The elder scrolls online review: Is The Elder Scrolls Online worth playing in 2022?

Is The Elder Scrolls Online worth playing in 2022?

The Elder Scrolls Online isn’t the newest MMORPG on the block, but it’s among the most exciting games to be playing in 2022. Not only has it grown exponentially since launching in 2014, but this year saw the arrival of High Isle — the sixth Chapter in the ESO saga that brought players to a region previously unexplored across the entire Elder Scrolls franchise.

Contents

• What is ESO?
• Expansions don’t require max-level characters
• Blackwood made ESO easier for newcomers
• High Isle introduced a never-before-seen region in 2022
• ESO content caters to all playstyles
• How does it stack up to other MMORPGs?
• 2022 is a great time to start playing ESO

Despite its age and the dozens of high-profile titles launching this year, ESO is still worth playing in 2022. Whether you’re looking for your next competitive fix or a relaxing way to unwind after a busy day, ESO offers a wealth of content for players of all types. It’s also surprisingly respectful of your time — something MMOs typically struggle with — making it stand out in the crowded MMO market.

Further reading

• ESO beginner’s guide: How to get started in The Elder Scrolls Online
• ESO jewelry crafting guide: How to craft jewelry in the Elder Scrolls Online
• The best character builds for the Elder Scrolls Online

What is ESO?

The Elder Scrolls Online is an MMORPG first released by ZeniMax Online Studios in 2014. It lets you explore a large portion of Tamriel (including several familiar locations from throughout the series’ history) while diving into dungeons, taking part in large-scale PvP, or relaxing with a bunch of component gathering or gear crafting.

In true MMO fashion, there are thousands of ways to spend your time in ESO and millions of ways to create your perfect character. You can play as an Argonian Necromancer, slinking through the shadows and pickpocketing unsuspecting NPCs. You can become a powerful High Elf Sorcerer and climb through the ranks of the Mages Guild. Or you can do something off-kilter and build an Orc Nightblade that runs around with a Destruction Staff and picks flowers for Alchemy — whatever you envision, ESO gives you the freedom to make it a reality.

Whether you take these characters on a solo adventure, team up for PvP, or build out a team for high-level PvE, The Elder Scrolls Online offers just about everything you’ve come to expect from a modern MMO. In other words, it’s a multiplayer version of Skyrim with some MMO-stylings thrown in for good measure.

Expansions don’t require max-level characters

One of the main reasons ESO continues to be so popular after six years is due to its unique chapter system. These yearly expansions don’t require you to be max-level to enjoy their content — meaning anyone who purchases them gains instant access to dozens of hours of fresh content. Of course, some of the content is typically intended for high-level characters — such as Trials, which are the most difficult form of PvE — but you won’t need to run around killing boars to power-level your character ahead of a new expansion.

This sense of freedom was enabled by the One Tamriel update several years ago, which scales characters’ abilities and lets you tackle any quest or jump into any region whenever you’d like. Much like Skyrim, you’re free to travel wherever your heart desires in ESO. That’s not to say progression doesn’t feel rewarding — earning new gear and learning new skills will still make you more powerful — but it’s great to see an MMO that’s so friendly to casual players.

Because of the lack of level-gating, the amount of content readily available to newcomers can be overwhelming. Here’s a quick look at some of the content that’s dropped in ESO since launch:

• Customizable player-owned housing has been added.
• Customizable Outfit System gives you an easy way to change up your appearance.
• Battlegrounds offer small-scale PvP content to all players.
• The Justice System will put a bounty on your head for pickpocketing or killing NPCs — similar to how it worked in Skyrim.
• Reworked mount system that makes it easier to level up your riding skills across all characters on an account.
• ESO no longer requires a subscription.
• Several new zones, including Elsweyr, Blackwood, and Skyrim.
• Seasonal events to promote exploration of new areas or gameplay styles.
• Hundreds of quality-of-life updates to improve overall performance and graphical fidelity.
• New classes such as Necromancer and Warden.
• Champion Points system allows further growth after hitting Level 50.
• Ability to earn premium cosmetic items through in-game currency.
• Introduction of Tales of Tribute, a competitive card game.

From that short list, it should be abundantly clear that the world of ESO is still alive and well. A massive next-gen update only made the game more popular, and the ability to dive into any new content without much grinding means it’ll continue to grow in the coming years.

You can also become a premium ESO Plus member to gain access to all this content — minus High Isle — without making a stand-alone purchase. Joining the premium service isn’t mandatory, but it does come with a few in-game perks that make things a bit more convenient for dedicated players.

Blackwood made ESO easier for newcomers

The Elder Scrolls Online introduced the Blackwood Chapter in 2021, and it brought some radical changes to the gameplay. Not only did it introduce a new region and questline, but it also brought a Companion System to the game. This allows you to travel the world with an NPC follower by your side that will help during combat. They’ll also react to your in-game behavior. Perform actions they’re against, and they’ll slowly come to dislike you. Stay in their favor, however, and you’ll earn unique dialogue options and other in-game bonuses.

Longtime fans of The Elder Scrolls will love the Blackwood Chapter because of its marshy setting and the return of Leyawiin — a popular location from The Elder Scrolls III: Oblivion. The town has been faithfully recreated, although it’s a bit more populated than you’ll remember — ESO is set in a different time period than the original Oblivion, and some creative liberties were taken to pull the town into the 21^st century.

New players to ESO will also benefit from a reworked tutorial segment that accelerates the learning curve and throws you into the action faster than before. Expect to be running around doing whatever you’d like in less than an hour — although we recommend you dive head first into the main quest before heading out on your own.

One thing that hasn’t changed much since launch, however, is the combat system. Reworks and small tweaks have been made over the past few years, but many players in the community still think the action feels “floaty” and lacks impact. Combat may not be as visceral as it is in other games, but it still requires plenty of skill and careful planning to be successful — Blackwood made big strides for ESO in 2021 but didn’t do much to address these long-running combat concerns.

