Sonomaa

TERA: The Exiled Realm of Arborea

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Aion was several things: beautiful, different, and a welcome change to our normal MMO grind flavor of FFXI and WoW. The problem with Aion is that the grind turned out to be the entire game, one that left this terrifying taste in many of our mouths. I've spoke with former Aion players who shudder at the thought of another Korean MMO. They run back to FFXI in Abyssea easy mode or flock to WoW to be disappointed in Cataclysm, all the while saying 'At least its not Korea hard'.

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TERA attempts to change this by adding a few new ways to do things. They introduced a new combat system based on action games such as Bayonetta, the Devil May Cry series, or Darksiders, except not as twitchy and lacking quick time events. A new graphics engine that looks absolutely jaw droppingly fantastic (even with my short play time). A party system similar to what we are used to but streamlined with actual movement and positioning requirements that are much less 'Stand here afk dps' and more 'Dodge this shit and hide behind the tank with the shield as tall as they are'.

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What the game takes away is clothes. Yes, clothes and cloth in general are all in short supply. The evils that attack the lands of TERA are the devourers of silken robes and leather jerkins. Like super moths drawn to shiny skin, they must chew up as much as possible, leaving only the bare minimum of coverage. If WoW draws its inspiration from the Victoria's Secret Catalog, TERA is taking its ideas directly from the pages of Frederick's of Hollywood.

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The idea behind TERA's action combat system is pretty straightforward and a breath of fresh air for MMO people. Gone in this game are the stand here derpderp dps. Now attacks aimed towards you can be dodged or outright avoided entirely. While this does cater much more to the twitchy speed demons with Daddy's credit card and fiber optic connections, it does pretty well on your normal computer with your standard on par cable or DSL. When you set the game for normal graphics, it still looks quite amazing as well: bright lights and expansive areas; a quest system copied and pasted from its WoW MMO big brother (not a bad thing mind you); updated textures and lighting to make the high performance multi graphics card crowd finally feel like they've earned their suffering badge after they built their FFXIV machines.

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My playtime was painfully short, limited to the starting area and a few quests... all laid out in brilliant script with fascinating story, I'm sure... but I can't read a lick of Korean. The promises made for this game are steep; however, based on the Korean popularity, recent Japanese launch, and the dedicated North American adjustment team, which was set up specifically to remind us that they aren't going to drop another Aion grind turd in our laps means I'll be picking this up day one (provided it's on Steam).

You can read more about TERA in our fantastic and very friendly TERA thread in the games section. http://www.bluegartr.com/threads/83957-T.E.R.A.

There will be a guild for forum goers, probably led by one of the people in the thread, where we can all get on the game, plan for raids and conquest all while secretly watching our scantily clad characters bounce up and down in perverted delight.