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Well, my 40 minutes (20 +20) with ESO *update*
Sovrath
Member LegendaryPosts: 32,939
*My first post is my first 20 minutes that I played on Friday. Later on is my additional 20 minutes that I played today.* http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/5627775
So, one of the main things I decided to do at PAX today was Play as much ESO as possible. Which, the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.
Yadda, yadda yadda, I waited in line for 2 hours. A first for me as I usually make it a point "not" to wait in long lines.
However, met some great people who made the time go by nicely.
I ended up going into my session with one of them so I will give you his take on it as well.
We were given 20 minutes which flew by.
We were taken to character creation but could only try the daggerfall covenant. The advice given us was to not screw with the character creation (paraphrase) and just hit "random", then get into the game to assign your skills ("K" if you are wondering) and then just have at it.
We were also told that the (and I forget the correct term) thievery system wasn't in that build so we could walk into houses and steal things but no one would stop us. Nice to know that will be in game.
I made a breton Templar and and since I had to resist fooling around with the character creation, settled on a guy who looked strongly like he belonged in an 80's heavy metal band.
We spawned at a bridge and though there was a town right behind me I decided to play the same way I play any elder scrolls game. I headed straight out into the world.
The map is very large (and that's just daggerfall) and you uncover bits of the map as you go. I saw a guy (npc) who seemed distraught and after talking with him round out that a town straight ahead was beign attacked by imps. I found the town and sure enough "imps". Also, there are quest markers on the map. They are subtle but there. I went into one of the buildings to talk find out more for the "quest" npc.
The quest system is voiced (the voices sounded a bit campy for my taste) and the system presents the quest like Oblivion but a little better. You aren't right up in their face and it feels more natural.
after taking her quest I decided I wouldn't complete it but I'd keep exploring. some notes, I found a small letter on her table that I could pick up and read like any elder scrolls game. You can't move the camera while talking to an npc (like skyrim).
Additionally, the sounds in the game are done very well. I really felt like I was runing in heavy armor and the weapon sounds are amazing. The "damn shame" of that is that while running I looked like a lumbering fool. I can't say I enjoyed that. You can sprint by holding down the shift key but it uses stamina.
Fighting is exactly like Skyrim. You can block and then atack to shove your weapon (and I presume shield as I only had a two handed axe) into the enemy's face, stunning him at times. If you stun him you can hold downt he attack and it powers up a longer atack that will crit.
Bad? Sure! If they fire fireballs at you and you move, the fireballs will curve to hit you. I didn't do any "dodging" so perhaps "dodging" will actually evade that? The hits didn't feel substantial at all though the block and the bash afterwards did.
I ended up coming to a shore and seeing the White Gold Tower in the distance. Found a tower but nothing of note in it. Nothing in the barells at all. Could just be this build or maybe not all barrels/crates yield items.
Jumping down from a higher ledge gives a solid thump so your character really feels substantial.
I didn't experience any "amazing AI"" while fighting but then again I only had 20 minutes and these were only imps.
The guy I went in with came out saying that he thought it felt like a generic mmo.
As for my take? Well, somtimes it felt like "Elder Scrolls" because of the small details and the fighting system but somtimes it did feel like a "generic mmo".
The guy I went in with wasn't really a huge mmo fan so much as a Dark Age of Camelot fan. His main interest was in the pvp. Of which we couldn't experience that.
I have to say the world is beautiful, the weapons look and sound great (except whe you are actually hitting something) and exploring didn't yield anyting of interest other than that quest. Which I didn't do as I wanted to see as much as I could. I'm going to go back tomorrow and try to do things a bit differently. Another note, the game is exceptionally smooth (though that could just be amazign computers, who knows?)
soyrr for the wall of text.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Comments
Wow....thanks for taking the time to write this up while you were at PAX. Pretty cool of you.
Did anyone interview you afterwards to see what your initial impressions were? What did everyone around you think or have to say about it?
MOST IMPORTANTLY: How did the Orcs look? Do they carry an impressive enough demeanor about them (are they big as hell)?
How is PAX so far? Any good loot?
lucky bastard
Most importantly? You aren't at all worried about his criticisms of the game?
A lot of people were hoping these fear of eye testing the game would be wrong, but maybe the criticism is valid
"
"As for my take? Well, somtimes it felt like "Elder Scrolls" because of the small details and the fighting system but somtimes it did feel like a "generic mmo".
The guy I went in with wasn't really a huge mmo fan so much as a Dark Age of Camelot fan. His main interest was in the pvp. Of which we couldn't experience that.
I have to say the world is beautiful, the weapons look and sound great (except whe you are actually hitting something) and exploring didn't yield anyting of interest other than that quest. Which I didn't do as I wanted to see as much as I could. I'm going to go back tomorrow and try to do things a bit differently. Another note, the game is exceptionally smooth (though that could just be amazign computers, who knows?)"
How do I say this?
I do not pay much attention to either positive or negative criticisms of a game at this stage. I usually will wait until either I have played it personally or many people have played a final product and a general concensus has been reached. Anyway, my interest in TESO is for AvA, I dont put much weight to pve content.
Also, his "criticisms" didnt strike me as a deal breaker. It couldnt have been too bad because he stated he was going to wait in line AGAIN tomorrow. Those are precious hours to throw away while at a big convention like that......lots to see....lots of loot to acquire.
Thank you for taking the time to write this Sovrath.
Posts like this are the most valuable on this site. No hype,just one man's experience.