High Isle introduced a never-before-seen region in 2022

If you’re playing ESO in 2022, you’ll want to dive into the latest expansion, High Isle. This brings fans to the home of the Bretons — a previously unexplored portion of Tamriel. Dense jungles and sprawling forests make up the archipelago, along with a few high-fantasy-inspired settlements. It’s unlike anything you’ve previously seen in the game, and it’s clear the dev team still has some fascinating material to work with (despite ESO‘s already-massive map).

Aside from a change of scenery, High Isle made a few big changes to ESO. The first is the addition of Tales of Tribute, a card game that lets you compete with other players or NPCs for a variety of rewards. Learning how to play Tales of Tribute is simple (thanks to basic rules and a serviceable tutorial) but there’s a high skill ceiling for those seeking a challenge.

Like all Chapters, this one brought a new questline, new characters, new PvE content, new world events, and plenty of smaller changes to ESO. There’s nothing quite as game-changing as Companions, but it’s great to see that ZeniMax is still committed to high-quality, yearly updates.

However, many fans are starting to see a disconcerting pattern with these big updates. While they no doubt introduce some great content, they all stick to the same basic formula — that is, unlock a new region, offer a new questline, and mix in a few extras for variety. It’s not a bad thing for newcomers, but veterans might feel as if they’re running through the same content but with a new color palette.

ESO content caters to all playstyles

The Elder Scrolls Online has all the trappings of a modern MMORPG, but what exactly does that look like? If you’re curious to know how you’ll be spending the majority of your time in Tamriel throughout 2022, here’s what you can look forward to:

Battlegrounds and Cyrodiil (PvP)

There are several forms of PvP in Elder Scrolls Online, but Battlegrounds and Cyrodiil are the two main attractions. Battlegrounds pits three teams of four against each other in a variety of game modes — including variants of Capture the Flag, King of the Hill, and Deathmatch.

Cyrodiil, meanwhile, is a large-scale conflict that sees hundreds of players assaulting castles, setting down siege equipment, repairing damaged structures, and slowly taking over the map. It’s an incredibly fun experience that’s only become better with age, although you may want to wait until you’re at a higher level to join in on the action. At the very least, you should have a few veteran players by your side — otherwise, it’s easy to get knocked out by a single high-level opponent.

Dungeons, Trials, and World Bosses (PvE)

Cooperative play is a huge part of ESO, and both Dungeons and Trials have continued to grow since launch. Dungeons are instanced locations that see a party of four tackling a set mission and facing off against deadly bosses along the way. Trials offer much the same — but are much more challenging, feature more complex mechanics, and allow for groups of up to 12. New Dungeons and Trials have been added every year since launch — and it’s a pattern that doesn’t seem to be slowing down any time soon.

Beyond instanced content, you’ll also find a variety of cooperative content scattered throughout Tamriel. Whether you’re cutting down difficult World Bosses, questing as a party, or waiting for a Dark Anchor to drop and enemies to come flooding out of Coldharbour, there’s no shortage of cooperative content in ESO.

Crafting

Like most aspects of ESO, crafting isn’t a required part of the game. However, if you skip out on it, you’re going to be missing out on powerful gear and tons of gold. Crafting is simple to learn, although the recently introduced Jewelry Crafting profession keeps things interesting for veteran players. If you’re just learning the ropes in 2022, you’ll be glad to know that a robust tutorial system makes it a fairly painless process.

Whether you’re running around gathering components, deconstructing unwanted gear for parts, or researching valuable Traits, crafting in ESO provides a constant sense of progression and is an invaluable part of the game in its current state. Just venture into any city, and you’ll see dozens of players bustling around the crafting stations before heading back into a Dungeon or Battleground.

How does it stack up to other MMORPGs?

Diving into an MMO is a huge time commitment. With plenty of other great titles on the market, you’ll want to make sure you’re picking the right one for your playstyle — juggling more than one MMO isn’t an easy task.

For the most part, anyone playing The Elder Scrolls Online in 2022 should find something they enjoy about it. Huge strides have been made by ZeniMax over the past few years to craft an engaging world, but it’s certainly not an MMO for everyone. Here’s how ESO stacks up to the competition and why you might prefer it over the competition:

• Final Fantasy XIV: ESO features a story that’s easier to get into, but FFXIV offers a deeper narrative that comes with more exciting twists and turns. As for combat, FFXIV uses a traditional tab-targeting system, whereas ESO opts for a more action-based approach. Unlike ESO, however, FFXIV requires a monthly subscription.
• Black Desert Online: With some of the best combat in all of gaming, BDO is a constant joy to play in 2022. It’s fast and visceral, and with its impressive graphics, there’s not another MMO that does combat better. It’s also an excellent game for players who enjoy crafting, with a robust player economy and hundreds of recipes to discover. However, ESO features significantly more PvE content and a more engaging story. It’s also a much more polished experience, and there’s no indication that BDO will be able to surpass it in any category besides combat and crafting in the coming years.
• Guild Wars 2: Its community is starting to dwindle this year, but its combat, world, and story are still among the best in the genre. However, with only a few updates on the horizon, it’s difficult to determine GW2‘s long-term outlook. Compared to ESO and its robust expansion plans, there’s little doubt its servers will be underpopulated within the next few years.
• RuneScape: Whether you’re playing Old School or RuneScape 3, both titles offer a massive sandbox for you to explore as you see fit. Its gameplay is radically different from ESO — movement is done through clicks of your mouse — although it does still feature a heavy emphasis on solo play, crafting, and questing. If you’re looking for something a bit more modern, however, RuneScape will leave you wishing for more.
• Lost Ark: Combat in Lost Ark is played from a top-down perspective and is much faster than ESO. You’ll fight waves of enemies (as you would in a traditional ARPG), although PvE, PvP, and a deep customization tree make this a bonafide MMO. It’s arguably one of the most popular MMOs on the market and, if you can look past the change of viewpoint, has a lot to offer fans of the genre.

