The Elder Scrolls Online first impressions: old scrolls, new adventures

The Elder Scrolls Online, Bethesda and Zenimax Online’s first MMORPG entry in the previously single-player Elder Scrolls series, launches today worldwide. Like most MMOs, it’s a massive game, and after playing it more or less nonstop for the past few days, I’ve barely scratched the surface. The Elder Scrolls Online is massive, and because it’s massive and massively multiplayer (so the experience changes depending on who you’re playing with), I’m not going to do a regular review—at least, not yet. To assign a score to the game now, with so much of it left to explore, would be impossible.

(For a quick video version of my first impressions of the game, click here.)

That said, I have already played a disturbing number of hours of Elder Scrolls Online, and if you’re wondering whether you should buy this game—at $59.99 plus a monthly $15 subscription fee, it’s quite an investment—I can answer that question.

First, I have to get something out of the way, though. I come to The Elder Scrolls Online as a fan of the Elder Scrolls series but not as a fan of MMORPGs. I don’t like MMORPGs. As a result, I haven’t played many of them, so I was both eager and hesitant to play TESO: eager because I loved Skyrim so much, and hesitant because I felt like an MMO version of Skyrim would be awful.

As it turns out, I was right to be eager and right to be hesitant.

The basics

The Elder Scrolls Online is a fairly by-the-numbers MMORPG, with the only major genre departure being that you can play it from the first person perspective if you want (and sometimes you will want to). There’s nothing here that revolutionizes the genre. You create a character, choose a race and class, and after the typical prison-escape introductory sequence, you’re unleashed into the world of Tamriel with nothing but the rags on your back, the weapon in your hand, and a bunch of black-arrow quest indicators popping up on your map.

Like most MMORPGs, you play by finding completing quests. Quests generally involve finding objects or people, and often require fighting your way through hostile forces or solving miniature mysteries. Your reward for completing a quest is gold, experience towards your next level, and often also a useful item to add to your kit.

Speaking of items, there are billions of them in TESO. Well, maybe not literally billions, but a lot. And in addition to all the weapons, clothing, armors, adornments, potions, and enchantments (among other things) you can buy from merchants all across Tamriel, you can also collect the raw materials and build them yourself using the game’s crafting system, which is incredibly deep.

Buying or building better items is one way to upgrade yourself, the other is by using skill points (obtained by leveling up, mostly) to acquire and evolve new skills and to increase your base stats (health, magicka, and stamina). Your upgrade paths will vary tremendously based on your race, your preferred weapons, and your own choices, so as with most MMORPGs, the further into the game you get, the more specialized your character is likely to become.

Fighting in The Elder Scrolls Online obviously varies quite a bit depending on your character choices, but the basics are the same throughout. Click for a fast attack, hold for a heavy attack, and press ability buttons (the number keys) to use various abilities. In easier fights, this system is pretty mindless, because when an enemy is more than a level or two below you, you can pretty much just click mindlessly and still win. But against more difficult enemies, you’ll need to think more strategically and use your abilities wisely to win. My character, for example, has a poison arrow ability that can stun enemies when they’re preparing for a major attack, so timing use of this ability to prevent damage in addition to causing damage is key.