ESO beta review

Discussing various aspects of the game:

1. The world

Simply put, it’s interesting and engaging. There are all sorts of touches in the world that lend credibility, increase immersion and add fun to the game. Going off and exploring on your own you will come across things like new quests, lorebooks, runes, skill books, locked chests (complete with lockpick requirements and a lockpicking minigame), and little “story” items like what you’d expect to find in an Elder Scrolls game, complete with snippets from journals and logs and the like. The zones themselves are fairly large, although I would’ve much preferred the game had focused on delivering a comprehensive experience of ONE province (like Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim did) rather than reducing entire (or large swathes of) provinces to zones which you can run the length of comfortably in a half hour or less. However, in judging the game purely on its own merits (rather than on my personal expectations or preferences), this essentially a non-issue.

2. Combat

Skirting the line between pure lock-on, tab-targeting and pure manual-aiming, I think ESO has struck a nice balance. You aren’t forced to keep your cursor directly on your target for every attack, but you also must remain focused on it. It keeps engagement up without being tedious. There are also “exploit” (ie, combo) mechanics which can be used variably by yourself or by your groupmates. The combat animations are swift and responsive. You have to actively block, interrupt, dodge and measure your attacks in order to be maximally effective (or, in many cases, even survive). The combat abilities themselves are interesting because, largely, they all have secondary effects which must be considered when slotting them into the 5 available hotbar spots. That, plus resource management means you aren’t simply slotting whatever does the most damage but you are considering what best complements the style you are pursuing, which leads to

3. Progression

The progression in ESO is, simply put, wonderful. The options for building a unique character are vast. Each skill point is an opportunity to begin pursuing an entirely new playstyle, and the ability to choose skills you want as opposed to being locked completely into an archetype makes for a really compelling experience. As you use your skills, they level up, becoming more effective and, in some cases, allowing you to “morph” them into a choice of different forms, which can dramatically change the way you use them. You can get whole new skill lines from factions/guilds (Undaunted, Mage’s and Fighter’s Guilds are in for release, with the Thieves’ Guild and Dark Brotherhood coming later) and from a becoming a vampire or a werewolf if you’re willing to deal with the significant drawbacks.

The one major flaw in this system currently is the attribute progression. Of the three attributes, Health, Stamina and Magicka, only one is really worth actually putting points into on levelling up--Health--because the other two have aggressive soft caps which can easily be reached with your gear. Hopefully this will be addressed before release or shortly after.

4. Questing

The voice acting is often great and at worst, decent. The quest stories are well-written and interesting and, if you take the time to listen, provide an extra layer of interest in the gameplay. You’re sometimes presented with dialogue choices that affect the outcome of the quests, which also ups the engagement level. The pervasive use of phasing to present the outcome of decisions made in dialogue and the results of quests is usually seamless and well done, although the drawbacks include a lack of any real shared questing. I’m guessing this is something they’re actively working to address, especially since it seems to be a common complaint.

5. Crafting

Crafting is nearly a game unto itself. While resource gathering is mostly standard, the crafting itself has a ton of potential. With each weapon and piece of armor you get your hands on, you have these choices (not necessarily mutually exclusive):

* Use it
* Sell it
* Extract raw materials from it
* Upgrade it
* Research its attributes
* Enchant it

With raw materials, you can improve your existing gear or craft new gear. The quality of the gear you craft depends on your skills in the relevant profession and the attributes you imbue it with, as well as the number and type of materials you use. You also have the option of crafting identical items in different styles, purely for cosmetic reasons.

That’s not to mention the non-gear-related crafting professions like cooking (Provisioning), Alchemy and Enchanting, all with their own skill lines and benefits. Also, you can learn any crafting profession you want to learn, with no restrictions (that I’m aware of, anyway).

6. PvE, dungeons, etc

The enemy AI didn't strike me as particularly intelligent or inventive. It seemed fairly standard for this type of game which can be good or bad, I guess, depending on your preference. I would have preferred a bit more variation than enemies who simply stood there or chased me around and once in a while executed special attacks, but at the same time I wasn't bored or irritated with any of it. I didn’t have much experience with dungeons, but I know there are both private (instanced, your group only) and public dungeons throughout the game, as well as group events like the anchors. I’ve heard great things about the dungeons, but I’ve heard the anchors are a bit bland after doing one or two of them. I read somewhere there is upwards of 16 dungeons currently set for release.

7. PvP

I did not PvP. I have watched videos of it and it looks like a lot of fun.

8. The price

I hate F2P. The end.

***

I applied for the beta mostly out of a desire to confirm my suspicions that the game was not worth my time and a waste of money and resources. I did, however, tell myself to be fair and put away my expectations and judge the experience purely on its own and see what it brought to the table. In that mindset, I started playing. Within an hour I was totally absorbed and played for several hours straight. I had a lot of fun in the beta and didn’t come across anything that I felt would be game-breaking or blunt my interest in the near-term. I pre-ordered the Imperial Edition earlier this week and am very much looking forward to jumping into the game with both feet at the end of next month.