2022 is a great time to start playing ESO

The Elder Scrolls Online is putting out some of its best content in 2022. High Isle didn’t rock the boat too much, but what it offered was of high quality. Tales of Tribute is also proof that the team isn’t afraid to innovate — although it’d be great to see next year’s Chapter make some big changes to the standard update formula. However, players checking out ESO for the first time in 2022 will find hundreds of hours of content to explore, including solo, cooperative, and competitive endeavors. This year has been great for ESO, and it’s the perfect time to jump into the action and see what all the fuss is about.

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The Elder Scrolls Online Review

Regardless of whether you assume the guise of an orc or an elf, Elder Scrolls Online is the story of an adventurer in search of his or her soul. It’s a fitting setup for a beloved single-player franchise that finds itself taking its first shaky steps in the unfamiliar massively multiplayer roleplaying game genre, and just moments past the character creation screen you can feel it struggling to reconcile its heritage with its new duds. Just as the adventurer tries to learn the truth of their past, ESO itself struggles with its identity through each leg of the lengthy leveling content.

LoadingIt’s important to view ZeniMax Online’s creation as an MMORPG first and an Elder Scrolls game second. Expecting to kill random NPCs or find the free-roaming exploration of a game like Skyrim amid its traditional zone-based progression? It’ll always let you down. The good news is that, despite some substantial launch bugs and underwhelming graphics, it exceeds many expectations and captures the Elder Scrolls experience about as well as an MMORPG realistically can.

A Guided Epic

It takes a while for the pieces to fall into place over the course of its 100-hour main story, but in time it delivers an experience that’s at least as worthy of the Elder Scrolls name as any of the three most recent single-player games. (It suffers from the same occasional cliches, too.) It presents its own unique twists and cameos of important figures from Elder Scrolls lore, as well as a final boss encounter that both exceeds the challenges of some of the single-player games and points to what’s in store in the promising Veteran content that comes after 50.

As in Skyrim, it’s the quests you find from random townsfolk and Dunmer guar herders that make up the bulk of the PvE experience, as well as stories from series favorites such as the Mages’ and Fighters’ Guilds. They’re fully voiced to a degree that puts even Star Wars: The Old Republic to shame, although the quality of the delivery from the limited voice actors ranges from adequate to robotic (particularly for some male Argonians). The catch? If you’re unaccustomed to the conventions of MMOs, you may bristle at the sight of other adventurers undertaking the same clandestine dealings with the same sketchy Breton landowners. These stories written for a singular hero but delivered to a crowd are a spot where ESO seems to hold onto its single-player beginnings more than it probably should.

LoadingGood thing, then, that the quests themselves capture the essence of Elder Scrolls. The series’ signature quests, which tend to send you into caves and ruins to seek out important relics or slaughter some bandits, match up with traditional instanced MMO design well. You do a lot of killing and fetching, yes, but it’s rarely more intrusive than venturing into Skyrim’s Korvanjund to cut through dozens of draugr to pick up a toothy crown. Puzzles and investigative missions add further spice, as do quests that affect how NPCs relate to you later down the road depending on your decisions. Further complementing the experience is a soundtrack that generally captures the spirit of Jeremy Soule’s celebrated work for the franchise, although it’s a shame that the score for the login screen represents Soule’s only direct contribution to the project. In spirit, at least, ESO swims in the same low-fantasy vibe that makes Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, and the rest so appealing: you’re generally asked to dispatch mundane threats like bandits rather than spending too much time caught up in matters of world import, so when those come along they’re more interesting.LoadingIf only it looked better. It’s clear that ZeniMax Online tried to walk a fine line between Bethesda Softworks’ realistic graphics style and the low-spec-friendly art of World of Warcraft, but the effort resulted in an unsatisfying hybrid look that seldom inspires the taking of screenshots for their own sake (as I tend to do in better looking MMOs). It’s strongest in the dungeons, where Ayleid ruins exude more gloom than their cousins in Oblivion, and the doors on Nordic barrows glisten with more detail than their Skyrim cognates. But out in the world, buildings assume a gangly appearance that is better suited to stop-motion Tim Burton films, and common objects like trees often look as though they were lifted from 2002’s Morrowind. If the direction excels, it’s only because its earthtone palettes represent a more realistic experience than its festively colored MMO competitors, making it feel a little more grounded.

Climb Every Mountain

ZeniMax Online partly makes up for such shortcomings with a world that encourages rummaging through every crate and nightstand and exploring every mountain path. It’s worth doing so not only for the discovery of Skyshards that grant skill points or new quests hiding in remote hills, but also just for the pleasure of stumbling across the sight of NPC mages flinging spells and epithets at each other or random travelers engaged in deep commentary on the legality of skooma. Books and scraps of paper conveying lore and skill points lie in wait everywhere, and a Kindle-like interface goes a long way toward making up for the unfortunate inability to hoard them and stash them on the shelves of a personal home. In a smart move, ZeniMax even kept most quests ungated by level, which means that you can tackle quests 20 levels above you if you have the skills (or the help) to pull it off. It’s rough, but it does help recall the unfettered exploration of the single-player games.

LoadingSecuring help in such instances is key to getting the most out of ESO, and working with other players generally improves the experience. Combat gets difficult, for instance, particularly in the veteran levels past 50, and thus assistance from a random player often comes as a godsend when you’re swarmed by three enemies or attacking the many world bosses that grant boatloads of experience. As a bonus, I’ve found many helpful and generous members of the community, particularly once you venture out of the early zones with their (typical) rampant spam from gold sellers. As for the rest? The majority of them outside of guild and party chat seem strangely quiet and aloof for an MMO, which I’ve attributed to an uncommon number of genre newcomers owing to the series’ single-player heritage.

