The fantasy MMORPG The Elder Scrolls Online turns out to be a true long-distance runner. Our tester Schuhmann rubs his eyes in wonder after more than 100 hours: “Still no end in sight?”
After more than a hundred hours, the game still has a lot to offer
We spared you a review right after the first week because we find it silly to speculate about the long-term fun of an MMORPG after just 20 hours. And that’s what most players care about. Especially when a game stands in the tradition of Skyrim, which has thrilled players with its long-term addictiveness.
Now, a bit more than 100 hours of playtime have passed. Of course, one still cannot make a final assessment or quantify it in exact percentages. The endgame is still missing. But I’m sure: The Elder Scrolls Online is not a game for just one week.
I fought my way through four areas in the service of the Aldmeri Dominion, worked my way up to the fifth rank in PvP (appallingly anonymous) and already did some serious crafting and trading.
Now it’s time to address a few things that might get lost in the steady flow of bugs, exploits, and problems.
[pull_quote_center]I admit: I was skeptical. But now I must say: The Elder Scrolls Online is a really good MMORPG.[/pull_quote_center]
The quest flow in TESO is excellent
What strikes me again and again in the game: I don’t check the EXP bar. While in other games it is always clear to me that I am playing an MMORPG and that I still need 22% to level up, and in three levels I will get the new ability to achieve this and that, this is not so important to me in TESO.
I have been surprised by many level-ups. Three times a day I’m in front of the skill tree, considering where to distribute the delightfully numerous points. There is really no shortage of them. In other games, one looks up on Google or thinks about what the best build will look like (Well, usually others think about it and you copy it). You constantly wonder how to distribute the few points, how to get from the minimal value X to the maximum value Y.
In The Elder Scrolls Online, I figure it out myself. If you look a little off the path, there are skill points everywhere that do not enhance combat power after a certain level, but rather make life a bit easier and more varied. I think that’s a great story in an MMORPG.
At first, I resisted with all my might (specifically: with claws and paws) to invest two precious skill points in the quest abilities of the Mage and Fighter Guild: I thought it was complete nonsense. I’d rather see if I can squeeze out 2% more damage somewhere. By now, I have had the abilities for weeks and wouldn’t want to miss them. And that’s how I feel about many skills.
Small quest jewels
It’s hard to recommend TESO to someone because it does many things right that should be standard for an MMORPG: It has great quests. This is the core business of MMORPGs, but it is often neglected. It happens to me rarely in other games that I really engage in a quest and dive deep into it.
To give an example of a quest that “caught” me (mild spoiler alert): A young man sits in front of a ruin, complaining to me that he deserves a magical treasure and that I should help him get his right. The dungeon is right next door and it begins. On the way to the end of the cave, there are a few ghostly warnings, the usual boo-hoo, I think. Now it turns out that this heirloom is a cursed helmet that immediately takes possession of him and transforms him into a monster. The man dies (has run into my arrow) and on the way out there are ghostly apparitions at various corners, ancestors of the accident victim, each of whom says only one sentence about what the helmet has seduced him into. Chills!
This way, there are many small quests where the developers have simply put in a bit more effort than necessary. It’s these small details that make me go that extra mile and postpone what I originally intended by twenty minutes.
Especially taken by the three main and guild quests that continue in the zones or come back every five levels. Of course, I can’t spoil anything, but they hit a narrative chord with me.
[quote_right]A work of art that you must engage with[/quote_right]At first, I thought: Can’t they include subtitles when dialogue is spoken in a cutscene? But no, this is a game that you play without a TV in the background or the chatter in Teamspeak. A game, almost one could say: A work of art that you must engage with. It does not shy away from that.
Items don’t play a big role
TESO takes an interesting approach in many aspects, which is why it does not feel like a “standard MMORPG”. While in other games items are extremely important, I don’t pay much attention to what I’m wearing in The Elder Scrolls Online.
Every five levels, I go to the guild store, take advantage of the well-organized display, and can completely re-equip myself for a little gold. Because so many items are tradeable, items do not play a big role in the game for me. However, I think this is one of the things that will become more appealing in the endgame. More and more, I’m now finding unique items with a proper name and a higher quality level that are also immediately bound.
Actually, I would have thought that this would bother me. But it’s one of those things that I don’t notice negatively. Just like the lack of a mini-map or the relatively small selection of combat skills. I don’t miss them. I also don’t need to be informed down to the last detail about how much DPS I’m doing with each individual skill and which rotation would be the most advantageous for me.
I find myself slightly not recognizing myself here. In other games, I stood for hours at the dummy, had my Excel calculator on and an extra program to see how much haste I can squeeze out of my gear to hit a crit sweet spot. Here I am back in the information Stone Age and feel wonderful about it. I’m just about ready to get a volleyball and name it Wilson.
No interest in theory crafting
This afternoon, I checked a forum and was taken aback by the typical theory crafting talk. As they spoke again in the Denglish of MMORPG gamer slang that the resto staff had the best AE damage and that the Nightblade was the weakest class for AE farming without a destro staff – and what else one says when the day is long, I felt like I was in the wrong movie.
I know this approach to a game, of course, but it would never have occurred to me to search for it in The Elder Scrolls Online.
The question is: Is it me or is it the game? Probably both.
It has become clear to me in the last hours in the game that MMORPGs can be this way too. That you can play them not only with your head but also with your gut. For that reason, however, some bugs and dead ends are particularly frustrating, which must not be overlooked. The Elder Scrolls Online is not a game for everyone and at the moment, some dead-end quests are ruining the fun for many people. And if you look at the game without affection and a certain affinity for it, weaknesses certainly become visible in some areas. A few have already been mentioned. It is clear that this is not an MMORPG where milk, honey, and mana flow.
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[intense_testimony_text]But at the moment, at level 43, I feel no saturation from this new flavor of MMORPG. I’ll check in again when I reach the endgame.
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