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Tera

Tera: Rising is a 3D Fantasy MMORPG with engaging, action-packed gameplay. Players must manually block, dodge, and slash their way through enemies as they explore the lush world of Tera. With a wide range of races, classes, and skills to master, Tera offers a compelling MMORPG experience.

Publisher: Krafton Blue Hole
Type: MMORPG
Release Date: May 1, 2012 (NA)
Shut Down Date: June 30, 2022
PvP: Duels / Battlegrounds / Open World
Pros: +Fluid graphics and gameplay. +Guild battles and political system. +Dynamic combat and skill targeting. +Gamepad support.
Cons: -Repetitive questing during mid levels. -Poor crafting system.

Tera Shut Down on June 30, 2022

Overview

Tera Overview

Rally beneath the Falkyon Federation’s banner to defend Tera against otherworldly beings that seek to claim it for themselves. Tera: Rising drops players into the midst of a conflict between the world’s inhabitants and the Argons, a race of powerful terraforming beings who have come back from defeat to wreak havoc once again. Play as one of seven unique races with inherent strengths and weaknesses, and turn the tide of battle as one of nine playable classes, each with their own distinctive play styles.

Tera Key Features

  • Amazing Setting – traditional fantasy-themed MMORPG set in the world of Arborea with top notch graphics.
  • Character Variety over nine playable classes and seven races. Each race has its unique attributes and bonuses.
  • Real-Time Combat – action-oriented combat where players must aim individual skills and attacks as well as dodge enemies.
  • High Production Value fluid gameplay and great soundtrack enhance the experience.
  • Unique Story – immerse yourself in the world of Tera with its well-written story.

Tera Screenshots

Tera Featured Video

Tera Gameplay First Look HD - MMOs.com

Classes

Tera Classes and Races

Classes:

All races have access to the following classes. Some classes may require more skill to play than others and may not be suitable for new players of the genre.

  • Lancer – heavily armored melee fighter capable of absorbing damage and generating maximum threat. They sacrifice damage and movement speed for the highest defense in the game.
  • Warrior – agile fighters capable of unleashing a barrage of attacks to provide sustained damage. They can also fill the role of tank but relies heavily on kiting and evading attacks instead of absorbing them.
  • Berserker – a melee fighter capable of dealing colossal damage with charged-up attacks. They can also block attacks but are more suited to the DPS role.
  • Slayer – equipped with light armor and a greatsword, Slayers combine high damage with evasive skills to eliminate threats. They are also capable of knocking down and incapacitating enemies, leaving them open to attacks.
  • Archer – the classic ranged fighter. Archers can deal massive bursts of damage or rapid sustained damage to enemies from long distances.
  • Sorcerer – a ranged class capable of quickly eliminating one or multiple enemies using spells. They can inflict massive damage to enemies but are vulnerable in close combat.
  • Priest – their role is to keep the party alive using their healing and recovery skills. They can use their magic to deal damage to dispatch enemies should the need arise.
  • Mystic – supports, protects, and enhances the abilities of allies with party buffs and auras. They can also summon thralls to heal party members or help them in battle.
  • Gunner - A long ranged DPS class that uses... you guessed it, Guns! They have powerful Area of Effect skills and can summon constructs to aid them in battle.
  • Reaper* – a versatile class that can go toe-to-toe with opponents or take them out from mid-range using their deadly chain blades. They specialize in dealing damage to multiple enemies at once and incapacitating them using area stuns, immobilizations, and knock downs.
  • Brawler - an offensive heavy armor wielding fist weapon using class with both tanking and damage capabilities.
  • Ninja - A quick hit and run class that relies on misdirection to deal damage and escape without getting in harms way. A squishy yet high damage class.
  • Valkyrie - A melee class with a long ranged polearm weapon.

*Players must have a Level 40 character before being given the option of creating a Reaper.

Races:

Each race is gifted with distinct racial attributes, skills, and bonuses as well as the ability to teleport to preset areas in the game world.