Unfortunately for those of us accustomed to the genre, ESO’s multiplayer components don’t always work as well as they should. Heavy phasing means you often can’t help out a player who’s on a quest you completed long ago, and particularly in these crowded days so soon after launch, the open-instanced public dungeons get so packed in early levels that they lose all semblance of challenge. At times, the open-world multiplayer content just feels lazy. ZeniMax attempts to recall the variety of dynamic events in games like Guild Wars 2 and Final Fantasy XIV through its Dark Anchors, but they quickly lose their appeal as they look the same regardless of whether you’re in Skyrim or Glenumbra.LoadingBut ZeniMax succeeds brilliantly in presenting group content elsewhere, particularly in the Veteran dungeons you encounter after the level cap. They demand a level of coordination and strategy among four players that contemporary MMOs tend to shy from, and the encounters require that players assume rules that tend to rigidly fall under the responsibilities of tanks and healers elsewhere. For the hardcore, these present some of ESO’s best reasons for buying into the monthly subscription plan. (ZeniMax has made promises of massive new contents updates every four to six weeks, but we’ve heard that before. The proof will be in the pudding.)

Group activities also abound in the PvP combat in the massive Imperial province of Cyrodiil, which actually takes up much more geographic space than it does in Oblivion. Cyrodiil PvP presents exciting, if familiar, siege-oriented warfare in the style of Dark Age of Camelot and Guild Wars 2, although it also doubles as a sandboxy PvE zone complete with its own quests, Dark Anchors, and public dungeons.

Aim For The Knee

Over the course of 170 hours of gameplay, I’ve come to love The Elder Scrolls Online’s combat more than that in any of the dozens of other MMOs I’ve played. Much as in Skyrim, it features active blocking and bashing with the right mouse button, and calculated sword swipes with the left. (Ranged combat feels less satisfying, particularly in the case of bows.) It brings a need for timed actions and careful blocks that’s often missing in MMOs. When you bring down your sword on an enemy he crumples to a heap, conveying the sense that you’ve actually done something aside from pressing a hotkey. When you miss, it’s because you actually missed. Smaller elements, such as the need to recharge weapons with soul gems and deliver powerful attacks while hidden, pay homage to the single-player games and, in the same way, make you conserve your resources. Even the spartan UI that puts little between you and the world you’re playing in recalls the ambiance of Skyrim (although heavy modding support means you’re free to clutter up the screen as you wish).LoadingESO wisely complements this setup with a 12 hotkeyed abilities scattered across action bars for two swappable weapons, for both variety and action’s sake, and a dizzying number of skill points that allow you to create a character pretty much exactly as you wish. As of my last respec at Veteran Rank 1, I had around 140. The only limits are the skills specific to each of the four base classes, but even then each class can hold its own in each of the traditional MMO roles of tanking, healing, and damage dealing, so there’s ample flexibility. Elder Scrolls lore comes further into play with the option to become werewolves or vampires, each complete with their own weaknesses and strengths.

Honing The Craft

Yet it’s in crafting that Elder Scrolls Online most effectively uses its heritage to distinguish itself from other MMORPGs in a positive way. Alchemy, for instance, requires the same level of experimentation as is found in Skyrim, whether it’s in the act of nibbling on herbs to learn their properties or throwing together up to three different ingredients to create powerful potions. «Heavy» professions like Blacksmithing and Clothing push it even further, to the point where making new gear involves hours of research or taking gambles on improving gear with rare materials. LoadingIt’s not without its problems. The biggest annoyance is that crafting materials can easily command the bulk of your inventory and bank space if you choose even two skills, and there’s no way to sell your items aside from guild stores or hocking them in zone chat. Trading guilds consisting of around 500 members alleviate some of the stress, but the limited audiences mean that you’re never sure which of the five guilds you can join would be the best host for your items. To make matters worse, the UI lacks some key, convenient features. A simple search bar, for instance, would make guild stores infinitely more navigable, but as it stands you have to sift through each individual page in a category. This extends to other aspects as well, such as the absence of a simple, unintrusive method of reporting gold spammers.

But Shor’s bones, the bugs at this point remain legion. The popular joke among the community is that nothing makes an Elder Scrolls game more authentic than a slew of bugs—some of Skyrim’s are genuinely entertaining—but the truth is that the worst of them hold us back from enjoying the available content. Early on, a significant quest line bugged for several days in the Ebonheart Pact starting zone of Stonefalls, and it prevented me from accessing so many followup quests that I ventured into the following zone of Deshaan underleveled. The nastiest one I encountered affected the key NPC in the final zone of Coldharbour, restricting access to the bulk of Veteran content for almost a week.LoadingVeteran content presents its own unique problems. Aside from dungeons and PvP, it essentially consists of spending another 200 hours questing through the Veteran-level zones for the two factions other than your own, shattering the sense of shared experiences and «homelands» that’s usually so essential in faction-based MMORPGs. At the same time, however, Veteran zones deliver a staggering amount of content. On top of everything else, it adds up to a much greater quantity of content than you typically see in a just-launched MMO.

To be explicitly clear, if you don’t enjoy MMORPGs, you probably won’t enjoy The Elder Scrolls Online. Its strong character progression and combat systems better suit the offline Elder Scrolls games than in most MMOs, but it’s very much a game about adventuring with other players. As a fan of both MMORPGs and the Elder Scrolls series, I found it to be one of the most rewarding games in the genre in years. Even while it’s troubled by some extremely annoying bugs and will probably never look great, I’ve loved my time questing through Tamriel, and I look forward to logging back in soon.

