The Elder Scrolls Online receives two new dungeons today: the Halls of Maarselok and the Moongrave Temple City. We were able to play through the latter live with the developers. Here are our highlights!
Which dungeon is it about? We were with the developers Rich Lambert (Creative Director), Jeremy Sera (Lead Content Designer), and Mike Finnigan (Lead Designer – Dungeons) in the dungeon “Moongrave Temple City”.
This instance is part of the new ESO DLC Scalebreaker, which is released today, August 12, 2019, for PC. The console versions will follow on August 27.
This is the story behind the dungeon: The Temple City is still in Elsweyr and has long been abandoned by the Khajiit. However, dark vampires from the cat folk can now be found there, who have made the Temple City their hideout.
That would be bad enough, but the vampires have teamed up with a rogue Dragonguard and brought a dragon down from the sky.
The beast is now being held in the center of the Temple City and is intended to serve as a blood bank for the vampires. The blue suckers hope to gain legendary dragon powers by consuming the dragon’s lifeblood.
These are the highlights of the dungeon
This is the most fun in the new dungeon: Like with all DLC dungeons from recent years, the developers have come up with a few special things here as well. In the following paragraphs, you’ll find out what I, Jürgen, found particularly positive in the dungeon.
The cool Khajiit architecture
This is what the dungeon looks like: The developers really put in effort when designing the massive Khajiit buildings in the ESO expansion. The dungeon of the Moongrave Temple City takes it a step further.
The entire site looks like a site abandoned for centuries by a religious cult that built a place far from civilization to serve higher powers. The whole structure resembles a mix of Indian and Thai architecture. However, one quickly notices that they are not on an Asian trip but in Tamriel.
Everywhere there are colossal statues of mystical Khajiit heroes, and all the symbolism is clearly aimed at the mystery cult of the two moons Jone and Jode, which are worshipped by the Khajiit in a cult that is hardly understandable for outsiders.
Furthermore, the entire site is designed so that throughout the traverse one can always look across the central square and recognize the entrance again and again. The level design is certainly impressive and significantly contributes to the atmosphere.
The enemy design
These are the enemies in the dungeon: As mentioned, vampires are the main opponents here. However, they are not the usual pale bloodsuckers you have fought against numerous times in the game. The vampires in the Temple City are all Khajiit. This also applies to the panthers that are sneaking around everywhere, which are also Khajiit subspecies.
In addition, there are unholy parts of the architecture that have been filled with dark rituals of bloodlust. This results in suddenly broken decorations of the temple facade jumping at us, wanting to drink our blood.
However, particularly impressive are the big brothers of the usual vampires. Like all Khajiit, there are also vampiric versions in different forms. The feared giant Khajiit of the Pahmar-Rath type are present as special elite enemies and as a special boss in the dungeon.
To appropriately stage the cat colossal beings, the developers mostly placed them in narrow corridors as patrols. When a three-meter-tall vampire cat person suddenly strolls around the corner, it certainly makes a significant impression on our dungeon team.
The box mechanics
This is what the boxes are about: Like in many new dungeons, there is a special new mechanic here that one uses repeatedly to make puzzles and boss fights more exciting.
In the Moongrave Temple City, these are boxes that you push in the opposite direction through attacks. This is first used to weigh down pressure plates and thus open doors.
This requires teamwork and offers plenty of potential for trolling. For example, if one of the developers always pushes the box somewhere else after I have painstakingly positioned it.
However, at the latest during a special boss fight, the box pushing must be done correctly. A nasty cat gargoyle confronts us on a field from which lava geysers are regularly summoned from cracks.
These must be closed in time with boxes, and if the team does not coordinate optimally here, it can go completely wrong.
The epic final battle
This is what awaits you at the end of the dungeon: As mentioned at the beginning, the goal in the Temple City is to stop the vampires before they can drain the captive dragon.
Unfortunately, we can no longer prevent that. In an epic scene, we first beat the head vampire, but then he jumps over to the dragon, which is buried under rubble.
Filled with dragon power, the vampire becomes a significantly stronger enemy that hits us hard. But the dragon has finally had enough of being a blood bank. Therefore, he randomly intervenes in the fight with his fire breath and supports us in the battle against the bloodsucker.
We can finally take down the vampire together with the excellently animated dragon and have a final conversation with the dragon monster before it succumbs to its injuries.
“It’s a shame that the dragon is dead,” I note. “It would have been cool if we had become friends.” To this, one of the developers replies, “No, that can’t happen. Dragons hate you. This one just hated the vampire even more and liked you a little less now.”
Jürgen’s conclusion: A successful addition to Elsweyr
I had fun in the Temple City. The dungeon is well-designed and exploring an abandoned old temple complex is simply enjoyable. Especially the final battle, where the dragon breathes massive fire streams into the fray, is one of the coolest boss fights I’ve had so far in ESO.
Additionally, the scenario fits well with the Elsweyr story. While there you deal directly with the dragons and their machinations, in this dungeon you see what side plots emerge with the return of the dragons and that the danger does not only come from the dragons themselves.
I’m certainly very curious how the story continues for the rest of the year.
We unfortunately couldn’t play the second dungeon as well, but it was already well-received on the test server:
