Post by Deleted on Jun 21, 2014 0:48:54 GMT -5
Ardreas is not currently a member of the Mad Islander staff, but he has been compensated for his contribution to the magazine.
Game Review: The Elder Scrolls Online
The Elder Scrolls Online, a collaborative project between Bethesda and Zenimax, is the franchise's first multiplayer game set in the world of Tamriel. It takes place during the 2nd Era, long before any of the single player games or their stories. It is a time before the rise of the Empire of Cyrodiil, when Daedric princes hurled chaos upon the world, and the races of the land were split by greed and mistrust. Into this game you, the perpetual prisoner of Bethesda's making, are thrown. Into this time of trouble you could make a difference...
Hello everyone! I am Ardreas, and I'll be leading you through a quick summary of the Elder Scrolls Online (hereafter referred to as: ESO) based on my experience with the game. I've been a gamer for many, many years, and I've played MMOs from Runescape to Star Wars: The Old Republic. I spent time in Azeroth battling for the mighty Horde in World of Warcraft, and I roamed across Tyria in Guild Wars 2. So of course when I heard that Bethesda was coming out with an MMO, I was excited. My friends and I got psyched for the opportunity to actually play an Elder Scrolls game together, rather than just talk about our experiences. And so when ESO launched earlier this year, we were all there for early access with our preordered Imperial Editions in hand (figuratively), and ready to take on the world of Tamriel once again! (or should I say previously? Since this took place before the others?) Anyway, I give you ESO: from my view!
Map of Tamriel
As you start off the game, you can choose between the 3 factions that exist during this time period. The Ebonheart Pact is made up of the Nords, the Dunmer, and the Argonians and controls the eastern section of the continent. The Daggerfall Covenant is made up of the Bretons, the Orcs, and the Redguard and controls the northwest. The Aldmeri Dominion is made up of the Altmer, the Bosmer, and the Khajiit and controls the south. Cyrodiil belongs to none of the factions, and acts as the game's PVP zone. More on that later.
My first leap into the game was from the perspective of a Dunmer. I didn't play Morrowind back when it first came out. My introduction to the world of the Elder Scrolls came with Oblivion, so I never got to experience the thrill of Morrowind's exotic locales and fascinating monsters. I know, the Skywind Project has helped bring Morrowind up to date in graphics, but I haven't taken the time to look into that yet. Anyway, with ESO I decided to start with Morrowind and branch out from there.
Tyroq the Dunmer Dragonknight
That's my character, standing on a bridge in Davon's Watch, the first major city you come to in the Ebonheart Pact. It's a great place to get started, plenty of merchants, bankers, profession-crafting stalls, inns, and stables for getting a horse. There's a ton of story going on, but I don't want to give too much of that away and spoil it for anyone. Suffice it to say: you start the game as a prisoner (like always) in Molag Bal's realm of Coldharbor! You have to escape from his prison (with help from some important people), and once you've done that you wake up in Tamriel. There's some pretty interesting stuff going on in that introductory segment, but long story short it's basically the tutorial dungeon. Once you are restored to your physical body and free to roam Tamriel, the game really begins.
My Imperial Horse
I took a bit of a detour up to Bleakrock Island, a tiny spit of frozen land along the northern coast between Morrowind and Skyrim, to help the locals fight off an invasion by the Daggerfall Covenant. It's totally optional to go to that island, but it's a nice place to get some early xp and find some skyshards. What are skyshards? Well, trying not to spoil anything, but it has to do with the fact that your character was dead. Your soul had been trapped in Couldharbor after someone had killed you, which is why you start the game there. Once you return to Tamriel, in order to bring you back into full alignment with the physical world you need to find skyshards. They're scattered all over the land, often quite hard to find. But they bring your character back more to life, as it were. They also have the nifty effect of granting you extra skill points.
This is essential because in ESO you can
But that takes a long time. Just like in any single player Elder Scrolls game, if you want moar skillz you have to level up. Except in ESO you can also hunt around for skyshards and get extra skillpoints without having to level up. It's a fine way to be able to fill in your profession skills without having to take away from your combat leveling.
Moving on, it wouldn't be Morrowind without crazy huge mushrooms (or so I've heard).
Ah, Morrowind, home sweet home!
