The Elder Scrolls Online: Review in Progress (Part 1)

At long last, the much anticipated The Elder Scrolls Online early access has finally launched over the weekend and since it opened up to those who pre-ordered the game, I have been spending almost all day playing it. When it was revealed the game required a monthly paid subscription, the fan feedback wasn’t the same ever since. With me spending over 24 hours with the game and reaching level 15, all I can say that so far – the game is worth getting despite all of the hate its getting going pay-to-play.

For fans of The Elder Scrolls series, I must say that what Zenimax has put into this game will please a lot of its fans. From its world, characters, and to the lore shown in this game, this is the game that every fan has been waiting for.

From the four classes available in The Elder Scrolls Online (Nightblade, Dragon Knight, Sorcerer and Templar), I decided to play as a Templar with a healer spec. Since I am going for a healer, I decided to equip my character named Konggol with light armors that gives out extra benefit when it comes to magicka consumption and bonuses to give me more. As for the weapon itself, a restoring and sometimes a destruction staff are the types that I have been using – it boosts up my magicka and that’s all I need to keep my character capable of healing a lot of people when doing dungeons.

As for skills, my character has been focusing more on the healer spec and skills. Since the game gives you options to pick from a plethora of skill trees available, what you want for your character is entirely possible. If you want a character that can heal and DPS at the time, just pick a skill from the plethora of trees available. One of the things that I love in this game is the versatility that you can give to your character. You are not forced to go into one tree and get through all of the skills but instead, you are given a freedom to customize your character the way you want them to be.

MMO players who are accustomed to auto attacks or rotations will be somewhat thrown off in The Elder Scrolls Online as you will have to really use your skills when playing this game. Regardless if you’re doing a quest or dungeons, you will really have to think what skills are effective to certain types of enemies. You will either have to click the left mouse to attack, press the hotkeys to launch that powerful skill you have, or the right click button to defend at the right time to stun the enemy. Your skills in battle will determine if you will stay alive or die – so pretty much you can plan your attack, be it sneaky or going at them head on. It’s really up to you.

In the three factions available, I decided to join the Ebonheart pact. That being said, I started my perilous journey to save Tamriel in Morrowind. For someone who has played Morrowind, seeing the environments and the world pleased me a lot. The breathing world of Morrowind looks stunningly spectacular and it’s really all eye candy that a lot of fans will enjoy. Think of the environments that you will see in Morrowind some sort of a remake. The world is colorful and it’s really a pleasure to explore one of my favorite places in Tamriel in all reworked visuals and environments.

For those who will pick The Aldmeri and Daggerfall factions will start you off in the Summerset Isles and High Rock. For true fans of The Elder Scrolls series, they will recognize some parts but seeing how the game is set thousands of years before Skyrim and hundreds before Oblivion, don’t expect any of the places in Tamriel to be the same.