This, fundamentally, is ESO's problem. It can't decide whether it wants to be an MMO or an Elder Scrolls game. Many a time I've waltzed carefree through a dungeon almost completely devoid of enemies, because most of them are designed to be explored by only one person, and someone has run through it before me and killed everyone in sight. At the same time, the enemies respawn so quickly I often found myself fighting them on the way back after completing the objective, which is absolutely ludicrous.
Occasionally, the game will use phasing to give you a sense of influence within the world. At the end of one particularly long quest-line, which involved saving a giant tree (this is as thrilling as it sounds), the enemies surrounding the tree all disappeared. "Great!" I thought, "I've finally made a difference." But I then had to backtrack through an earlier battlefield where, again, players were fighting the enemies I just fought to get to the tree in the first place.
Now, the frequently respawning enemies aren't necessarily the problem. For better or worse it's standard MMO design. But the game is so insistent about your own significance that whenever it does basic MMO stuff like this, which is all the time, it reveals the true nature of your insignificance within the world, and the effect is incredibly jarring.
Not only do the awkward merging of MMO structure and Solo content fail to complement each other, they actually exacerbate many of The Elder Scrolls' worst problems. The series' most questionable elements have for years been the quality of writing and voice acting when it comes to specific quests. If you thought they were poor in Skyrim, wait until you hear The Elder Scrolls Online. It's generic fantasy nonsense in the extreme. Imagine somebody running up to you in a field and shouting the following in your face:
"We're dealing with a literal undead uprising! Our patrols sweep the wilds while our primary wizard, Gabriel Benele, searches for a magical relic that will help."
The majority of quests you'll encounter are variations upon this theme. There are a couple of exceptions. The most exciting quest I encountered came within the first couple of hours. A dog randomly approached me, and led me to a body that kicked off a pretty entertaining questline of spies, assassins, intrigue and betrayal. Yet even when the story reaches above the formula of "villagers in peril from [monsters], kill monsters/use quest item to receive [loot item]", on a systemic level the game remains deeply unsatisfying.
Almost every non-combat action you do in game is performed by pressing E. Press E to perform elaborate sacred ritual. Press E to alleviate complex and virulent curse. Press E to win game. Sometimes a quest will require you to press E on three things instead of one, just in case you don't feel like you're getting enough of that hot E-pressing action. If your character needs a hammer to do the action, a hammer will appear. If it's an axe, an axe will appear. It completely trivialises the importance of the very actions the narrative emphasises, creating an unpleasant disconnect between yourself and the game world.
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.
Venture into another area, even to a distant location in the same area, and the higher level creatures will pummel you into dust. Meanwhile, plundering dungeons on a whim, or indeed doing anything that isn't a quest, hardly ever offers any rewards. The game has few surprises, and no emergence or spontaneity to it whatsoever. It is a theme-park MMO of the most robotic kind, incredible to look at, but with no real life of its own.
Occasionally, the game will use phasing to give you a sense of influence within the world. At the end of one particularly long quest-line, which involved saving a giant tree (this is as thrilling as it sounds), the enemies surrounding the tree all disappeared. "Great!" I thought, "I've finally made a difference." But I then had to backtrack through an earlier battlefield where, again, players were fighting the enemies I just fought to get to the tree in the first place.
Now, the frequently respawning enemies aren't necessarily the problem. For better or worse it's standard MMO design. But the game is so insistent about your own significance that whenever it does basic MMO stuff like this, which is all the time, it reveals the true nature of your insignificance within the world, and the effect is incredibly jarring.
Not only do the awkward merging of MMO structure and Solo content fail to complement each other, they actually exacerbate many of The Elder Scrolls' worst problems. The series' most questionable elements have for years been the quality of writing and voice acting when it comes to specific quests. If you thought they were poor in Skyrim, wait until you hear The Elder Scrolls Online. It's generic fantasy nonsense in the extreme. Imagine somebody running up to you in a field and shouting the following in your face:
"We're dealing with a literal undead uprising! Our patrols sweep the wilds while our primary wizard, Gabriel Benele, searches for a magical relic that will help."
The majority of quests you'll encounter are variations upon this theme. There are a couple of exceptions. The most exciting quest I encountered came within the first couple of hours. A dog randomly approached me, and led me to a body that kicked off a pretty entertaining questline of spies, assassins, intrigue and betrayal. Yet even when the story reaches above the formula of "villagers in peril from [monsters], kill monsters/use quest item to receive [loot item]", on a systemic level the game remains deeply unsatisfying.
