Tera on PS4.
I somewhat considered playing Tera on PC a few times but given my general disdain for MMOs and the fact that my computer could barely run it, I decided it wasn't worth the time to download it.
Now it's come to PS4 and by golly is this a cut above your average MMO!! I've been having loads of fun with it.
Even though it starts with some unimpressive world building and the standard loli and furry races which are bog standard for Korean MMOs, what Tera really has going for it is it's kick@$$ fighting system. The combat in this game is fast and slick and visceral. No tab targeting auto-attack here, mates. This is direct assault combo combat of the fighting game variety.
Even though the quests are your standard kill this many of this monster and return to quest giver, so far questing hasn't gotten old. Level and quest progression happens at a rapid pace so I've yet to feel bogged down. And tearing through enemy mobs just never gets old! The story lines are
actually pretty good too. Usually MMOs stupidly waste an army of paid writer's time with throwaway narratives players will never read or hear a word of, but I've actually been paying attention to dialog.
Tera's art direction is also
really cool. Some areas are better than others, but the best ones are absolutely fabulous! My favorite so far is a witch's academy with some really outlandish character aesthetics and environments. In terms of fidelity, water looks alright, textures can be a bit flat, even the sky box is jarringly fake looking in some parts, but the animations are slick af. Interestingly, there is a
tonne of pop-in going on. It's the worst I've ever seen. You'll be going along and shrubbery will just pop in to existence right in front of you. You can watch buildings assemble themselves as you approach them and the texture resolution on distant geometry progressively improves the longer you stare at it.
Once a region loads in however it stabilizes out a bit but the constant pop-in never really goes away entirely. A few extreme frame rate stutters for a few seconds here and there while loading is also not uncommon especially in areas with a lot of player activity, but I've never had it happen to me during combat and the frame rate drops never last more than a couple seconds. While lighting is well lit and even overall I'm pretty sure there's no dynamic lighting going on here at all.
Did I mention it's free up to level 65? Which is max. While the game has lootboxes I didn't know it until I got around to poking around in the store just now. I don't approve but I've never been constrained by any pay-to-play features yet. I thought I'd be hit with a pay wall when I went to expand my inventory space but all it cost me was in-game gold. The game isn't a big dumb loot fest anyway which I approve of since you won't have to haul around a tonne of useless junk everywhere so all the micromanaging RPG b*tchwork is kept to a merciful minimum which leaves more time for tearing monsters to shreds!
Somehow the revealing outfits and armor all tend to look pretty cool regardless of what individual pieces you're wearing. Pretty much all the armor is pretty sweet looking and most of it is meant to show off the character's physique. The character models are highly sexualized for most of the playable races. Monster and enemy design is also really creative. Sometimes I wish they'd stop attacking me just so I can look at em!
Anyway if you like fighting games give Tera a try.