What happens when you combine the gaming fans of Skyrim, Oblivion and Morrowind and mix them with a dash of the top Multi-player Role Playing Games of the last 15 years? You get The Elder Scrolls Online.
The story is set 1000 years before Skyrim, and so you get to see many of the legends unfold before you in the very books you may have read about. Being able to return to cities you’ve seen before but also discovery new lands along the way. Game play will be similar to the famous mouse clickin’ of left click mouse to simple attack or hold down it to power and right click to block. Sneak around, dodge, crouch, etc all the goodies. All characters are virtually customizable with along with daedric, elven, dwarf and many armor styles from the alternative races will be available. With game play character design so that hundreds of characters maybe on screen at the same time. So, instead of hundreds of shards, there will be what the developers have labeled the Mega Server. All players will be on the same server, (I’m sure my computer will start to smoke at this point)which makes friends and fellow guildies much easier to find. This is especially important during the launch of the game. Public or Heroic dungeons will be much less complicated to find people to team up with and the best part is that the game is smart about how you are grouped up. Making loot and/or resource distribution even, helps to negate the need for one to become competitive or upset about the unequal reward systems found in some other MMO’s.
At start you will be able to pick one of nine races and one class. That’s just in the beginning though. As the game progresses you get to choose whatever quests, armor, weapon, and reactions you wish and this will result in really making your character unique. Unlike most games where weapons and armor are restricted by class, in Elder Scrolls Online, you can be an elven sorcerer that wears daedric armor, whilst wielding a dwarven two-handed axe. The combos of the character class, race, armor, spells and weapons truly makes you the fantasy creature you’ve dreamed about since you first rolled that 20 sided die when you were just a we lad. You also get perks, like shape shifting into a werewolf, vampire, or the ability to summon creatures to help fight by your side. The goal of simply being able to explore and a wide open land, quest will pop up in random locations. The more curious you are, the more will be revealed to you. An example mentioned was that if you go off and discovers a certain point of interest they may find a quest to repel a werewolf invasion. After doing so, no matter how many times you go thru that town you will always be remembered as their town hero.
Once you hit level 50, more serious options of Player Vs Player, heroic raids, guild dungeons and other adventure zones open up and are available to you solo, with a super large group, or a tiny group of friends. The choice is up to you and how much of challenge you want to have. If PvP is your thing a level 10 vs a level 50 is no problem here since pvp will be equaled out. From trebuchets to catapults you fight for the crown of emperor of Cyrodiil, aka, the Imperial Province, aka the middle land. Where all the three alliances, the Daggerfall Covenant, Ebonheart Pact and the Aldmeri Dominion lands meet and there is no ruler. You actually have a shot of being crowned Emporer of the Imperial Province!
All these details are just SOME of the basics of the game. The game is still being worked on and there is no determinable release date yet, only that it is expecting to be out sometime in 2013. Fine with me, with the faith of Bethesda living up to it’s reputation so far, I can give them hope that they are true to their word that this will be the next Great RPG!
