Tera Online Collector's Edition - PC

I will try to make this short. TERA is not a perfect game, but is one that deserves your attention and is well worth the price of admission.The Good:TERA's biggest advantage, which I am sure anyone reading this has heard of, is the combat. (I recommend you fight with a game controller.) The combat is fast and precise. Winning is based more on skill and patience than grinding and gear stats. Gone are the days when you click on an enemy and you stand there, pushing keys as the cooldown allows, until one of you dies. Gone are the days when an enemy can hit you with a melee weapon from the other side of the screen. In TERA, you only do damage or take damage when an attack connects, and I will mention now that the collision detection works very well. Your skills in TERA do have a cooldown and you do have to manage your MP, but the new mechanics make combat more immediate. Combat is now a fluid affair that keeps you engaged and constantly on your toes. This new combat system may be TERA's biggest departure, but what a difference it makes! Grinding no long feels like grinding, as the fights are now the highlight of the game.The graphics are great for an open-world MMO of this nature, and they scale well on older computers. The art direction is vibrant and original, with each area having a distinctive look and feel. I realize that some may think sex appeal should be dialed down a bit on the character models, but you will find that becomes a non-issue after about an hour of play when your focus shifts to other areas of the game. Now I realize that graphics do not make or break a game, but in the case of TERA they do contribute quite a bit. Exploration is now something you look forward to, as the sights can be truly memorable and keep you looking forward to the next zone just over the horizon.The people in TERA are, to be frank, nicer than the people you will meet in your day-to-day life. Depending on the server, you may have a hard time getting a group together when you need one. This is minimized by some game mechanics that help players put groups together. But the people that you do encounter and that you do team up with are all very helpful, polite, and courteous. Your friend's list in TERA will grow at a rate you never thought possible.The world of TERA is populated with BAMs, or Big A$$ Monsters. These are huge monsters, not even bosses, that populate most zones and require coordination and teamwork to bring down. They do repeat a bit, but there are many different types. They will always keep you on your toes and fighting them is great way to meet new players.The Average:TERA is conventional in almost all respects outside of combat. That is not necessarily bad, as all mechanics work reasonably well, but it is just more of the same. The biggest offenders are the quests. The are the same quests we have been doing for years. Go here and talk to this person, kill so many monsters of this type, collect so many items (which required you to kill monsters), etc. In short, you won't care about the reason your doing these quests. But the quests serve as the games way to direct you to new areas and new enemy types. The quests are repetitive, but because of the combat you wont really care. Still, they could have been more original or varied.The story is forgettable. It is there, and it is not bad, but it will not be the reason that you keep playing TERA. The main story is told using cut scenes, which is a nice departure from reading text, and they are nice to watch. But it will not engross you like a plot-driven single-player RPG will.The Bad:The worst thing I can think of concerning TERA is that the first few hours are dull. Getting around in the beginning is hard because you lack the means and funds to teleport. So you have to run everywhere in the beginning area, and you do not get a horse until level 11. So most of your time is spent running around on foot. (This is less of a problem with subsequent characters, as you will be more efficient and have less backtracking.) Additionally, the skills you get are metered out every 2 levels. So even though you level quickly in the beginning, you have very few skills to make combat interesting in the beginning. The benefit of this approach is that you learn how to use all the skills you get, but it still makes progression linear and takes time to realize the full benefit of the combat system.Extra Content:Most of the content you get in the collectors edition is of limited use. Maps, booklets, soundtrack (which compliments the game very well, but I would not listen to it in my car), a decorated compass, and things of that sort are what are included. Then there are the digital items. Some jewelry that boosts your stats will be useful for short periods of time, but you have to wait a while to use it (level requirements) and then it will soon be replaced by something better as you continue to level. Yet, the Collector's Edition is almost a required purchase. (If you buy the regular edition you can purchase the extra content from the EnMasse website for $10.) Why? It is the special mount, the Frost Lion. The Frost Lion is considerably faster than the horses in the game (excluding the Noble Steed issued to ruling guilds) and almost everyone has a Frost Lion. That means that if you don't get the limited edition, when you join a group you will often be left in the dust as you run from one area to the next.So overall, if you like MMO's or action games, TERA has something to offer you. You might not be playing it in a year, but you will certainly get your money out of it for the few months it sucks you in and refuses to let go.

This is an awesome game and although the game is free, the Collector's Edition is well worth the buy to any fan of the game, and any fan of MMORPGs at that. Not only does this come with the standard content listed in the description, but it also allows the owner to create up to 8 characters on any and every server just for buying this. A regular purchase of a character slot costs about $5, and there are 6 different servers, so that would cost you around $30 just for a single server to have the max amount of character slots (you start with 2). Along with that you gain access to a total of 4 bank tabs right from the start and even if you have already made several characters, even bought some character slots and a bank tab, it will upgrade your status, max out character slots and bank tabs, and you can use those without starting over or changing accounts or anything.If you enjoy only having 2 characters per server, 1 bank tab, the default mounts, and maybe alongside some additional purchases that you have decided to make, then this is not for you. But if you want to experience the endless possibilities of Tera -- play as all the classes, upgrade stats much faster with a high level character supplying your new and lower level characters with gold for upgrades and everything else this game has to offer with exclusive mounts and content all while only buying the collector's edition which is much lower than the cost for most games out now, then this is definitely for you and I strongly recommend it.The ONLY problem I had with this was that by installing using the CDs, there is no way for it to update from there, I have to download the whole game plus updates anyways. I wish they would fix this, but either way, I still think it is worth it, especially if you already have the game and have it updated.If you're thinking, "There are 6 servers, which means 12 different characters to make, so why would I even bother getting more character slots?" then you're in for a treat. The characters on each server only share the bank between each other, so you can't take rare gear you found and put it into the bank for another character on another server to use, only characters on that server. With access to a full bank and all 8 characters, even if you only play as a few different characters, you can create characters only to serve as a mule for additional storage. Put something in the bank, switch characters, and add that stuff to that characters inventory until a later time. Whatever you do with those characters is your choice to make, and with the Collector's Edition you have those choices at a much cheaper price.