The Elder Scrolls Online Review

[Coldfreeze]

The start

 

So anyone who didn’t live under a rock in late 2011, remembers the hype the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim caused when it released. It became one of the top sold games of late 2011 and early 2012. The music in the game went straight to the classic music hall of fame and it scored a lot of awards.

It also opened the series up to a new audience. People who never played an Elder Scrolls game before. There were several games in the series which weren’t as popular as Skyrim, but nonetheless great games.

The new fans asked for co-op, multiplayer, not knowing that the series had always been a single player game or did not know what could be wrong about a multi player version of those said games.

The change

 

But Zenimax looked at this from a different position, why couldn’t they at least try?

The development process for what would be known as The Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) started. The game this time not developed by Bethesda, but by Zenimax Online, divided the fanbase into two sides:

• The lovers
• The haters

The lovers saw opportunity; the haters saw their favorite game series go to waste.

I fell in the latter category. This couldn’t work I said to myself. The games are SP and they should always be. But on one faithful day, I had the chance to test one of the earliest versions of the game and it changed my views.

The review

Character creation and combat

 

I played several betas of the game and my hopes went up with every beta. Finally last Sunday I played the early release after pre ordering my game.

The game starts out simple, you are a sacrifice to Molag Ball, one of the deadric princes from the series. You wake up in a prison, in his realm, known as Coldharbour. Prisoners seem to be rioting outside, but before you start you create your character.

All the races are there from the other games, the only one not available to the normal edition players is the Imperial race, this content is exclusively reserved for the Imperial edition buyers  (collectors edtion.)

Character creation is deep and detailed; I went with a Nord since I always play as Nord since Daggerfall.

I could choose out of several classes:

• Dragonknight (warrior style class)
• Templar (speaks for itself)
• sorcerer (mage class)
• Nightblade (rogue class)

 

This seems like a rather small number of classes, but in a minute I will explain why this all doesn’t matter that much.

I went with dragonknight, because I feel more comfortable with a warrior role.

 

But as soon as I could play, the game did something completely different than most MMO’s I played. It did not give me any armor or weapons at all. Weapons were found later on into the tutorial and armor was everything I could wear.

 

As a dragon knight I could still be a mage or a rogue, the only things that defined my class were its core abilities.

So after I claimed a sword and shield, it was time for combat.  I could fight third or first person, but since I like the games for their first person perspective I went with that.  Combat seemed easy at first: Left mouse button for attack, hold it for a heavy attack. Right mouse button for blocking and both of them to do a shield bash. Fairly simple, but as I continued into the depts  of Coldhabour, enemies got smarter, no more dumb skeletons, but skilled deadric warriors, these guys could block, heavy attack, dodge and counter my blows as well. The game went from simple combat to tactical combat, oh he is doing heavy attack I should block and counter him or he is winding up a spell lets bash him with my shield and knock him down.

 

 

The further I progressed into the game the more enemies became skilled.  Some enemies jump over you and knock you down from behind, others break your block, all this makes combat feel alive and fluent.

 

Did I mention that this is an MMO? (I did some sentences back, but I like being dramatic.)

 

The whole game doesn’t feel like an MMO, it feels as an Elder Scrolls game, sure some things do feel like an MMO (all those other players), but with their own twist, other players can be interacted with, whispered to or helped and joining a group doesn’t mean sharing quests anymore. Join a group, you both have that quest? Great, you share goals now. A difficult boss, here comes another player helping you and you still finish the quest. The last example is quite defining, it doesn’t have to be in a group, that person doesn’t need to have that quest, the only thing he needs is the urge to help you and act on it.  This defines the game in every way. You can do what you want, whenever you want.

I have seen sorcerers wielding two handed axes, nightblades with heavy armor and dragonknights wielding spells and staffs.

 

Talking about quests, every quest has a back story and influence on the world, a village could be burned down and you saved it, opening up shops for you. You could save a mage from goblins and later on you’ll find him in the mages guild thanking you and giving you a reward.

This makes the game incredibly immersive. Your actions matter and that feels incredible in a MMO (did I mentioned this already?)

 

Crafting

 

 

Crafting is quite addicting.

