First thoughts on The Elder Scrolls
Online
By: Steven Wallace
Within my first 24 hours of played time in The Elder Scrolls Online, I have taken the time to learn about this new world of Tamriel, re-imagined beautifully in an MMO setting. The game is not without it's flaws and some of the current bugs are immersion breaking, but the game sucks you right back in with it's fun combat system and it's emphasis on story in fully voice-acted dialog, in true Elder Scrolls style.
When I first entered the world as the Soulless One (the protagonist of the game; your avatar), it immediately felt like a typical Elder Scrolls game introduction: you are a prisoner and you are about to be freed. The tutorial area is a place called Coldharbour, the plane of Oblivion associated with Molag Bal, the Daedric Prince of domination and enslavement of mortals. You escape during a revolt from the soul shriven captives after a visit from the Prophet, a blind old man who will lead you through much of your game. You are taught the essentials of combat and some basic user-interface features as well as presented with the basic gist of what you are in for in terms of storytelling. The environment really looks awesome to me, considering I have always been a fan of mixing really cold, hard colors with minimal lighting cast from torches and furnaces. The attention to detail made this very linear tutorial area feel amazingly wide open, especially considering the numerous lootable objects are scattered about just like a typical Elder Scrolls game.
After exiting the tutorial area however, I felt lost. It felt as if I had skipped some content. The reason for this is because I played in the beta later in the year last year and after leaving Coldharbour, my Nord's next area was waking up in a room in Bleakrock. This area gives you a little more experience with the combat system and practice dodging and blocking enemies special attacks as well as a chance to experience one of the games first major choices: find all of the lost villagers or suggest that they leave immediately. I have personally not seen too much how your choices impact the story as a whole yet, however with some studying around the internet, I have read where these choices do have long-lasting impact on your game experience and am excited to see how this plays out. During my time on this island, I have saved villagers from being frozen in ice, being trapped in a hardened spider “cacoon,” I suppose, and even infiltrated a bandit hideout. One thing that is made apparent in this game and that The Elder Scrolls Online will not hold your hand.
Now, I will backtrack a little to right when my character woke up this time around. When I said that I felt a little lost, this is only simply because the game does not hold your hand and tell you where you need to go. The moment I left the house, I found myself in Davon's Watch, one of the major locations in Morrowind and your first hubs which houses a Mages Guild, Fighters Guild and all of the major vendors and crafting locations as well as banks and quests. When you leave the area, it feels like the enemies surrounding Davon's Watch are far beyond where you are. I knew that for whatever reason, Zenimax had decided to place your character here so I spent some time wandering to find someone to take me to Bleakrock so that I can begin my adventure in a more level-appropriate area. This change from the earlier beta slightly disturbs me in only the fact that it may create an invisible barrier for new players who did not have the opportunity to join in on the beta like I had. In fact, a good friend of mine created a character the other night and was wandering around aimlessly, getting killed by wolves and other hostile enemies until I took him under my wing and walked him around Davon's Watch so I could provide him with a little guidance and point him at the person he would need to speak to to travel to Bleakrock. After he was given this advice, he finally had an idea of a good starting point and was able to begin his adventure and learn more about how this game plays.
Let's not take this as I do not appreciate that the game does not hold your hand, however. I enjoy the adventuring aspect. You can literally run around and discover new locations and find quests scattered about from people in need, militias and major players in the wars against the Daedra. The non-linear feeling of the world truly makes this feel like an adventure and a typical Elder Scrolls game and not just a theme-park MMO.
The combat system is almost exactly the kind of action-combat system that I have been wanting in an MMO for the last few years. The combat system is a solid mix of Elder Scrolls action with a typical MMO action bar, giving you access to more abilities and actions than you would in a regular Elder Scrolls title (considering the lack of pausing to assign magicka abilities, this feels like it is only necessary). Playing as a Dragon Knight, I find myself swinging my sword more often than using my abilities and this feels great, knowing that I'm not just hitting tab and auto-attacking and pressing a few hotkeys. If they had made this game a standard tab-target game, I would have passed on this game; luckily they didn't do that and they have created an MMO with the kind of combat that I have been dreaming of for a very long time. Even Guild Wars 2 left me feeling like it was a just a typical tab-target affair, even though we were promised more action. This game seems to do it right. My only gripe is that with how fast the combat is, you need to prepare your items beforehand and decide whether you want to assign a healing potion or magicka potion to your Q button or you might end up in a tough spot and holding Q to access the radial menu for these items while in combat can sometimes lead to a quick death.
