Tera Online Review

It takes a lot for me to get into a massive multiplayer online role playing games.  Tera Online's hack n' slash style of combat, beautiful world, and lovely character designs convinced me to jump into the beta and play the game.  When I was going to stop paying fifteen dollars a month, I was happy to find out that this Korean MMORPG has gone free to play.

Positives  

• Tera Online is a very pretty and the world is massive.  I don't mind riding on my mount in order to get from mission to mission.  Each time one of my missions tells me to go to another world, I am happy to travel there with my pegasus   The first time visiting a new area is a visual treat.

• I do not have to hover my mouse over an enemy, click from a drop down menu, and wait for an attack animation to finish.  No World of Warcraft style combat here.  In fact, with Tera Online's style of combat, I use my Playstation 3 controller to play the game.  I need to aim my pointer at the enemy, with my sorcerer character, and press the action button.  Since the enemy keeps moving, there is a high chance that I could miss my attack.  I like that risk factor.

Stuck in the Middle

• The story of Tera Online is nothing to shout about.  Most quests' dialogue delves into someone is doing research and needs me to get samples from monsters, someone has gone missing and is predictably dead, kill this monster, someone is doing research and they need me to collect these items, kill these monsters, etc.  I do love missions which require me to read the dialogue because I needed to do something specific in order to complete the quest (like getting the crazed unicorn's health down to a low percentage, so I can tranquilize him and turn him back to normal).  Unfortunately those quests are so rare that I only skim the quest dialogues now instead of reading them like I used to.

• People like sex; sex sells.   Most game developers know how to use this known fact to their advantage but Tera Online goes above and beyond.  Some female characters  run around, bent over in the shortest dresses I have ever seen in my life so players get a nice view of her panties.  As the levels go higher, most of the female characters' armor barely cover anything.  Thankfully the developers decided to show some male skin on the characters as well.  Although not as skimpy as the female characters, I am happy the developers did not just focus only on showing off female skin.  There are also the options to buy long jump suits incase anyone wanted to cover up their characters, as well as a few races who's designs are not catering to horny players.

Negatives

• Over all, I am happy with Tera Online.  After playing Guild Wars 2 and seeing the Star Wars MMORPG, I feel like Tera Online could have been more enjoyable if the story was presented the same way those two MMO's presented their stories.  Maybe those same old quests in Tera Online would be a lot more fun.  

Since I originally bought Tera Online, I received the Founder Status.  Tera Online's company gets money through their cash shop and players willingly paying 15 dollars for the Elite Status each month.  The Elite Status gives players' discounts in the cash shop, the ability to try out new mounts, and extra boosts.  I found out with my Founder Status, I had 8 Character slots, a title, a free electric mount, 288 Bank slots, a special chat icon, and enhanced queue priority for login.  

Founder Status is pretty helpful and the elite status is for those that REALLY love playing Tera Online and want to get the most out of their time.  Those who want the founder status have to buy a physical or digital copy of Tera Online.  Looking through the official website, I no longer see the options to buy a digital copy of Tera Online.  I have found a few on Amazon.  The game is pretty cheap, unless you want the collector's edition.