Bethesda’s flagship series, The Elder Scrolls kicked off in 1994 with Arena, one of the largest games of its time. It was hardly Bethesda’s first attempt however, having created 11 other games before this entry. The subsequent entries in the series, Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion, and finally Skyrim progressively increased the overall scope and depth of the role-playing genre, with expansive, sprawling worlds, various kingdoms, empires, and alliances, all with their own agendas, and more quests than a pen and paper dungeon master could dream up, if given several lifetimes. With the increasing popularity and proliferation of online worlds, however, it seemed almost inevitable that Bethesda would answer the call and bring Tamriel to the online world, capturing a new generation of online gamers, while enticing those familiar with its world to return, if only for the promise of a fully realized Tamriel, with new quests, adventures, locales and enemies, just begging to be explored.
If the longest journey begins with a single step, then your journey into the massive world of Tamriel begins with the common equation for most online role-playing games, the character creator. As the worlds of massively multiplayer online role playing experiences have gotten larger and more complex, so too have character creation systems.
In the past, online role playing games would feature a few generic skin tone settings, perhaps a bit more styles for hair and eyes, sometimes even half a dozen or so options for shaping, in terms of faces, if you were lucky. In comparison, ESO features a fairly robust character creation system, with a plethora of aesthetic options. Everything from eye shape and size, to jaw and chin width and thickness and angle can be manipulated at your leisure. It’s time consuming but if you want a character that stands out a bit more and offers a unique feel, manually going through each option is probably the way to go. On the flip side, if you’re just looking for a quick, decent looking character, the randomize button can adjust all these settings at once, on the fly.
There are nine distinct races that players can choose from, each with their own passive racial bonuses and abilities. One race may have an inherent boost to magic, while another may have a resistance to hostile spells. Like other Elder Scrolls games, these passive racial abilities are nice, but since character progression can basically let you overcome any weakness, they aren’t nearly as important as in other role-playing franchises.
There are also three alliances, which the various races are split up into. One preorder bonus let you play any race and any alliance, though the main point of these alliances is the PvP environment, where alliances are treated like empires or kingdoms, earning points in various battlegrounds in regards to other alliances.
There are four classes to choose from, these being Templar, Sorcerer, Dragonknight and Nightblade. While having only four classes seems a bit limited, especially in comparison to other modern MMO’s, the character progression system is equipped to handle the missing workload offered by additional classes.
Speaking of, character progression will be no doubt familiar to those that have played one or more Elder Scrolls titles before, but may seem strange to those that have played other MMO games. Similar to most MMO’s, you complete quests and take down enemies to level up. The twist here is that any skill can be leveled up, the more you use it, in true Elder Scrolls fashion.
In a sense, raising your skill levels is more important than upping your player level, as your skills can be improved or new skills can be unlocked only after meeting certain skill level prerequisites. There are also “ultimate” skills that function like finishing moves, allowing you to more easily take on large groups of foes or boss class monsters that have oodles of hit points.
For example, blocking with a shield and then swinging a sword will slowly increase your one handed and shield skill. Want to snipe enemies from a distance? No problem, just equip that maple bow you found on that skeleton archer, and start firing, and your bow skill will increase with every hit. Want to fry an enemy with some fireballs? No sweat. Just pick up that nifty fire staff and launch some burning goodness their way. Your destruction staff skill will increase, making you a better destruction staff user, no matter which class you are.
Classes do have their own skill lines, however, that function almost identically to skill trees in other MMO games. The Templar comes with some suitably powerful skills in melee damage, ranged magic damage and healing, while the Sorcerer, aptly, is focused more on magic damage, summoning and storm calling, which come in handy for employing a variety of creatures to do your bidding, as well as lightning based skills, respectively.
Presumably, in MMO terms, at face value, the four classes represent tank/healer, ranged damage, tank/melee, and ranged/melee damage, however roles in a group can be, (and frequently are) rotated on a regular basis.
Your main source of experience is completing quests. Most of the quests you’ll run across are multilayered, requiring you to perform a series of objectives. This makes the quests seem more involved than simple fetch or kill quests. In regards to character progression, it’s a far more methodical pacing than most MMO type games. This may be familiar to gamers who are experienced with the Elder Scrolls series but for those who prefer a faster paced game, in terms of progression, they may be put off.
You also get experience by killing enemies, but not very much, rather killing enemies’ helps increase your combative and non-combative skills.