Working on my profession. Here I am doing some alchemy in Davon's Watch. It's very similar to alchemy in the single player games, but it really takes time here! In fact, leveling up a profession in this online version feels like it takes longer than in the traditional games. So for someone like me who has to balance my time between this and real life, I can really only work on one skill at a time.
And then it's time to relax at the Inn, listening to a bard sing Malukah's song(embedded below). They did a good job at keeping the cheery tavern atmosphere.
She's a fantastic singer, and I love her Elder Scrolls covers from Skyrim. Bethesda must agree, because they got her to do an official version of that song to be sung by bards in-game.
Anyway, there's lots more that could be said, but we need to move on. Bethesda once again brings a fantastic voice acting crew together for the game. John Cleese, Michael Gambon, Kate Beckinsale, Malcolm McDowell, Lynda Carter, Bill Nighy, and Alfred Molina are just the highlights of the ensemble cast. And their work really is good. I was careful not to spoil myself ahead of time on who would be playing what role. So when I first heard The Prophet speak to me, I was like "Dumbledore!?"
Like all Elder Scrolls games, the key to enjoying this one is to slow down and immerse yourself in the story. There are people out there who complain that the game is "too shallow" or not engaging enough. These people are the ones who fly through a zone, rushing through the quests and camping the bosses to power level to the end. They miss the point of the whole game. It's not about getting to level 50 first. The journey (so cliche, I know) is more important than the final destination. And if you take the time to enjoy the unfolding story of this game, you will really come to love just how deep and interesting it is. This is Tamriel, after all. There's going to be some pretty cool world-building stuff here that helps you understand the other games better, too.
Anyway, here I am coming to understand that this is Argonian architecture... They apparently live in giant mud huts that look disturbingly like dung piles.
And here's combat. I figure I'd show this just so you can see what the action bar setup is like. You only get 5 hotkeys, nothing like WoW. But it seems to work fine so far. You can also switch between weapon sets which gives you a whole new action bar that you can hotkey other abilities to. So that works I guess. It does make combat interesting, you have to pay attention to what you're fighting and what abilities you will need, rather than just blindly button mashing your way through the fight.
Oh, and speaking of fights, you have to actually aim your attacks, just like in the single player games. If I'm facing away from my enemy and swing my sword, I'm not going to hit him! You'd think that's common sense, but most MMOs these days auto-lock hand-hold you all the way to the end. Here, you have to be at least somewhat competent.
Oh, and speaking of the single player games, Bethesda likes to include little things here and there to remind us that we are still in their world, even if it is an MMO. Obviously a poke at Skyrim players. Had me laughing anyway.
The game has had some glitches, but they seem to be getting ironed out as it matures. For the most part it's been awesome. Actually, I think this game is getting better the farther I go. I had a great time after finishing Morrowind by going to Black Marsh next, and guess what they have (other than a bunch of swamps)?
Ayleid Ruins!
Man it felt like I was playing Oblivion again. Crazy! I found myself looking for Varla Stones...
And I found one!
Too bad I can't pick them up though. They're just light sources here, but still, they look awesome. Also, in case you noticed, yes that's a different character. I am leveling 2 characters together. Tyroq, my DPS, is the one you saw before. This one is Orealis, my tank. It's fun to experience the game in different roles, plus it's useful for my guild to have different toons to be on for dungeons. Anyway, speaking of Oblivion related stuff, guess who I met?
Sheogorath! The mad god himself took me to the Shivering Isles and had me doing some crazy quests for him as part of a larger story arc (which I won't spoil for ya here). He was hilarious as usual, and a bit nutty.
I took down some Dark Anchors too, while adventuring around Black Marsh. Those are fun world events. I think I showed you a picture of one a while back in the University Gaming Thread. Well you get some nice xp and loot from being part of a group that takes them down. Plus an achievement for the first time you do it.
Another view of an Ayleid Ruin, just because they're so cool.
And here's something interesting. Do you know what this is? It's the Hist Tree! That big sacred tree the Argonians are always talking about. Apparently they lay their eggs in the soil beneath it and each generation hatches with a special bond to the tree. There's a lot more to it than that, and apparently the Hist is even conscious. I got to talk to it at one point. But again, no spoilers.
