This is the final piece of the puzzle, folks. The capstone on the pyramid of Lore Hound’s E3 coverage: TERA.
It’s one of those games that’s easy enough to shrug off when you only hear of it in passing, but once you take a look for yourself, you’ll see that there’s quite a bit to get excited about here.
I’ve always been an Action-MMORPG skeptic, worried that latency and the genre’s tendency towards loose hit detection, and chaotic encounters, would end up marring the experience. And so far, I feel like I’ve been proven right — not one game has lived up to the paradigm they have proclaimed to establish. But, hoo boy, these En Masse Entertainment guys? They might just know what they’re doing. Not only does its combat look compelling, but it features a totally unique world with an interesting art style that looks somewhere between Final Fantasy and World of Warcraft. It’s that convincing, and I’m aching for the chance to get some time with it, myself.
But, hey, iTZKooPA did, and since I trust him (sometimes), that’s good enough for me! Not only did he manage to grab some in-game footage for all the little Lore Hounds out there to gobble up, but he got to talk with one of the game’s Senior Producers, Brian Knox. A lot of MMORPGs come and go, few deliver on the hype, and are quickly forgotten. I’m telling you right now that TERA is something you actually want to have on your radar, and after watching our video, I’m sure you’ll agree.
Well, i’m in. Worried, but in. Its games like this where one of two things will happen. Either its mechanics will bring forth a new age of games, or its strength will be tis biggest flaw, and destroy itself.
Like I said in the article, that’s where most of my skepticism comes from, but in this case it *looks* right.
Multiplayer action-RPGs can work just fine, but I think you need to limit the number of people in a party. I just can’t see a 40-person raid being fun. Maybe 10 MAX. Otherwise it gets too chaotic.
But there are some totally great action-RPGs out there, like Diablo, Monster Hunter, Phantasy Star Online. All those worked because they never went beyond their bounds. Small parties work best for this sort of game.
Oh hey Japan, where is my Monster Hunter MMO, huh?