The Elder Scrolls Online has been out for about three months as of this review, and the game has garnered a lot of attention for a lot of reasons, including: Skyrim being such a successful game, it being an MMO and automatically being hyped as “another WoW killer” (which it isn’t, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves), and having a spectacularly large number of bugs.
Let’s get two things straight here immediately: it’s not a WoW killer, and it’s not Skyrim online. Both of those things are obvious to anyone paying attention, but it bears repeating. While comparisons to either of the aforementioned games is almost necessary from an industry standard perspective, ultimately the game was designed to be something very different from either. If you don’t like that and demand nothing less then don’t buy it or play it. You wouldn’t be happy, and nothing will change your mind. Oh, it’s fun by the way, so let’s start talking about the game itself.
From a technical perspective, there’s only a bit to cover. A lot has been written about ESO‘s “megaserver” system, and it’s interesting, but the only part that really matters is the ability to play with people without having to port characters from one server to another or call it a day.
As a former WoW addict, I can’t stress enough how useful that is, at least in theory. I say in theory, because I don’t know if this implementation is the cause of the game’s two biggest technical flaws: servers being down, and friends being locked to separate phases. The running gag is that one day Europe will get a server too (pointing to it being down so often it may as well not exist). That’s not really fair, but suffice it to say that when you pay a fee for a game, you absolutely expect the servers to be up pretty solidly. The phasing issue is probably the single worst annoyance in the game. It is not fun to be running alongside your friend only for them to suddenly disappear and you both be fighting totally different mobs. The good news is that Zenimax is addressing this in a future patch, though we don’t know how quickly.
The other big technical concern is the matter of the game’s bugs. Yes, it had a ton of them upon launch. Yes, they have patched a lot of them. No, they aren’t done. Most remaining bugs aren’t game-breaking, though. If you’ve been waiting to play until after most of the bugs have been fixed, I’d say go ahead. There will be more server patches, hotfixes and tantrums/legitimate complaints on the forums. That’s life playing an MMO.
In gameplay terms, here’s the quick and dirty: it has a lot to do in the initial areas, and some of the systems in it, like crafting, are very deep and take time to learn. Min-maxing your character’s stats is nearly impossible, and even just figuring out how to allocate skill points can feel daunting at times. A lot of this has to do with your ability to be a healer, tank, or DPS with any class, and, if you so choose, the ability to change your role in the group with a quick weapon swap.
The game is all about weighing choices. Do you become better at healing, or tanking? Should you spend your gold on a horse (yes, asap), or more bag space (also a huge priority)? Do you block the incoming attack, or try and finish them before they get it off? While that sounds, and can be, frustrating, it also keeps you motivated to do that next thing that will make your character stronger and see where the storyline goes. That’s the experience of playing the game in a really broad sense.
In a more narrow sense, it is an absolute blast to randomly group up, which is something you’ll be doing a lot, to melt faces when the forces from Molag Bal’s realm dare to set foot in Nirn, or to manage some sophisticated way to deal with three simultaneous bosses in a dungeon you probably should have waited to get to a higher level to even challenge. Most of that fun stems from a good balance of MMO “action-barring” and positional tactile combat feedback. In the end, the game is very addicting and rewarding if you put serious time into slogging through its nuances.
While I haven’t played a ton of PvP (and I don’t suggest you do until max level as the gear gap between you and veteran-ranked players will make you useless), it’s huge, ongoing, and strategic fights will offer literally weeks of playtime, should you venture into that aspect of the game. Just be sure to bring a horse or you’ll spend most of your time just running to or from the action.
The biggest detractors from fun right now are things from which any new MMO will suffer: bugs, immature servers, interfaces that need cleaning up or outright redesign, and even immature players. The heart of the game is a lot more than that, though, and I’ve found myself addicted to it unlike any MMO since WoW because, despite its legitimate shortcomings, the game is actually fun to play the vast majority of time, and isn’t finding that out the reason why you’re even reading this?
If you’re looking for World of Skyrim all polished and well-aged, look elsewhere. If you don’t mind getting your hands metaphorically dirty (sometimes very dirty, to be honest), and want to slay baddies in a deep, immersive MMO set in the Elder Scrolls universe, then you owe it to yourself to at least play the entire trial period of the game. It’s not perfect, but it’s a lot of fun.
