TERA : Exploring the Exiled Realm - 5
My trip to Velika was short-lived, as gorgeous as it was. The high buildings and built-up alley ways were a stark contrast to the Island of Dawn, where I’d spent much of my early time in the game. Not surprising then that I felt overwhelmed at first. The world had suddenly opened up to me, entire regions to explore were reachable with only a short trip on a Pegasus and there was more to see and do than I’d ever imagined would be available to me so quickly. But after only a few quests, mainly getting me used to things like crafting and revealing in more depth the story of the wider world, it was time to move on. There were important things afoot, and, after the revelations on the Isle of Dawn, I was going to be a major part in the time to come.
Fighting for Freedom
It turns out that the world is at war. The Isle of Dawn was a major distraction and resulted in huge loss of life, but the death and destruction that came as a result of visiting that newly risen island is hardly a unique event. On a daily basis people are dying, losing their homes and suffering. And it’s up to me (and the thousands of other TERA players were probably told the same thing…) to sort things out as best as I could. After settling in to the change of location and enjoying, for a short while, the man-made beauty that comes from exploring a metropolis like Velika, I was being sent back out to a more natural part of the world, the logging community in Arcadia.
Arcadia
Arcadia is quite a big area, populated by occasional human settlements and towns, as well as forest area and a swamp. It’s an expanse built on logging and, until recently, a very delicate balance between humans and the native faeries. There are beautiful sites and deadly enemies, providing a fresh set of challenges to people who had perhaps become a little complacent by the animals on the Isle of Dawn. You’re sent there because of the increasingly dangerous nature of the faeries and because of the large amount of refugees in the area, and you’ll have your hands full if you plan to try and turn things around at all.
Leaving Lumbertown
Overlooked by a spectacular waterfall, Lumbertown is a small village in which you’ll arrive when travelling. It’s well-designed, like everything else in this game, and it reminds me of something out of Fable, a perfectly-realized English hamlet from four or five hundred years ago. One of your first views when you enter the town, asides from the waterfalls and the charming wooden structure of each of the buildings, is the long line of refugees after shelter and food. Forced out of their home, much of the first part of your time in the surrounding Fey Woods will be spent trying to help the refugees, either by making medicine or by finding and salting food.
Doing your Bit
Don’t think that you’re entire time in the Fey Forest will be spent doing charity work. There’s a massive range of deadly enemies that you’ll need to slash your way through multiple times if you plan to raise enough experience to get through the majority of this area unscathed. The damage caused by enemies rises quite quickly depending who you’re up against and the damage you cause plummets rather surprisingly. It doesn’t help that the creatures in the forest aren’t exactly passive and if you decide to fight an individual beast, don’t be surprised to be quickly surrounded by faeries and gnomes. It’s easy to become overly-confident and, if you don’t watch your step, even easier to lose track of how much health you have left.
Quests and More Quests
Like the Isle of Dawn, the Fey Forest is very quest-based. It’s not always things that will help you progress through the story and quite often you start to feel like a bit of a dogsbody. Take, for instance, the gentleman who has lost his pigs. You have to round up the pigs within quite a small time limit and your reward for doing so is a little bit of experience. Still, it’s interesting to see the effects of the war first-hand, rather than just through conversation, and no matter whom you talk to and what you do, you know you’re going to learn something about why the creatures who had previously lived in an uneasy peace with the humans suddenly took a change for the worse.
Duelling and Groups
I can’t say that I’ve ever thought of TERA as under-populated. From the very beginning of the game, there were other players everywhere and it remained that way throughout the Isle of Dawn and into Velika. The Fey Forest always seems a little more populated than those early areas though, and an extra advantage of this is TERA’s PvP battles and ganging up in a group in order to battle harder monsters. PvP battles are easy to get into and are some of the most fun I’ve had in the game. Coming across a stranger who wants to challenge you happens quite often and within seconds you can be tossing spells and shooting arrows. After the battle, the game will continue as normal and you can go your separate ways knowing who is boss.
Another advantage of having more players around you, of course, is that there’s more conversation and more people willing to join you in battle. There’s a constant flow of discourse in the chatbox and the majority of that is from people looking for tips off other players or, just as likely, looking for people to run dungeons with.
Conclusion
After arriving at Velika, I thought I’d be playing TERA in a different way. I thought I’d be learning about the politics of the different nations and, to be honest, I’m still feeling a little vague on certain things. That’s something that I’m still looking forward to though and it’s nice to have a brand new area to explore and a large variety of enemies to challenge myself with. The world of TERA is definitely opening up and it’s going to be taking us in some exciting new directions over the next few weeks.
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M.Growcott