  • Humans – from being a homeless and wandering race, they are now admired and respected by all for their role in establishing the Valkyon Federation. Humanity's resilient spirit allows them to resist knock downs, take less damage when low on HP, and regenerate health when resurrected. Living on the road has given them the skills to craft light armor faster.
  • High Elves – once a race of conquerors, High Elves are now committed to fighting for all mortal races against the Argon invasion. They have the ability to replenish their mana every few hours, regain some mana when resurrected, and gather alchemical essences faster than other races.
  • Amani – a proud, honorable, and strong race of dragon people. They were former slaves and value freedom above everything. Racial attributes include damage reduction, knockdown resistance, DoT resistance, and the ability to gather ore faster than all the other races.
  • Baraka – a race of peaceful and noble giants. They are masters of knowledge and combat, making them formidable enemies despite their gentle and pacifist nature. The Baraka can use ancient magic to instantly replenish their health and have virtually unlimited stamina. They can also resist paralyzing effects and craft magical weapons faster than other races.
  • Castanics – a hot-tempered, bold, and independent elf-like race. They will work with other races as long as it doesn’t come at a high price but are loyal to a fault and will never abandon an ally. Castanics are adept at crafting metal weapons, backstabbing opponents, and channeling their anger to make them faster in combat. Their gracefulness also allows them to take less damage from falls.
  • Elin – small female humanoids, children of the goddess Elinu, and sworn protectors of nature. Their innocent and child-like appearance hides their fearsome prowess on the battlefield. Elins can sneak by monsters, speed up their movement, as well as swim and gather plant resources faster than other races.
  • Popori – rabbits, cats, and dogs, given consciousness by the Elin to help them in their fight to preserve nature. They may appear small, cute, and cuddly but are ferocious warriors and dedicated defenders of nature. They share the same racial benefits as the Elin.

Full Review

Tera Review

By Marc Marasigan

Tera: Rising is a fantasy-themed hack-and-slash 3D MMORPG developed by Bluehole Studio and published by Krafton Blue Hole (formerly En Masse Entertainment) in North America. The game was originally known as Tera Online and initially released as a subscription-based game. The game title was changed to Tera: Rising when it transitioned to free-to-play in February 2013. The game is set in the mythical world of Tera, a world inhabited by gods and their mortal creations. A war between the gods, with mortals fighting alongside them left the gods dead, imprisoned, or weakened. The mortal races were left alone to fend for themselves. The peace they enjoyed was short-lived, as a new threat looms on the horizon. Brutal and powerful beings from the underworld called Argons have come to destroy the Tera and end the Titans’ dreams for good. The races must now band together to save their world from utter destruction.

Tera: Rising’s game client is huge. At a little over 25 GB, not including patches, the game does take a while to download and install. I would recommend downloading the game client by torrent instead of the Happy Cloud service. While Happy Cloud allows you play the game earlier, it is prone to corrupted downloads which I found out the hard way. The patcher could also use some work. I don’t know how large the patches are but it took mine almost a day to get the game patched and ready.

Customize Like Crazy

After patiently waiting for the download to finish, players are rewarded with the chance to play the game. Players choose from seven races, each with unique racial attributes and bonuses. Players can create both male and female characters except for the Elin, Popori, and Baraka races. Players who choose to play as the Elin can only create female characters while those playing Popori and Baraka can only create male characters. Players then choose from nine playable classes. While it is highly recommended that players choose a race with bonuses that compliments their preferred class or play style, or vice versa, there’s really nothing to stop you from creating an Amani archer or a High Elf lancer. Some classes also require more skill to use and may not be suitable for newbies. The skill required is indicated by star ratings, with 5 stars being the most challenging.

Character creation in Tera Rising is excellent and offers a lot more options than most MMORPG’s. The game even allows fine tuning of small details like nose height, jaw width, and brow angle through sliders similar to those in Skyrim. I for one like to spend a lot of time making my characters look good and Tera: Rising’s customization options had me customizing like crazy. Presets are available for players who want to immediately dive into the game. There’s also a random preset button which usually comes up with horrendous looking characters and is good for a few laughs. The “mildly revealing” outfits aren’t too bad either.

Noob Island

After creating a character and a short intro movie, players are taken back in time to the first expedition sent to the mysterious Island of Dawn, also known as Noob Island. The Island of Dawn serves as both a prologue to the story and as a tutorial where players are taken through the basics of movement, questing, and combat. Upon entering the game players are start at the Island of Dawn as a volunteer in the second expedition. The second expedition is sent to look for survivors of the first one, which was reportedly wiped out.

My first impressions with the game's visuals were extremely positive. With the sun out and birds chirping on Noob Island, everything looks absolutely amazing and extremely detailed, from the clouds in the sky down to the grass growing between the cobblestones. Skill effects are also top notch and the way monster corpses burn up instead of just disappearing is just awesome. The soundtrack is great and gives an epic fantasy vibe to the game world. Sound effects are good, although the character grunts and yells while attacking can get a bit annoying after a while. It's not just the starting area that looks great the entire game looks absolutely gorgeous on max settings.

That Feeling of Déjà vu

Tera: Rising has all of the standard features you would expect from an MMORPG. It’s got quests, monsters, pets, mounts, crafting, gathering, dungeons, PvP, and everything else you find in a typical MMORPG. The game, in my opinion, borrows heavily from World of Warcraft’s features and mechanics and will feel very familiar to WoW players. Perhaps a comparison to WoW isn't entirely fair, but in some ways Tera feels a bit generic. What sets Tera: Rising apart is its action-based combat system. Along with using the WASD keys to move around, the game also requires players to aim their attacks or skills at enemies. This also applies to support skills like buffs and heals. Players can also opt use a controller, though how they’re going to bind all those skills in a single controller is beyond me.