Note: Relive Leif’s 170-hour odyssey in The Elder Scrolls Online by reading his Review in Progress Journal.

Will Elder Scrolls Online work for you? Instructions with pictures / Computer and mobile games / iXBT Live

This article will tell you if you personally should play Elder Scrolls Online, and what you need to know if you still decide to do so.

Contents

• Do you like the game?
• Where to start?
• How to play? Who to download?
• What can you do in the game?
  • Passage of locations
  • Public Dungeons
  • Group Dungeons and Arena
  • Testing and Arena
  • battles with living players
  • CRAFT
  • MODLING

  9000

  • Reading
  • Role playing
• Results

Do you like the game?

Let’s not wait too long and try to answer this question right away. You will rate ESO highly and should read the entire article if you answer YES to at least 2 of the 3 questions below.

• Have you played any single player Elder Scrolls game extensively and got hooked on its world?
• Do you have a lot of experience playing western online RPGs (WoW, Guild Wars 2, Rift), but something doesn’t suit you?
• Are you happy with the opportunity to play without time limits and open paid content in the game for in-game currency?

Where to start?

So you’ve decided to give it a try, but don’t know where to start? To get started, you should choose the platform and version of the game to buy.

The game is available on PC via the official ESO launcher (I personally recommend running the game from it), on Steam (there are achievements and the Steam overlay, as well as a bunch of bugs with updates), on Mac and on Xbox and PS consoles (Fixed: will need subscription to online services). The vast majority of the Russian-speaking audience plays on PC on the EU server.

Everything in red is available in the current base game (and more!).

The base game features a dozen and a half huge locations to explore, a global story about the victory over the insidious Molag Bal, branches of the Guild of Mages and the Guild of Fighters, Vvardenfell, as well as the central province of Cyrodiil for fans of mass battles between players.

Over the past few years, content has been released in whole story packs: a chapter that can only be purchased for real, but relatively modest money, a story DLC with a smaller location, and 2 DLC with dungeons.

With the release of each new chapter, the previous one becomes available for donated currency, crowns, in the game store. Newcomers, on the other hand, can purchase the base game and all the chapters that have already been released when buying the most recent part at the moment or pre-ordering the upcoming one. Those. As of this writing, pre-purchasing the Greymoor chapter will give you the base game, Morrowind, Summerset, Elsweyr and Greymoor chapters when it launches. There is also a Collector’s Edition with 4 important DLCs: Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood, Imperial City and Orsinium. All of the above can be purchased regularly at huge discounts.

A male vampire in women’s clothing.

So, you bought the game, created a character, and completed the tutorial. What’s next? At the whim of the developers, you are in any case undergoing training focused on the currently relevant chapter. That is, in fact, if you give an analogy with television, you are thrown into the 5th episode of the last season of the series. You have the right to go through the content in the game in any order, but on my own I highly recommend at least trying to keep the chronology. To get started, you should go to the starting city of your chosen alliance (Davon’s Watch, Daggerfall or Vulkher Guard) and find a ghostly hooded figure there to start the main storyline. The further chronology of updates and DLC can be easily tracked on the official website at the link. I note that additions with dungeons are completely optional and you can go through them for free during regular (1-2 times a year) promotions with a free trial subscription in the game. A subscription gives you an infinite bag, 1650 crowns per month and access to all DLCs (not chapters) and is completely optional.

How to play? Who to download?

When you create a character, you choose the alliance, race, class, and appearance of your character. There are some restrictions that can be removed by purchasing a Special Pack or Imperial Collector’s Edition, but this is not important for the first character. If you are not interested in maximizing your characteristics, then you can not bother at all and choose by appearance. You won’t lose much.

3 alliances and 10 races.

When choosing a race and class, you can immediately try to imagine what you will fight with. Many race bonuses in combination with a class give a very powerful combination from the very first levels. Google is full of guides for every class and role it can fill. Personally, I do NOT recommend that beginners take classes such as Templar and Nightblade as their first characters, as they require especially ingenious builds to make them interesting to play at low levels. Like single player scrolls, in ESO you can become a vampire or a werewolf, which will also have a significant effect on your character.

6 classes of characters for every taste are available in the game. 4 free.

Classes differ from each other only by 3 unique skill branches, and everything else is common for all characters: skill trees for crafting, weapons, armor, guilds … There are also no restrictions on the type of equipment. Almost complete freedom in creating builds. I heard about people who are collected on a bet from each class and the damage dealer, and the tank and the healer. The more content you have completed in the game, the more points you have, due to which you upgrade your skills. Now it is quite possible to have a high-level character with ~400 skill points, to which all crafting branches and a good half of combat skills have been pumped.

Constellation system for experienced players.

After reaching level 50, your level «resets» and now, as you gain experience, your champion level increases up to 810 (currently). The points earned for leveling up the champion can be scattered across special constellations that also strengthen the hero. An important point is that the points of the champion system can be used even on new characters who have not yet reached the championship, thus facilitating their leveling.

An example skill from a constellation.

What can you do in the game?

As in any game in The Elder Scroll series, you are free to do whatever you want, fight as you like, and for anything but theft and murder in front of witnesses, you will get nothing. Moreover, 90% of the game can be completed without interacting with other players at all, which makes ESO a godsend for social phobes. Next, I will list all the activities in the game that you will sooner or later be able to try.

Walkthrough of locations

Typical location. Of course, everything is passed, except for fishing.

This is your main activity in the game, telling the story and developing your character. The map interface displays progress for each location, how many tasks are completed, villages and cities are saved, dungeons are cleared, skyshards and landmarks are discovered, etc. To facilitate the passage, I recommend installing add-ons that mark the location of objects of interest to you on the map, which will save you a lot of time, but may adversely affect immersion in the game.