Lots of ships along the Black Marsh coast. Not all of them friendly. There are Khajiit pirates that raid these lands, some of them privateers working for the cursed Aldmeri Dominion.
Anyway, speaking of tanking dungeons, here I am tanking a group through Arx Corinium. Now that is an awesome dungeon. It's huge and the fights are beautifully complex! No more blind button mashing. No more spamming abilities and burning down bosses. These mobs mean business and you have to pay attention to stuff. There's one syren that screams so loud she'll kill everyone if they don't figure out the correct place to take shelter. There's a huge Wamasu that electrocutes random group members and lashes them to the ground with electric handcuffs and they can't break free unless a party member comes over to help release them. And then there's the boss in the picture who electrifies the water around that island, so if you step into it you die. And she'll summon electric storms in random areas so you have to keep moving, plus she has a nasty scream attack that fires in a cone in front of her, so as the tank I had to keep her facing away from the group. Ah, good times.
But we're getting pretty long now in this review, so I'm going to try to wrap things up. After finishing Black Marsh, I sailed around the east coast and up to Skyrim, landing in Windhelm. And holy frozen crapsicles! It looks so amazing!
The Southern Gate is easily recognizable, and the general layout of the city is quite similar to what anyone who's played Skyrim would be familiar with. Architecture is a little different, but that's understandable, given that this is a very long time before the events of Skyrim.
But then turn around and look north... Could this be Candlehearth Hall? Holy crapazoids! It is, but it looks so different. It's beautiful and new, just like the whole city. Fresh and vibrant. Kinda make me feel a bit depressed, knowing how much the city will degrade by the time of 4th Era. But still, it's awesome to see it now. Very cool.
And then here is the gate to the Palace of Kings. Easily recognizable.
But who is this? A Stormcloak!? Now that is interesting. Looks like an old family, prominent in the city for a very long time indeed. I feel like the Doctor should pop out and say something about being careful not to mess with the timeline.
Anyway, here is the cemetary. It's a lot smaller in this time period. I guess not many people have had a chance to die yet. The Halls of the Dead is a tough dungeon though. Lots of Drauger and even some crazy Daedra.
To wrap it up, here I am south of the river looking north at the city and the bridge. It is very much the Windhelm that I know, and yet also a different place. I'm really enjoying it though. The more I explore Skyrim in ESO the more I find myself looking for familiar landmarks and remembering adventures I had in the game Skyrim. I can't wait to get to Riften. I wonder if the Thieve's Guild is active there in this time period, or if my house is there yet. What I really want to see is Whiterun, but that part of Skyrim isn't available yet. Maybe in a future patch.
Summary, Pros: The game is beautiful and full of rich detail. It's open-world with plenty of places to explore. The skyshards give you freedom to build your character however you want to. There is no wrong way to play! You can be a stealthing, spell-casting, healer if you want, or a heavy armor-wearing archer. It's Elder Scrolls, have it your way! (or is that Burger King?) No matter, the game has things for everyone, and the story is fantastic.
Summary, Cons: The game still has glitches from time to time, nothing as bad as it was during early access, but I still find achievements or quest targets bugged sometimes. Also, there are gold spammers in almost every zone. Honestly, I'm not sure how they manage to stay in business. Gold is so easy to make in this game, there's no reason to buy it from anyone. Plus the mods have been working overtime banning bot accounts, so they must have some crazy setup to keep getting back into the game so fast. Maybe Bethesda should just block all IP addresses from China? That would probably fix the problem, but crazy morons would probably also label them as racist or something if they did. Ah, what a silly world.
Anyway, I'd like to close with a story about a quest I did while adventuring in the Rift (southeastern Skyrim). This ought to give you an idea of what the lore and stories are like in the game. In ESO the Rift is a level 38-43 zone. Anyway, as I was riding along the north road, looking for ore to mine or chests to unlock I came across an NPC who ran up to me calling for my attention. I stopped, dismounted and walked over to her. She was a dark elf, and I thought she looked familiar. As we talked she mentioned having been in Bal Foyen with me. That caught me by surprise because that was a long time ago, the first zone I went to after leaving Bleakrock island. I didn't really remember anything specific from back then, it's all a bit of a blur to me now, but I wasn't going to argue with her. Anyway, she asked me to help her scout a camp of Worm Cult followers and find out why they're here and what they're doing with people they've abducted. She said she would go and allow herself to get captured to find out information from the inside while I pretended to be a guard. Yeah, oldest scheme in the book, but hey this game is set hundreds of years before Skyrim, so maybe it wasn't such an old idea at this point? Anyway I agreed, put on a disguise she gave me, and went off to scout around the camp.
