The Full Half Hour: Tera

I've never had much interest in Tera. I couldn't even summon up the enthusiasm to download the client to try the open beta. There does come a point, however, when the barrier to entry is lowered so far it's almost perverse not to take a peek. En Masse found that point with their Instant Demo. Although even then I was more interested to see how Gaikai's streaming technology held up than I was in playing the game.

My first attempt wasn't impressive. It wouldn't run at all. I left it a day to settle and tried again and second time round it worked just fine. The demo allows you thirty minutes. I used all of that last night and tonight I went back for ten minutes to take some photos. Here are my largely unconsidered observations from those brief visits.

• Thirty minutes is more than enough Tera.

• Gaikai's technology works. It takes about two or three minutes to load up on their servers and then the window appears and you're in. Everything was eminently stable while I was playing. I didn't notice any lag or hitching whatsoever. The demo runs either in a window or full screen and feels just like playing any MMO from your own machine.

Strategically-placed hotbar

• Visually it looked very muddy indeed. Blurred. I can't believe that's what the same zone would look like playing from an installed version. Granted they've chosen a zone in which it's perpetually raining and it appears to be night-time, but still...

• Come to think of it, if one of the strongest selling-points of your game was the lush, gorgeous visuals, why would you choose a zone in which it's perpetually raining and it appears to be night-time for your shop window?

None more blue

•  And while we're on the subject, if another of the strongest selling-points of your game was its fast action combat which "takes the fight beyond whack-a-mole monotony with enhanced aiming, dodging, and tactical timing", why would you pick a zone for your thirty-minute demo that starts on a beach that has nothing you can fight? And that's locked behind a gate you can't get past until you complete several non-combat quests? Which use up the best part of half the time you've been given?

• It's one thing to read about the well-known issues regarding the presentation of female characters in Tera but it really doesn't prepare you for the awful experience. For my full run-through I played the big guy and he was completely inoffensive. I made the mistake of picking one of the females for the screenshot run, which is why I have very few screenshots and I feel like I need to take my eyeballs out and wash them.

My reaction exactly, Ahdun.

• If you're going to limit your trial to thirty minutes and set it somewhere that uses up half the time with busy-work and getting from one place to another, maybe also starting off with a level 20 character with a populated skill bar which you then tell the player to read and learn  before fighting anything might just obscure some of the actiony fun you were trying so hard to put across.

• It won't surprise anyone reading this to hear that I hated the combat. Just horrible. Give me whack-a-mole monotony any day. 

In summation, I was impressed with Gaikai's contribution and, erm.. no, that's it.