Admittedly, I haven’t played very many MMOs. I’ve never played World of Warcraft, or Star Wars: The Old Republic, or Rift (though oddly, I’ve owned each of them), but I have played DC Universe Online, and Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, and few others here or there. I enjoy the worlds of MMOs and the camaraderie between players who are working for one common goal, while also selfishly grinding their character — or toon — to be the best they can be, with the best, most epic or legendary armor and weapons.
MMOs are unique in that way, and while I don’t have a ton of experience in the genre, I do have plenty of experience in the world of the Elder Scrolls. In fact, Skyrim was the first perfect score I ever gave a video game. I spent an absurd amount of time in Tamriel while playing Skyrim (we won’t even talk about the time spent playing Oblivion) and was a little shy about getting back into the world when Bethesda and Zenimax Online announced The Elder Scrolls Online, the first MMO that takes place in the Elder Scrolls mythos.
But I’m so glad I did.
The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited does a wonderful job recreating the Skyrim experience, while keeping most of the standard MMO features intact. The main differences that developer Zenimax brings to the table is in class/weapon changing and communication, and for some, one of these issues can be a deal breaker.
TESO allows for on-the-fly weapon switching (especially after you hit level 15), meaning that at any time, you can switch your weapon from a two-handed sword to a mage staff of flame and go from tank to DD or healer in an instant. Leveling up the different weapon skills is also as easy, as you can increase levels just by reading books found on bookcases scattered all over Tamriel. And players can even map a weapon switching skill to the control pad, which makes switching even easier. Instead of just being a Dragonknight “chosen one,” now the player is truly a jack-of-all-trades badass figure that can master any weapon and truly live up to the destiny that the game’s story has set for them.
As for communication, here’s where The Elder Scrolls Online begins to show its issues. There is no chat or chat window option, and everything is done by voice. This is fine if you have a dedicated group of friends playing together on raids and you are all in a channel together. It’s a nightmare when you need help with a dungeon or a quest and you have to essentially call out to anyone within earshot for assistance on your head set. And, as in just about every multiplayer online game, rude people blaring the latest Kendrick Lamar album, or even mothers with screaming babies in the background are the norm. Not to mention the 11-year-olds talking like sailors raised on the south side of any major American city. To put it simply, open communication channels are the absolute worst, and Zenimax’s decision to go this route without an alternative is mind-boggling.
Once you get past that communication issue — arguably the biggest issue for The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited — the game itself is a great joy to play. In addition to weapon swapping, skills leveling is done in an integrated way, where you don’t have to join a specific guild to craft armor or become a culinary master. Just find the materials and do it. The skill will level up. Rinse, repeat. Players with one character (you can have up to eight) can work to max out all skills and make this the most well-rounded character they can be, or they can choose to focus on one or two things to master and leave the others for another time.
The level cap is set to 50, but there are plenty of things to do post-game, including some pretty epic raids that will test players and their respective classes. Also, even if a player reaches the cap, they can choose to go back and level up new skills or weapons, which is beneficial if they plan to take on some of the post-game content.
The story is classic Elder Scrolls as the player is “the chosen one” who will help defeat an evil that is infecting the land. In addition to this, the myriad quests that are available are near-seamlessly integrated into the narrative, so it never feels like I’m distracted by a silly fetch quest while trying to raise and defeat a mystical demon monster. It feels natural — as natural as it can in this type of game. As the story progresses, the player is given choices that further dictate a unique gaming experience. Certain quests given you the option to help one NPC or another, and the outcome of that choice plays into future story points.
While the majority of TESO runs like a solo game, much like Skyrim (and I keep referring to Skyrim, as it was the most recent Elder Scrolls game and freshest on many minds), the four-player and 12-player content in the game — with the latter mostly reserved for post-game content, called trials — gives ample opportunity to grind quests with friends, old and new.
The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited plays almost like an Elder Scrolls greatest hits, as the key areas of the previous games are included here, as well as all of the races, myths, rivalries, conflicts and just about everything else that Bethesda has been doing for the last 20 years is available. This is awesome for players not familiar with the lore of the land, and trust me, there is plenty of opportunity to learn about it by reading books and partaking in conversations with both key characters and NPCs. The info is there, even if most players will skip it.
As in past Elder Scrolls games, stealing and murder are included in the game, and doing either or both are bad. Players can have a bounty placed on their head, which makes things so much more difficult as you play the story. The bounty can be paid to alleviate the burden (or the player can be killed), but it adds a new wrinkle to an already outstanding game. This feature “replaces” PVP, which is rumored to be coming in later expansions, and that should satisfy players who like to battle other human players. Personally, I prefer PVE so this exclusion didn’t bother me one bit, but it begs to be mentioned.
The game’s controls are intuitively mapped to the console controller without over burdening the experience. I played this on the PS4 and the DualShock 4 worked splendidly, replacing keyboard controls, which is a huge plus for me. I’m a console guy, and having a fully-featured MMO experience on my console is a dream and that is what I get out of TESO.
What I like best about The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited is that I can jump into the game with a small window to play in, say 30 minutes, and complete two or three quick quests (again, they are plentiful here) and actually feel like I did something. My character gets more XP and loot and when the 30 minutes is up, I can be done knowing that I was better off than when I started. And on the flip side, if I have a dedicated gaming session scheduled with friends for hours of play, we never get bored as there is so much to do and learn and experience here. In fact, TESO might be a great way for new MMO players to jump into this type of game to see how they play out — especially since Bethesda did away with the mandatory monthly subscription fee that plague most MMOs.
The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited can be played from start to finish without spending a single additional dime of real money, and that may be the best part of it. TESO runs with a “crown store” and real money is used to purchase crowns, the currency of TESO. Crowns are then used to buy cosmetic things like armor sets, weapons, buffs and debuffs, and pets and mounts, but as the first expansion is coming up, it too will be purchasable by crowns (25,000, or around $25 USD). Players can opt into premium “plus” accounts that have a monthly fee, and they are given the monthly fee’s worth of crowns each month as an allowance to purchase the new goodies. And the expansion — and future expansions — are free to premium members. I cannot stress how much I like this idea and how this is the model that all MMOs should adopt going forward.
Mounts like this can be purchased in the Crown Store.
The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited was first released to PCs last year and it had some issues. But now that Bethesda has brought it to consoles, those earlier issues (communication notwithstanding) are all but erased. This is a solid MMO that is incredibly fun to play and explore, and without a subscription fee, it is a great entry-level option for RPG fans who have been scared off by MMO horror stories. Players will find an epic story (yes, it’s cliched, as most fantasy games are these days) that sucks the player in and lets them be themselves, growing, leveling, becoming better and more refined on the player’s terms, not dictated by other players’ impatience or bad game design.
I’ve been playing The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited for over five weeks now and I still find new and exciting things to do and experience each time I log in. There is not enough space in this review to go into every detail of Tamriel Unlimited, so I suggest that you go in and experience it yourself. You will find a pretty incredible game waiting for you, and you too can experience one of the best MMOs ever released to consoles. This is The Elder Scrolls through and through, and it is well worth your time to join the fight to save Tamriel. Come on in. We’ll all be waiting for you.
The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited is available now on the Playstation 4 and Xbox One, in addition to PC. This review is based off a PS4 review code furnished by Bethesda.
