While playing online games have you ever thought "If only I can have full control over my character/toon"?

Games that rely mostly on numbers are almost overrated (dodging or defending based on numerical stat values) and has already passed. Imagine having the controls of Dragon Nest, with the graphics of Aion - in which I've already posted a review on - fused together. You've got Tera Online.

In this game, the difficulty of playing is mostly player based and not gear based, you completely control how the character dodges and defends from enemy attacks. Currently the only server that caters to Pinoys is the Europe server (having the Philippines IP address blocked on the North American server) which I have met quite a lot. Playing Tera you need to have a good presence of mind, since your character will not be just stationary and you don't just need to button mash the skill shortcuts. Tera requires your character to move, dodging, parrying, and blocking needs timing, and is also actually a SKILL. Simply put, the best defense in Tera, is NOT GETTING HIT.

Tera has some cool features as well:

Are you getting tired of all the running and the grinding? Well, so does your character, only difference is it's represented by a number. Characters in Tera are given a stamina of 120, spent on battling monsters and players alike. Stamina is considered a buff, since with a full stamina you will be getting health and mana bonuses, however going lower than the normal stamina rating you will get a debuff, which lessens the attack and defense power. With this feature both you and your character can take a break from the stress of fighting. Recharging stamina can be done through campfires. Tera Online has two types of campfires, a permanent and a portable campfire. These can also serve as a social tool, players can gather together on a single campfire to regenerate stamina, and if you have Charms, you can use them as well  as additional buffs not just for yourself but also to others that are gathered on the same campfire as you - Sociable and Charitable isn't it?

In Tera Online you don't have to worry about distributing stats every level up, but you still have to think about the gears that you are wearing, having gears parallel to your characters level gives you more window to commit mistakes while fighting, but I would really suggest not getting hit. In addition, you can also finish a fight faster with more attacking power. Unlike other MMORPG, Tera Online also boasts about it's enchanting system. Have you experience enchanting a weapon or an armor, and ending up breaking it? Resulting to your character having a lower tier armor that you have extra, or worst, no armor at all. In Tera Online you only have to enchant your armor piece, without worrying that it will be destroyed. The only catch is, you have to sacrifice the same item of the same tier that will be destroyed. It's still promising, considering that you will only upgrade a single +4 item and not two of them worrying that it might be gone at +5.

The only downside that I can see at this time is latency issues (not that I experience it a lot. But there are times you will experience it) together with FPS (Frames Per Second) issues. Having low latency means you will experience lag, and lagging means you might get hit -- a lot. And having FPS issues, you might feel that the characters action and the over all User Interface of the game is sluggish. Luckily there are fixes scattered all over the net, you just need to test them if it's applicable to you.

Now, overall I can rate this game 8 out of 10. Considering the action packed experience that you will get from playing the game, but still it's not perfect, since it's action packed, lagging will lessen the action but you will see your characters face flat on the floor... a lot.

For more information, and additional reference check their website at: http://tera-europe.com

Have you already played the game? I would really like to know what you think. See you on the battlefield