» Wed Feb 19, 2014 2:21 am I cant change the title of my thread to "preview" so disregard "review"..
Yes I know, some of you know me as the doomsayer of ESO. I have argued with many of you. Well, here is my preview:
I have put in just about 30 to 35 hours into this game across 3 beta weekends and leveled all the way to the allotted level 15 a couple different times in all of the zones. I am an MMO vet, 43 years old, dating back to Ultima Online. I own and still play Elder Scrolls games. I am a fan of this series and MMOs.
Elder Scrolls Online
ESO definitely feels like Elder Scrolls game, but it also feels as if it was a different MMO with Elder Scrolls things sprinkled on top to make it more Elder Scrolls-like. Does this pass the IP test? If I took this exact same MMO, and it was not in the Elder Scrolls universe, would I be interested in playing it? The answer is tricky. An Elder Scrolls MMO can never win; it can’t possibly 100% please everyone; and that is the dilemma.
There is a lot that is done right in ESO. The skill system and class system is nice, and offers some of the same freedoms experienced in past Elder Scrolls game. Want to be a spell caster in plate mail who sometimes uses a shield and is into archery? Go ahead.
Graphics and Performance
The graphics are impressive and the artwork is gorgeous and very Elder Scrolls like, and all fits within the lore. The performance is really something to behold. Not once did I ever have an issue with rubber-banding or lag. I dare to say this, but this is the best looking MMO in regards graphics, art and the performance hit, which is almost none. I tip my hat off to Zenimax, who did a wonderful job in this area.
Identity Crisis?
This is an MMO but sometimes feels like a single player game (which isn’t always bad). Zenimax has managed to add shared looting with other players (ala Guild Wars 2) which is a big plus. However, sometimes there is instancing where there is no need to have it and no instances when it is needed. There are dungeons I was able to walk right into without a party requirement. I was not told it was a dungeon. I was not told it required 4 or 5 players, or anything of the sort. There are a couple instance-only quests where the bosses are almost impossible to kill without more players. But the quest never gave me any indication that it should have been done with a group. Then of course there were a couple boss quests that were non-instanced that were too easy, and out in the open for all to tag.
I Hear Voices..
Elder Scrolls Online is filled with some of the best voice acting you will find in any MMO or single player game for that matter. I was pleased to find that the clichés were kept to a minimum, with pirates that don’t talk too much like pirates and say “matey” all the time. The NPC conversation system itself has a lot of dialogue that is not unlike SWTOR. The potential issue with this is, why did Zenimax go this route? We have seen how full voice acting just does not always fit an MMO. In SWTOR it was awkward because you paid all these voice actors and yet in groups (This is an MMO with inpatient people you know) everyone skipped the conversations. On top of this Zenimax brought out some big guns for voice acting! Not to mention, voice acting makes the game feel like a single player game. If Zenimax and a lot of the Elder Scrolls Online supporters want to stop reviewers from comparing ESO to Skyrim or Oblivion, maybe, just maybe, it is things like this that are the reason for the comparisons.
The Worst of the Elder Scrolls Tradition
We all know what this means. Below-par animations and a dismal UI have been a staple in the Elder Scrolls franchise for years. Skyrim for example was the worst UI I had seen in a game since Oblivion or Morrowind! I really wonder if Zenimax is using the same Bethesda Skyrim team to do the UI this time. The odd part is, they copied the font and artwork of the Skyrim UI, and managed to duplicate or make worse all of the other shortcomings. The crafting UI in particular is downright confusing. There were countless complaints during the beta in chat about it, but none of it was fixed. It is quite convoluted. This last beta had a revamped map and quest interface, which did improve some things. There just seems to be a lot of little common sense things missing from the game. When you want to close a window, you would always assume a small “X” should be there to close it. When a main character is speaking to you outside of a conversation or in a cut scene you would think there would be a subtitles option in the game because the environment tis too loud to hear the NPC. When you open your character to look at his paper doll, you would think it would appear in the middle of the screen instead of tiny and tucked away in the far left side of screen, with the objects of your inventory a mile away on the far, right side of your screen. There are no chat bubbles, no time on the map, you can only track one quest at a time, etc. I could go on and on.
The animations feel a bit odd, especially when running. The back and backside, appear as one collective unit, so it looks really stiff at times. An odd thing I noticed is that every single NPC who was injured was holding their right arm in pain. I guess Zenimax made only one “ I am in pain” animation. A nitpick? Yes, to be sure. But as I will discuss later, its little things like that, little shortcuts, that are actually masking a bigger deal than you think.
