THE MIDDLE GROUND
Combat is a strength for ESO, if you’re a fan of TES games. While it’s more of a soft-targeting game for ranged combat, you still have to generally be over your enemy with the reticule to hit them. And melee fighters will have it easier because their swings will hit multiple enemies in an arc. But by and large, this is the same combat you’ve come to love in TES with the added bonus of finally giving you a hotbar without needing an add-on. Spells can be cast without un-equipping a shield or weapon, for example. But still, some MMO fans will scoff at the idea of clicking and holding-click in a slower more methodical combat where blocking is necessary, and dodging is just as needed.
My advice? Try out a bunch of weapons early, find your favorite, and go with that for a while. Combat for me is much more enjoyable with dual-wielding than with a two-hander for instance (which is slower). But your skills don’t have cooldowns, and you can use them as often as you can afford their magicka or stamina requirement. Only the Ultimate skill has a sort of CD, in that you must build up its resource by fighting well in combat before you can unleash it.
Personally, I’ve grown very fond of the combat, and I look forward to having five more skills with a second set of weapons (yes, like GW2) at level 15. Nothing like being a plate-wearing, dual-dagger wielding, daedric summoning Sorcerer that also has a healing or lightning staff to boot.
THE GOOD STUFF
Very Immersive
Some TES fans might not be satisfied unless they can kill all townsfolk and get taken to jail only to break out and kill their way to freedom, but I’ve been playing MMOs long enough to know that this isn’t possible without a.) making all of that private to each player or b.) pissing off all other players. I’ll settle for what I am able to do: like finding a random traveling merchant, and intimidating her into giving me a bag of goods. Sure she won’t sell to me ever again, but I got a green item out of it. I’ll take killing deer and using their hides to make armor, or capturing butterflies and using their parts as fishing lures.
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That's MY storm atronach and clannfear, folks. /flex
I also love just how minimalist the UI is. There’s no mini-map. Your skills and each pool of health, stamina, or magicka only show during use, and the compass overhead is all you have to navigate by without physically watching your character pull out a map and view it. The map itself is sparse on information until you explore each zone and uncover POIs (just like Skyrim). Even the quests have less information on the map these days. You’ll still be hard-pressed to miss where you need to go, but it somehow feels less intrusive to have the “Skyrim pointer” on the map, rather than big giant yellow circles. If you plug in some headphones, and go into first person view? ESO is about as immersive as it gets for an MMO of AAA quality.
Questing with a Purpose
The quests in general are one of the highlights of ESO, and it’s not because of the voice over work. Even with the sound off, reading and thinking adventurers will be rewarded because there’s actual meat to the quests here. Helping a town fight off a plague only to find out that one of the townsfolk was feeding its citizens to his locked up vampire son is pretty cool “regular questing” content. You will very rarely find a quest that requires just “killing 10 rats”, and most every point of interest on the map has its own storyline to complete, complete with achievements titles for “finishing” an area.
But that doesn’t mean you’re going from hub to hub in ESO. There are very few breadcrumb quests, with the exception of the main story moving with you through zones. Instead, on several occasions I found myself wandering to uncover more of the map, delving into a mine, and uncovering a whole new side quest line with its own lore and reason to be explored. The more I play ESO, the more I realize that this game could have some of the best quests and exploration available to MMO gamers. There’s so much to see and explore and play through. Getting stuck with quests that are too high above you? Go back exploring in an earlier area, chances are you missed some stuff.
The Lore Library
The Lore Library is where every book, ledger, piece of paper, tome, and so forth will be stored once you discover it in Tamriel. Every bit if lore the team’s written in the game will be here for the reader among you, and I think that’s pretty damn cool. I know it’s become passé to read in these games, but I still dig it and I know a few of you will as well.
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Your UI is never in the way of the game's visuals.
Meaningful Crafting
Mike will cover this more in depth soon with an article on crafting, but ESO’s is very solid. Everything you can make is comparable to items you will find in the world or receive as quest rewards. You won’t have to spend hours and hours on useless stuff to skill up either. There’s research to be done for new styles and new additives, but right from the early levels you’ll be able to craft items that compare to or out-perform what’s on hand with the random drops. That’s a good sign for the endgame if it holds true.
Incredible Freedom of Progression
You’ll pick a class from four base choices when you start ESO, but don’t let that small number fool you. Class selection can mean as little or as much as you want it to be, because ESO’s freedom to build your ideal character is some of the best I’ve ever seen. You can read a full dive into the system here, but when I say I was playing a plate-wearing, dual-dagger wielding, daedric summoning Sorcerer that’s no lie. If you like to tank but also want to cast sorcerer’s magic? Go ahead! Just pick the sorcerer as your class, and mix and match heavy armor, a shield, and magic to your heart’s content.
I’m really anxious to see what builds people come up with, and now that a respect option will be added, thankfully there will be plenty of chances to experiment on your way to the level cap, and then? Well then, my friends, you get to go exploring the other factions’ quest lines, AVA, the Fighter’s Guild, the Mage’s Guild, maybe be a werewolf, a vampire, or just focus on mastering all weapons and armor. There’s so much progression here that even at the level cap you’ll be hard-pressed to run out of things to do for months and months.
My jury’s still out on how well the subscription option will hold up for ESO, but that’s no longer because of the quality of the game. Two months from launch, Elder Scrolls Online feels refined, polished, and ready to go. It’s not at all the copy of WoW, SWTOR, or whatever you might think it is, and instead seems to be working very well at being an online Elder Scrolls. That’s an achievement in and of itself, making a AAA MMORPG that doesn’t feel like a clone of other MMOs, but rather a fitting new entry into the series from whence it came. The AVA and elder gameplay will be the real clincher, but for now? Consider me an optimistic “Will Purchase” for Elder Scrolls Online. My orc wants to taste Aldmeri blood.
Bill Murphy / Bill is the Managing Editor of MMORPG.com, and all around goofy dork. He likes his peanut butter chunky and his coffee from Dunkin Donuts. You can follow him on Twitter and shake your head at all of his inanity @TheBillMurphy.
