
#ELDER SCROLLS ONLINE REVIEW TRIAL#
There’s a lot of trial and error at work, which can mean lots of wasted points. This means that any given character’s effectiveness can vary wildly from powerhouse to near uselessness.

There’s no handholding here from the game players can place each skill point into whatever they’ve unlocked. There are so many options between active and passive, class and weapon skills, and other complexities that it’s a little overwhelming. The sheer amount of skills does prove troublesome when building a character, however.

Character creation is easy too, which increases your options. You can smash fools with a giant mace as a Sorcerer, or pick them off with a bow as a heavily armored Templar. The number of available active abilities makes it feel like you can play however you want. Dashing about, slicing and dicing before dropping a spell… It lends itself to a more appealing engagement over your typical MMO hotbar experience, even though it borrows some aspects of it for specific skills. The gear is fairly straightforward, and the combat itself is incredibly satisfying. You can always take on enemies all by your lonesome though. It’s a familiar problem with most MMORPGs, and one that TESO shares. This can be troublesome when trying to tackle slightly more difficult enemies. There’s about an equal chance that they’ll just ignore whatever’s attacking you in favor of slipping past quietly to loot a rune, or gather ingredients rather than helping out. That said, other people can be helpful when wandering around alone in caves and other areas – assuming they decide to help. A lot of this can thankfully be ignored with smart chat filters and careful maintenance of contacts and guilds, but it’s always there seeping in from the edges. Even the best built worlds can fall to abuses and annoyances inflicted by others. The world is just as immersive as ever, but there’s something off-putting and jarring about gold spammers flooding the zone chat in the corner, combined with other players like a barely clothed Khajiit running around. The lore is still there, supported by the three-way war between the Daggerfall Covenant, Ebonheart Pact, and Aldmeri Dominion alliances. Some of that’s lost in translation though, and it’s a loss keenly felt. Putting aside the size of the games, it’s the look, feel, and lore of the franchise that are often considered the most important aspect of the Elder Scrolls series.

Anyone that’s lost a few weeks to Oblivion or Skyrim can attest to the series’ sprawling nature, but imagine spending your time in an awe inspiringly big world, exploring for weeks at a time, surrounded by people with names like “Likes-to-Fart.” It’s a bit jarring, but despite that, Bethesda and ZeniMax Online take what you expect from the Elder Scrolls series, then still deliver on everything you might expect from the MMO genre on top. Like all Elder Scrolls games, The Elder Scrolls Online is massive. In Tamriel, Hell is definitely other people. Note: With many upgrades and expansions, The Elder Scrolls Online has become worth playing in 2021.
