Recent reviews by cloud0ix

IT SUCKS SOMETHING THAT AIN'T QUITE RIGHT

TERA is an extremely popular MMO here on Steam. Why?

I have no idea.

It gets the basic MMO formula right: quests, guilds, character customization, but it falls short on a few crucial points.

1) Lack of explanation/dry mechanics. The game makes no effort to tell you about its vast array of mechanics and items. Hell, the only place you get to see the controls are during loading screens. As a result, you end up floundering your way through the first few hours until you settle into a monotous rhythm of going on quests and equipping your questing rewards. Said rewards have stats labeled on them, but it really doesn't matter if you consider stats when you're equipping (which the game forgets to tell you how to do) because every item is the same as the last, just with better stats. The equipment design is overall very poor, with bigger color changes than effect changes: every new jacket you get just gives you higher stat boosts, as stated. Even other items that aren't equipment, like charms you can use around campfires, have such a negligible affect on your character that you have to trust that it actually changed your stats.

Literally, there is no incentive to buy anything but potions and weapons because those are the only "necessary" things.

But the lack of explanation for the game mechanics and the vanilla feeling of said mechanics wouldn't be so bad if the core of the game, the combat, played well.

It doesn't.

2) I heard a lot of praise for Tera's "real time combat" but it ultimately results in repetetive mashing of the same buttons over and over. Certain abilities don't affect certain enemies differently, and enemy attacks have little to no variety. I might as well be playing Cookie Clicker.

In the end, I can only recommend TERA to those who want to eat more plastic shovelware in the vein of Free to Play classics such as Candy Crush Saga and Temple Run. The game can be quite rhythmic, and the simple combat occasionally hypnotizing, but ultimately TERA is just a time waster. It doesn't deliver on the many items and systems it has at a glance: they're boring and don't affect your character enough to be worth investment. It doesn't even have satisfying combat.

If you want to get immersed in an MMO, look elsewhere. If you want to waste some time with an iPhone worthy game, then why are you on Steam?