Playing through The Elder Scrolls Online since the beginning of Early Start was a bag full of mixed emotions for me. At times I felt like it was close to becoming a true demonstration of The Elder Scrolls in a multiplayer world, only to see it fall short. Most of the time I was busy asking myself why I wasn’t playing The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim instead. Didn’t we all just want multiplayer added to Skyrim anyway?
Given TES‘ two decades of single-player history, TESO represents something very important; it’s a game that could introduce a large and very loyal crowd to the MMO genre. Unfortunately, TESO isn’t great at being a MMO, and it isn’t a great embodiment of TES, either. I get the feeling that this may be the beginning and the end for some RPG fans who’ve decided to give the MMO genre a swing for their first time.
A lot of the qualities that have come to make TES a prolific RPG franchise are compromised in TESO. Instead of quests feeling intimate, selling you on the fact that you’re having an impact on the game world and its characters, most quests devolve into smashing quest enemies with tons of players around you. Most of the time you have no idea who these characters are, and the lack of chat bubbles or a well implemented UI makes communication a rarity. It’s hard to feel like a hero when all you’re doing is running around with strangers destroying creatures with a couple slashes of your sword.
Made worse, the quests simply aren’t as interesting as in other TES games. The voice acting is great, and there’s plenty of lore to chew through, but the variety and level of detail has been diminished, presumably because sacrifices had to be made to create an online environment. Given the quest design is the series’ greatest asset, this shortcoming poses a problem for the long-term of the game.
But hey, you get to play the experience with your friends, right? Well, yes and no. You can play with your friends as long as you’re on the same faction (no exceptions), and are able to find each other (which is no easy task). The game’s mind-boggling phasing design locks you out from participating in already completed quests, rendering you unable to properly level with friends unless you’re at the exact same state of progression. Even if you want to just hang out in town and drink some beers, you’ll have to manipulate the phasing system to find one another.
The first few days of my playtime—and presumably others—with TESO were wrought with frustrating and at times game breaking bugs. I had my leveling progress completely stunted by three quests that were bugged in Stonefalls, rendering me helpless for hours. Due to the insanely low experience granted by monster kills, and the fact that you can’t level up in the zones of other factions, I was completely reliant on these quests. I also ran into issues where my character progress was rolled back up to half an hour, and my character fell through the game world requiring me to log out of the game. I had to wait until the v1.0.1 patch was released to not only move forward with my character, but play without a constant bombardment of issues. It wouldn’t surprise me if some players had a lot of their early excitement drowned during these rocky first few days.
The lack of a conventional endgame environment may also leave fans wondering what the fuss is all about for MMOs. Normally, hitting level cap is only the beginning of the journey. In TESO, it signals the end of your adventures. You can continue to do a few quests, or dive into some PvP, but there are no raids or worthwhile gear grinds. The experience relies entirely on the trip from 1-50 where you’re playing alone most of the time… just like you were in the even better TESV: Skyrim.
And then you have the billing issues. Players have been reporting that Zenimax Online is pre-authorizing charges even though the first free month hasn’t ended. As if paying $15 per month wasn’t enough, or paying extra to unlock the Imperial race and the option to play any race on any faction. These invasive microtransactions aren’t the norm in MMOs, but they sure as heck were implemented in time for TESO‘s launch.
As a MMO veteran, I wasn’t particularly surprised by TESO‘s issues. However, series fans looking to try something new are likely to get a negative impression from all this.
Ultimately, I don’t feel like TESO does a good enough job demonstrating the allure of MMOs for newcomers. It doesn’t do the genre or the franchise justice. That just might be enough to scare MMO newcomers away for the foreseeable future.