Open dungeons

This is a special type of dungeons that are almost impossible for a beginner to go through alone, since the number of hostile subjects there has been increased several times. To fully complete such a dungeon, you must complete the quest received at the entrance, kill all the bosses at least 1 time, and also take part in a group event, which, as the name suggests, will require a group. This event also gives a skill point. If you are having trouble clearing open dungeons, find yourself a group of players or one high-level «paravoz».

Craglorn. The largest and most complex open location in the game. Except for the PVP zone of course.

The Craglorn location can be considered a separate kind of open dungeon, which is entirely a zone of increased complexity and you can’t even climb there without a well-dressed group. The location was introduced in one of the first free updates immediately after the release of the game, and, frankly, I really regret that the developers froze this initiative.

Group dungeons and arenas

Classic MMORPG dungeons. Four of them go. On normal difficulty, you can go drunk and left-handed. On the veteran — only as part of an experienced group. At the end of the dungeon, there is an opportunity to fight the final boss on an even higher difficulty, and at the veteran level, the bosses can drop a special equipment: head protection, which, in combination with the shoulder pad obtained from the Undaunted guild quests, makes for some of the most powerful sets in the game. The DLC dungeons are inherently more difficult than the base game dungeons and contain many tricky mechanics and tactics even at normal level. For passing at the veteran level, they can give unique rewards.

Trials and arenas

Group dungeons for 12 people. There are long and very difficult, there are 1-2 skirmishes. Completing it on Veteran difficulty will reward you with a special character skin and a rare weapon. For beginners, the path is ordered here.

Battles with live players

You can fight from level 10 in the central province of Cyrodiil or in battle arenas. To do this, you need to queue up in a special interface. Cyrodiil itself is suitable for fans of massive castle sieges, and for fans of urban battles, insidious ambushes and partisan operations behind enemy lines — the Imperial City. To some extent, IG is the embodiment of the concept of ideal PVP in the game.

You can only fight in Cyrodiil and the Imperial City with the alliance you chose when creating your character. Soon it will be possible to change the alliance for crowns.

Battle arenas are battles between 3 teams of 4 players each. Alliances are not important here, but teamwork is very important. There is a classic deathmatch mode, but there is also something new. Play it yourself, you’ll love it.

In the case of arenas, after reaching the coveted level 50 and switching to the champion system, it is not recommended to go to the arena for the next 300+ champion levels, because for an experienced player you will be no more dangerous than a monster in a clearing.

Craft

Something worth starting to learn from the very creation of a character. Unlike other MMOs, crafting in ESO is really rewarding, and usually at least half of an experienced player’s gear has been crafted by a skilled crafter in one way or another, rather than dropped from a boss. For beginners, I recommend starting by creating armor and weapons to your liking. There should be enough skill points for two craft branches. Be sure to learn new item properties from the very beginning of the game, as the last levels will be studied for 30 days. You don’t want to waste precious time, do you?

Trading

Typical huckster in the cape of the guild that «bought» him.

Since a player can be in as many as 5 guilds at the same time, 1-2 are usually trade guilds. Merchant Guilds specialize in renting merchant stalls around the world. There is a blind auction for each trading spot, and the winner gets the opportunity to trade through this merchant for a whole week. Of course, in the most crowded cities, the rate for a place comes to the cost of a small mansion.

Trading itself is greatly facilitated by mods and add-ons, and players even keep a separate service that scans the market and tells what, where and for how much you can buy. Any high-level player will tell you the name of the service.

Home ownership

Huge house for game currency.

Very expensive and labor intensive. The houses themselves can be worth several million gold, exclusives can only be bought for crowns. Furnishing even a small house requires great effort in learning crafts and recipes. Just know that you can do such a thing, but until you level up at least to the champion level, you can safely ignore it. Every self-respecting guild has a large headquarters with a bunch of workbenches and training arenas, and role-playing guilds have more than one house in different styles for different occasions. You can also double the number of objects in your home with an ESO Plus subscription.

Collecting

This capacious concept can include the collection of new motifs for equipment, character customization elements, character skins and his faithful mount, various emotes, trophies and non-combat pets. Pretty much everything listed above can be purchased by simply playing the game or by opening containers that are awarded for watching Twitch streams (stay tuned!).

Primordial indrik (left) and some cooler indrik (right).

Also, the developers gave us, the players, an endless marathon in the spirit of collecting Pokemon. For several years now, they have been rewarding us for participating in events with special tickets, for which you can buy various things related to the events, as well as pieces of special mounts — indriks. Moreover, in order to get a special indrik, you must first collect the original from 4 feathers, and then feed him 4 berries. In this case, the original indrik will disappear and it will be necessary to collect a new one. And so on the cycle. Seems like forever.

Achievements earned

1500+ hours earned at most half of the achievements.

What modern game does without achievements. There are achievements for any activity in the game, whether it’s fishing or buying real estate, and to get the coolest of them, you will have to continuously fight in Cyrodiil for a month for a small chance to become Emperor. In fact, players who have been emperors have completed the game.

For fans of achievements and cards on Steam — they are.

Crime

Cut out the kidney.

You can steal and kill in ESO. The Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood DLCs are highly recommended. Guild masters will teach you how to do it right, and special skill trees will make you stealthy, fast, and give you the opportunity to impale an unsuspecting adversary on a knife. In addition to fun, these activities bring tangible profits, of course, if you are not cornered by the guards.

Archeology

Do you recognize the places?

A newly announced activity that will appear in the game with the head of Greymoor. A kind of Indiana Jones simulator in Tamriel. You must first seek, and then dig up antiquities. Among the rewards may be mythic quality artifacts that can make you reconsider your build.

Fishing

The whole point of fishing during the event.

