Being a long-standing fan of both the Elder Scrolls and MMOs, i was obviously very pleased to get into the Beta and try out ESO for myself. After reading the generally less-than-gleaming previews from most of the gaming world (which had rubbed off on me to some extent, i must admit), i was determined to play then draw my own conclusions.

For me, there was good news and bad news. For anyone with a “tl;dr” mentality here is the summary: The good news is, i came out of it all with a much higher opinion of the game than what i was led to believe. The bad news is that doesn't detract from the fact that i’ll still not purchase the game, which, in my opinion, is overpriced in today’s world for what is simply more bog-standard MMO fare set in a familiar world.

**Now, to set my scene: i say with NO pride that i’ve got about 7,000 hours of previous MMORPG experience (i’m a reformed, retired WOW-head) and about a combined 1,200 hours of Elder Scrolls series playtime. My PC, although coming up to 3 years old, can still handle just about every game at the highest graphics level, so i was playing ESO on Ultra. I played for about 25 hours. All opinions are based on gameplay from levels 14 and below, and based entirely on PvE.**

With all my basics specified, let’s go back to the “Good News” part. The game world (at Ultra) was gorgeous. The vistas, characters, monsters, towns and the rest really looked very pretty. I didn’t experience even the slightest of slowdowns during my play time, even with all that prettiness. Kudos has to be given for that. I found the game to be very stable and smooth, while the only bug(s) i came across were the odd mob being stuck phased-in the scenery in an immortal state, and having to reload the UI every 5 mins or so or after interacting with the world. Again, nothing to complain about here whatsoever, it’s a beta after all. The character creation tool is a wonderful time-sink for the looks-obsessed of us, and it felt like i had many options for personalising my starting character.

The freedom given to you in terms of weapons, armour, skills and progression was very much welcome, too. Gaining skill-points from weapon/armour usage helps to reduce the appearance of the grind. I had lots of things to gather and collect; i found the crafting to be generally good craic; the lock-picking mini-game is at least a nod leading away from “click to open” gaming (never a bad thing- let’s get more of that) and the writers have done a good job of leaving lots of lore-lovers’ books around the world. So far, so good.

However, it is after this point that things started to become all-too-familiar for me, and the “bad news” bits started to creep in. I realised there was nothing “new” happening in the game that i wouldn’t expect to already be there as a matter of natural progression in the genre. Everything that i’ve got in the “good news” section is, in this day and age, the absolute minimum i’d expect anyway from a new, AAA, MMORPG release. After that, i found no genuine innovation. The biggest, most show-stopping piece of bad news for me was this: I realised that i was playing nothing more than yet another “decent” MMO that, in general, i’d seen far too much of in the intervening decade. All hidden under a Tamriel gloss.

Most of the quests were simply standard fare busy-work, reworded or re-jigged slightly to give the impression i was doing something more. I wasn’t. Other than one or two very obvious group-battle mobs, there was no sign of any real emergent gameplay during my time. Most were a big step back even from some of the ideas that the likes of Guild Wars 2 had over 18 months ago. A few of the quests involved nothing more than me running between 4 different people in the same tent. Others were simply reworks of “kill all those mobs over there” and “deliver this sword to what-his-face in the next village”. I’ve done it all before.

I also found the combat to be entirely shallow, contrived and again, no real different from anything else i’d played over the past 10 years in the genre. The fact that white damage is not entirely automated (for my class anyway), and you needed to press a button while aiming in the (very) general direction of the mob, to try and give you some belief that you’re really having a skilled input other than just going through the routine motions is a simple facade; a ruse, if you will, that you need some new or underused type of player-skill to play. You don’t, from what i could find. For me, combat was unengaging and absurdly easy. Perhaps things change once you start hitting the higher levels, but i’m guessing it’s going to cost me a down payment of ￡50 and another tenner per month to find that out.

There are other little minor issues, too. The UI is aggravating; the fact that speaking to an NPC that has nothing to say still brings you to a separate, frozen-out-from-the-world screen is bizarre, and individual NPCs seem to speak with multiple voices and accents. Visual feedback on damage, output and status is so low i didn’t know what effects had been applied to me, the mobs or if i should be trying a different approach. I could go on with these little issues.

I really want this game to succeed, believe me. But the devs have been put in a deeply unenviable (and perhaps, unwinnable) position. In an attempt to try and blend the impossible dualities of a wonderful, fluid, single-player, open-world, sandbox adventure with the deathly-tight rigidity needed in an MMORPG, i think they could end up pleasing far fewer people. I’ve seen and played “decent” MMOs to death. TESO is nothing new from the oft-treaded norm of this path. Certainly, it’s not new or innovative enough as things stand to commit to a big initial outlay plus a monthly fee (though please note i’ve got no problems at all with subscription models in general).

I know i may very well get slaughtered here for voicing what i believe to be an honest opinion on my limited experience with the game (and the fact that its two biggest flaws are also the two main tenets that need to be great in an MMORPG), but that’s the way i see it, and i don’t know if anything as major as reworking the insipid questing and dull combat is going to change over the next 12 months. Which is a shame.

But, we can but hope. Let the grilling commence...