Today, on August 22, the latest chapter in Elder Scrolls Online is released. It is called Lost Depths and continues the main story of the game. MeinMMO author Mark Sellner had the opportunity to play one of the new dungeons in Lost Depths with the developers and had to be careful not to let an undead steal his soul.
What have I played? Practically for the first time The Elder Scrolls Online. Even before the MMORPG was released, I played the beta a bit. After the release, I played for at most a few weeks. After that, I left ESO behind personally, at least until I knew I would be allowed to play the latest dungeon from Lost Depths with the developers.
So I dusted off the old account, played the tutorial at least once more to have the basics down and not to embarrass myself completely, and I was ready. By the way, I was given a character at maximum level with the best equipment for the dungeon, and one of the developers always made sure that I didn’t lose too much health.
I can’t say much about the actual difficulty level of the dungeon. However, I can say how much fun I had on this outing.
Here you can see the trailer for Lost Depths:
Lost Depths comes with two new dungeons. One is the Earthroot Enclave, which tells the story of the Bretons’ legacy. The other is the Core Depths, where a somehow magical ex-pirate invites us to explore why all ships sink in a reef.
The decision of which dungeon to play was left to me. Not surprisingly, I immediately jumped onto the ship, which shortly thereafter, just as unsurprisingly, sank and left us, along with the pirate Dhulef, stranded on an island. The start of the Core Depths dungeon.
The first boss is waiting before we really get started
How does it start? The magician-pirate Dhulef has a plan despite the minor shipwreck, so my group and I follow him across the island. Already in the first minutes, I encounter various monsters that challenge us. By the way, also completely new enemies that look a bit like raptors with oversized heads.
During our trip across the island, the developers explain to me that there are many secret passages in the Core Depths. Unfortunately, we don’t explore any of them together, but I repeatedly spot paths on the island that obviously do not lead to the objective. A delight for those who like to explore, because there are plenty of these branches throughout the dungeon.
The Core Depths feature a total of three bosses. The first guards the gate to the underwater world on the island. There I realize that there are not only new monsters but also new mechanics.
Successful boss fights: Just before the first boss starts, I need to have his new mechanic down. A random member of the group receives a debuff that shortly thereafter explodes around the player. This explosion must be directed toward one of the glowing earth holes on the ground, or it hurts.
Once this is completed three times, the boss starts. For me as a total ESO newbie, the mechanic is easy to grasp, but not always easy to implement in the chaos of battle. I initially lacked overview, but quite quickly I even placed the fields correctly.
The other boss fights in the dungeon are also very well executed and pleasantly challenging, at least for me as a newbie. The pattern of mechanics, which are easy to understand but relatively hard to implement, runs through the entire dungeon. I personally find this particularly successful. In this way, noobs like me and experienced players can be challenged equally.
Of course, there are also challenge modes for the bosses in the Core Depths. Given my overwhelming lack of experience in ESO, we opted to keep these disabled. However, anyone looking for a greater challenge will definitely find it.
One of the coolest underwater levels ever
Attention to detail impresses: As soon as it goes hundreds of meters down from the island, the dungeon becomes truly impressive. We enter an underwater fortress built by dwarves. The mixture of the ancient ruins, the technically appearing structures, and the undead slithering through the corridors immediately draws me deep into the story.
Besides undead opponents in the ruins, there are friendly ghosts around every corner. They belong to the ships that sank over the years and must now spend their existence here. I keep seeing tragic individual stories when I look out the window of the underwater fortress.
Ghosts trying to pull a deceased friend from beneath a shipwreck, weeping ghost women standing before the corpse of their husbands. All of this in an impressive ocean, where fish, corals, and various wreckage create a great atmosphere.
This love for detail runs throughout the entire underwater world and captivates me. I keep making the developers wait for me because I stop in front of one of the windows, marveling at what I can see. However, they are pleased to see me excited.
Also not annoying outside the walls: Most underwater levels are a bit annoying, as every gamer who has ever played Super Mario knows. So I was a little skeptical when we actually went into the open ocean from the underwater ruins.
But here, ESO surprises me with my personal highlight of the dungeon. As soon as we enter the treacherous sea, Dhulef envelops us in large bubbles, with which we can overcome the distance to the next room.
In the overall course of the Core Depths, this section takes up at most a few seconds. But it’s just incredibly cool to have the freedom to dash pretty much boundlessly through the ocean in a bubble and see all the aforementioned details up close.
Because the actual goal of this bubble section is just “run from A to B”, which I found incredibly difficult because I wanted to explore and observe. The details here are also impressive and leave a lasting impression on me. The Core Depths are definitely one of the coolest underwater levels I have ever played.
My soul leaves my body
The combat highlight: At this point, I really don’t want to spoil too much, but a combat highlight for me was the final boss of the dungeon. This boss has various mechanics to watch out for, but one particularly stuck in my mind.
The evil final boss tries to steal my soul from me during the fight. Although I managed to evade it for a long time, it eventually got me. And I’m glad I was hit. Because the following mechanic was the best part of the whole fight.
If the boss hits me with this attack, my soul leaves my character’s body and is transported to a kind of limbo. Here I am left to fend for myself, my team must manage without me, and I without my team.
In this limbo, I continuously lose health points and must try to capture my soul as quickly as possible. To buy myself some time, I can also absorb the souls of poor ghosts, which regenerates a bit of HP. In sheer panic, I try to find my soul while also trying to understand the mechanic.
Some nostalgia: At the same time, the fight reminded me a lot of the raid boss Dhuum from Guild Wars 2. Here too, I lose my soul and have to win it back under time pressure, otherwise my team has massive problems and I die.
Even Dhuum was one of the coolest boss fights in my MMORPG career due to this mechanic, and the final boss of the Core Depths can also convince. In the end, I don’t survive the soul loss. Nevertheless, it was a lot of fun to try.
In general, this applies to a large part of the dungeon. As a complete noob, I simply didn’t understand much of what happened on the sidelines and in the fight. Nevertheless, I had a lot of fun and, thanks to the mechanics of the bosses, could still be a help to my team and not a burden.
The new dungeon convinces me. I can’t compare it to other ESO dungeons, but I have played many MMORPGs that featured many dungeons. The Core Depths are definitely among those I won’t forget.
If you still have an ESO account, I can only recommend getting it back out. Lost Depths and the Core Depths are definitely worth it. At least if you want to see a really cool underwater dungeon.
Player in ESO owns all DLCs without spending a cent on the MMORPG