While exploring the world, you will find many players thanks to the fact that the servers in the game are Megaservers. These servers are split into phases, likely to promote a smooth and bandwidth friendly experience for the player, giving the player less things to load on their screen and less information to transmit to and from the servers. The phases can often be used as a utility by players to switch between the phases to complete quests should an area be too populated, or in a worst-case scenario, if the quest is bugged in one phase. This may also require you to make use of the phasing mechanic to join a friend in the world however, as when you join a group with each other, it does not automatically place you in the same phase as your friend, but that is as simple as right-clicking your friend's name and clicking the “Go to player” option, which will teleport you to the nearest wayshrine to your friend and you will be in the same phase. There was one bug that I had noticed where you will see the arrow on the screen of where your friend is and when you begin to approach, the arrow will disappear and you will find that the waypoints on your map indicate that your friend is outside of the area you are currently in, even if that isn't the case.
Despite there being an abundance of players that may be in your general area, there is still a fairness in gathering items in the world. A lot of the lootable objects and gathering notes are phased for your character only and even if you see a player running toward that object, you will have an opportunity to gather from that node as well. This isn't the case with all of the nodes but for the most part, you will not miss out on much at the hands of a vulture, waiting for someone to run out to attack an enemy to leave an opening for them to gather the iron laying nearby. On that note, all of the enemies in the world provide experience and loot to the players. The mobs are not tagged to an individual; you have just as much to gain from an enemy that another player has initiated combat with first as they do so this adds a level of cooperation among the players once they realize this and that is completely refreshing to see in a game, particularly when it comes to the named enemies that are quest objectives.
By: Steven Wallace
Within my first 24 hours of played time in The Elder Scrolls Online, I have taken the time to learn about this new world of Tamriel, re-imagined beautifully in an MMO setting. The game is not without it's flaws and some of the current bugs are immersion breaking, but the game sucks you right back in with it's fun combat system and it's emphasis on story in fully voice-acted dialog, in true Elder Scrolls style.
When I first entered the world as the Soulless One (the protagonist of the game; your avatar), it immediately felt like a typical Elder Scrolls game introduction: you are a prisoner and you are about to be freed. The tutorial area is a place called Coldharbour, the plane of Oblivion associated with Molag Bal, the Daedric Prince of domination and enslavement of mortals. You escape during a revolt from the soul shriven captives after a visit from the Prophet, a blind old man who will lead you through much of your game. You are taught the essentials of combat and some basic user-interface features as well as presented with the basic gist of what you are in for in terms of storytelling. The environment really looks awesome to me, considering I have always been a fan of mixing really cold, hard colors with minimal lighting cast from torches and furnaces. The attention to detail made this very linear tutorial area feel amazingly wide open, especially considering the numerous lootable objects are scattered about just like a typical Elder Scrolls game.
After exiting the tutorial area however, I felt lost. It felt as if I had skipped some content. The reason for this is because I played in the beta later in the year last year and after leaving Coldharbour, my Nord's next area was waking up in a room in Bleakrock. This area gives you a little more experience with the combat system and practice dodging and blocking enemies special attacks as well as a chance to experience one of the games first major choices: find all of the lost villagers or suggest that they leave immediately. I have personally not seen too much how your choices impact the story as a whole yet, however with some studying around the internet, I have read where these choices do have long-lasting impact on your game experience and am excited to see how this plays out. During my time on this island, I have saved villagers from being frozen in ice, being trapped in a hardened spider “cacoon,” I suppose, and even infiltrated a bandit hideout. One thing that is made apparent in this game and that The Elder Scrolls Online will not hold your hand.
