats why I say MMOs should just throw away the idea of levels, every MMO it's the same thing "wait until endgame and it gets good", why do I have to do that? Why can't it just be good, you're shooting yourself in the foot by losing people due to boring leveling all the time MMO developers.
I do agree with you though, it's lacking in the beginning, the entire questing department is lacking, but BAMs and high level dungeons are amazing with this combat, too bad you start off fighting mobs that don't aggro, have one skill, no attack speed bonus and barely any combos. Turns everyone off before it gets good.
TERA has the best combat and the best mob designs in the industry, too bad it's overshadowed by horrible quests and poor early gameplay.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyJt7svpR6U
No MMO provides anything like that...but that gets lost in the questing and monotony of leveling. Why can't an MMO just do multiple things right instead of one thing, they all do one thing.
I completely agree that these games should be great from the start. Egaging narrative that is suscinctly delivered and guides the player into an exciting tutorial which teaches by letting the player DO things and experience some of the selling features of the game. It's not always easy but you really have to put your best food forward.
Player retention is monumentally important for games like this. They simply can't afford to do a bad job of it.
You have to think of this NOT as a gamer who has played many MMO's and knows that sometimes you have to just 'get past' this stuff to get to the good stuff but as someone completely new to the experience.
Honestly man, I don't know. My only guess is that not the right people are doing it. Being able to understand psychologically what works to hook people, write great narrative AND design a great first play experience are all skills and perhaps... the people that have been doing a lot of this haven't been doing it so well.
It's actually why I got into the industry as a narrative and game designer.
The industry is getting better... I hope one day I can help it get closer to what I find is lacking in many games.
BOYCOTTING EA / ORIGIN going forward.
I wouldnt be against TERA removing all quests ( or 99% ) and just be about monster killing. The quests just seem out of place.
The combat for me is a little slow too.
Slow at low levels fast at high levels. TERA does what so many other MMOs do...it sucks early on.
How can you not like big jiggly boobs? Those char models are awesome! My wife wishes I would still play it because she really enjoyed the extra lovins she got as a result of me stareing at hot elf chicks for an hour before bed.
These first impressions for MMOs need to diaf. It's why we have games getting accolades way too early on when in fact they shouldn't *cough 2011's GOTY*
The fact that the questing system bogs the game down is maddening. Questing (even the "dynamic" variant, I don't give a f) needs to diaf. If I want questing questing, I've got single player games with way more immersive worlds for that.
Give me epic feeling crap to do with others as that is where MMOs outshine SP games, even the ones with multiplayer.
I agree with Pivolite about the leveling.
I really enjoyed the feel of the game and its really fun to play and do stuff :P
Sadly the end-game lacks atm and the game is not optimised well.. certain setups really have alot of performance problems they should not have..
Also the servers tend to not be able to contain the dataflow making the WHOLE SERVER during Nexus (event with alot of mobs spawning in 1 special area) lag like hell.. 800-1200 ms ping mostly.
https://ashesofcreation.com/r/Y4U3PQCASUPJ5SED
Currently Playing: ESO and FFXIV
Have played: You name it
If you mention rose tinted glasses, you better be referring to Mitch Hedberg.
Its a fun game, i like how polished and comfortable the ui and everything is. Combat and artstyle are also very nice.
Questing is a little boring and standart fare, but i dont rly mind that, atleast the Dungeons and the grp content aka Bams are really nice.
All in all a good Game if you like themepark games with a heavy emphasis on acquiring and upgrading Gear like i do.
I didnt rly think it had the content to stay as a p2p title and i only ever payed for 1 month and quit after that, but f2p its a very good deal and i will probably continue playing it for a while.
The upcoming updates also look very nice,
you and Piv are frauds. you guys would not even sub to TERA after 3 months....now that it's F2P here you go policing the forums again...lol.
What? I only subbed for one month actually then payed for two accounts using in-game gold since then. I've been around the whole time. I have the second most posts out off all members on the official TERA forums. Somewhere around 3800... so i'm not sure i'm this fraud you speak of. 70 days played on my account... which is ... uh... 1680 hours.
I'm certainly not a fanboy though, I'm actually currently banned on TERAs forums for one more day for being a little to... uhmm... pushy? EME still loves me though.
¿Qué? So if I hold myself to post mostly in forums of games I'm actually playing at the moment then I'm a fraud? There's no winning with some of you people.
I had been playing the damn game way way waaaay before the majority got their hands on it. So add in a couple of months doing time on the Korean servers.
If I have nothing nice to say, I don't post at all. I said what I wanted to say a handful of times and I was done with that discussion.
