Just before I left Europe, Frogster had me hit Berlin for a day so they could show off TERA, their very engrossing and action-packed MMORPG. I was more than happy to oblige. The day 
included a series of presentations on what makes the game different and some hands on time.
The "wow" Factor
Sorry, I couldn’t help the sort of pun there.
The first thing you’ll notice when stepping into the world of TERA is the high quality graphics. It’s one of the nicest looking MMOs that I’ve played, and I have played a wide range of them in my years as a gamer. The graphics in TERA also require a bit more power than your standard MMOs. Minimum system requirements include an Intel Core2 Duo, 2GB Ram and either a GeFore 7600 or Radeon X1800 GTO. While Frogster is not the only company moving MMOs in this direction, they are one of the leaders and have a proven track record of success with games like Runes of Magic.
All of this is because the MMO is built in the Unreal Engine 3 meaning it’s got a pretty stout engine that has allowed them to build an equally pretty and massive game.
Active Combat
While on the surface TERA looks really great, the truly interesting things that set it apart are the gameplay and features. Lots of MMOs are like auto-pilot combat, click to target and auto-attack or button mash a single button to continually attack. Some offer multiple attack buttons, a single button for each type of attack or spell.
TERA offers that, but it also offers special combos and attacks based on your skill set, attack pattern and the situation. The interaction in it is much like you would see in a single-player RPG. In order to trigger the attacks you need to push the appropraite button at the appropriate time.
Combat is fast and fluid. It requires you to aim and face your opponents instead of just locking on and button mashing or running around while your character automatically attacks. This gives the game a far more immersive feel where you’re truly invested in what’s going on instead of attacks going through an automatic attack-cooldown-attack cycle where you are more like a spectator.
I didn’t have a lot of time to play the game and would have liked to have far more. That’s partly because it was interesting and because it’s more complex than the standard MMORPG. Blocking is even more realistic. If you block and you’re not actually facing the attacker the block is pretty much useless, unlike many MMOs where your character just goes into a block stance and is shielded from all angles. Neither realistic nor challenging, TERA is closer to the first and definitely the second.
Success in dodging and blocking enemy attacks is not solely determined by statistics as it is in most MMOs. Rather, using the mouse and keyboard or a game controller, players actively control their character’s movements. There’s a pretty good collision detection which helps build up this more realistic way of fighting.