Now, I will backtrack a little to right when my character woke up this time around. When I said that I felt a little lost, this is only simply because the game does not hold your hand and tell you where you need to go. The moment I left the house, I found myself in Davon's Watch, one of the major locations in Morrowind and your first hubs which houses a Mages Guild, Fighters Guild and all of the major vendors and crafting locations as well as banks and quests. When you leave the area, it feels like the enemies surrounding Davon's Watch are far beyond where you are. I knew that for whatever reason, Zenimax had decided to place your character here so I spent some time wandering to find someone to take me to Bleakrock so that I can begin my adventure in a more level-appropriate area. This change from the earlier beta slightly disturbs me in only the fact that it may create an invisible barrier for new players who did not have the opportunity to join in on the beta like I had. In fact, a good friend of mine created a character the other night and was wandering around aimlessly, getting killed by wolves and other hostile enemies until I took him under my wing and walked him around Davon's Watch so I could provide him with a little guidance and point him at the person he would need to speak to to travel to Bleakrock. After he was given this advice, he finally had an idea of a good starting point and was able to begin his adventure and learn more about how this game plays.
Let's not take this as I do not appreciate that the game does not hold your hand, however. I enjoy the adventuring aspect. You can literally run around and discover new locations and find quests scattered about from people in need, militias and major players in the wars against the Daedra. The non-linear feeling of the world truly makes this feel like an adventure and a typical Elder Scrolls game and not just a theme-park MMO.
The combat system is almost exactly the kind of action-combat system that I have been wanting in an MMO for the last few years. The combat system is a solid mix of Elder Scrolls action with a typical MMO action bar, giving you access to more abilities and actions than you would in a regular Elder Scrolls title (considering the lack of pausing to assign magicka abilities, this feels like it is only necessary). Playing as a Dragon Knight, I find myself swinging my sword more often than using my abilities and this feels great, knowing that I'm not just hitting tab and auto-attacking and pressing a few hotkeys. If they had made this game a standard tab-target game, I would have passed on this game; luckily they didn't do that and they have created an MMO with the kind of combat that I have been dreaming of for a very long time. Even Guild Wars 2 left me feeling like it was a just a typical tab-target affair, even though we were promised more action. This game seems to do it right. My only gripe is that with how fast the combat is, you need to prepare your items beforehand and decide whether you want to assign a healing potion or magicka potion to your Q button or you might end up in a tough spot and holding Q to access the radial menu for these items while in combat can sometimes lead to a quick death.
While exploring the world, you will find many players thanks to the fact that the servers in the game are Megaservers. These servers are split into phases, likely to promote a smooth and bandwidth friendly experience for the player, giving the player less things to load on their screen and less information to transmit to and from the servers. The phases can often be used as a utility by players to switch between the phases to complete quests should an area be too populated, or in a worst-case scenario, if the quest is bugged in one phase. This may also require you to make use of the phasing mechanic to join a friend in the world however, as when you join a group with each other, it does not automatically place you in the same phase as your friend, but that is as simple as right-clicking your friend's name and clicking the “Go to player” option, which will teleport you to the nearest wayshrine to your friend and you will be in the same phase. There was one bug that I had noticed where you will see the arrow on the screen of where your friend is and when you begin to approach, the arrow will disappear and you will find that the waypoints on your map indicate that your friend is outside of the area you are currently in, even if that isn't the case.
Despite there being an abundance of players that may be in your general area, there is still a fairness in gathering items in the world. A lot of the lootable objects and gathering notes are phased for your character only and even if you see a player running toward that object, you will have an opportunity to gather from that node as well. This isn't the case with all of the nodes but for the most part, you will not miss out on much at the hands of a vulture, waiting for someone to run out to attack an enemy to leave an opening for them to gather the iron laying nearby. On that note, all of the enemies in the world provide experience and loot to the players. The mobs are not tagged to an individual; you have just as much to gain from an enemy that another player has initiated combat with first as they do so this adds a level of cooperation among the players once they realize this and that is completely refreshing to see in a game, particularly when it comes to the named enemies that are quest objectives.
Being that this is a new game, I am
still coming across new things that blow my mind. In this game,
Zenimax opted to ditch the weight system used in the Elder Scrolls
games in favor of an item limit and at first, this seems very
limiting when you first start out. Sorry to all those folks out
there who like to gather all of the items you can find in the world
and sell them to vendors; that just will not happen in this game.
