During BE3 (Bethesda’s Annual E3 Showcase), we got an all-too-brief look at the two major DLC packs coming up next in Elder Scrolls Online: Horns of the Reach and Clockwork City. The first is a dungeon-based DLC, and the second is a large story-line driven exploration of Sotha Sil’s famed lost city. Today we’re unpacking these announcements and offering our thoughts.
Here’s the good stuff – both DLCs are for any version of the game. If you’ve got Morrowind or not, you’ll be able to play and enjoy these DLCs if you buy them or have ESO Plus. The only thing that won’t be available to all players is the new Battleground map and game mode coming in Horns of the Reach. Let’s start there…
Horns of the Reach is the second Dungeon-Themed DLC for ESO, coming in after last year’s well-received but less ballyhooed Shadows of the Hist DLC. There will be two dungeons: Bloodroot Forge and Falkreath Hold, each with their own item sets, monster masks, and achievements. There’s not much info on either dungeon yet, but if they’re as intriguing as what we found in Shadows of the Hist, or half as interesting as some of Morrowind’s Delves, we’re in for a treat.
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Horns of the Reach also comes with a major free update, including the new Battleground Map and new Chaos Ball game mode (Hutt Ball?). Plus there are loads of new homes, furnishings, cosmetics, etc. The question I have is whether it’ll cost the same as Shadows of the Hist did last year, which was cheaper than the other DLC – at 1500 Crowns. I don’t want to say that a dungeon DLC is disappointing, because I love playing ESO’s dungeons, but I suppose I was hoping for more meat for the first DLC after Morrowind.
Thankfully, the second update (I’d guess coming in October or early November) is the long-awaited adventure into Sotha Sil’s Clockwork City. If you’re playing Morrowind, there have been plenty of hints at the Clockwork City coming into play, and for a long time now dataminers have been finding bits and pieces of it in the game’s files. Heck, the Halls of Fabrication, Morrowind’s big Trial, is all about Sotha Sil and the Clockwork City.
Like Orsinium before it, Clockwork City will be a big adventure and story-based DLC with the City acting as the main zone for players to explore. You do not need to have Morrowind to play Clockwork City either, and while there are few details known about what the story or content entails, we know it’ll have over 10 hours of new adventures to be had. This is the one I’m personally more excited about, because it’s an area of the lore I’ve been longing to dive into.
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These two DLC put a cap on 2017, I’d wager. With Homestead released back in February, then Morrowind in June, Horns of the Reach and Clockwork City round out the four promised big updates we’re getting every year from here on in. That means we’ll likely start to hear about the next Chapter (following Morrowind) and the first DLC of 2018 once the holidays pick up. As they say in Nirn, the Silt Strider slows for no man.
If there was one wish for the next cycle of DLC and Chapter content I could put out there into the ZOS collective? Let’s have next year bring us more weapons, more race-themed content like Orsinium, and for the love of Vivec – let me tend a garden or farm.
