The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited is set to be released on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in a few weeks, and for the most part, I’ve done my best to stay in the dark about the game, despite it being released over a year ago on PC. I remain cautiously optimistic, especially given the time Bethesda has had to polish out the release bugs they have become so well known for, and the cancellation of required subscription fees. The Elder Scrolls franchise has always imbued the player with a bit of an ego. The very first moments of Oblivion has an old emperor entrusting you with the continuing prosperity of Tamriel, acutely aware of the assassins in the rafters and his own impending mortality.
In Skyrim you were the tip of the spear for a brutal rebellion, the head of your class in the thieves guild, and the sole resuscitating force of the Dark Brotherhood. You were the breath of life in a static world, pressing the buttons to make the cogs turn. Those campaigns were freeing, but also incredibly personal. To sit by the babbling brooks, and climb the abandoned towers, knowing that all the processing power in the world is making it damn well sure that you’re not going to run into anything you’re not capable of handling. My time in Tamriel was best defined by long, soul-replenishing silence. Uninterrupted by any knocks at the door or pings in general chat. It was the closest videogames get to pure sanctuary.
For this reason, The Elder Scrolls Online Gold for sale always deserved skepticism. Was there any good reason to expect that the joys of the Elder Scrolls games would translate to a massively multiplayer format? I would love to be able to tell you that TESO manages to bridge those worlds of freedom and control, combining the best of both into a beautiful paradox. Unfortunately, after playing this past weekend’s semi-open beta while TESO prepares for launch in just a couple of weeks, I found that the opposite was true: it was the worst of both worlds. TESO takes the most predictable path, putting a superficial coating of The Elder Scrolls over a fairly conventional MMORPG.
During my questing, I couldn’t help but notice that the game seems to have some sort of identity crisis. Is it a single player affair or is it truly meant to be a MMO? There is obviously the main quest, but also dozens of side quests on offer . The problem is, if one chooses to do so, they could complete most of these on their own. The Elder Scrolls series has always been about you being the unknown hero, willing to explore and perform quests for the people in need and becoming an ultimate badass along the way as you get stronger and stronger.
Now the Elder Scrolls Online isn’t all bad, as far as MMOs go it is definitely in my top 5 or more like top 3 considering I only really like 3 MMOs. If you go into playing this game expecting a well rounded MMO then it is incredibly rewarding, but if you expect to play a true to the series game then you are going to be terribly disappointed. It all starts with character creation so before you’ve set one foot, paw or claw on the world of Tamriel you’re already hooked into Elder Scrolls lore. Firstly, which Alliance are you going to play as? There are three to choose from. There’s the Daggerfall Covenant, which is kings, towers and good guys.
While ESO makes Skyrim’s biggest problems worse, it also lacks the most fundamental component that makes The Elder Scrolls games so alluring; freedom of exploration. At first you’ll marvel at the sheer size and variety within the world; the towering volcanoes of Morrowind, the crystalline beauty of Skyrim, the verdant, picturesque greenery of Daggerfall. You’ll yearn to explore this vast landscape, plunder its dungeons, embark upon adventures all of your own. But the strict levelling path severely limits where you can go and what you can do.
Where The Elder Scrolls Online fails is when it doesn’t break enough from the traditional MMO formula, which is the same mistake other massively multiplayer games keep making, but the only places I’ve felt that weakness so far are in the monster behavior and quest systems. If the endgame and player-versus-player content I haven’t gotten to yet also stick too close to typical MMO formulas, then it’s going to be difficult for Bethesda to justify the cost of a subscription for cheap The Elder Scrolls Online gold unless additional, fresh, and substantial story material is regularly added to the game for high-level players, maybe even on a monthly basis.