You start out with an initial limit of 60 items that you can hold on
your character at one time but this can be upgraded in multiple ways.
One way that you may upgrade this is by visiting a merchant that
will give you more pack-space for an initial cost of 400 gold with
each upgrade after that increasing in cost dramatically. With some
research, I have found you can upgrade your inventory space to a
total of 110 in this way. Another way to increase your carrying
capacity is by purchasing a horse. The lower end horses will start
with 0 capacity where the Draft Horse starts with an initial 10
capacity, which is an extra 10 inventory slots for you to carry your
precious items. You can upgrade the capacity of the horses a total
of 10 times, each upgrade giving you one extra inventory slot, making
the Draft Horse currently the most valuable horse for the typical
pack-rat Elder Scrolls player. This method of adding inventory space
will require a total of 41 days if you feed your horse every day or
more if you are a more casual player.
All of this considering, this is
pretty much as close to the perfect online Elder Scrolls game we
could have asked for from my first 24 hours of playing. Everything
that is in an Elder Scrolls game is there minus the player housing
(which we will hopefully see in a future update), and aside from the
bugs that are currently present, the only concern I have is the lack
of a clear place to start. Bugs can be fixed and patched out over
time and the game has just been released so it is to be expected for
unexpected bugs to pop up, especially from a programmer's view, where
sometimes even the slightest change of code can cause some broken
scripts in a different location, but without a clear place to start,
you are risking botching the story progression of the game. I do not
expect Zenimax to hold our hands through the game but I do feel that
you should make sure your players know where they can start should
they need that introduction outside of the tutorial area and then
slowly let the player begin going off on their own should they choose
to. For example, when following the Bleakrock questline off the
island and onto the mainland led to an important decision which
involved choosing to either help a band of soldiers defend some docks
from approaching enemy forces or go to a fort which was temporary
shelter for the families of those soldiers and protect them from the
enemy. Each decision had their repercussions and it gave you a real
sense of how vulnerable your world really was and introduces you to
the fact that you will be making some very tough decisions for the
good of all.
In closing, I have found my first 24 hours in The Elder Scrolls Online to be very enjoyable and I am still having fun engaging in the lore, exploring, helping the residents of Tamriel in sometimes seemingly menial tasks and learning every thing that I can. The Elder Scrolls Online has had possibly one of the smoothest MMO launches I have seen despite the minor bugs and seemingly random maintenances, and I am currently quite pleased with what the game has turned into and look forward to entering the PvP content, which is very strange for me considering I typically do not like PvP in games. I am more than willing to give this game a fair chance over the next few months and see how things play out because if what we have now is any indication, we are in for a hell of a game. If you are on the fence about the game, I strongly suggest watching some live-streams or visit a friend who may have a copy and try it out yourself. In the next few months, I will be putting together some guides and other articles about the game and I encourage you to keep an eye out for it. I also plan on doing some live-streams of the game so if you are interested, you can follow me on twitch with the link below and the moment I begin streaming, please stop by.
http://www.twitch.tv/lethrface13
In closing, I have found my first 24 hours in The Elder Scrolls Online to be very enjoyable and I am still having fun engaging in the lore, exploring, helping the residents of Tamriel in sometimes seemingly menial tasks and learning every thing that I can. The Elder Scrolls Online has had possibly one of the smoothest MMO launches I have seen despite the minor bugs and seemingly random maintenances, and I am currently quite pleased with what the game has turned into and look forward to entering the PvP content, which is very strange for me considering I typically do not like PvP in games. I am more than willing to give this game a fair chance over the next few months and see how things play out because if what we have now is any indication, we are in for a hell of a game. If you are on the fence about the game, I strongly suggest watching some live-streams or visit a friend who may have a copy and try it out yourself. In the next few months, I will be putting together some guides and other articles about the game and I encourage you to keep an eye out for it. I also plan on doing some live-streams of the game so if you are interested, you can follow me on twitch with the link below and the moment I begin streaming, please stop by.
http://www.twitch.tv/lethrface13
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