The Elder Scrolls Online Preview – PAX East 2013

As soon as you entered the PAX East exhibition floor it was all but impossible to spot the Elder Scrolls Online booth. Of all the demos at the conference Elder Scrolls was the biggest (boasting a playtime of two hours) and highly anticipated (the line to play the demo was equally long). The fantastic people at Bethesda were able give New Game Network some time to sit down and play the biggest impending MMO of the year and prove that more in-game players did not mean less fun.

I started off creating a character and was given the three races of the Daggerfall Convenant faction to choose from: Brenton, Redguard, or Orc. Being most familiar with the Redguard, thanks to extensive time with my dual-sword wielding Dovahkiin from Skyrim, I went with the native race of Hammerfell. Anyone who worried about character creation, let me calm your fears. Elder Scrolls Online boasts deep and specific character customization, much like its single player predecessors. Neck width, ear size, and almost any other part of the body is fully scalable.

After choosing the look of my character I had to choose a class. The three options I had were Dragonknight, Templar, and Sorcerer. I chose Templar, looking to create a warrior with a nice mix of magic and might. Thus was born Illiara Belkazaar, and my questing began.

I was told I was starting in the second zone of the game, immediately after the tutorial. I awoke on a ship docked in a harbour town of a Hammerfell island. The first mate said that I had been pulled from the sea and should thank the ship’s captain who had saved my life. I found the captain, lounging beneath a small shelter, escaping the blistering Hammerfell sun. The captain told me that due to the commands of the local government she had stopped her pirating and her crew had mutinied, leaving her stranded on this island. However, she had plans for a final heist and needed my assistance in rounding up a team to assist her.

As I started out on my quest, I was immediately intrigued by the world and art Zenimax Online had created for their game. The island I was exploring had rolling, golden sand dunes, large rock canyons, and giant Persian-influenced structures that seemed every bit as detailed as one would expect from an Elder Scrolls experience. The details were crisp, the colors vibrant, and the world felt alive. Soon, I wandered from my original quest and began exploring around the intricately crafted world.

While doing this aimless wandering I stumbled across a spirit shard, which rewards players for exploring the world around them by giving them an extra ability point when they level up (this will be explained in more detail later). The second thing I stumbled across was an elven woman who was lamenting the capture of her lover. She had recently met the object of her affections, whom had promised to help her escape the island but had been wrongfully imprisoned for stealing a valuable gem.

I promised the woman I would do what I could to help and ventured into the prison where her lover was being held, appropriately termed “The Grave”. The Grave was filled with spike and fire traps, which you had to sprint in order to avoid. It wasn’t long before I came across some guards and got a taste for Elder Scrolls Online combat. In essence, the combat is strikingly similar to Skyrim, though there is a little less first-person shooter feel to it with less aiming required (and it obviously not being first person), making the combat a bit more akin to an MMO. However the core is very much intact, as a left mouse click does a quick attack, holding the left mouse click does a power attack, and the right mouse click blocks. In addition to this setup are five hotkeys designed for different spells. Dodging, interrupting, and blocking are all crucial elements in battle, which revolves around getting your enemy off balance to squeeze in a couple of extra hits.

After finishing my fight, I saw that health, magicka, and stamina all recharge, much like other MMOs and Elder Scrolls games. Also similar to its forebears, ESO allows a high amount of interactivity with the world around you. Players can pick up and read books, search any barrels or chests they find, and pick up any food around. The only change being that weapons are not allowed to be picked up, due to needing more control over the in-game currency, and NPCs will not always drop the items they have on them.

While still level one, I died a couple times when pulling two enemies simultaneously, but once I hit level two the tide turned. Each time you level you can upgrade or get new abilities that are added to your hotkeys (you get multiple upgrades for every spirit shard you collect). These abilities revolve around three categories – mine were melee, magic, and healing. Also, you pick one aspect of your health, magicka, or stamina to upgrade, again much like Skyrim. After I levelled up, the combat took a turn and I was hacking apart my enemies with ease.

I found the elf’s imprisoned lover and his sketchy dialogue instantly raised a red flag, this man was not who he pretended to be. Together, we escaped the dungeon and he said that he must reach a nearby goblin camp to collect the valuable gem he had stolen (he stole it from someone else so, in his eyes, it was alright). There were no dialogue options that could change my path at this point, and I was forced to help this suspect character.

Upon reaching the goblin camp I levelled up again and now was able to shoot fireballs at my opponents. Magic is considerably easier in Elder Scrolls Online than other Elder Scrolls games as there is no aiming required to hit your enemies. In fact, the mix of hotkeys and mouse clicks make combat relatively easy in the game. I was promised that things would get more difficult deeper into the experience as enemies would start to swarm you, but from what I played combat was not much of a challenge, though still fun.

The scoundrel and I recovered the gem and were set to rendezvous at the local tavern. That was when a government agent questioned me about the man I had rescued and the jewel he possessed. Apparently, the jewel’s previous owner had been of some status and the scoundrel was in a bit over his head. Here I was presented with a choice to turn him in or cover for him. As much as I didn’t like this guy, I dislike the king of the region even more. I played coy and met the scoundrel back at the inn with his jewel.

This should give you a good idea of the quest structure in Elder Scrolls Online. I got halfway through another quest (the one I was supposed to be on, before I got sidetracked) that offered some other great changes to the game. In this quest I was forced to dress in disguise and sneak about a bandit camp. However, no sooner had I got my disguise than I was forced to, unwillingly, call it quits.

There are far more questions for Bethesda and Zenimax Online to tackle than they’ve answered. A couple hours barely scratches the surface of what is sure to be a game that aims to addict players for years. But I found that Elder Scrolls Online is truly seeking to preserve what makes the series so great, continuing a tradition of exploration, surprise, and the feeling like someone built an entire world just for you, even if there are other people playing it. Here’s hoping they achieve this goal in not just a demo but in the full release, currently set for late 2013 on Windows PC.