[Preview] The Elder Scrolls Online: The Comprehensive Preview

BillMurphy · October 2012

We spent three hours last week holed up playing Elder Scrolls Online. During that time, we learned so much about the game it's going to make your head spin. Read on for our comprehensive 3,000 word preview and then share your thoughts in the comments below.

Elder Scrolls Online. Those three words do some strange things to the gaming populace. They both titillate our dreams of an online Tamriel, and fill us with trepidation on what could go wrong with such a venture. When the game was unveiled and previewed at E3 2012, many worried that it wouldn't live up to the Elder Scrolls name it carries. Well it just so happens that we were invited to the Maryland offices of Zenimax Online Studios to learn about the current status of the game's development, it's plans for the future, and more importantly? We played the thing... for three freakin' hours straight. Three glorious hours that flew by in what seemed minutes. When the devs told us we could get lunch? We stayed put. When they told us the building was on fire? We didn't flinch. [READ: The building did not actually catch fire.]

Elder Scrolls Online is still in pre-alpha stages, but what we played for hours was enough to make one thing certain: it's more than worthy of the Elder Scrolls name.

Read the rest of Bill Murphy's Elder Scrolls Online: The Comprehensive Preview.

garrett · October 2012

I cannot express how much this game impressed us last week !!

Since E3 they have been very hard at work!

erictlewis · October 2012

OK so where do you sign up to get into testing? Sounds interesting.

Daredent · October 2012

looking forward to it myself.

BillMurphy · October 2012

Originally posted by erictlewis
OK so where do you sign up to get into testing? Sounds interesting.

That bit is a ways away I think. While they were talking dates at the event, the game's still aiming for late next year launch. It is in pre-alpha right now.

Scalpless · October 2012

This sounds much more TES-like than their earlier "we want to be like WoW" interview. I guess this could be a good game, after all.

DrWookie · October 2012

While some of the things in this preview sound really interesting and exciting, it does sadden me quite a bit when an Elder Scrolls MMO starts talking about what class you picked.

I saw no mention in the preview of whether we can just go at it on our own without classes, so I assume it's not the case (SOrry if that was confirmed long ago, I haven't really been following the game all that closely). Honestly it's just not an Elder Scrolls game if everyone is put into classes. An open skill system (or at least the ability to choose to play that way) is probably the defining feature of The Elder Scrolls.

notuser · October 2012

i love TES.. why made a mmo -.-!!!!!

BillMurphy · October 2012

Hey Wookie,

Yeah, definitely has classes. Which I can understand lamenting, but I think once you see how much each class can be tailored you'll be pleased with the diversity. It uses the single-hotbar design and entails so many different skills across armor, weapons, and class choice that you really will be a unique character even if you are called a "Dragonknight" or whatnot.

Ozmodan · October 2012

Well this D&D implementation is looks far better than Neverwinter. Hope they pull this game off. Let's hope Matt learned from his prior mistakes.

KhinRunite · October 2012

...and now my anticipation is back. The combat sounds good to me.

ThomasN7 · October 2012

I'm taking the wait and see approach. Not going to get myself all excited just to be let down in the end again.

victorbjr · October 2012

I'm most intrigued by the character advancement. Since the pre-defined classes seem to branch out somewhat depending on how you allocate statistics to your character, according to what I've read.

Interesting way of doing things for sure.

nsignific · October 2012

Definitely sounds better than what we previously thought it was going to be; a SWTOR clone with a TES skin.

Zylaxx · October 2012

Queue hate filled ignorance and uneducated opinions in 3,2,1.

On a positive note, I am looking forward to this title. a little sandbox on top of a themepark model with an exploration centric toolset.

ShakyMo · October 2012

Doh, playing different sides on same server.

That worked out so well for swtor ilum, tsw fusang etc..

Evolution8 · October 2012

Good to hear something positive about ESO, but honestly we have heard this before on many many games and they still failed pretty hard, this game have a very unique following and will pick this game apart if it's not up to standards of the other Elderscrolls games, i really do have my fingers crossed but my hopes are not that high

RagnorMalak · October 2012

Yet another single player game dressed up as an MMO. Unless there's some meaningful end-game experience with sandbox elements, it will just be another game you play till max level and then leave until another expansion comes along. (Maybe add 2 alts if it is true that all three factions have their unique leveling experience (They said this of SWTOR as well for the classes, but the majority of quests were shared quests), but even after that the content will 'dry up' if there's not some way of player-driven and -created content.)

Galadourn · October 2012

so targeting in combat is not tab-select but directional, like Skyrim? If that's so, the game is immediately many scales up in my expectations.

Kuppa · October 2012

If they nail the combat and exploration of TESO in an MMO this might be really good.

BillMurphy · October 2012

Originally posted by Galadourn
so targeting in combat is not tab-select but directional, like Skyrim? If that's so, the game is immediately many scales up in my expectations.

Yep, you got it. In the build, we could still "target" something with tab. But that's presumably for calling targets in groups. You wouldn't hit a thing if you didn't have your aim on the target.

garrett · October 2012

Originally posted by Kuppa
If they nail the combat and exploration of TESO in an MMO this might be really good.

From the preview we saw, they are working very hard to get both aspects. It was very cool.

Kuppa · October 2012

Did they talk at all about a summoning class? Love my Daedras!

Galadourn · October 2012

sounds almost like realt-time combat. Well, props to Zenimax for improving on the combat system, now the game can be serious fun.

I wonder however:I read in another article that you can hard-lock the target; does that mean there will be an "easy-mode" option where your attacks are directed at the target in a more conventional MMO combat style regardless of actual positioning?

and thanks for the previous response!

BillMurphy · October 2012

Originally posted by Galadourn
sounds almost like realt-time combat. Well, props to Zenimax for improving on the combat system, now the game can be serious fun.

I wonder however:I read in another article that you can hard-lock the target; does that mean there will be an "easy-mode" option where your attacks are directed at the target in a more conventional MMO combat style regardless of actual positioning?

and thanks for the previous response!

Nope, that hard-lock doesn't mean a think unless you're facing the target from what we saw and aiming at them. Really, it looked like it was either there for calling targets in groups, or as a remnant of the old combat system we saw at E3.

winter · October 2012

hard to have a uneducated opinion when the information is right there.

1) classes. no unlike Elder scroll games you will not be able to make your character and grow the way you want to instead you are forced into restrictive classes.

2) factions: Yep choose your race and then be forced into a faction weither you like the factions goals and agnda or not. Want to explore and see the whole world Well better be ready to roll and play 3 characters one for each faction. sure exploration will be great if you don't mind being limited to only a 3rd of the world per character.

3) Facebook? really......

4) Zergfeast anyone. yes you don't nee to talk to anyone you'll automatically be grouped with everyone in the area and eberyone wins no matter what one is or isn't doing during the DE. yep I know some really love this in GW2 personally IMO it makes for a much less social game where everyones only in it for themselves YMMV.

5) Hotbars? Really Skyrim did great without them but MMO ESO must have tyhem because well its a MMo and all MMO's must have hotbars right?

Sorry theres some interesting bits but this does not live up to the Elder scrolls name so far and I'm not so quick to drink the same Hype koolaid that MMORPG puts out for every game with a decent advertising budget released. (SW:TOE, GW2, TSW, TERA, Darkfall, LOTRO etc etc etc. Its MMORPG.COMS job to hype games and so they do, but it doesn't mean all gamers have to buy all the hype, or that those that don't instantly go all glowy over ever game soon to be released are haters

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