So it is no surprise that Humans were added as a race in TERA. Every MMO must have humans, because people want to play themselves. At least that is what some producers say. Humans have become standard in MMOs or almost any game for that matter, it should not surprise anyone. More importantly in their recent news announcement TERA began to mention how quests would work in the game. Let us take a look at these two features this week in our TERA column.
Humans play a central role in the Valkyon Federation and are the ones working to unite all the races together. Almost sounds like Star Trek, but in the story line for TERA it works. Humans have been cursed and suffered and have survived using their adaptable skills. Making humans the most adaptable race fits for the world of TERA and players will likely have a lot of options when it comes to classes.
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Speaking of classes two have been featured this month. The Mystic and the Sorcerer finally appear and are discussed. The Mystic is described as a pet class with healing abilities. So with a minion to do the fighting and having the ability to heal your party this class looks to offer healer types something a little different. It all depends on what the minions look like and how they operate.
The Sorcerer on the other hand is described as the nuker of the group. Pure blasting power comes from this class and the range DPS seems to be their specialty. These classes are always fun to play. I normally choose a melee class for MMOs, but more recently have been trying out ranged classes. Again this class depends on the twist that they give it. If there are some fun options players to explore when building the character it will make the Sorcerer all the more appealing.
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The last part to talk about is questing. In the TERA announcement questing is explained as putting the player in the driver’s seat. As with most next generation MMOs quests and story will be geared much more to the player and their impact on the world, this will be interesting to watch unfold. If games continue to promise player impacts on the world then they have to build in features where the world fights back. Overall, I do think this is a great step for MMOs to take, but it has to work out in a very careful balance. We have yet to see a game launch that fully puts these practices into effect.
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The three TERA announcements for this month gave us some great information. Yet they continue to lack in substance on how the game will work out and play. The classes are described quickly to give the overall feel, but no skills are mentioned. How to build the classes and structure your character are left out of the announcement. For me as a player, I like to hear a little about what I can do before I spend hours invested in a game. As for questing, perhaps an example of a quest chain can be given to show how the player will interact with the world. These major ideas have been left out of TERAs news lately and like most players I ask a lot of questions up front. We look forward to hearing more about TERA, but hopefully in future announcements there will be much more information.
