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It's worth doing so not only for the discovery of Skyshards that grant skill points or new quests hiding in remote hills, but also just for the pleasure of stumbling across the sight of NPC mages flinging spells and epithets at each other or random travelers engaged in deep commentary on the legality of skooma. ZeniMax Online partly makes up for such shortcomings with a world that encourages rummaging through every crate and nightstand and exploring every mountain path. If the direction excels, it's only because its earthtone palettes represent a more realistic experience than its festively colored MMO competitors, making it feel a little more grounded. But out in the world, buildings assume a gangly appearance that is better suited to stop-motion Tim Burton films, and common objects like trees often look as though they were lifted from 2002’s Morrowind. It's strongest in the dungeons, where Ayleid ruins exude more gloom than their cousins in Oblivion, and the doors on Nordic barrows glisten with more detail than their Skyrim cognates. It's clear that ZeniMax Online tried to walk a fine line between Bethesda Softworks’ realistic graphics style and the low-spec-friendly art of World of Warcraft, but the effort resulted in an unsatisfying hybrid look that seldom inspires the taking of screenshots for their own sake (as I tend to do in better looking MMOs).

In spirit, at least, ESO swims in the same low-fantasy vibe that makes Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, and the rest so appealing: you're generally asked to dispatch mundane threats like bandits rather than spending too much time caught up in matters of world import, so when those come along they’re more interesting. Further complementing the experience is a soundtrack that generally captures the spirit of Jeremy Soule's celebrated work for the franchise, although it's a shame that the score for the login screen represents Soule's only direct contribution to the project. Puzzles and investigative missions add further spice, as do quests that affect how NPCs relate to you later down the road depending on your decisions. You do a lot of killing and fetching, yes, but it's rarely more intrusive than venturing into Skyrim's Korvanjund to cut through dozens of draugr to pick up a toothy crown. The series' signature quests, which tend to send you into caves and ruins to seek out important relics or slaughter some bandits, match up with traditional instanced MMO design well.

Good thing, then, that the quests themselves capture the essence of Elder Scrolls. These stories written for a singular hero but delivered to a crowd are a spot where ESO seems to hold onto its single-player beginnings more than it probably should.

The catch? If you’re unaccustomed to the conventions of MMOs, you may bristle at the sight of other adventurers undertaking the same clandestine dealings with the same sketchy Breton landowners. They're fully voiced to a degree that puts even Star Wars: The Old Republic to shame, although the quality of the delivery from the limited voice actors ranges from adequate to robotic (particularly for some male Argonians).

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(It suffers from the same occasional cliches, too.) It presents its own unique twists and cameos of important figures from Elder Scrolls lore, as well as a final boss encounter that both exceeds the challenges of some of the single-player games and points to what's in store in the promising Veteran content that comes after 50.Īs in Skyrim, it's the quests you find from random townsfolk and Dunmer guar herders that make up the bulk of the PvE experience, as well as stories from series favorites such as the Mages’ and Fighters’ Guilds. It takes a while for the pieces to fall into place over the course of its 100-hour main story, but in time it delivers an experience that's at least as worthy of the Elder Scrolls name as any of the three most recent single-player games. The good news is that, despite some substantial launch bugs and underwhelming graphics, it exceeds many expectations and captures the Elder Scrolls experience about as well as an MMORPG realistically can. Expecting to kill random NPCs or find the free-roaming exploration of a game like Skyrim amid its traditional zone-based progression? It'll always let you down. It's important to view ZeniMax Online's creation as an MMORPG first and an Elder Scrolls game second.

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