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TERA Rising Review

Tera Rising Review

A surprisingly unique and beautiful free-to-play MMORPG, TERA Rising is a good choice for all players out there, who are looking for an immersive and user-friendly game. TERA was developed by Blue Hole Studio and is a visually appealing MMO with highly detailed character models and aesthetically pleasing environments. Players can look forward to polished and smooth gameplay since the game runs well on most computers, from the launching of the application to character creation, interactive fights and vast landscape exploration.
Character Creation

Let’s talk about the main steps you take before you are initiated in the lore of the game. Once you log in you go to the character creation screen. Here you can play as a noble Human, horned Castanic, barbaric Aman, panda-like Popori, cute and fluffy Elin, priest-like Baraka or the gorgeous High Elf, which are defined only for character esthetics purposes.

Tera Rising Character Creation

Choosing a class is simple enough. You can make your character an agile and strong dual-sword Warrior, heavy armored Lancer, swift Slayer, charging Berserker, casting Sorcerer, marksmen Archer, healing Priest or as a support Mystic. Keep in mind that all classes have their unique role and they do require a certain player skill to master the selected class. For example, it will be easier to maneuver a sorcerer in combat opposed to a warrior, which is one of the hardest classes to master in fights.

The rest of the character creation is related to body customization, which is composed of a rich and vast pallet of feature options. This is a big plus, as you can identify yourself with your character by giving him the same facial/body features you possess or desire.

Game Options and Controls

Tera Rising has a very strong graphic engine that defines its performance on most machines. You can customize all aspects of the game, including the User Interface. For an MMO, Tera has remarkable single player like graphics that few games can achieve in the present day. The designers did a terrific job with the landscape and level designs, implementing that “WOW” factor as you transit from one region to the next. Sound effects feel natural and so does the theme soundtracks, that absorb you deeper and deeper as you explore the beautiful valleys filled with mystical creatures and wonders.

Unlike most MMOs, you don’t have to click your mouse to move the camera or character, making the mouse effects feel just like at home while playing a 3rd person action game. Sure, you still have cool downs and casting animation for most skills, but it does give you that impression you have a powerful impact on all actions you take inside and outside of combat.

Tera Rising Battle

Time to battle

If you are wondering if the combat experience is good, well Tera has an efficient way of keeping players invested in the game, since they use a skill-shot combat system. Instead of locking your target and start clunking your combo keys to perform a monotonous chain reaction, you aim your crosshair then stab, swing or cast upon your opponent. This gives it a particular agility effect in fights, especially if you miss, making a combat situation a tricky one.

If you happen to cast a slow moving fire ball and the creature you are attacking moves out of the way, because of your bad timing, you are out of luck and this puts you in a position where you have to rethink and adapt your attack strategy.

Tera Rising does not exclude the chain spells reactions, which can easily be execute with the press of Spacebar, making combat situations more pleasant and with less key spamming.
All creatures have a number of attacks which they can initiate on you, so watch their moves closely, as you can step aside avoiding taking damage. While this is the same for PVP, it is a bit trickier to avoid most of the enemy player’s attacks, as they will be more agile and unpredictable than that of the roaming AI beats.

If you feel more adventurous, you can try to hunt down the big monster, called BAMs (big-ass monsters). Be wary though, because these titan-size mobs are hard to take down alone and you will usually need the help of a party, but the risk is worth as they drop high level items that will help you level up faster. It gives extreme joy to see that you perform daring battles that keep you on the edge of your seat instead of watching a cluster of commands unfold on your screen.

Tera Rising Boss

Lore and Questing

The actual Lore start at level 20, giving you enough time to discover the game mechanics and all the little tricks that gets you started on your path to riches and success. As you would expect, our character is teleported to a tutorial island where you can begin completing quests. Unfortunately all the game quests are very standard and “dry”, but they are backed up by strong and interesting NPC dialogs, which tend to make questing a bit more enjoyable. Apart from this, you have to do the basic chores of killing a certain number of mobs or collecting specific items and bring them back and forth, but overall there is a sense of lack of creativity in them.

On the other hand, the lore of the game is captivating, making you the center missing piece of the puzzle in the middle of a demon invasion crisis, which does make you anxious to level up faster just to see what happens next. But trying to level up too fast might prove a challenge, since most quest/lore dungeons must be completed with a party. In order to unlock the entire lore, you need to progress all 60 character levels, which surpassingly doesn’t take that long to reach in comparison with other MMOs.

Glyphs and Other Features

Tera Rising doesn’t have the tradition skill tree, but instead you can better customize your skills by buying and using glyphs, from various trainers. There are certain limitations to how many glyphs you can equip and use, since you have a finite amount of skills points to invest in and some glyphs use more points than others.

If you have a hard time completing dungeons to acquire better gear, you can always craft it by gathering the necessary materials. Weapons and armor can be upgraded by placing crystals in the intended slots or even by enchanting them. And if you don’t need your old gear anymore, just sell it and make a nice little profit at the brokerage.

Another neat feature, of the game, is the socio-political system that can attribute a province to a guild to rule and manage, rewarding the people in that region with nice little perks, such as tax reduction.

Tera Rising BAM

What to do after you reach level 60?

Aside from redoing dungeons, killing epic bosses or doing daily missions, Tera Rising offer veteran players a series of PVP mini-games, in which teams have to compete against each other for various game rewards. Of course, there are plenty of other activities that you can engage, such as fighting large armies swarming from the Rifts or joining one of the Alliances and contribute to their needs. The list of activities is huge and growing as developers update the content roughly every 6 months.

Last thoughts

TERA Rising is a delightful MMORPG, with an excellent combat system that does stand above most games of its kind. Visual quality is outstanding and with each area you unlock you get closer to a more professional level design that make you feel like you live right in the middle of the action. Level progression is fast and you never get bored as there are plenty of activities to get your hands full. It is a fun game to play, as fighting is the main attraction and all veterans know that they would rather go down swinging their axe rather than running for their life.

andrei

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