Almost every non-combat action you do in game is performed by pressing E. Press E to perform elaborate sacred ritual. Press E to alleviate complex and virulent curse. Press E to win game. Sometimes a quest will require you to press E on three things instead of one, just in case you don't feel like you're getting enough of that hot E-pressing action. If your character needs a hammer to do the action, a hammer will appear. If it's an axe, an axe will appear. It completely trivialises the importance of the very actions the narrative emphasises, creating an unpleasant disconnect between yourself and the game world.
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.
Venture into another area, even to a distant location in the same area, and the higher level creatures will pummel you into dust. Meanwhile, plundering dungeons on a whim, or indeed doing anything that isn't a quest, hardly ever offers any rewards. The game has few surprises, and no emergence or spontaneity to it whatsoever. It is a theme-park MMO of the most robotic kind, incredible to look at, but with no real life of its own.
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Posted by David - Tue Apr 22 2014 08:46
I enjoyed reading the review though - did you ask Giblets the dog what was wrong?
Posted by Retro_Gamer - Tue Apr 22 2014 08:59
MMO's are just becoming plain generic games, all of them now copy the WoW template due to its success, instead of this I think another ES game should have happened. Sounds like they are just wanting to try and take a few WoW players from Blizzard.
At £9 a month though it sounds like its hardly worth the time and effort
Good review, glad to see some honest criticisms about the game instead of a wow, awesome its another huge Elder Scrolls game, slap an 8 or above on it for the packaging and artwork on the box alone!
Posted by SchizoFrog - Tue Apr 22 2014 09:00
I admit that I didn't play it for very long but surely that is more their fault than mine, as I was astounded by just how quickly every single aspect of the game left me feeling frustrated or just plain bored. The first issue I had was their choice to change the control layout as I found it most annoying and certainly not intuitive going in to TESO straight from hours of Skyrim.
The problems were continued by just how dreary the opening sequence is and once you escape the prison realm and first enter the real world it actually felt like the reverse as there were/are dozens of other players just appearing seemingly from nowhere, most of which stand around like broken NPCs doing absolutely nothing but then there are those who know a little of what they are doing and so horses start to appear once again from nowhere and so populated areas are teeming with horse riding maniacs.
This list of reasons for negative feelings goes on... and on... and on... and that was just the first 10-15 minutes of playing and I managed a couple of hours worth before finally calling it a day and residing myself to the fact that TESO and maybe MMO's themselves just aren't for me. So negative are my memories of that experience that I could not even bring myself to read this review all in one go. (Sorry)
This only leaves me to say 'Bring on TES VI', I just hope they get round to building a new engine for it.
P.S. I actually rather like Rich Tea biscuits which I find eminently more pleasing than the humble Digestive.
Posted by Soylent Red - Tue Apr 22 2014 09:17
I'm a big fan of the concept of MMOs, but rarely the implementation. I've played and ditched World of Warcraft, Age of Conan, Warhammer Online, Tabula Rasa, Eve Online. For me the closest the genre came to perfection was Ultima Online, the second age (before they created the fluffy land that ruined the game).
1) Formulaic quest structure is a common complaint, but show me a game that breaks away from this? Even the Witcher 2 had 'kill xx'; 'gather xx' quests. Why is this so damning for ESO?
2) Yes, the game features players that also appear in the quests you are pursuing. Surely that is the nature of an MMO. I certainly didn't go into the game with the expectation of never seeing another player. If you want a malleable world for the individual then why are you playing an MMO?
3) What is the issue with the 'E' key? Most games have a single interact key. Would the reviewer prefer that hammers, axes etc. require different hot keys? Should we have to complete a challenge each time we need to open a door? For some reason an entire paragraph was dedicated to the letter E..
4) Crafting isn't even mentioned - most other reviews have complimented this as one of the most involved and rewarding systems they have seen.
5) You mention PvP as being a small part of the game, yet neglect to mention that you can completely ignore PvE and level entirely through the PvP segment of the game.. to the extent that I saw a level 17 Emperor running around Cyrodiil, the alliance versus alliance map.
Frankly I loathed all the TES single player games - despite their open nature and epic scale, they all felt empty and lacking a soul. The voice acting was categorically terrible; the animations were awful and the quests felt like you were in some kind of fluffy carebear land. By comparison I'm actually enjoying ESO questing a lot more - rather than having to handicap myself like in Skyrim where I was practically one-shotting dragons by about 10 hours into the game, it's still continuing to provide a challenge.
Ignore the negative review, play it for yourself and get beyond level 10 (which it seems the reviewer hasn't actually reached). Unfortunately pieces like this assassinate games before they get started and god knows we need a game that can topple WoW with it's garish graphics, unashamed grinding and questing monotony.