With each level up, you get a point that you can place in your three main attributes. Your health in basically your life force, or how much damage you can withstand before you die, your magicka is your meter that determines how many spells you can cast, and your stamina affects your movement throughout the world, like dodging and rolling in combat, and affects some skills like using a bow.
You also get a skill point per level up. These can be placed into any skill line you prefer, though there are skill level requirements before most skills are opened up. Any class can basically place a skill point into any of their class skills, weapon skills, armor skills, or crafting skills, as well as faction only skills that can be found and joined throughout the game.
In true Elder Scrolls fashion, your journey starts from behind bars, literally, as you are introduced to the world from a small holding cell. This has been a source of symbolism in nearly every Elder Scrolls game to date, of the hero starting out with a relatively small world and by performing a series of actions, your world becomes progressively larger, perhaps a suggestive nod to our own world.
Story quests become available every so often at specific levels and reveal more of the story, though the decision to do these is completely up to you, as you can make your way through the world without ever touching upon the main story, outside of the tutorial level, if you prefer.
While you’re out adventuring, you’ll invariably come across many staples of the Elder Scrolls, like wayshrines, which can be used to fast travel to zones you’ve visited previously. You’ll also happen upon tons of loot, including crafting materials for professions. There are a number of different crafting professions in the game, from Blacksmithing, Alchemy and Enchanting to Woodworking, Carpentry and Fishing. You can also refine raw materials gathered out in the wild into usable resources for the creation of armor of all types, (light, medium, or heavy).
Most crafting professions include skill lines as well, that you can improve with spare skill points, enabling you to be a better craftsman. Most of these come in the form of passive improvements to your crafting abilities, like small percentages increases or an improved ability to find raw materials.
You’ll also stumble across various dungeons, out in the wild. Some are marked as solo and some are marked as group, which are designed with a group of players in mind. The in game compass runs across the top of your screen as it did in previous Elder Scrolls games, and provides assistance getting to quest points, as well as outlines undiscovered points of interest within your current zone.
You can also bring up a map of the current zone which will mark any wayshrines you’ve visited, allowing you to fast travel between them, and you can set custom waypoints to any points of interest, which will then show up on your overhead compass.
Graphically, everything looks rather well done. In true Elder Scrolls style, almost every surface in and around towns have an intricate, well worn quality, as if wizened by age and the elements. Environmental effects have some nice touches as well, such as a large, full moon hanging in the night sky.
One of the highlights of the world is the long unseen town of Daggerfall, which has been rebuilt in all its high definition glory, in comparison to its low resolution past, which was hindered by leading PC hardware at the time.
In terms of player interaction, in a console context, gone are the virtual on screen keyboards that proliferated recent console MMO’s. Social interaction in ESO is handled mostly though voice chat. Even without a compatible headset, there are on screen icons that enable you to manage group invitations and friend settings. A wealth of emojis can also be used from the menu, indicating if you’re taking a lunch break, need healing, or presumably, a student just stole your car.
From a psychological perspective, ESO presents a unique case. It features the addictive quality found in most MMOs, in regards to that reward based gameplay, however, whereas other MMOs dole out these incentives on a regular basis, ESO does so only incrementally.
As a result, as you travel the lush landscape of Tamriel, taking down enemies and completing quests, you become more powerful, but only just so. Even though you save towns and avenge restless spirits, and take down tyrannical leaders of hidden cults, none of it feels weighty or meaningful, as if you’re a member of the world, but ultimately detached. This disconnect extends to the game’s variety of dungeons too, which can e stumbled upon in the world or accessed via the dungeon finder. This creates a strange disconnect between the player and the world, almost as if you’re a wandering spirit, never truly part of the larger, living, breathing ecosystem.
Whereas the previous Elder Scrolls games let you make world-altering decisions and embark on seemingly epic quests, such as ridding the land of slavery, closing the doors to Oblivion or even challenging the gods of Tamriel themselves, ESO seems content in its mediocrity. It’s formulaic to the point of being spectacularly unremarkable.
In the end, ESO is a bag of mixed messages. For every gorgeous landscape and picturesque vista, there is also tedium and meandering. For every multi-layered quest, rich in Tamrelian history and lore, there is the uneven pacing, and comparatively slow progression. For every in depth narrative found by obsessively searching bookshelves, there is the capricious dungeon raiding, sidelined by any rhyme or reason. ESO is at its best where it has always shined, as a rich single player experience, with a world steeped in myth and lore. Ultimately, that’s what ESO is, a rich single player experience, you just happen to be playing alongside other people.