This weekend was the fifth closed beta test for En Masse’s TERA, and the first time we got to see an invasion event, in the form of the capital city Velika being attacked.
To begin, I’m not entirely sure if this invasion event was meant strictly for stress test purposes, or if this is how some of these events will play out, but I have to say I was disappointed with it all around.
From what I heard and read, the first invasion event on Friday night was almost unplayable due to lag, luckly for me I missed that one and instead videoed last night’s invasion event, which seemed to run much smoother, although my framerate never got over 15.
I got to the event about 15 mins after it started and was pretty surprised how many people were there; easily over a hundred, although most people were invisible, which is one of the things that really bothered me. I get that servers can’t have hundreds of players and NPCs on screen at the same time, but making most of the people invisible really kills the fantasy of it all.
A few times I had to sit there and wait for mobs to show up on screen, which wasn’t so bad, but it also caused me to die a bunch of times, since I was running into invisible mobs that could kill me in one hit.
The invasion itself was pretty chaotic, but it didn’t feel like an invasion. Groups of mobs would just randomly appear one after another and once dead, the next wave of mobs would appear. Again, I’m not sure if this was just a stress test or if this is how invasions will work after launch, but in the current form, it needs work.
My archer was level 16 and I found myself to be pretty useless. The current beta level cap is 38, but in the video you can see for bosses, I was only hitting for 1-2 damage with my normal attack and 9-10 with power attacks. I fared a bit better against regular mobs, hitting them for 8-9 with normal attacks and low 20’s for power attacks, but it’s clear these events are going to be tailored for higher level players.
I also didn’t notice any drops, rewards or even XP for kills during the invasion, but I’m going to assume there will be after launch. Another question I have is what happens if there are not enough defenders to repel the attack? Is it possible to actually lose an invasion event and if so, are there any consequences? I sure hope so, otherwise I’m not sure what the point of invasions are, other then to add another form of PvE grinding.
Check out the video below of the TERA Velika Invasion Event from Saturday.
Well I’m rather disapointed, good honest review. The game looks exremely generic. This will most likely kill EA’s rep once and for all.
EA’s rep?????, what are you talking about this game was neither published or developed by EA. This game was developed by bluehole studio. Secondly, this game is alot less generic than SWTOR or gw2, and looks alot better than the competition visually by far. I would know, because i was in the cbt5. The only concern i have with the game currently is the starter island, The island of dawn. Which is kinda boring until you venture out into lumbertown. Thats where things get alot better
Ok let me rephrase myself, EA is selling Tera on their Origin and thats what I ment will damage their reputation. As much as they want to sell everything that steam sells, not even steams taking Tera. And yes this game is extremely generic, aparently you have not played that many mmos, and this definitely does not top Guild Wars 2, I was in the closed beta for Guild Wars 2 and it is a new twist on the mmo and its generic systems. Nothing generic about it.
Great review, I realle hope SOMEONE from the game adresses these questions because if all those issues will be fixed I would actually buy the game.
Could you maybe also explain why most of the players are invisible? That kills an MMORPG for me :( Of course there can be hundreds of players at the same time on the screen…Todays technology should actually be that good considering back in the day I could also play with hundreds of people games like City of Heroes or Ragnarok Online
I found that when I got to the invasion area, most of the players and some NPC were invisible. After a few seconds, ranging from 1-10, many would become visible, but almost always I still saw floating name-tags with no characters underneath.
The invisible player issue is still happening after launch. it is very annoying. a game breaker for me. i regret my purchase. i suggest you save your money. btw, my computer is better than tera’s recommended requirements so it isnt a hardware issue. no response to the ticket i placed yet either.