So for those of you that dont know I recently got a beta code for Elder Scrolls Online...and after playing it for about 12 hours now I think I'm entitled to give my thoughts on it. So here we go.
So for those who dont know Elder Scrolls Online is in a way the next Elder Scrolls installment in the franchise. Created by Bethesda and Zenimax, the game takes place throughout the entire province of Tamriel about 1000 years before Skyrim. Since this game is getting close to its April 2014 debut, Zenimax and Bethesda decided to give out a few more beta codes and have a closed beta weekend starting from Friday February 7-Monday February 10. And now that we have that out of the way lets continue with the review.
GAMEPLAY-Now I myself hadnt looked up anything on this game so my first thought was that it was going to be 3rd person like any other MMORPG. As soon as I got in game however I was amazed to see that they kept the first person view. What I'm saying is that you can play like you would any other Elder Scrolls game. Of course you can play in third person if you would like and if you decide to you will also be amazed to see that they improved the character movement. So now jumping doesnt look like the most unnatural thing you could think of, and all of the movements are very precise. I found out that you can jump and if you time your keystrokes just right you can perform a successful dodge role after hitting the ground, and to me that is amazing cause I love the little things in games. But besides that they didnt make the combat traditional MMORPG style where you just continuously mash the left mouse button. You can try to do that but it might not work out the way you want it. You have to look for the enemies attacks as well. I died several times from low level enemies because I figured I could take them on no problem, but in the end not enough dodge rolls and blocks let me down. So that part of the combat is very different from traditional MMORPG's. However they did incorporate the hotbar of special attacks. So 1 could be a poison arrow while 2 is a dash attack. In the end if you pull of dodge rolls and mix in normal and special attacks things should go a bit more smoothly for you. Quests are somewhat the same and somewhat different than other MMORPG's. They didnt stray far from the normal quests that you would get from another Elder Scrolls game. Sometimes the quest will have you go out and collect 2-5 items, but they made it so that you wouldnt get another quest where you had to collect those same number of items but for a different person. So there is some quest diversity. And they stay true to normal Elder Scrolls quests by making you do normal Elder Scrolls quests. Some people will have you go and kill a guy in a dungeon. Or maybe have you sneak into a house and steal some evidence. They did a good job of keeping to their questing roots. They also made it so that if you were playing the same quest as another person and you had no alliance with them, and you and this other person managed to defeat an enemy or dungeon boss, you both complete the quest and get the reward. They wont make you join a group so that everybody can get the completed quest, even though if you want to you can join a group. They also made it so you werent tied down to a single class. For example you can use a bow for as long as you want, then switch to a hammer(yes they have them now) and still have the same effect on enemies. It lets you try different tactics when fighting. However some special moves that you unlock wont work with that weapon. I have a poison arrow and if i switch to a dagger it wont let me use the ability until i switch to a bow again, but thats kind of reasonable. Also you can choose whether to be a mage, brute, or rogue. Which ever one you choose will obviously give you a certain skill tree to use, but if you want to you can be a brute and use bows and still be able to get abilities that you would normally get if you used a bow as a rogue. So they give you a lot of class diversification.
MUSIC-The music of the game is typical Elder Scrolls music. If you ever played an Elder Scrolls game then you know what kind of music I'm talking about. Its very good, and unforgettable.
GRAPHICS/SCENERY- The graphics are what you would probably expect. I'm not gonna bash it that bad because my computer forces me to play on a lower graphics detail because I dont want lag in my game. But even at low graphics the scenery is still nice. The graphics when at a lower setting arent even that bad in my opinion. They almost seem like graphics that you would see in Morrowind. And as you go higher and higher on the graphics settings the graphics will get progressively better...(obviously). The world that you travel through is great. It looks and feels like any other Elder Scrolls game.
Overall it feels like a brand new Elder Scrolls game that you would expect, and the only other way you would know it was an MMORPG was the amount of other people that you see also playing the game. There are some things I dont necessarily like for example sometimes certain things dont load, or you stay on a loading screen for a lot longer than you should. Also there is this UI(user interface) error that sometimes shows up when talking to an NPC and what it does is you can interact with them anymore, and if you try to exit the conversation it will exit but you will be stuck in a view like you are still talkin to that NPC and you cant move or do almost anything. I found out if you do get stuck then what you can do is teleport to the nearest Wayshrine(these are what you use for fast travel) you can get out of it. But it still is in the beta so I'm not going to slam it for that.
If you like the Elder Scroll games then you will definitely like this game, and if you like MMORPG's you are gonna like this game because it will be something totally different and yet something totally similar. I would definitely recommend this game. Its releasing on PC and Mac on April 4, 2014, and on Xbox One and PS4 sometime in June of 2014.
