At launch, The Elder Scrolls Online had a lot promise. I remember being simultaneously floored and reserved in a preview event, and communicating to the development team exactly why that has been. To date, they’ve fixed some of my complaints. Let’s catch up a bit.
Since launch ESO has revamped its leveling system, added instanced player housing, gone free-to-play, hosted four major DLCs, and rolled out a number of quality-of-life updates. This is a lot in roughly 3 years, specially when a great many other publishers could have allow it to rot or abandoned it.
Yet, despite all of those trimmings they weren’t enough to obtain me back in earnest — until Bethesda dangled the commitment of time for Morrowind in front of me.
The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind (Mac, PC [reviewed], PlayStation 4, Xbox One)
Developer: ZeniMax Online Studios
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Released: June 6, 2017
MSRP: $39.99 (upgrade), $49.99 (full package with base game)
Perhaps the best benefit of the experiment is that you can create a new character (or your first) and dive into Morrowind immediately, barring an optional tutorial. There’s no level cap requirement or gate limitation, you merely begin a docked ship and walk right into port within a few minutes. Because of the number of hoops one usually has to jump through in a MMO to get at a new expansion (sorry, “Chapter,” as ZeniMax is looking it) this is a blessing, plus an extension of their efforts in the “One Tamriel” update.
For the purpose of this review I mostly tested out Morrowind beneath the guise of a new player to find out if the onboarding experience was as advertised (it had been). Naturally I selected a Dark Elf Warden, as the mix of the native race and the new class allows me to fully entrench myself in this brave marketplace of mushrooms and machinery. I had been immediately thrust into Vvardenfell, the most famous part of the Morrowind province, 700 years ahead of the era of The Elder Scrolls III.
Familiar faces are nearly immediately shoved prior to you, particularly Vivec, the illustrious warrior poet god king. Not all of them land. While I appreciate ZeniMax’s efforts to throw fans a bone, a lot of the writing and exposition winds up flat. MMOs have risen to the challenge of providing scripts that measure up towards the industry in particular often times in the past, but many from the work the team creates for ESO lacks a degree of engagement that the core series is occasionally noted for.
It’s not only because of the heightened feeling of fantasy with the eccentric foliage either. This really is still the same xenophobic arena of Morrowind, which can be great when juxtaposed to the rest lore from the Elder Scrolls universe. Reliving the heated political feud of the ruling Great Houses was a rush as was seeing the gross Silt Striders and also the congregation of undesirables that litter the streets.
The game has also evolved quite a bit because the buggy times of launch yore. Nearly every day-to-day action is smooth (more smooth than your average Elder Scrolls actually), and that i still love the option to look first-person in an MMO. The postgame Champion System and ability to instantly phase anywhere for leveling make adventuring that much more enticing, and all of that funnels into more opportunities to screw around in the new island.
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