A very strange activity for lovers of … er … fishing. However, fishing in turbulent PVP zones is still extreme. There is practically no benefit other than the complete closure of achievements in locations.

Reading

There are already more than 9000 books and notes in the game. Probably the size of war and peace. There are even 37 Vivek sermons! Russian localization on the way.

RPG

ESO is a paradise for RPGs. The widest customization system, a deep world, the ability to collect locations for wagering. .. I personally know people who, due to the impossibility of playing with real people during the coronavirus period, have completely gone into online scrolls.

Summary

I really hope that you found this reading at least entertaining. Initially, I planned to write an article specifically for friends who ask about the game and what I have been doing there since 2014. Now, if you are asked what ESO is, you can always throw a link to this material. See you in Tamriel!

The Elder Scrolls Online: Greymoor PS4 Review

Here is the release of the new chapter Greymoor for The Elder
Scrolls Online on consoles. We already had our first look at her,
but in that material it was either impossible to write about a number of things, or not
it made sense to do so. This is because the version was in
development process and many mechanics, including the same «Antiquities»
(Antiquities), did not work at all as they should. Now at
we have the opportunity to tell in detail about what happened on
output. But first, something sad for some — as expected, on
PC / Mac game has finally received the long-awaited for many
localization, it didn’t exist on consoles, and it doesn’t exist. However,
Russian-speaking players on consoles still received a small bonus —
full Cyrillic support in text chat. So that,
maybe localization will make it to consoles one day when players
on PC will finish testing it …

A new chapter, just like the very first big story chapter for
games — Morrowind, built entirely on exploitation
nostalgic feelings of the players. Of course you can’t use dragons.
it turned out, the topic with them was closed in the previous chapter, but they drove up
ancient werewolves with vampires and witches of the Reach. As you progress through the story,
to travel through the well-known in the fifth part
«scrolls» to locations. And in the final version, a reference to this game
became even more obvious, because the introductory video of the add-on
starts with you waking up in a cart. Well, updated
tutorial that starts after this splash screen for new
characters, further enhances the immersion effect, as
many things will remind you of the beginning of the legendary game. Only frustrates
the fact that old players cannot see him without creating a new character
can.

The game world itself also tries as much as possible to be like the world of the fifth
scrolls in miniature. Distances here in places have been reduced somewhere,
lengthened somewhere, but players familiar with the world will constantly
stumble upon places they know well. And it’s not only
key locations such as Haafingar (Solitude) with his Blue
Palace and windmills or the majestic Dragon Bridge, this and
various small caves with dungeons. You will constantly
find something familiar, but at the same time completely different, everything
the actions of the game take place several hundred years before the fifth
scrolls. The vaults have not yet collapsed, and a cave will open to you with
a beautiful waterfall, but in another place, on the contrary, a passage has not yet been dug
Further. You can spend a huge amount of time just
enjoying the beauty of the harsh nature of Skyrim. It costs separately
note the huge underground Black Limit, it
almost as large as Western Skyrim. In this
beautiful «cave» you have to spend a lot of time,
completing both the tasks of the main plot and the secondary ones.

The plot of Greymoor is not connected with the main campaign of the game and the events in
her, so that you can traditionally calmly start acquaintance with
game from this chapter. Even Razum-Dar decided not to
deal with you, but the old heroes could not do without. main role
in the new campaign performs «Daughter of the Giants» — Lyris
Titanborn, well known to players of the original, as
took part in almost all tasks of the main plot. However,
As mentioned above, this does not affect the plot here. With the exception of
pairs of additional options with memories that appear in
some dialogues. If you have completed the main story, the second
the “friendly” vampire Fennorian will become a companion. Together with you
to cope with a new threat that hangs not only over
province of Skyrim, but over all of Tamriel. Completely defeat her
will not work, as was the case with last year’s Elsweyr. main chapter
does not complete the story. She stops him at a key point, and
continuation awaits us in the addition, which will traditionally be released
in winter.

I will not go into detail about the plot in order to avoid significant
spoilers, but I note that the story actually consists of two
parts — gathering allies and actually confronting the threat itself.
This is quite an interesting approach that has never been done before in ESO.
observed. It is also worth noting a couple of other features that
appeared in this chapter. First of all, now in almost everyone,
both main and secondary tasks you will have companions.
In the story ones, they usually become Lyris and Finn. In the secondary
the character who gives the task. And the companion will not just
hang out, occasionally helping you. On the contrary, they usually
will do nothing, except for one important thing — background dialogs.
It can be comments on current events or some stories
about the history of the place. All the things that you could previously only learn from
various scrolls scattered here and there now has another
level, which positively affects the atmosphere and immersion in
world.

The second feature is that now many
secondary tasks have a direct connection with the missions of the main
plot. It makes sense to run them at the same time. These bundles
are expressed as optional dialogues that are more complete
reveal the world. So, your companions can comment on actions
each other during the passage, and in some cases you will become
additional dialog options available. For example, in one of
tasks of the main plot there is a moment where you will need to
talk to one of the Jarls. On the first playthrough, I immediately came
to him, and in the conversation there was a phrase about daughters-curses of fathers.

It also became known that his daughter had long disappeared. In the process
dialogue gives the impression that she has long been dead. However
the game has a secondary task related to investigating her
disappearance. When I replayed this task, I completed it.
before meeting with Jarl. As a result, phrases related to the daughter
changed and changed the overall emotional coloring of this dialogue. And
There are many such moments in the story. Given that
secondary tasks developers always succeeded better than
basic, this is a positive change in the game. General tone
The storytelling is dark enough, but at the same time don’t expect
see the brave Nords here. This race has always been in ESO
presented in a very unique way. Similarly, here, instead of strong
the spirit of warriors will appear before us a bunch of drunkards, cripples and
frank idiots who have everything resting on women’s shoulders.
In general, this supplement shows a strong bias towards
praising the strong and independent women of the north. So if you
if you don’t like such things, you will be disappointed.