As I went, I found clues scattered about that painted a grim picture. Apparently the cultists were in league with a coven of Hagravens and were feeding prisoners to them in exchange for their dark magical powers. Some of the clues described really gross practices, such as allowing the Hagravens to suck out the eyes of helpless prisoners while they're still alive. That's disgusting, seriously. And then the prisoners would often be killed so their souls could be harvested as well. Talk about a run of bad luck. I mean d**n, I could think of a hundred ways I'd rather die than that. Which reminded me, my fellow spy Tovisa got herself captured by these bastards to learn about their secrets from inside the camp. Oh, that's not good.
So now I had to go find her and give her my report so we could get out of there. Yeah, should be simple enough. I tell her what's up, we go back to the army and wipe these freaks out. Of course not so easy. Tovis isn't there. Another prisoner reported that she was taken with a group of prisoners into the mines to be sacrificed. Lovely. So now it's a race against time, I've got to locate her and get her out of there before she goes through that ordeal. I figured, hey it's an Elder Scrolls game and I'm the hero. I'll arrive just in the nick of time, save the day, and end this foul practice. Nope. I sneak my way into the cave, still in my disguise, and see Tovisa up ahead... with a bloody rag tied around her face. She's already had her eyes sucked out by the Hagravens and is just waiting to be killed. When I get to her, she recognizes me (presumably by my voice) and starts to sob. Well, not exactly sob since she no longer has any tear ducts. What would you call it? Dry sobbing? It was pitiful, in a really really sad way. She pleads with me not to look at her, like she's been violated in the worst way and can't bare for me to even see her like this. But then she, still thinking of the mission, asks me to go kill the Hagravens and make sure this evil cult is ended so nobody else suffers through it. Gladly I went to do that. I took off the disguse and slaughtered everything in that cave. I killed the 3 Hagravens, put their heads on spikes and wiped out the coven. There, mission successful. Saved the day. Yippee.
After escorting Tovisa back to the surface, she gave me my quest reward. My gold and xp and enchanted item. And as I mounted up to ride heroically into the sunset I looked back. Back to where she was hobbling down the road, led along by the other prisoner who could still see. And it hit me. As the hero I'm off to go adventure and enjoy fun times and dungeons and epic loot. And here this woman, who'd dedicated her life for the Pact and been every bit as heroic as I was... she'd never see again. She'd have to live out her life as a cripple, probably forgotten by everyone. After all she wasn't the one who'd stormed the cave and wiped out the coven and put an end to the Worm Cult's actions. No that was me. She was just the one who got herself captured for the cause and LOST HER f**kING EYESIGHT FOREVER. I think that was the worst I'd ever felt for being the hero. And I'm not going to forget that quest any time soon.
And people say there's no immersion in an MMO.
If genocide against hagravens was a crime, I'd be guilty. I killed more of them since that quest. And I don't expect I'll stop any time soon. Cruel freaks.
Anyway, ESO is a powerful game. It continues to surprise me as I play. Yeah it's got its flaws here and there. It's not a perfect game. But it's a hell of a lot better than some people give it credit for. And the quests, the voice acting, the story, it's really good. It gets you emotionally invested in it, if you slow down and take the time to enjoy the story. Most people who claim that the game lacks depth are the ones skipping through the dialog and running about like headless chickens trying to power level to 50. They're the ones who miss quests like this and then complain that the game is bland and empty. Go figure.
Should you play ESO? That's up to you. It's got a hefty system requirements list, so you'd need a good quality PC. Mine is 4 years old, and I can only handle the game on Medium level graphics. But even so, it looks fantastic. The game is a huge time sink, also. If you play you'll need a few hours each day to invest in it, to really get immersed and enjoy the experience. This is not a casual game. This isn't Angry Birds or Candy Crush. You gotta sit down and play it like you mean it. But if you're looking for a good MMO experience, I'd say go for it! It's worth the $15 a month, especially if you already love the Elder Scrolls and want to experience more of that rich world and it's incredible history and people.
