By Sam Coles:
When The Elder Scrolls Online first launched on PC
back in 2014 it was far from stellar as the mechanics weren’t great with things
such as you only getting 1 gold from killing each enemy and micro transactions
that you would expect in a free to play and on top of that they were expecting
a monthly subscription fee. Now it has come to consoles where they have fixed
some of the problems from the original release but it’s not perfect so let’s
dive in shall we.
Usually the story isn’t hugely important in MMO’s
but this is The Elder Scrolls and they try to make it important and after the
prologue you’ll swiftly forget about it. The story takes place 1000 years
before the events of Skyrim which is odd because technology hasn’t changed in
that space of time, anyway the Daedric lord Molag Bal has invaded the world of
Tamriel, but at the same time there is a civil war happening between three
factions which you will play a role in.
Before you set off in the world you must first
create your character and choose from a vast collection of races and also you
must choose your class and what faction you will fight for. The four classes
that you have are:
Dragon
Knight:
The Dragon Knight is a class that is very powerful
dealing huge amounts of damage and are well suited to close quarters battles so
you would want a player like this when you’re raiding tight dungeons. The
weapons that they specialise in are two handed weapons such as great swords,
battle axes and war hammers.
Sorcerer:
Well if you’re a veteran of any RPG you would know
what this class does and specialises in, they are the class that uses magic by
using magical staffs and which can conjure up many different elemental spells
or you can use summoning spells to have creatures fight for you it’s the more
creative class.
Templar:
This class can have multiple roles as they can use
magic where they can wield staffs as healers, but at the same time they can
also use a sword shield this is great if you’re not sure what class to pick as
it is a middling role in my opinion because the one I picked.
Nightblade:
This class is basically what other games would call
a rogue who use duel weapons such as daggers and most of their special attacks
are stealth based so if you want to be a dirty thief then this class is the
class for you.
You’ll have most of Tamriel to explore from the
Cyrodiil to the southern rain forests of Elsweyr but you can’t explore all of
it because I expect they’ll add them in at a later date. However this isn’t a
traditional Elder Scrolls game where you can explore anything to hearts
content, no this is an MMO so areas will have certain level enemies, such as
the starting area you’ll encounter mobs that will be between level 1-16 and the
further you explore the higher the levels get so make you sure you’re at the
right level before exploring a certain area because otherwise you’ll die a lot.
Gameplay wise well if you’ve played Skyrim it’s very
similar even down to the user interface with the compass and the menu. Combat
happens in real time so you’re not just sat there watching an animation play
out while you let the game calculate if you’ve hit them or not. Your earn XP
from combat, finding lore books and the obvious one completing quest, which
will allow to increase health, stamina and mana but you’ll get a chance to
unlock a slot for different attacks, defences and distractions and you can
evolve them so they can become more powerful or turn into something completely
different.
Graphics aren’t anything to ride home about and to
be honest it looks like something from the Xbox 360 but the 7th
generation couldn’t of handled such a large game with the player count and the
size of the map, so I understand why the graphics aren’t anything mind blowing
and plus it is a multiplayer game so you do have sacrifice graphics sometimes.
Not to say that game looks bland each area is different which keeps it fresh
and you see the surprising amount of effort that has gone into the architecture
in the cities, towns and small villages you come across on your adventure.
The negatives I really have with this game is that
it is very repetitive because some of the quests just seem to blur together by
the end of it, so I would highly recommend getting a group of friends together
to get full enjoyment out of this game because on your own it is fairly boring.
Also the gold rewards can be a tad pitiful and the best way to get around in
this game is by horse and the starting cost of a horse is about 14,000 gold and
you generally only get about 100-400 gold in each quest.
Overall though Elder Scrolls Online is competent but
nothing that is going to blow your mind, if you’re looking for a game to burn
some time or just need an Elder Scrolls fix then I would say give it a go.
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