We do a little pirate hunting in the world of Arborea to see what all the fuss is about in Bluehole Studios' new fantasy MMO.

After hearing so much about a particular game, anticipation can build. You get this little tingling in the back of your brain telling you it’s itching to try it, while a different part of your brain argues that you'll just be let down again if you buy into the hype. The only sure fire cure is to play the final version.

Unfortunately, TERA isn’t quite ready for prime time yet, but I did get some hands-on time with it at E3 and even playing an unpolished version made my anticipation justified. A handful of media was led into TERA's darkened booth, off the show floor, where four people got to experience a pre-arranged session, led by game Producer Sam Kim and Associate Producer Stefan Ramirez.

Our party of five was comprised of a High-Elf Berserker as the party tank, an Aman Warrior, a Human Slayer (yours truly) and a Castanic Sorcerer (ably played by ZAM's Mike "Fony" Bailey). Our healer was a Baraka Priest player by Kim, who acted as guide through this particular quest designed for a low 30s level character. To add a bit of ambiance, Ramirez acted as color commentator, to give us a blow-by-blow of what was happening on the screen.

To set the stage for the quest, we learned that a certain Red Lash pirate named Marduck had been enslaving humans and selling them to the game's resident bad guys, the Argons. Our party had been tasked with stopping Marduck at all costs. As we arrived via ship at Marduck's base on Mistmoar Island, we were greeted by the first of several mobs that would impede our path to the pirate's mountaintop hideaway.  The Red Lash Dreadnaught is a giant-crab like creature that the developers call a party mob. This creature is not designed to be fought solo. Even with our group, this creature was designed to be a tough fight.

It was here that Kim and Ramirez gave us some of the basics for each of our classes. We had the choice of playing with a keyboard and mouse or a gamepad. Being the PC player for years, I stuck with the keyboard and mouse and immediately began learning my hotkeys in order to dodge, attack and do special abilities. We were instructed to dodge and roll any time we found ourselves in front of a creature and to attack from behind as often as possible. Attacking is a bit different from the "select target, mash hotkeys" style of MMOs. In TERA, players actually have to keep the targeting reticule on the mob they are trying to hit. There is no snap to target, so every move, roll and dodge forces the player to keep the target center screen to land attacks.

Since the combat system was a bit different than I was used to, it took me a while to master the target and attack, as well as how to utilize my specialty Slayer moves. We moved in on the Dreadnaught with the Berserker leading the way and our healer keeping us alive. The color commentary called out each dodge or savage hit, giving us verbal pats on the back for successful moves and attacks or gently prodding us with tips on how to attack and move if we got hammered too hard. It took a good couple of minutes to down the huge Dreadnaught, but our healer did a good job, despite the self-professed "healing newb" tag he hung on himself.