ALSO many times I've posted about TERA in some form or another. It doesn't have to always be in here.
And who's policing anything? If you can't counter-argue then don't. I for one like discussing things and if I'm wrong then it's pleasant when someone responds to any argument I may have made. I don't see you doing that. If you get any kind of warning, know it wasn't me who reported, so there's that.
ALSO...when was it, that TERA's forums were this active? Sporadically yes, coupled with subjects that wouldn't interest me at all.
Unfortunately combat speed never really picks up. For me it's to clunky and slow and I was hoping that since so many told me it picked up later on that it would... sadly they were wrong lol. If they could match the pace of GW2's combat and increase the combat speed of most of the mobs they may have something. Until then though it's another of those "Good Idea, bad implementation" deals.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9oG-DArShI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kxqF_0Xhvs
It has potential lol... but the pace doesn't really pick up like some will claim.
To be fair, the OP is right on several points, and I'm a player who's tested TERA since beta and even subscribed to it when it launched retail.
To be brutally honest, TERA isn't really all that different from all the other MMORPGs out now. You still have a typical questing system, mostly comprised of fetch and receive and the occasional escorts, and a lack of voice acting during the questing missions. Cutscenes only serve as fillers and not true directors of the narrative. And yes, there are invisible walls and all these other awkward anomalies that just detract the game from being truly immersive.
On the other hand, the game does have redeeming qualities, such as the beautiful visuals, the non-target combat system, and great gamepad support (only rivaled by DCUO, which has excellent gamepad support in an MMO in my opinion). Would I want it to be a "console MMO"? Not necessarily, although if it were to have a console port that may just help open up avenues for the game's population to grow as there are people who are strictly console players.
To the OP: I've heard people complain about TERA's awkward controls using a keyboard and mouse. I'm sure you can get used to it after a while, but if not, I would definitely recommend using a gamepad instead. I've been playing the game with a controller since beta and it's been fun and hasn't made me miss a beat in both PvE and PvP. Then again, if you're not used to playing with a gamepad to begin with, then that in itself has a learning curve.
GW2 is actually slow, too. Until MMOs match the speed ofk, let's say, Vindictus or the upcoming Kingdom Under Fire II then most of the games out there are of the same speed if not slower.
Well, you can map just about everything so playing with a keyboard and mouse doesn't have to be an issue. I do have a naga mouse and I absolutely love how Tera plays using it.
There are invisible walls, and that's a shame, but Aion has them to as well as other games. It is what it is.
You need to do the main quest if you want to be immersed in story. The classes and world opens up at about 20. I suspect that's to allow players to get used to the system. The nice thing about tera is that there are some alternate leveling areas so you don't have to go to all the same places in some cases.
For those who don't like "kill x" quests, the questing can be horrible. Since I hate quests I love them as I just stay around and kill monsters and Bams. Heck, I log in every night just to kill higher level bams solo on my lancer.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
hmmm I guess to each his own as I don't like GW2 combat. Tera's feels more "right" to me.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
As a new Tera player, my first impressions were similar to the OP in some ways and diverged a lot in others. I rolled up an Amani Lancer and am about level 6 now. For me, the tutorial was a mixed bag. I actually liked the look quite a bit, but did feel a bit overwhelmed by having so many skills at the start. I use keyboard and mouse (Razr Naga), so not being able to remap the F key skills to my mouse side buttons was a major problem. The quests were also really, really bad. That said, I actually really liked getting a taste for Tera combat early on. Fighting the big demon dude was a lot of fun and I enjoyed trying to keep its aggro and learn its attack patterns. I felt like I got a little taste of what combat will be like at level 20, and that was valuable.
So far I enjoy the combat a lot. I played GW2 extensively and strongly prefer Tera combat so far. GW2 feels more like an ARPG while Tera feels more like Demon Souls (albeit not as punishing). In GW2 with a good build I can pretty much just spam skills and do fine in PVE. I never felt like I really needed to pay attention while leveling. Now, gameplay like that is fun sometimes. I enjoy jumping in with my greatsword and mindlessly cleaving through hordes of monsters... but I generally prefer actually having to think a bit! So far regular monsters in Tera are a joke, but I have fought a monster or two that is more difficult. The Treeman that likes to kill pigs, for example, took a good third of my life when he actually hit me. While defeating him wasn't difficult, I couldn't exactly close my eyes and just spam skills either.
The aesthetic of the game is a real mixed bag for me. I liked the prologue area a lot, but the first area you get dumped into in the real world looks like it belongs in My Little Pony. It reminds me of Aion and not in a good way. The graphics are excellent though and the game runs well for me, so hopefully I'll find some areas more to my liking!