First, a little background is needed for such an anticipated game. It's the 7th game in the Elder Scrolls series set 1000 years before the recent Bethesda release: Skyrim (6th in series). The reason I say Bethesda is because while, yes, Zenimax who have made ESO are a part of Bethesda, it's a different team working on the game. And this really, really shows.
From the chatter I've heard people were expecting Skyrim: Online instead. I knew from the outset that this would be impossible, you can't have the fidelity and precision like Skyrim in an MMO environment, it's just not possible to do while catering to as many potential players as possible. Not to say that this is necessarily a bad thing, there have been many pretty games that have lacked all kinds of depth and actual content which ESO definitely has...In spades.
Graphically, the game is okay....Which will disappoint a lot of people I feel. It looks and feels like a highly tuned Morrowind (the fourth game in the series). It takes a couple of seconds to find mods for that game from 2004 which transform it into looking very presentable as opposed to the blocky, untextured mess that the vanilla game is.
Story-wise, the narrative looks pretty solid (there are a few inconsistencies, but that's only to be expected with such a huge project, and they may resolve themselves anyway as this is a prequel) with excellent voice acting (Dumbledore gives you your first quest) and interesting characters. The premise is that the Emperor is dead (recurring theme, much? (See Elder Scrolls III, IV, V)) and three factions have their claimant vying against the other two for the throne.
Well I thought I'd split the review in half, first addressing the MMO aspects of it then the RPG and perhaps tying them together at the end.
First of all, most importantly, does it fit the role of an RPG?
Most assuredly yes. Character customisation is phenomenal, I would say it's a lot better than even Skyrim. There is freedom of choice, although some of that has been limited due to technical restraints of being an MMO and some of the setting (There are 3 races per faction, which to be makes limited sense). Like the traditional Elder Scrolls games, you create a nameless adventurer who brings about ruination/redemption/freedom/peace or other such abstract concepts to a period of fictional time. Unlike previous titles, there is a class system. You can, however accomplish this any way you want, there are no race/class restrictions and if you want you can go ahead and be a light armour wearing Templar who wields magic staves.
The combat is a lot different from Skyrim. It's less meaty and brutal, weapons feel a little 'floaty' which in my opinion means not as good. Also, instead of moving in different directions to use melee abilities, they are now disappointingly hotkeyed numbers 1-6 a la: any WoW clone MMO.
There is a very nice system in place whereby the more you battle for your faction, the closer they become to placing their choice of candidate upon the throne, in the days/months/years to come, battles will be fought over strategic locations across the servers and the world will change accordingly. To me this is an amazing feature, one which to memory was only implemented by the ultimately unsuccessful Matrix: Online to great effect. I sincerely hope that this, if nothing else, will cause the game to hold onto its fans and create the first WoW killer MMO.
Right now, key requisites for a subs based MMO are:
a) It's massive
b) It's multiplayer
c) It's worthy of a subscription
ESO checks the second box easily, but the other two? I'm not 100% sure.
The world of Tamriel that series lovers will have seen is huge. Morrowind was simply massive especially for its time, Oblivion was easily large enough for the cosmopolitan heartland it was representing and Skyrim has to date some of the best open world gameplay available. ESO therefore has a lot to live up to. Stros M'kai is a location familiar in name to veterans of the series and it happens to be one of the first locations for one of the three factions. The pirate island is absolutely tiny. I walked from one end to the other without the use of sprint in roughly four minutes. Other locations I can't really comment on yet as this is the first place I've really been to but, to me, this sets a bad precedent.
Multiplayer hasn't been attempted in an Elder Scrolls game by developers before and I know why: I don't want my Freja Ironhand, icy swordmaiden clashing swords with an Orc named Hugh'Gh Pehnes. It just kills any immersion that this game desperately tries to build. I think that had they released this as a single player game it would have sold just as well if not better (in terms of units shipped, not profit made) and the game could have been updated through steam or something with however the battles (as a multiplayer separate feature) progress.
Worthy of a subscription? Well I can only assume yes, although I'm not too sure. I have no buyers remorse from my acquisition, the game is in truth incredibly fun. If the price was perhaps just the subscription I paid and not the cost of the box as well I'd whole heartedly say yes but then again I just paid £50 for the privilege of installing ESO and am none too impressed with that aspect.
Rob
TL/DR: If you still believe Morrowind is the best Elder Scrolls to date: This game will blow you away... If you're okay with other people being in the world.
P.S Might update this later.