So for those of you that dont know I recently got a beta code for Elder Scrolls Online...and after playing it for about 12 hours now I think I'm entitled to give my thoughts on it. So here we go.
So for those who dont know Elder Scrolls Online is in a way the next Elder Scrolls installment in the franchise. Created by Bethesda and Zenimax, the game takes place throughout the entire province of Tamriel about 1000 years before Skyrim. Since this game is getting close to its April 2014 debut, Zenimax and Bethesda decided to give out a few more beta codes and have a closed beta weekend starting from Friday February 7-Monday February 10. And now that we have that out of the way lets continue with the review.
GAMEPLAY-Now I myself hadnt looked up anything on this game so my first thought was that it was going to be 3rd person like any other MMORPG. As soon as I got in game however I was amazed to see that they kept the first person view. What I'm saying is that you can play like you would any other Elder Scrolls game. Of course you can play in third person if you would like and if you decide to you will also be amazed to see that they improved the character movement. So now jumping doesnt look like the most unnatural thing you could think of, and all of the movements are very precise. I found out that you can jump and if you time your keystrokes just right you can perform a successful dodge role after hitting the ground, and to me that is amazing cause I love the little things in games. But besides that they didnt make the combat traditional MMORPG style where you just continuously mash the left mouse button. You can try to do that but it might not work out the way you want it. You have to look for the enemies attacks as well. I died several times from low level enemies because I figured I could take them on no problem, but in the end not enough dodge rolls and blocks let me down. So that part of the combat is very different from traditional MMORPG's. However they did incorporate the hotbar of special attacks. So 1 could be a poison arrow while 2 is a dash attack. In the end if you pull of dodge rolls and mix in normal and special attacks things should go a bit more smoothly for you. Quests are somewhat the same and somewhat different than other MMORPG's. They didnt stray far from the normal quests that you would get from another Elder Scrolls game. Sometimes the quest will have you go out and collect 2-5 items, but they made it so that you wouldnt get another quest where you had to collect those same number of items but for a different person. So there is some quest diversity. And they stay true to normal Elder Scrolls quests by making you do normal Elder Scrolls quests. Some people will have you go and kill a guy in a dungeon. Or maybe have you sneak into a house and steal some evidence. They did a good job of keeping to their questing roots. They also made it so that if you were playing the same quest as another person and you had no alliance with them, and you and this other person managed to defeat an enemy or dungeon boss, you both complete the quest and get the reward. They wont make you join a group so that everybody can get the completed quest, even though if you want to you can join a group. They also made it so you werent tied down to a single class. For example you can use a bow for as long as you want, then switch to a hammer(yes they have them now) and still have the same effect on enemies. It lets you try different tactics when fighting. However some special moves that you unlock wont work with that weapon. I have a poison arrow and if i switch to a dagger it wont let me use the ability until i switch to a bow again, but thats kind of reasonable. Also you can choose whether to be a mage, brute, or rogue. Which ever one you choose will obviously give you a certain skill tree to use, but if you want to you can be a brute and use bows and still be able to get abilities that you would normally get if you used a bow as a rogue. So they give you a lot of class diversification.
MUSIC-The music of the game is typical Elder Scrolls music. If you ever played an Elder Scrolls game then you know what kind of music I'm talking about. Its very good, and unforgettable.
GRAPHICS/SCENERY- The graphics are what you would probably expect. I'm not gonna bash it that bad because my computer forces me to play on a lower graphics detail because I dont want lag in my game. But even at low graphics the scenery is still nice. The graphics when at a lower setting arent even that bad in my opinion. They almost seem like graphics that you would see in Morrowind. And as you go higher and higher on the graphics settings the graphics will get progressively better...(obviously). The world that you travel through is great. It looks and feels like any other Elder Scrolls game.
Overall it feels like a brand new Elder Scrolls game that you would expect, and the only other way you would know it was an MMORPG was the amount of other people that you see also playing the game. There are some things I dont necessarily like for example sometimes certain things dont load, or you stay on a loading screen for a lot longer than you should. Also there is this UI(user interface) error that sometimes shows up when talking to an NPC and what it does is you can interact with them anymore, and if you try to exit the conversation it will exit but you will be stuck in a view like you are still talkin to that NPC and you cant move or do almost anything. I found out if you do get stuck then what you can do is teleport to the nearest Wayshrine(these are what you use for fast travel) you can get out of it. But it still is in the beta so I'm not going to slam it for that.
If you like the Elder Scroll games then you will definitely like this game, and if you like MMORPG's you are gonna like this game because it will be something totally different and yet something totally similar. I would definitely recommend this game. Its releasing on PC and Mac on April 4, 2014, and on Xbox One and PS4 sometime in June of 2014.