The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited Console Review Log: Day 1

I remember seeing Elder Scroll Online for the first time at E3 2012 and I remember being quite disappointed. Fast forward to 2014 and the release of the game on PC actually surprised me. It basically defied all logic and preconceptions about the world of Elder Scrolls that's generally reserved for solo exploration, and that it actually works in an online setting.

While I didn't personally review the game back when it first launched on PC, I played it for quite some time. I don't mean to toot my own horn here but that was when The Elder Scrolls Online was a subscription based MMO. So that means it had to have at least been good enough to warrant me spending money on it each month right? Well, yeah, actually! The Elder Scrolls Online is still, at heart, very much an Elder Scrolls game. A fan of the franchise or even minor fans would easily identify it being an Elder Scrolls game, and that's saying a lot.

So what does the transition to consoles mean for the MMO? First and foremost, ditching subscriptions was easily the best decision Bethesda could have made, specifically for console players too. Expecting console players to pay $60 for the game, with many already paying for a premium service like Xbox Live Gold or PS Plus, and on top of that pay a monthly fee just to play the game would be absolutely absurd. So naturally, now players have a much smaller barrier of entry. Sure, the game still costs $60 new, but that's all the money you'll have to spend to actually get access to all of the content. Unlike EA and Bioware's The Old Republic which retroactively blocks users from accessing a bunch of content unless they pay for it or subscribe, The Elder Scrolls: Tamriel Unlimited gives players unfettered access to the entirety of the world, and all of its quests. So kudos Bethesda on making that move.

I ported my PC progress over which had my already leveled up character ready to continue questing, but I instead chose to create a completely new character for two specific reasons. Firstly, I never actually made a character in the Ebonheart Pact, so it allowed me to experience a starting zone I've never played in. Second and certainly more important, the game was new and there were bound to be tons of people in the starting area. And what better way to get a sense of the community than by seeing them all right there, scurrying around to complete their quests, asking and being asked to team up and take care of the undead skeletons in a dark tomb, etc. Boy were there a lot of people.

In fact, the amount of players logged on were the cause of me being unable to log on for solid few hours. It sucks that an MMO being down right after launch is "expected" but sadly that's still the age we live in.

The biggest and most obvious change is to the game's controls. To its credit, it now plays a lot like Elder Scrolls should. Regardless of whether you've previously only played on PC or not, I've mostly played with a gamepad. Getting that control scheme back was a welcome change. Not to mention, the controls translate perfectly. The left and right trigger serve as your main offensive and defensive moves, while the face buttons (aside from the X/A button) as well as the L1/Left Bumper and R1/Right Bumpers are reserved for skills. Lastly, L1 and R1 together will use whatever ultimate ability you have assigned. It definitely works and I have absolutely no problems with the control scheme. Even things like mounting and dismounting your horse is done eloquently with the Touchpad and L2 and R2 buttons respectively.

So far I've only explored most of Ebonheart Pact's initial zones of Stonefalls, Bleakrock Isle and Bal Foyen, and did numerous quests solo as well as with a group of people. It's definitely good fun. However, the one thing that's overly annyoing and that I had to turn off immediately was the close proximity voice chat. It's not so bad when you're out and about and questing, but as soon as you enter a hub full of people, it gets extremely loud. I heard everything from people yelling "Yo whatsup!" over and over, two guys shouting at each other, people doing weird noises, or listening to music that the mic picks up. I understand what Bethesda was going for, especially since the console version does away with any text input whatsoever, but I'm not sure if it's as elegant of a solution as they'd hoped. Maybe there just needs to be some better audio mixing done to make it sound more natural.

Outside of simply talking, player interaction is mostly done through holding down the Options/Menu button which brings up a radial menu. Here you can view that person's profile, invite them to a group, or even add them as a friend. It can sometimes be hard to actually get the menu to show up especially if the person you're trying to view is on the move, but for the most part it works.

Likewise, finding people to group up with is handled elegantly through the Group Finder tab. Here you can pick your role in the group and then queue up to everything from Dungeons, Veteran Dungeons, Trials, Alliance Wars or simply questing/exploring in the open world.

The one thing that plagued the game even when it released on PC and still continues now isn't really the game's fault inherently, but it's the fact that the game is an MMO. Having so many people online can result in losing that sense of discovery and self accomplishment. When I came across a landmark that apparently had a difficult monster in it, I was disappointed to see 10 other people huddled around it, waiting for that boss to respawn. This was supposed to be my moment, my discovery, but instead it was just a hangout spot until the next batch of people come across it.

You'd think Deathclaw was in his lair. Nope. Just a bunch of guys waiting for it to respawn…

One more thing I want to touch on before I end the first log of my Elder Scrolls Online adventures are the graphics. I'm currently playing on the PS4 version, and I have to say it's a rather ugly game. I wasn't wowed by its graphics on PC although with some tweaking, I was able to get it looking pretty damn good. On consoles it just looks… meh. To the point where I'm surprised it's not running at 60fps. In fact, the game frequently has some frame dips though I think that's more due to the internet connection rather than the game.

I obviously want to experience more of what the game has to offer and see how it holds up on the PS4, but as of right now, I can say that the game has at least met my expectations. The controls have transferred over very well, and even though it might not look as pretty, it's still brimming with content that's waiting to be explored.