This past weekend, I had the opportunity to play The Elder Scrolls Online in Beta form for just that weekend. If you're unaware, The Elder Scrolls Online is an upcoming MMO by Bethesda that puts you in the famous world the beloved console games take place in. For starters the game sets you up as most MMO's do with a character creation. Before I go further, the only other MMO I played heavily was World of Warcraft so I will make comparisons based solely on similarity (this is sort of like that kind of thing). I'M NOT SAYING WHAT'S BETTER!
The character creation allows you to select between 6 races known from the previous games. 3 for each faction. These races include High Elf, Khajit, Nord, Orc, etc. From there you are given 4 classes to choose from and I'll go over briefly what each class is and what it matches up with in terms of the ones found in WoW. Dragonknights deal with heavy damage and can also serve I believe tanking purposes. So in some ways, like the Warrior class in WoW. Sorcerers rely on using the elements to call down storms and use magic to incinerate their foes. I also think they have the ability to have a minion at some points if I remember what I saw correctly. They're like combining the Mage, Warlock and Shaman into one. Nightblades rely on stealth and cunning to get through missions and such so basically a Rouge. Lastly is the Templar which is a damage dealer as well as trained in the magic arts to inflict and heal those around them, basically a Paladin. The majority of creating your character is the similar steps you see in the beginnings of past Elder Scroll games mainly Oblivion and Skyrim.
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| Opening area of Coldharbour |
For purposes of testing out, I rolled a Templar and used one of my WoW character names. The opening sequence/questline involves you breaking out of an otherworldly prison known as Coldharbour so I found it similar to the Death Knight opening from the Lich King Expansion. You have hotkeys assigned to various menus whose look is similar to what Skyrim had. A journal for your quests, inventory, map, character menu for leveling up etc. As you level up much like Skyrim, you get 1 point to increase your mana, health or stamina plus a skill point to spend in the many abilities you can use. Each class gets 3 specific trees that are like the talent trees each class has in WoW (also 3).
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| The pause screen to exit the game and my character Zorgonar. |
Once you get out, your are put on a somewhat linear path of traveling to locations as you level up more. I have to say with the default settings on my Mac, the game looks gorgeous and very vibrant in color. I'm not an expert in the hardware of maximizing my settings for near perfect looks so don't question me on that. Combat relies on mouse clicks to attacks and the number keys to use your abilities. Since I have a trackpad on my laptop, right clicking was hard/impossible to do so no blocking for me haha.
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| Look how pretty this is! |
The beta itself is in short lengths as I said in the beginning, the whole weekend Friday at Noon to Sunday same time. So I didn't get enough game time as I wanted. Overall though I found the game to be enjoyable and very fun, no glitches were encountered either so the game is well on its way. I would be more inclined to purchase come release but the whole monthly subscription killed it for me, already did it with WoW so I don't want to do it again.
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| Character menu where you develop your skills. |
Should you Play this?
If you have the ability to do so and get an invite to the beta then definitely. The game is very fun and will be an easy pickup to those familiar with The Elder Scrolls. If you're also fine with the monthly fee come final release, then give it a purchase!