Thankyou for reading,
~Ardreas
Game Review: The Elder Scrolls Online
The Elder Scrolls Online, a collaborative project between Bethesda and Zenimax, is the franchise's first multiplayer game set in the world of Tamriel. It takes place during the 2nd Era, long before any of the single player games or their stories. It is a time before the rise of the Empire of Cyrodiil, when Daedric princes hurled chaos upon the world, and the races of the land were split by greed and mistrust. Into this game you, the perpetual prisoner of Bethesda's making, are thrown. Into this time of trouble you could make a difference...
Hello everyone! I am Ardreas, and I'll be leading you through a quick summary of the Elder Scrolls Online (hereafter referred to as: ESO) based on my experience with the game. I've been a gamer for many, many years, and I've played MMOs from Runescape to Star Wars: The Old Republic. I spent time in Azeroth battling for the mighty Horde in World of Warcraft, and I roamed across Tyria in Guild Wars 2. So of course when I heard that Bethesda was coming out with an MMO, I was excited. My friends and I got psyched for the opportunity to actually play an Elder Scrolls game together, rather than just talk about our experiences. And so when ESO launched earlier this year, we were all there for early access with our preordered Imperial Editions in hand (figuratively), and ready to take on the world of Tamriel once again! (or should I say previously? Since this took place before the others?) Anyway, I give you ESO: from my view!
Map of Tamriel
As you start off the game, you can choose between the 3 factions that exist during this time period. The Ebonheart Pact is made up of the Nords, the Dunmer, and the Argonians and controls the eastern section of the continent. The Daggerfall Covenant is made up of the Bretons, the Orcs, and the Redguard and controls the northwest. The Aldmeri Dominion is made up of the Altmer, the Bosmer, and the Khajiit and controls the south. Cyrodiil belongs to none of the factions, and acts as the game's PVP zone. More on that later.
My first leap into the game was from the perspective of a Dunmer. I didn't play Morrowind back when it first came out. My introduction to the world of the Elder Scrolls came with Oblivion, so I never got to experience the thrill of Morrowind's exotic locales and fascinating monsters. I know, the Skywind Project has helped bring Morrowind up to date in graphics, but I haven't taken the time to look into that yet. Anyway, with ESO I decided to start with Morrowind and branch out from there.
Tyroq the Dunmer Dragonknight
That's my character, standing on a bridge in Davon's Watch, the first major city you come to in the Ebonheart Pact. It's a great place to get started, plenty of merchants, bankers, profession-crafting stalls, inns, and stables for getting a horse. There's a ton of story going on, but I don't want to give too much of that away and spoil it for anyone. Suffice it to say: you start the game as a prisoner (like always) in Molag Bal's realm of Coldharbor! You have to escape from his prison (with help from some important people), and once you've done that you wake up in Tamriel. There's some pretty interesting stuff going on in that introductory segment, but long story short it's basically the tutorial dungeon. Once you are restored to your physical body and free to roam Tamriel, the game really begins.
My Imperial Horse
I took a bit of a detour up to Bleakrock Island, a tiny spit of frozen land along the northern coast between Morrowind and Skyrim, to help the locals fight off an invasion by the Daggerfall Covenant. It's totally optional to go to that island, but it's a nice place to get some early xp and find some skyshards. What are skyshards? Well, trying not to spoil anything, but it has to do with the fact that your character was dead. Your soul had been trapped in Couldharbor after someone had killed you, which is why you start the game there. Once you return to Tamriel, in order to bring you back into full alignment with the physical world you need to find skyshards. They're scattered all over the land, often quite hard to find. But they bring your character back more to life, as it were. They also have the nifty effect of granting you extra skill points.
This is essential because in ESO you can
But that takes a long time. Just like in any single player Elder Scrolls game, if you want moar skillz you have to level up. Except in ESO you can also hunt around for skyshards and get extra skillpoints without having to level up. It's a fine way to be able to fill in your profession skills without having to take away from your combat leveling.
Moving on, it wouldn't be Morrowind without crazy huge mushrooms (or so I've heard).
Ah, Morrowind, home sweet home!
