Editor's Note: Reviewing an MMORPG is a big job that can take weeks to complete. Our final score will be awarded at that time, once we've put in enough time to get a sense of The Elder Scrolls Online's true strengths and weaknesses. In the meantime, our intrepid reviewer Leif Johnson will update you regularly on his progress, giving impressions on various aspects and events along the way.
April 7: Werewolves, Combat, and UI
I became a werewolf last night. Under the light of a full moon in the high-level zone of Skyrim's Rift, a furry biped took a chomp out of me, and I decided to dedicate myself to Hircine rather than ridding myself of Sanies Lupinus at the nearest town. (No Sovngarde, alas, for Isleif the Brash.) The opportunity comes only one every several days, as Elder Scrolls Online features a working lunar cycle, and thus far I'm enjoying it even though I haven't leveled the relevant skill line more than two or three points. It's one of several aspects of ESO's combat that I've come to admire over the last few days.Take that, World of Warcraft. ESO's werewolves have tails.Right now I'm playing Elder Scrolls Online as a two-handed weapon specialist in heavy armor, and transforming into a werewolf lets me enjoy the same style of combat but with increased power (and a corresponding absence of armor) in tight spots. I roar, and enemies flee from me. I pounce on fleeing prey and freeze them in place. It's a good thing that ESO restricts its use to an "Ultimate" ability with a limited duration and a need to charge it through using other skills, as I'd probably be tempted to use it all the time. ESO also wisely attaches some heavy drawbacks to that power. I'm highly susceptible to poison attacks now, and players are just now figuring out that people like me are what theFighter's Guild skills with a heavy emphasis on damage bonuses for undead and Daedric enemies are for -- not NPC enemies. Starting today, PvP in Cyrodiil could be scary. That hasn't stopped plenty of other players from feeling the call of the wild. Sometimes it feels like too many. The chat channel of The Rift (a level 38-45 zone) is filled with visiting low-level players offering to pay upwards of 14,000 gold pieces for a bite from players with lycanthropy. The same zone grants the opportunity to contract Vampirism during a new moon, and thus the chat sometimes devolves into mocking the offending players for favoring either Team Edward or Team Jacob. (Eventually all this led me to take advantage of the UI's ability to hide the entire chat interface with a simple click for the first time.)Archery puts a spring in your step.I'd call the basic werewolf combat disappointing, but that's because the attacks largely mimic the same simple swipe-and-hack action as Skyrim. You take a second or two to transform and then leap into action, swiping your claws left and right with all the gusto ofTyrion slapping Joffrey on Game of Thrones. And, aside from blocking and the leaps and roars mentioned above, that's about it. Yet, as with regular combat, you're also doing all this by aiming with your mouse, which marks a significant difference over the increasingly maligned tab targeting design of most other MMOs. When I first heard about Elder Scrolls Online, I worried that its mere five weapon slots for each of your two swappable weapons and a sixth for an Ultimate ability would grow stale. But now, at level 49 and with 94 hours invested, I have a hard time imagining myself ever fully enjoying tab-and-hotkey systems again. In ESO, as in Skyrim, I click my left mouse button and my sword comes down on my foe; I click my right, and I block heavy attacks that would otherwise heavy kill me (while still taking some damage). It's more satisfying with my two-handed sword than with my bow, but in both cases I never lose the impression that I'm the one responsible for hits or misses. If I miss, in other words, it's not because I failed some randomly generated numbers game of "hit" stats; it's because I literally missed.Combat skills can morph in one of two different directions.Responsiveness and the feel of combat has also improved since beta. If I'm swiping my enemy with a left swing of my sword on a killing blow, his body tumbles to the left. If I'm bringing my axe straight down on the guy's head, he crumples at my feet. So far, so Elder Scrolls. But Elder Scrolls Online is an MMORPG, and so its limited skills go far beyond what you'd find in a game like Morrowind or Oblivion. This is ESO’s greatest divergence from the main franchise, but for the sake of variety, I believe it works better for a massively multiplayer approach than Elder Scrolls' more "realistic" approach. Much as they would be in real life, for instance, two-handed weapons in Skyrim are slow, ponderous things that leave you open to all kinds of attacks. In ESO they're fast, and complemented with abilities that let you slam into enemies and surround yourself with a weak damage shield with a swipe. Or look at bows. In Skyrim, shooting with a bow is often a careful, deliberate action that uses a single arrow, and it's true that ESO grants you similar experiences for shots from stealth. I love that style of combat, and that verisimilitude is one of the reasons why I keep coming back to Skyrim two years later. But it's better suited to single-player, or in the more intimate confines of the long-anticipated cooperative play. ESO, on the other hand, lets you do outlandish things like shooting out five poisoned arrows at once or shoot a flaming arrow into the sky, whereupon in transforms into around 20 on its descent back to Nirn and lights the ground on fire. It's fun, even if it's not strictly in keeping with Elder Scrolls, and it maintains variety in an MMO in a way that simply pelting enemies with arrows with the traditional bow for 50 levels never would.You can have two different action bars for the same type of weapon.But few things about Elder Scrolls Online make me so happy as the spartan UI. Elder Scrolls Online isn't a game about rushing to the level cap (although I've done so for the purposes of this review); it's about enjoying and exploring every nook the world, listening and big decisions in the quests, and taking your time. Thus I love how it hides your full states behind simple blue, red, and green bars for mana, health, and stamina as in Elder Scrolls proper, or how it hides your experience bar in the character menu so you're not distracted by it. You can hide the chat interface if you'd like, and if you haven't fought in a while? The combat interface just fades away. ZeniMax's Online's great credit, they've allowed plenty of mods that let you clutter up the screen like the Terminator's visual interface should you so wish. But I love it. When I'm fighting, I like believing that it's just me out there – swinging my sword, firing off my bow – battling in a universe I've loved since the early 1990s. It makes combat more personal, and as with so many other aspects of Elder Scrolls Online, it brings the focus back on the world than on minimaps and skill panels. And if that isn't Elder Scrolls, I don't know what is.
To read more on our previous review-in-progress coverage of The Elder Scrolls Online, check out the following links:
