The Elder Scrolls Online First Impressions
The Elder Scrolls Online (or ESO for short) is a Fantasy MMORPG created by Bethesda and is current in open beta. I was lucky enough to get my hands on a key over the weekend and decided to see what all the hype and buzz was about. Now, before I get into my thoughts on ESO, I should mention that I loved playing Skyrim and I loved playing Oblivion even more so. So of course, with the prospect of an online version of these games, I was excited to see the outcome of it. To put it bluntly, I was rather disappointed.
When I first heard there was going to be an online Elder Scrolls game, I immediately thought that would mean Skyrim with your friends. Unfortunately, it didn’t mean that at all. If you are a big fan of previous Elder Scrolls games then you will be in for a rather big disappointment.
Combat felt sloppy and slow compared to the previous games. I went with a Wood Elf wielding a bow, my usual choice in TES games. I feel like the bow may have been the worst possible weapon in the game. The release of the arrow when I let go of left click was slow to respond and the draw of the bow equally matched this. Granted, this game is in beta, however this is an open beta, and important things such as the fighting mechanics should be at the top of the list to get things right.
General character movement wasn’t too bad, but felt a little unrefined in some places. I’m not sure if this was just down to the servers, but I felt almost constricted in the way I could move, however, purely from an MMO point of view this worked well and isn’t too much of an issue.
The one thing I can hands down say worked, is the music. The music and overall sound design is amazing and I cannot fault it one bit. For those who loved the music in Skyrim and Oblivion, you most certainly won’t be disappointed. The music is very reminiscent of Skyim, but has modern twists in it to give it a fresh feel. The sound design, such as simple things like footsteps on certain materials, weapon noises, and even mob noises worked very well and when playing gave more immersion into the game.
Another positive thing about this game is the story line. I won’t go into too much detail about the story as I don’t want to ruin things. The start of the game tells a story about how you ended up in oblivion (The hell of Tamriel) and how you fight your way out with a lot of other people. At times I completely forgot this was an MMO and saw the other players as NPC’s trying to escape. This was quite amazing to see, and players would often fight mobs together to get to their respective quest goals. This unity is typical of an MMO and is a great thing to be a part of.
One thing that really bothered me, was the fact I spent quite a long time waiting for the 20GB+ of data that is ESO. Because of this large amount of data, I was expecting very nice textures. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case at all. The textures were very unloved and rather poor. I am a firm believer that graphics don’t make a game awesome, but if I am downloading a rather large game, I do expect there to be relatively good textures. Again, maybe this is something that will be worked on before final release as this is still in beta.
My final and possibly biggest thought on this game is the asking price. I have no problem paying for a newly released game, and I have no problem in monthly subscription fees. However, when you combine the two, there is a massive issue. ESO in its current state is not worth £49.99. That is far too much for what it is. If the game was bought and sold as a subscription based service, it would but much better. Another thing is the DLC. The “Digital Imperial Edition” is £69.99!? This is an outrageous price for the addition of the Imperial race, and I am disgusted at Bethesda for asking such a large amount of money for it and then slap you further in the face with a monthly subscription of £8!
My overall thoughts on The Elder Scrolls online is that, yes, it is a brilliant idea, but a good idea in no way correlates towards a good game. There are a lot of things Bethesda need to smooth out and work on. I am hoping this open beta will give them a lot to go on and iron out all the issues that there currently are with ESO. I am very curious about the development of the game and in the end I hope the finished product is a nice one, but right now I couldn’t recommend the game for the price they are asking even if they do manage to get the game finished and polished by April.