Working on my profession. Here I am doing some alchemy in Davon's Watch. It's very similar to alchemy in the single player games, but it really takes time here! In fact, leveling up a profession in this online version feels like it takes longer than in the traditional games. So for someone like me who has to balance my time between this and real life, I can really only work on one skill at a time.
And then it's time to relax at the Inn, listening to a bard sing Malukah's song(embedded below). They did a good job at keeping the cheery tavern atmosphere.
She's a fantastic singer, and I love her Elder Scrolls covers from Skyrim. Bethesda must agree, because they got her to do an official version of that song to be sung by bards in-game.
Anyway, there's lots more that could be said, but we need to move on. Bethesda once again brings a fantastic voice acting crew together for the game. John Cleese, Michael Gambon, Kate Beckinsale, Malcolm McDowell, Lynda Carter, Bill Nighy, and Alfred Molina are just the highlights of the ensemble cast. And their work really is good. I was careful not to spoil myself ahead of time on who would be playing what role. So when I first heard The Prophet speak to me, I was like "Dumbledore!?"
Like all Elder Scrolls games, the key to enjoying this one is to slow down and immerse yourself in the story. There are people out there who complain that the game is "too shallow" or not engaging enough. These people are the ones who fly through a zone, rushing through the quests and camping the bosses to power level to the end. They miss the point of the whole game. It's not about getting to level 50 first. The journey (so cliche, I know) is more important than the final destination. And if you take the time to enjoy the unfolding story of this game, you will really come to love just how deep and interesting it is. This is Tamriel, after all. There's going to be some pretty cool world-building stuff here that helps you understand the other games better, too.
Anyway, here I am coming to understand that this is Argonian architecture... They apparently live in giant mud huts that look disturbingly like dung piles.
And here's combat. I figure I'd show this just so you can see what the action bar setup is like. You only get 5 hotkeys, nothing like WoW. But it seems to work fine so far. You can also switch between weapon sets which gives you a whole new action bar that you can hotkey other abilities to. So that works I guess. It does make combat interesting, you have to pay attention to what you're fighting and what abilities you will need, rather than just blindly button mashing your way through the fight.
Oh, and speaking of fights, you have to actually aim your attacks, just like in the single player games. If I'm facing away from my enemy and swing my sword, I'm not going to hit him! You'd think that's common sense, but most MMOs these days auto-lock hand-hold you all the way to the end. Here, you have to be at least somewhat competent.
Oh, and speaking of the single player games, Bethesda likes to include little things here and there to remind us that we are still in their world, even if it is an MMO. Obviously a poke at Skyrim players. Had me laughing anyway.
The game has had some glitches, but they seem to be getting ironed out as it matures. For the most part it's been awesome. Actually, I think this game is getting better the farther I go. I had a great time after finishing Morrowind by going to Black Marsh next, and guess what they have (other than a bunch of swamps)?
Ayleid Ruins!
Man it felt like I was playing Oblivion again. Crazy! I found myself looking for Varla Stones...
And I found one!
Too bad I can't pick them up though. They're just light sources here, but still, they look awesome. Also, in case you noticed, yes that's a different character. I am leveling 2 characters together. Tyroq, my DPS, is the one you saw before. This one is Orealis, my tank. It's fun to experience the game in different roles, plus it's useful for my guild to have different toons to be on for dungeons. Anyway, speaking of Oblivion related stuff, guess who I met?
Sheogorath! The mad god himself took me to the Shivering Isles and had me doing some crazy quests for him as part of a larger story arc (which I won't spoil for ya here). He was hilarious as usual, and a bit nutty.
I took down some Dark Anchors too, while adventuring around Black Marsh. Those are fun world events. I think I showed you a picture of one a while back in the University Gaming Thread. Well you get some nice xp and loot from being part of a group that takes them down. Plus an achievement for the first time you do it.
Another view of an Ayleid Ruin, just because they're so cool.
And here's something interesting. Do you know what this is? It's the Hist Tree! That big sacred tree the Argonians are always talking about. Apparently they lay their eggs in the soil beneath it and each generation hatches with a special bond to the tree. There's a lot more to it than that, and apparently the Hist is even conscious. I got to talk to it at one point. But again, no spoilers.
Lots of ships along the Black Marsh coast. Not all of them friendly. There are Khajiit pirates that raid these lands, some of them privateers working for the cursed Aldmeri Dominion.
