We decided to check out the new patch for the North American version of TERA. The game has just been hit with its Lost Isle update that adds some new content and changes across the board for new players, old players and even returning players. For the old players there is access to the Gridiron Academy, a level 40 – 64 version of the level 65 PVP Gridiron battleground. For the returning players there is a “Returning Hero” tab where old accounts that have been inactive can upgrade their skills and gear to be relevant again. However, we were focusing on the new player content and starter zone; the introduction of the appropriately named Stepstone Isle.

Prior to that it’s worth mentioning that the character creation section has been modified slightly, specifically players can now choose both their class and race from the same screen and see which combinations and variations are available without the inconvenience of going back and forth between sections. Taking on our Popori Sorcerer we stepped into the game and checked out Stepstone Isle for the first time.

Loading up things were a little laggy to start with, which is particularly normal for starter zones in any MMORPG and more so with a new zone such as this, which has now completely replaced the previous Island of Dawn starter area. With the new areas introduction so to do we have a detailed story-arc to bring us to the location and carry us through it, focusing on a bunch of “gifted” children that have been discovered by the Mysterium who have the Sight and can get glimpses of the future. Without going into too much depth about the story, or our part to play in it (due to not wanting to give TOO many spoilers) it’s a nice change in direction for the ever evolving game that TERA has always been.

Quests themselves start easy enough, tutorial focused tasks to teach new players how to talk with NPCs and interact with the world, as well as some basics of combat, it was all very common stuff that was easy for us to skip through but useful for players new to MMORPGs. The island was beautiful, something we have come to love and expect of TERA being its visuals and world design, so we definitely weren’t disappointed on that score. The story content was a little on the weak side to start with, whilst the overarching idea and plot seems interesting, the quest chains introductions begins with us finding and repairing a little girls dolly and then playing with her; kind of a slow start. She was of course one of the gifted children and the relationship between them and our character appears to have some relevance, though all is revealed throughout the starter zone.

Around halfway in the village and its inhabitants are attacked by some invaders seemingly looking for the children, it’s an instanced based area so you need to fight it solo. The basic mobs were a little boring to kill our way through, not providing much of a challenge due to their relatively low damage output, but given our low damage output actually took a while to kill as well, given that in total we had to kill 7 of one type, 4 of another and then another 4 from a different group, all of which were very similar, it wasn’t a strong component of the starter zone which we feel could have been a lot more cinematic.

There was the introduction of our first Big Ass Monster, more commonly referred to as a BAM in game, it had some more unique abilities and put up a better fight, and whilst there were some players in the Area Chat saying they needed help with it, we didn’t personally find it that much of a challenge. Defeating the BAM gave us access to a new location, unlocking the next half of the zone and subsequently taking us to level 5; a much quicker route to level 11 or so the DEVs had explained. All in all the patch seems good, the zone is interesting enough (for a new player zone lacking too many difficult challenges) and will be an easy transition for new players joining the game.

In order to find out more about this game, feel free to consult our profile by activating the INFO button below.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 20th, 2015 at 5:44 pm and is filed under Articles, MMO News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.