The Elder Scrolls Online NDA has been lifted, so Im able to share some of my experiences from it. Ive been in two betas so far, I had four characters: Lvl 15 dunmer sorcerer, who was ranged DPS with pets build, and his secondary build was offhealer with resto staff Lvl 6 bosmer nightblade, glass cannon melee DPS build (dual-wield) Lvl 7 breton templar, tank build Lvl 6 nord dragonknight, melee DPS build (2H) This game starts badly, and gets better as the time passes. Which is completely different to how other recent MMOs that Ive seen work. The start is very linear and railroaded, it looks like a standard hub-and-spoke quest design, with average writing and only a few surprises (like quests) along the way. All characters start in the same dungeon, which looks cool but is actually very linear. After you exit it, you find yourselves in your factions newbie island. Daggerfall Covenant starting area (Stros Mkai) is probably the worst, it has sand, pirates, sand, palm trees, sand, goblins, sand, dwemer ruins, sand, deserts, sand... Oh did I mention it was sandy? It might be interesting to you only if it will trigger those old memories from playing Redguard, or if you like treasure hunt quests that take you all over the map several times for a crappy reward. Second area (Betnikh) looks like Cyrodiil, as generic as it can get (but with the orcs running the place, ha!) and some Ayleid ruins which I certainly dont miss from Oblivion. When you finally manage to escape that place (the end quest IS relatively challenging), you find yourselves in Glenumbra, and climb your way up to Daggerfall where the game really starts and it gets interesting (though the city is maybe half the size of Stormwind in WoW... it looks like a bleaker version of it). Ebonheart Pact puts you on Bleakrock Isle, which looks like the experience from Skyrim, but the one that doesnt work in TESOs favor because it feels cheaper - worse graphics, gameplay, story, etc. The next region is Bal Foyen, a swampy part of mainland Morrowind, which is also locked and you cant get out until you finish the main questline. Its only slightly better than Bleakrock Isle, and it lacks crafting vendors. However, once you finish its storyline (in one of two possible ways), you end up in the open world, in Stonefalls at Devons Watch and it gets interesting. Aldmeri Dominion is the only one with a decent starting area, Khenarthis Roost, and it actually has decent writing (including meeting the Silvenar and the Green Lady) and looks interesting. Furthermore, when you finish its main quest it gets you straight to Auridon, which is... well, not mainland but a large zone. It drops you off in the southern city of Vulkhel Guard, where theres a lot of quests to complete. You even get to meet the queen, and hear a certainly inappropriate tale from her past. This game opens in layers, of a sort. First, you get a linear experience. Then you get to the large zones and your world opens up. Then at lvl 10 you can enter Cyrodiil and PvP. At lvl 12, you can enter dungeons. At lvl 15, you get weapon switch and youre generally done with your first area (I havent visited others due to them being locked in the last 2 betas, though you could enter a bugged Deshaan area - where Mournhold is - and explore a bit, though there were no NPCs, monsters, building interiors or the lower third of the zone). Cyrodiil is... Amazing. Its the size of Oblivions map, or slightly smaller but it feels bigger because you cant fast travel all over it. Theres a system of keeps, lumber mills, mines and temples containing Elder Scrolls which are PvP objectives. Most of them contain Transitus Shrines, which are your main way of fast travel - the regular wayshrine network is only in the two starting cities, and transitus network depends on the current state of PvP. The cities from Oblivion are all on map, but you have to walk to them (from your nearest friendly unattacked keep). Theyre smaller than in Oblivion, and sometimes with a different layout (theres a lot of time that goes by between two games). The Imperial City is inaccessible - its invaded by Daedra from Coldharbor, all bridges are down, and if you try to swim across Lake Rumare you get eaten by slaughterfish. PvP in Cyrodiil is amazing. The low-number fights are tactical, and you can make lots of kills easily, though its hard to assault a keep that way. High-number fights can be zerg rushes, and if you outnumber your opponent greatly they dont really have a long lifespan so its a challenge to hit them. You can buy and deploy trebuchets, ballistae and catapults, all of them work a bit differently. You can also place forward camps for respawn, use battering rams or pour burning oil on your opponents and their battering rams. Fun fun fun. And despite my low configuration (I have to run with details on low or medium), my framerate didnt suffer a lot even with a hundred players on screen (but there was some lag). Chokepoints are tactical, sneaking works awesome, and you quickly learn to hate dragonknights when they pull you with their chain into a mob of baddies. However, Cyrodiil was very slow to load and often didnt load at all (but it was a stress test so such things were expected). Dungeons are awesome from the start. Heres a video released 2 days ago, I was only in the Fungal Grotto and this video is spot on: https://youtube/watch?v=JC4GVM1kCnA. The dungeons are challenging, tactics keep you on your toes, and you have to be very active moving and evading - not only bosses, but trash pulls too. At level 15, this included a lot of quick weapon changes (which also switches the skill bar). It was loads of fun. Building your character is interesting. You can play any archetype (tank, DPS, healer) with any character class, and in fact at higher levels most characters will have multiple builds. You can only put five active skills + 1 ultimate in your bars, and you will have more than enough points to spread around. There are skill trees that you get - you get one with your race, three with your class, one for every weapon type, one for each armor type, one for each guild (at launch: fighters guild, mages guild and undaunted), two from PvP (three if you make Emperor one day), soul magic... Heck, I might have forgotten some. Crafting is very interesting. Its not really grindy - you grind for special traits, not item types themselves. It produces stuff thats - at least at the levels we tested on - useful. I liked it. Quests are awesome. Dialogue is great and writing is superb (apart from starting areas). Plenty of voice acting (which is amazing, as is the music score). It is more linear than typical TES stuff, but still quite open - you will encounter new quests on your way to your destinations, youll find new stuff out in the wilderness, etc. There are some bugs, but even in the last beta they fixed up the nastiest, gamebreaking ones from the beta before. Sometimes youd be stuck in a dialogue screen after you finished your talk and couldnt move, but this could be sorted out by opening your mail dialogue or /reloadui. Sometimes quests would be bugged at some stage, but this was solve-able by relogging - I guess that would relocate you to the instance of the area which is not bugged. Loading times were often long and annoying. Overall, I had fun and I preordered the game. I plan to play Ebonheart Pact on release.
Posted on: Sat, 15 Feb 2014 20:01:42 +0000