Anyway, speaking of tanking dungeons, here I am tanking a group through Arx Corinium. Now that is an awesome dungeon. It's huge and the fights are beautifully complex! No more blind button mashing. No more spamming abilities and burning down bosses. These mobs mean business and you have to pay attention to stuff. There's one syren that screams so loud she'll kill everyone if they don't figure out the correct place to take shelter. There's a huge Wamasu that electrocutes random group members and lashes them to the ground with electric handcuffs and they can't break free unless a party member comes over to help release them. And then there's the boss in the picture who electrifies the water around that island, so if you step into it you die. And she'll summon electric storms in random areas so you have to keep moving, plus she has a nasty scream attack that fires in a cone in front of her, so as the tank I had to keep her facing away from the group. Ah, good times.
But we're getting pretty long now in this review, so I'm going to try to wrap things up. After finishing Black Marsh, I sailed around the east coast and up to Skyrim, landing in Windhelm. And holy frozen crapsicles! It looks so amazing!
The Southern Gate is easily recognizable, and the general layout of the city is quite similar to what anyone who's played Skyrim would be familiar with. Architecture is a little different, but that's understandable, given that this is a very long time before the events of Skyrim.
But then turn around and look north... Could this be Candlehearth Hall?
Holy crapazoids! It is, but it looks so different. It's beautiful and new, just like the whole city. Fresh and vibrant. Kinda make me feel a bit depressed, knowing how much the city will degrade by the time of 4th Era. But still, it's awesome to see it now. Very cool. And then here is the gate to the Palace of Kings. Easily recognizable.
But who is this? A Stormcloak!? Now that is interesting. Looks like an old family, prominent in the city for a very long time indeed. I feel like the Doctor should pop out and say something about being careful not to mess with the timeline.
Anyway, here is the cemetary. It's a lot smaller in this time period. I guess not many people have had a chance to die yet. The Halls of the Dead is a tough dungeon though. Lots of Drauger and even some crazy Daedra.
To wrap it up, here I am south of the river looking north at the city and the bridge. It is very much the Windhelm that I know, and yet also a different place. I'm really enjoying it though. The more I explore Skyrim in ESO the more I find myself looking for familiar landmarks and remembering adventures I had in the game Skyrim. I can't wait to get to Riften. I wonder if the Thieve's Guild is active there in this time period, or if my house is there yet. What I really want to see is Whiterun, but that part of Skyrim isn't available yet. Maybe in a future patch.
Summary, Pros: The game is beautiful and full of rich detail. It's open-world with plenty of places to explore. The skyshards give you freedom to build your character however you want to. There is no wrong way to play! You can be a stealthing, spell-casting, healer if you want, or a heavy armor-wearing archer. It's Elder Scrolls, have it your way! (or is that Burger King?) No matter, the game has things for everyone, and the story is fantastic.
Summary, Cons: The game still has glitches from time to time, nothing as bad as it was during early access, but I still find achievements or quest targets bugged sometimes. Also, there are gold spammers in almost every zone. Honestly, I'm not sure how they manage to stay in business. Gold is so easy to make in this game, there's no reason to buy it from anyone. Plus the mods have been working overtime banning bot accounts, so they must have some crazy setup to keep getting back into the game so fast. Maybe Bethesda should just block all IP addresses from China? That would probably fix the problem, but crazy morons would probably also label them as racist or something if they did. Ah, what a silly world.
Anyway, I'd like to close with a story about a quest I did while adventuring in the Rift (southeastern Skyrim). This ought to give you an idea of what the lore and stories are like in the game. In ESO the Rift is a level 38-43 zone. Anyway, as I was riding along the north road, looking for ore to mine or chests to unlock I came across an NPC who ran up to me calling for my attention. I stopped, dismounted and walked over to her. She was a dark elf, and I thought she looked familiar. As we talked she mentioned having been in Bal Foyen with me. That caught me by surprise because that was a long time ago, the first zone I went to after leaving Bleakrock island. I didn't really remember anything specific from back then, it's all a bit of a blur to me now, but I wasn't going to argue with her. Anyway, she asked me to help her scout a camp of Worm Cult followers and find out why they're here and what they're doing with people they've abducted. She said she would go and allow herself to get captured to find out information from the inside while I pretended to be a guard. Yeah, oldest scheme in the book, but hey this game is set hundreds of years before Skyrim, so maybe it wasn't such an old idea at this point? Anyway I agreed, put on a disguise she gave me, and went off to scout around the camp.