Combat is made even more challenging by requiring players to memorize a monster’s “tells” when attacking. Recognizing the different “tells” allows players to dodge or block the monster’s attacks. This, along with the aiming mechanism, takes a while to get used to but you’ll soon be killing Big Ass Monsters, or BAM’s, as they’re called in the game, without missing a step. The action-oriented combat in Tera is actually quite fun. Despite the repetitive nature of all MMORPGs, combat consistently felt enjoyable.

Skills and Glyphs

Skills in Tera: Rising are either learned automatically at certain levels or bought at Tactics or Magic instructors. The game allows players to chain skills together for optimum results. Since you only get limited space for your hotkeys, picking the right skill rotation will ultimately depend on the player’s playing style, the opponent, and the situation. For example, a player may have a skill rotation set for fighting normal mobs, a different one for BAM’s, and yet another one for PvP. In the end, it’s all about what works best and what players are comfortable with.

Glyphs are Tera: Rising’s version of the skill tree. They are used to modify skills to make them fit a certain play style. Glyphs can be used to increase a skill’s damage, reduce its MP cost, decrease its cooldown, or increase its duration. They can be earned by leveling up. 10 glyph points are awarded to a player when he hits level 20 and 1 skill point per level from level 21 to 60 for a total of 50 glyph points. Players can unlock glyphs via the Glyphs tab in the skill window. The glyphs are shown beside the skills they modify. Glyphs cost 1-7 points depending on their strength. Clicking on a glyph will spend the points and unlock it. Players can save up to five glyph configurations and can reset glyphs whenever they want to, free-of-charge.

PvP

Tera: Rising’s PvP system allows players to test their skills against other players in a variety of ways. They can challenge other players to quick one-on-one combat called Duels anytime, anywhere. Players can also battle it out in a Deathmatch where up to 10 players per side can fight it out in a team-versus-team match. Gold and items can even be placed as bets to make things more interesting.

On PvP servers, players gain a skill at Level 11 that allows them to declare themselves “outlaws”, and kill or be killed by other players. Tera: Rising’s PvP servers also offer a unique feature called GvG, or guild versus guild, matches which can only be initiated by guild leaders. The battles last for 24 hours, until a guild reaches a set score, or until a guild leader forfeits the match. Players can attack opposing guild members anytime which just sucks if you happen to be the only one online.

Great MMO Music

Another aspect where Tera: Rising shines is its musical score. From the moment players launch the game till they log off, they're immersed in awesome music that really fit's the game's fantasy theme. Tera features an excellent variety of tunes, from epic orchestral pieces like "Tera Nova," to the more whimsical and upbeat "Nature Knows" track. A lot of players listen to their own music while grinding in MMORPGs, but I found no need to while playing Tera. The music in Tera is certainly exceptional, though not as memorable as the Ragnarok Online OST.

Final Verdict – Excellent

Aside from the ridiculously long download and patching time, there’s really nothing bad I can say about Tera: Rising. For a free-to-play game, you really can’t go wrong. Top-notch graphics, great sound, fast-paced gameplay, a unique story, and an incredible character creation system make this game one of the best MMORPG’s I’ve played so far, sexy and skimpy outfits aside.

Screenshots

Tera Screenshots

Videos

Tera Videos

System Requirements

Tera System Requirements

Minimum Requirements:

Operating System: Windows XP SP2 / Vista / 7 / 8
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 3.2 GHz / SMD Athlon 64 3200+
Video Card: Nvidia GeForce 7600 GT / ATI Radeon X1600T
RAM: 2 GB
Hard Disk Space: 40 GB

Recommended Requirements:

Operating System: Windows 7 / 8
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 / AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ or better
Video Card: Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT / ATI Radeon HD 3870 or better
RAM: 4 GB or better
Hard Disk Space: 40 GB

Music

Tera Music & Soundtrack


Additional Info

Tera Additional Information

Developer: Bluehole Studio
Executive Producer: Yong-Hyun Park
Chief Strategy Officer: Byung-Gyu Chang
Art Director: Huang Cher Ung
Composers: Inon Zur, Rod Abernethy

Global Publisher: Krafton Bluehole Inc

Game Engine(s): Unreal Engine 3
Closed Beta Date: December 14, 2010 - January 5, 2011
Free to Play Date: February 5, 2013 (NA/EU)

Shut Down Date: June 30, 2022

Foreign Publishers:

Europe: Gameforge
Korea: NHN Corporation
Japan: NHN Japan Corporation

Foreign Releases

Korea: January 25, 2011 (went free-to-play in January 2013)
Japan: August 18, 2011 (went free-to-play in December 2012)
Europe: May 3, 2012