In the main plot, I would like to note this: he suffers
a problem that appeared in the Dragonhold add-on.
Some story bosses are «arrow sponges», battles with
which are extremely tight. And okay, if there were some
unique mechanics, but no. You have to stupidly ten minutes
kick the boss while running around the arena. Fortunately, there are few such moments in the game,
however, they greatly spoil the overall impression of the passage. AT
There were no such situations in the old chapters. Otherwise
the developers have prepared for us a good main plot for a dozen
hours, and secondary — for another two dozen. Of course, in the new
A fresh trial is waiting for you in addition. In addition to new items and
titles for its passage you will receive a good souvenir. plot
it has almost nothing to do with the main stories of the chapter.

If we move away from the plot and the new territory, then the add-on did not add
into the game of new classes or skill branches, oriented as development
the combat abilities of heroes, such as the Psijic Order was. But it
added a new non-combat relic system. Essentially, this is a set
activities with your skills that will allow you to spend
one dozen hours searching for various relics. The process itself
search is quite simple. First you through the level mini-game
mobile «three in a row» determine the location of the search for relics. The more
balls collected, the fewer places will need to be examined. Then
go to the marked location and find the excavation site there.
If this is the right place, then the digging mini-game begins
relics. Wrong? So, there is a trip to another marked
zone.

As you develop your skills, you will have access to new
abilities that will make it easier to solve mini-games and find places
excavations. In addition, you will be able to change characters when
identifying locations to search for relics or new tools for
excavations. In general, this activity can keep you very busy.
for a long time. Moreover, the game will push towards it in every possible way,
throwing new items to search in the most unexpected places.
In addition to money collections, the profession has added many
interesting collectibles of decent quality,
revealing the history of the world. And revealing gradually.
Some items will have to be dug several times in order to fully
read everything about them. The only drawback of the system
– find excavation sites in certain locations in principle
impossible, even with the highest search skill. For
«magic backlight» constantly does not work as it should. On PC it is
can be fixed with interface mods, here you either have to suffer,
or reset the search when we are thrown into such places.

However, players who are specifically interested in combat skills also
received a gift in the form of a completely redesigned skill line
vampires. If earlier vampires were usually taken in the appendage due to
good passive skills that perfectly complemented many
assembly, now this branch has become more independent and
aggressive. Some will like these changes, some won’t, but
the output turned out to be quite an interesting option. I think it’s worth it
go back a little to the plot and say that you have
vampire character changes a number of dialogues. Not so drastic
noticeable, as in the case of necromancers in Elsweyr, but smoothes
the overall negative narrative of the addition, making some of the dialogue not
so gloomy.

The new addition could not have done without a new type of world events.
In Western Skyrim, instead of Dolmens, we have ritual places,
where Grim Storms periodically occur. In general, these
events significantly spoil the plot, revealing their true nature.
As you progress through the story, you’ll only find out in the second half.
tasks, and then right in the eye. So if you want
enjoy the plot, I recommend going to them only after
its completion. Otherwise, these are typical Dolmens — players need to
destroy three ritual «staves», and then defeat the boss.
Staffs will be quite difficult to destroy, since they are constantly
are treated, plus crowds of monsters climb. So alone even on
the maximum levels of development to drag this event will not work.

But there are a number of shortcomings that spoil the whole impression. because of
they have no desire to participate in events, unlike
dragons in Elsweyr or geysers in Summerset. The first is very
a meager reward, even more meager than for the Dolmens in the original,
and «daily» does not give anything of value. Second, they happen very
rarely. They don’t have a set schedule, so you can’t just
arrive somewhere in advance and in a couple of minutes receive your
lawful trophies from a pile of ashes — activation of the ritual circle
random. If it is still possible to track the status of the storm on the surface
— they can be seen from any part of the map, just look at the sky, then
deep underground, this is much more difficult to do. Of course, the situation
as it was with the Dolmens in the original, when people ran in circles, this
also not the case, but the activation time of the Grim Storms is too long.
You can run around the world for several hours and never get on
them. And when their hour does come, you will be in
closed story locations. By the way, about activation
note that it is made very high quality in terms of visual
component. When the screen goes dark and reds appear
flashes, the tension gradually builds up until it turns into
vortex.

In general, in visual terms, this is one of the most successful additions for
games. Not only due to the correct work of level designers,
who did a great job with the light and shadows in Blackreach,
because of which he looks very colorful, but also thanks to talent
animators. For the first time in years, developers have spent time on
adding high-quality animation. During dialogue, the characters
now they don’t just stand like dummy, but gesticulate, and do
it’s good enough. If you have not logged into the game for a long time, these
Characters suddenly gaining a little life can scare. Still would
bugs have been fixed, otherwise sometimes a character, talking to you, looks
somewhere behind his back or starts waving his arms off topic,
destroying the whole atmosphere.

In terms of technical errors, this is probably the most crooked addition
for The Elder Scrolls Online. So many flights and
The game has had no graphical artifacts for a long time. It’s only good that
there are almost no problem tasks left on the console version, players with
PC had time to test them well. Almost all errors were
discovered, it’s a pity that not everyone managed to fix it. So,
for example, they broke the ability to sell «loot», and on
PC, this problem could be circumvented by closing the error window with the mouse, on
Consoles can’t do that. They promised to fix
in a week.

In the end it turned out enough
quality addition, although not as dark as promised
developers. Well, they ate or turned a bunch of people into ghouls, but also
so what? The whole of Rivenspire is one big collection of ghouls, and
The Imperial City just leaves a feeling of hopelessness. BUT
this is the original material. But except for this addition
turned out exactly the way it was expected — another game on
feelings of fans of the series.