I
have been aware of Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) for some time now. But
when it comes to money, I like to be cautious. Games are expensive if
you buy them at or just after release, so unless you like wasting
cash, it pays off to do some research before buying.
Now
with ESO, I've been doubly apprehensive. I love the Elder Scrolls,
even though I got to the party late, as it were. I missed Morrowind,
not to mention the ones before that, so I jumped on the train in
Oblivion town. This was in the days before Steam, so I have no idea
how long I played it, but it was a long time. If I had to guess, I'd
say about 400 hours or so, and Skyrim is now at the 490 hour mark.
I'm not saying this to brag, but to illustrate my caution regarding
ESO.
You
see, it's always scary when a game line you love makes the transition
to an MMO. Many features can't be translated into the MMO-sphere, the
game stops being all about your character, mechanics change, I could
go on but I'm sure you get the idea. I've been terrified that ESO
would turn out to be just another World of Warcraft clone.
Yesterday
however, I sat down and watched some development videos, and I was
blown away! Bethesda Softworks have done an excellent job. Unlike The
Old Republic, I'm not in the beta for ESO, so naturally I have
no hard, first hand facts. Besides if I did, I couldn't blog about
it. The NDA is still in effect. The following observations are all
based on the videos Bethesda has released.
One
of the core points in both Oblivion an Skyrim is the freedom to pick
up a weapon and learn how to use it through fighting. The same goes
for all skills, spells and gear. If you want to play a necromancer,
the games don't serve you the skills on a plate. You have to go out
and figure out how to be the best necromancer you can be.
Now,
MMO's are notoriously rigid in their classes in order to keep
everything balanced and “fair” (and they never are). But
it seems ESO will grant you the freedom to go the way you want when
you want.
Sure
there are four starting classes, but they are there to help you in
the direction you want to go. Not to stop you from doing something,
but to help you.
You
could start as an assassin, train up some spells, then strap on heavy
armor and become a battlemage, eventually transitioning into a full
time mage, all on one character. This is revolutionary in this
bloggers experience.
How
many times have you been playing a character in an MMO, seen another
player, and thought “Man, I wish I could do that, but I don't feel
like re-rolling”? I have, and more than once. Of course in my case,
I'm an Altoholic, so I love rolling new characters anyway. But this
is still an awesome feature.
And
speaking of character creation, take a look at the creation options.
An incredible amount of alternatives, including height differences,
separate hip and shoulder widths etc etc. I love it!
And
finally, a game where you can learn all the crafting skills on one
character should you choose to do so. Simply wonderful. I for one am
going to pre order this game, and that's something I almost never do.
Finally
I love the fact that there are three factions instead of the typical
two. This should add a nice tension, particularly to PVP . Way too
often, one side becomes irretrievably dominant in the PVP aspect, and
that's a drag.
I'm
looking forward to April 4th
a great deal now, and not just cause I'm sick of the winter time.
I
was going to embed the relevant youtube videos here, but the sharing
is disabled so here are the links:
Character
creation: http://elderscrollsonline.com/en/media/videos/653
Gathering
& Exploration: http://elderscrollsonline.com/en/media/videos/567
Character
Progression: http://elderscrollsonline.com/en/media/videos/657
Good
game y'all!
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