Tera Online

JBoogalooJBoogaloo This too shall pass...Alexandria, VA Icrontian
edited April 2012 in Gaming
tera.enmasse.com/

- Just a quick look at another MMO and the True Action Combat that was present at PAX.

If you haven't heard, En Masse has Tera Online (created by Bluehole and released in Korea and the east) releasing in the US in May of this year and I was lucky enough to give their massive display a look and run at the game to see what this "true combat action" thing is all about. I recommend you check out the website and explore it for yourself to make your own judgements about the game and the info that is offered.
So, this TAC thing is certainly no joke! It's totally BA and extremely engaging from a player perspective. The little while that I got to play on it (about 35mins) I was taking the usual WASD movements and finding myself having to learn a new method. When it comes to TAC and attacking an enemy with an instant cast or use a spell that requires you to "charge" it it's quite the experience. In the majority of MMOs or other games we just hit S afterward, backup, click or tab on the enemy again and BAM, we're back to attacking it with stats dictating how often we hit or miss and whether we crit or not. With the TAC, when you hit S to run back your character turns around and doesn't auto aim. You have to really manage your player and hit W or whatever gets you turned around, aim your cursor in the area where you want to hit the monster and then you start to attack again. If you aim off to the side your damage won't be as intense and some spells may likely strike with less ferocity. THIS makes combat for casters, ranged, and melee VERY engaging and allows for little to no afk auto-attacking mode. You also have an active defense system where you decide when and if you want to defend attacks (super cool). Like the video displays even the monsters have active movement that can and will evade your attacks and retaliate at times countering you. There is also a retaliation action (melee that I experienced) when you're knocked down that allows you to create a small bit of space between you and a mob, pretty cool!
Aside of that, the person that was talking to us while we were playing was saying that they took everything about the Korean version, enhanced it with Western preferences and developed what is the to be released version in May. The goal of this game design as it was explained to us was that they wanted an extremely engaging game with as little need for grinding as possible. Unfortunately, we didn't start from the beginning to see what the story was about, but the basics as I remember were that the world was being attacked by ancient evil and various races are now coming together to protect the planet from being overrun (very basic).
The graphics look great, the mechanics are quite different and overall it's definitely something that I think I will be jumping into. I think I have a second Beta key that they were handing out, so let me know if you're interested and I'll have my wife look through my bag and shoot me the info.

Comments

  • drasnordrasnor Starship Operator Hawthorne, CA Icrontian
    I picked up this game.
  • JBoogalooJBoogaloo This too shall pass... Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    Did you give it a run over the beta weekend? Thoughts?
  • drasnordrasnor Starship Operator Hawthorne, CA Icrontian
    I like it. The game reminds me of Phantasy Star Universe crossed with your favorite NC Soft flavor. Having played this and Guild Wars 2 recently, I think this is a better game. Maybe I'm just bad at Guild Wars 2 though.
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