Questing On Tamriel
The quests themselves start off good, but you quickly release the idiocy of some quests when shipwrecked captains ask for you to help find survivors and all of them are in his view distance. There are a few quests here and there that are well written and interesting. And even most of those involved doing a ritual. Basically go over here and touch object A on the left side, then go over here and touch object B on the right side and then come back to the center or meet me to complete the ritual. Whether you were cleansing, summoning, unlocking, or whatever, it always came down to that exact format. There were a few gems; most notably a sequence involving changing the colors of candles. But even that, had two sides, A and B, to be completed before returning back. Most quests (as many as 15 different times in the starting area, I am not kidding) I was told to simply “Find X” person. I watched in horror, as my beloved Elder Scrolls franchise had turned into Where’s Waldo. It got so bad, at one point I had one quest to find three people, another quest to find two people, and two more quests to find one person. I am beginning to think that the people who inhabit Tamriel are as lost as some of the developers are. Long quest chains become dull because sometimes one quest has you doing a dozen things, with up to 10 conversations and not gain any experience. Because of this you could be level 5 1/2 and 30 minutes later you are still level 5 1/2 until that quest chain ends. This is the same system used in the Fallout and Elder Scrolls single player games series. And while it worked great in single player games, not giving MMO players any hint of progression is a big no/no in a carrot on a stick business.
So you want to Explore?
When I first heard of an Elder Scrolls online game, my first thought was that it better contain sandbox elements. This IP has always been about exploration, gathering, and going places without being told where to go. You see the world, you find a book, read it, and discover a quest. Nature and the elements were always beautiful. You felt danger but at the same time felt like you were in an alien world with such detail that you wanted to scout and uncover every bit of terrain. In ESO that feeling is pulled back a bit, but is still there at times. I don’t always feel the need to explore. The maps are huge but not open enough; it is compacted tightly like a fist and not relaxed like an open hand with wrinkles to explore. To me, constantly being surrounded by giant rocks and trees felt claustrophobic. For an Elder Scrolls game I want massive, open spaces like Whiterun. In TESO, there are no massive open spaces. Just strategically placed trees, giant rocks, and mountains that are blurred to make them look further away to hide that this engine can’t support an epic, as "far as the eye can see" LOD. What you actually do see on the map is not very explorable. There are invisible walls, and large sections of the map, walled off by intentional giant rocks or mountains. There is no swimming underwater either. The zone shapes have mountains in strategic positions along the edges of the zone to wall off other zones. The environment beauty however, makes up for a lot of this. Exploring while seeing a giant volcano through ash in the distance is breathtaking.
Combat
Now, I actually like the action combat in Elder Scrolls Online. The only thing I wish to see is more weight to the combat. There is no feeling of impact, no damage numbers or anything like a visual effect, showing you what you did. If it were not for the sound, you would assume you are swinging through your opponent. This is really noticeable in melee combat. The target combat system is an attempt to combine the movement combat of Guild Wars 2 with the brilliant targeting system of Tera. The result is fluid, but ultimately feels like Zenimax erred on the side of caution and tried to design a system to appease everyone which is always the genesis of mediocrity. For example, why have a target system if you can’t cast a spell unless something is targeted? It would be more fun if you could still shoot spells and “miss”.
PVP
PVP appears to be a shiny spot in Elder Scrolls Online. The map of Cyrodill is massive, and is designed to keep “zerging” at a minimum. I will say I feel strongly that the world siege pvp in Elder Scrolls online will be better than the Guild Wars 2 pvp, and will approach the fun of Warhammer Online or Dark Age of Camelot’s pvp.
It’s the Little Things….
It is better to do 1,000 things 1% better than to do 1 thing 1,000% better. Blizzard is the master at getting the small, trivial things right. The timing and connection when you swing and make contact, as your sword hits the enemy, is flawless. The animations and gameplay and combat smoothness are top notch. The minimap, and quest interface are perfect and user friendly. Some of these little touches are all missing from ESO. This may all seem trivial, but they matter more than you think.
Wrapping Up
I give Elder Scrolls Online as it stands 76 out of 100. Although the tone of my review seems too harsh for that score, keep in mind, the character skills, artwork, optimization, and combat are all very well done. My score however comes with a ceiling. There are core gameplay mechanics that I assume won’t be changed in time for the April 4 release, so I predict that the best score ESO can hope for is something in the low 80’s by most online gaming publications.
A Final Word on the, you know, sub fee
My main bone of contention is the payment model of $60 box cost plus $15 a month. Time and time again we have seen this system fail. Warhammer, Age of Conan, Rift, Star Wars the Old Republic, Tera, Lord of the Rings Online, and it goes on. All of them started out like this and failed. Some of those games were good, and some not so much, but all had issues because they didn’t really have a big enough “hook”. Invasions were a nice hook for Rift but that didn’t last. Star Wars relied on its IP as its main hook and now it is basically F2P. In the end, you cannot have a theme park MMO AND charge $14.99 a month and expect to be a success in this market. There are too many buy to play and free to play choices. Not to mention you have Wildstar and the WoW expansion on the horizon. Maybe this was their design. Hook as many Elder Scrolls fans in as you can with the $60 box cost and maybe a month of sub fees and then convert it all to F2P a year later. Time will tell.
As it stands now, Elder Scrolls Online is a good, solid game, but it is not a great one yet.
76/100