As I went, I found clues scattered about that painted a grim picture. Apparently the cultists were in league with a coven of Hagravens and were feeding prisoners to them in exchange for their dark magical powers. Some of the clues described really gross practices, such as allowing the Hagravens to suck out the eyes of helpless prisoners while they're still alive. That's disgusting, seriously. And then the prisoners would often be killed so their souls could be harvested as well. Talk about a run of bad luck. I mean d**n, I could think of a hundred ways I'd rather die than that. Which reminded me, my fellow spy Tovisa got herself captured by these bastards to learn about their secrets from inside the camp. Oh, that's not good.
So now I had to go find her and give her my report so we could get out of there. Yeah, should be simple enough. I tell her what's up, we go back to the army and wipe these freaks out. Of course not so easy. Tovis isn't there. Another prisoner reported that she was taken with a group of prisoners into the mines to be sacrificed. Lovely. So now it's a race against time, I've got to locate her and get her out of there before she goes through that ordeal. I figured, hey it's an Elder Scrolls game and I'm the hero. I'll arrive just in the nick of time, save the day, and end this foul practice. Nope. I sneak my way into the cave, still in my disguise, and see Tovisa up ahead... with a bloody rag tied around her face. She's already had her eyes sucked out by the Hagravens and is just waiting to be killed. When I get to her, she recognizes me (presumably by my voice) and starts to sob. Well, not exactly sob since she no longer has any tear ducts. What would you call it? Dry sobbing? It was pitiful, in a really really sad way. She pleads with me not to look at her, like she's been violated in the worst way and can't bare for me to even see her like this. But then she, still thinking of the mission, asks me to go kill the Hagravens and make sure this evil cult is ended so nobody else suffers through it. Gladly I went to do that. I took off the disguse and slaughtered everything in that cave. I killed the 3 Hagravens, put their heads on spikes and wiped out the coven. There, mission successful. Saved the day. Yippee.
After escorting Tovisa back to the surface, she gave me my quest reward. My gold and xp and enchanted item. And as I mounted up to ride heroically into the sunset I looked back. Back to where she was hobbling down the road, led along by the other prisoner who could still see. And it hit me. As the hero I'm off to go adventure and enjoy fun times and dungeons and epic loot. And here this woman, who'd dedicated her life for the Pact and been every bit as heroic as I was... she'd never see again. She'd have to live out her life as a cripple, probably forgotten by everyone. After all she wasn't the one who'd stormed the cave and wiped out the coven and put an end to the Worm Cult's actions. No that was me. She was just the one who got herself captured for the cause and LOST HER f**kING EYESIGHT FOREVER. I think that was the worst I'd ever felt for being the hero. And I'm not going to forget that quest any time soon.
And people say there's no immersion in an MMO.
If genocide against hagravens was a crime, I'd be guilty. I killed more of them since that quest. And I don't expect I'll stop any time soon. Cruel freaks.
Anyway, ESO is a powerful game. It continues to surprise me as I play. Yeah it's got its flaws here and there. It's not a perfect game. But it's a hell of a lot better than some people give it credit for. And the quests, the voice acting, the story, it's really good. It gets you emotionally invested in it, if you slow down and take the time to enjoy the story. Most people who claim that the game lacks depth are the ones skipping through the dialog and running about like headless chickens trying to power level to 50. They're the ones who miss quests like this and then complain that the game is bland and empty. Go figure.
Should you play ESO? That's up to you. It's got a hefty system requirements list, so you'd need a good quality PC. Mine is 4 years old, and I can only handle the game on Medium level graphics. But even so, it looks fantastic. The game is a huge time sink, also. If you play you'll need a few hours each day to invest in it, to really get immersed and enjoy the experience. This is not a casual game. This isn't Angry Birds or Candy Crush. You gotta sit down and play it like you mean it. But if you're looking for a good MMO experience, I'd say go for it! It's worth the $15 a month, especially if you already love the Elder Scrolls and want to experience more of that rich world and it's incredible history and people.
Thankyou for reading,
~Ardreas
