The game I chose to play for this assignment was Tera. Tera is a Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO)game in the vein of World of Warcraft (WoW) with some distinct differences.
I chose this game because I had a couple friends who played it and wanted me to try the game. I never played WoW when it was popular so this style of game was utterly new to me. The game begins on an island with your character at level one. Like WoW players can choose from many races and classes all with their unique skills and abilities. The game was designed for a Japanese audience so the classes are very odd and made me a little uncomfortable as an American player. However the graphics and sound were stunning. Every environment was rich and full looking, and the sound effects added a lot to the experience of the game. Leveling up was quick, and involved a lot of fetch-quests, yet still felt fairly grindey which is an issue for a lot of MMOs. It is evident that the dev’s put less work into the leveling up and more into the end-game content of which there was a plethora. Unfortunately I did not have time to reach it, but I will after school is over.
What immediately made this game stand out from WoW was the combat system. It reminded me a lot of a MOBA (Multiplayer-Online Battle Arena) game where abilities had to be landed onto an enemy, auto-attacks mattered, and skills and items affected how the game was played. I played as an archer, and hitting my arrows was fairly easy and felt very satisfying. The combat system impressed me, but the leveling up process and in-game quests and interactions caused me to lose interest quickly. Perhaps with more time investment Tera would be a fun game, but overall my experience was rather lackluster.
Overall Tera had good gameplay, and an excellent look. I would recommend this game to anyone looking for an engaging MMO that does not want to attempt WoW.