You can:

• Refine (turning raw materials into ingots for example)
• Create (creating armor, weapons etc)
• Deconstruct ( harvesting materials from items)
• Improve (improving items past their limit)
• Research (researching traits for improvement of weapon)

Creating items is incredible; I’ll take an iron dagger as example:

First I mined Iron nodes, after acquiring ten of those, I went to refine them into iron ingots.

Now I have ten iron ingots I got to create, I select the iron dagger, which requires two ingots for a level one dagger, but I am level 10, so I increase the number of ingots to 8. I select racial motif, which requires other material, for the Nord motif its corundum.

 

 (For the sake of this review I’ll add a trait, which on level ten is quite impossible.)

 

I add a trait to improve its speed and I created the dagger. But I am not quite satisfied yet, so let’s improve the dagger.

I can see in the improvement tab, that I have 4 honing stones, every honing stone increases the chance of succeeding by 20% and lowers the chance of my dagger getting destroyed. I select four honing stones and press “R” to improve my item.  I get to hear a hopeful sound and a blue glow around my dagger’s stats menu. I improved my dagger, making it do more damage.

 

But wait traits are impossible to add on level ten!? Yes, see a trait research takes 6 hours in real life for weapons and can go up to 24 hours in real life for armor. Traits can only be researched by destroying an item with that trait, the upside being that trait research does not fail.

Graphics

 

The game stands out with its graphics from most MMO’s I play the game on ultra and I must say it looks amazing. It’s by far one of the most beautiful MMO’s out there, things like lighting are incredibly well done and makes sunrises, candy for your eyes. Things as rain and ash (volcanoes) change the world, rain makes your character wet, ash reduces your vision. The weather system is incredibly well done and snow, rain, storms, ash look amazing.

 

The daytime system changes things as well, at night you are less likely to be spotted while sneaking.

Final verdict

 

The good

• incredible combat system
• Standard classes are thrown out the door (Be a dragonknight who stabs people with tiny knifes for all I care.)
• Amazing graphics.
• Immersive storytelling and every quest gives you a back story and a good reason to do the quest.
• A really addicting crafting system.
• Fun PVP ( I didn’t discuss it here, but it is definitely amazing)

The bad

• Bugs can stop your quest progress sometimes, relogging usually works.
• Small dungeons could be full of other players, which makes some dungeons incredibly annoying.
• PVP has a strange respawn system, sometimes it takes at least 20 minutes to get back to the fight, because you spawn far away.

The neutral

• The game is subscription based; this doesn’t bother me, but could be a downside for some people.
• It’s incredibly addicting, this isn’t good or bad, just my personal view.

The game is incredibly well made and of the more fresh MMO’s out there. It takes standard MMO features and turns them upside down and then throws them away. The only MMO features I have seen which are standard is the mail system and the chat system. Even guilds function differently.  

 

I love the game and if you love the Elder Scrolls, I advise you to get this game, who are looking for a standard MMO will be dissapointed and people looking for a standard fanatasy game, should go play the lord of the rings online.

 

 

The Elder Scrolls online is out now for PC and Mac and will be released on Xbox one and PS4 later this year.

 

Images are from the courtesy of IGN and are not made or owned by me.

[Mr Biggles]

Already got it and 100% agree, its great.

Good review.

[Caboose The Ace]

If I am honest a bit early to be doing a review but a good one in the end...

 

Anyway if you want to get to the fight faster in PVP here are some tips...

 

Buy a horse and ride it there...

Fast travel between your keeps...

Set spawn camps down.

 

Also Coldfreeze what is your level on the game?

[Coldfreeze]

If I am honest a bit early to be doing a review but a good one in the end...

 

Anyway if you want to get to the fight faster in PVP here are some tips...

 

Buy a horse and ride it there...

Fast travel between your keeps...

Set spawn camps down.

 

Also Coldfreeze what is your level on the game?

At this moment I am level 15, did 5 beta's played this one slow, I have the imperial edition so I have a horse. Got 40 hours in

[skummgummigubbe]

itis so much fun i played the bete a few betas ago and it made me love it so now i cant play anything else

 

but now the ultiomate could also be a fallout online

 

 

great review you have got averything included