The Elder Scrolls Online PTS

So soon The Elder Scrolls Online is going to be released and im pretty excited.

I’m getting the Collectors Edition because the giant Molag Bal statue was impossible for me to resist. since the NDA was lifted a few weeks ago I’m able to talk about a lot of the experiences in ESO that ive been able to take part in since i am part of the (formerly super secret) PTS testing group.

On the PTS servers we were able to play more or less the complete game in order to test for bugs throughout the whole of the game as opposed to the weekend tests that are primarily for stressing the servers. In my experiences the story has been great. I played as an Ebonheart Pact Argonian and thoroughly enjoyed the progression through the game.

The only thing that we have not been able to test are some of the end game contents. Things I was able to test were the veteran zones, which are the areas of the opposing alliances that you get to explore and do the story for as though you were a member of those alliances. The difference being the monsters are all ramped up to be much stronger than if you had made a new character to play those areas.

Once release day comes i decided I’m still going to stick with the Ebonheart pact simply because I can finish it quickly as I know where everything is and then slowdown for the veteran zones. Since I pre-ordered, however, I’m going to play Khajiit this time through the game just to mix things up a little!

Pictured above is my prototype Khajiit character named Leto Mew. hopefully i get to the name i want before other people do on release day!

Glad you enjoyed it, can't say my experience has been as good. I was only a part of the regular beta tests, so I can't speak to the entirety of the content like you can, but I didn't have much of a good time at all. The game to me just feels like a standard MMO disguised as an Elder Scrolls game. On the surface it looks like an Elder Scrolls game, and it even controls somewhat like one and features real time combat, but the more you dig into the mechanics the more it reveals it's not really an Elder Scrolls game at its core.

The combat has even less tactical depth than Skyrim and gives you much less freedom to engage with it how you want, the enemies behave like standard MMO mobs, and the sense of wonder and exploration is barely present at all. Like any MMO, immersion is non-existant because the story treats you like some chosen hero despite the fact that there are thousands of other chosen heroes with stupid ass names.

Granted, I went in from the point of view of someone that loves the Elder Scrolls but has never really cared for MMOs. If you're a big fan of MMOs and Elder Scrolls games I can see this game having a huge appeal, but for me the baggage of it being an MMO negates what few aspects of the Elder Scrolls the game has.

@ll_exile_ll: yeah i like MMos and i can see it not being someones cup of tea but honestly if you power through the story its very much an elder scrolls game. the story is top notch and there are alot of famous voice actors in it. we were all pretty spread out so it was easy to feel like you were playing single player sometimes which isnt the case in the beta but once people are playing for a while the population will be super spread out so it becomes easier to feel like you on in an ES game even if the combat is different

I wrote a post on it after the last beta weekend, but in a nutshell, my position on ESO was that it would come a lot closer to replicating the Elder scrolls experience if 1) They instanced indoor areas and 2) they allowed you to use a greater number of abilities. Until they do one of those two things, I doubt I'll play.

@veektarius: i think its good that the abilities are limited because it creates a vastly different experience for people. like you will probably have a different set up then someone else might. maybe yours will be better than others. sure its limited but by limiting it it creates a sort of uniqueness to each character unless you are just following a guide and doing whatever will make you "OP"

I just didn't like the combat, that said, I'm glad you liked it! Game was very pretty

Got send a beta code from Amazon, and I have to say it was much better than I expected. The game does have that Elder Scrolls feel and it does it's best to apply the Skyrim gameplay onto MMO mechanics, however you can tell that it's still just an MMO with all the annoying tropes and limitations, and more specifically it's just a subscription based MMO and you can see the artificial padding from miles away which makes alot of tasks and quests unnecessary lengthy. In the end the subscription model will be a deal breaker for many, I have put 280 hours onto Skyrim over the span of 2 years and I paid less than £45, For EOO that would cost me over £250.

Oh and this happened:

@redpangamer: I think that it's good that abilities are limited. I don't think it's good that they are as limited as they are. You can easily be using abilities from more skill trees than you have skill slots. It ultimately makes exploring new skill trees opened to you (e.g. guild trees) seem pointless.