Gamescom: Tera Impressions

There are a lot of MMOs out there these days, and a lot of them tend to feel fairly similar to play. That's why it's nice when something comes along that's a little different, like Bluhole's Tera. In this game, instead of the standard World of Warcraft style of combat, you have to aim and hit targets with ranged magic attacks and can dodge and roll out of the way of incoming enemy fire like in an action game. In this way, at least according to the developers, you can be able to take down much higher level targets in the game world if you've got enough skill, as opposed to being hopelessly outmatched by upper level opposition.

On display at Gamescom was a short playable section set in a public dungeon, which meant there were other players running around. Progression through was fairly standard, as you'd come across groups of wandering mobs and have to be careful about which to pull and which to leave alone. I was playing a ranged magic class, and the other two members of the party included a bulky tank character to absorb damage and draw the enemy's attention as well as a priest healer to keep everyone alive.

Of the abilities available to me, most often I used a fireball attack assigned to the left mouse button that could be shot off fairly often. For encounters with larger groups of mobs there was a charge up attack that launched a sizeable magic sphere that could damage any it touched as it moved slowly forward. The majority of the magic attacks had a specific range, so it was necessary to close in on the target and wait for the targeting cursor to change form to indicate an attack would actually hit. Should an enemy get too close I could hit an evade ability that sent my character spinning backward and out of range, and when mana got low I could initiate a charge up move that would swiftly replenish reserves.

My role during the fights was fairly simple – stay out of range of the enemies' melee attacks and relentlessly toss fire and ice of single-target and area of effect varieties at enemies until they keeled over. Very often I'd have to recharge mana, and would have to carefully position myself during these times since the initial casting duration required I stay rooted to one spot. The trick of combat was the enemies are constantly moving around, meaning I had to take care where I was aiming when readying an attack, something that was especially important since a few abilities had sizeable charge up times.

One key to survival that applies mostly to tanks is to keep an eye on the enemy onscreen, since it'll initiate 'tell' animations that indicate when it's about to perform some type of special attack. It could be a damaging jump or a sweep of its weapon, so running or rolling out of the way becomes crucial to staying alive and preventing your healer from getting too frustrated while trying to keep the party in fighting shape. Stuns are of vital importance in the game, since successfully landing these attacks against groups of enemies can leave them vulnerable, perfect for a ranged caster like myself to come in and deal a few vicious area of effect magic blasts.

There are other classes in the game than the ones shown off, including a lancer class that carries a huge shield and is capable of protecting others from damage, but they weren't included in the demo. Not much was on display of the overall world of the game or how character progression in general worked, but from the sounds of things it'll be a fairly standard experience gain and leveling system, though you can add runes to your class' abilities to alter statistics like cooldown times. During a fight you'll also need to monitor your characters' stamina gauge, since if it drops it'll result in less damage done, something that can be restored between fights should a party member drop down a campfire for all to relax around.

It wasn't a long play session, but the game seemed like it could be fun, and the visuals are particularly sharp. Look for Tera in North America sometime in 2011.