THANK YOU
Oh for god sake, finally someone that does not justify any criticism about a a game with ''Its beta, deal with it''
"It has potential"
-Second most used phrase on existence
"It sucks"
-Most used phrase on existence
His biggest complaint was combat in an MMORPG which is basically a game built on thousands of hours of killing stuff.
Not a good first impression of a major part of gameplay.
See how it pans out with further impressions and video of actual gameplay.
Maybe I'm not reading his post correctly but I didn't get a sense that he said the combat was bad. He said it was similar to Skyrim and that he didn't see evidence in his very short play time that the AI was something special.
I do have a concern about this: ' Bad? Sure! If they fire fireballs at you and you move, the fireballs will curve to hit you. I didn't do any "dodging" so perhaps "dodging" will actually evade that? The hits didn't feel substantial at all though the block and the bash afterwards did."
Hopefully that isn't the case at launch. I hate magic that follows around corners :-).
There Is Always Hope!
Yeah, thanks from me as well, Sovrath.
It's great that you posted that, just your own experiences of the game, not any hype or PR of any kind.
Now Playing: DARKFALL Unholy Wars "Return to Open World, Full Loot PvP, Conquest in a Sandbox MMO with player driven economy! Just like classic MMOs!"
I am not in the business of defending people, but I will say this.
Everyone and thier mother came out of character creation and immediately ran to the first quest giver. As such, everyone will have the same shit to say.
Sovrath did something different, thus, had something different to say.
I would like to see what insightful post you could write with 20 mins of gametime.
Well, it was a wall of text and I felt that I could just answer questions as they came.
As I mentioned there wasn't much to fight where I was.
Wacking away at the imps didn't burn them down "fast". That was when one of the Zenimax/bethesda people mentioned that I could bash them like skyrim and then when they were stunned I could hold my attack button for a more powerful attack and it would crit. The hold for the most powerful attack felt quite long by the way. So no one will want to be surrounded by enemies and spamming the power attack. At least if they keep it this way.
I found that bashing then doing a power attack worked a bit better as just wacking away took away small bits of their health. Ideally you would want to mix it up.
One could run around them rather quickly so in essence your movement in battle was a bit faster than in skyrim. At least with heavy armor.
My biggest gripe was that I saw an imp fire a "fireball" at me, I moved and it swerved to hit me. I then did that a second time and the same thing happened. I will see what the dodge button is tomorrow.
Since my interest in this game is more than combat (though yes i love combat) I was hoping to convey a bit of the feeling of one's character and the general world around you. All I can say is the only thing I could fight were imps. There were things that looked liked spriggans but as I was interested in seeing if I could find ruins I didn't want to prematurely die and "run all the way back" trying to take on two spriggans.
So, "sometimes" the combat feels "right" the sounds are great (excepting when hitting as I mentioned above, bashing felt/sounded right) and sometimes it felt a bit "swishy". As if my sword didnt' quite feel like it was connecting.
As far as earlier questions...
I didn't level up, they started us off at level 6 and "better" armor. All the killing I did wasn't enough to get me to 7.
When I opened up my skills I was greeted with abilities to put my points into but not "strength or endurance, etc". I can't remember if I saw anything with "strength, endurance" as I was looking for them and didnt' see them. Though there were tabs on the side where one could choose weapon, armor and then I think "skills". I had "slashing and thrusting". Matt Firor (oh I got to meet him at the mmorpg "future of games panel") did say that though one can't have a character with every skill in the game one could make a character with most of the skills in the game. So it seems like you can be pretty creative with your build. You can also find areas where you can get a skill point. I imagine they are dotted around the world and that you have to "do something" in order to earn them.
The Orc's didnt' quite look at mean as I thought they would but since I don't play orcs I didn't mess with them. The one I saw, with it's current physical attributes, looked a bit scholarly. I'll play with one tomorrow.
Oh and the UI is very VERY sparse. Which I liked. At one point I was fighting two imps and I looked for my potions only then to notice that I had no hotbar. Oh, I know it' supposed to be there but it wasn't. I then opened inventory and used them from there.
The itnerface is very clean. The stamina bar appears as you are using your stamina but vanishes when you cease those actions.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Oh, and I'll add that "Wild Star has housing".
Now, why do I mention that in an ESO post?
Wild Star's housing fits the setting in that since it's a sci fi game it's a bit "sci fi". The housing is on floating bits of land over the world. but that's not why I mention it.
Once you buy your housing you actually get land where you can add things that help you like a mine, a farm, a forge/workshop, etc.
What's more, you can decorate the interior any way you want. You can even put things on top of other things. such as a floating upside down table with a chair on top of it.
"so, um, someone's doing housing the way that players want/expect". A little dig there but there it is.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Agree.
Hey Sov, you have me a bit worried mate....
The one area of concern I have is combat animations, particle effects and just overall "feel" of the abilities. For instance, when RIFT launched, when you heaved a fireball at something, it didnt sound right, and when it hit it was rather limp. It didnt feel powerful at all.
Hate to do it, but for example in WOW. When a mage heaves a fireball/whatever, the sound is right on and the explosion makes it seem as if you really have 'power' behind it.
Ive asked a certain writer on here for his take on it, and he failed to answer it....On another website, a writer actually commented on it.
How does the combat feel? Particle effect? Do you feel strong/powerful?
All Will Be Well.....
Hi Sov,
I'm curious to know your opinion about what I just found from Massively from their several hours of play time. Whats ironic is that I like the combat in Skyrim :-) lol
"Let me start by saying that everything I said about the game's combat system in my previous hands-on still applies. It's still crisp, responsive, and most of all, fun, which is more than I can say for combat in the single-player TES titles. You won't find any of Oblivion or Skyrim's swing, backpedal, swing, backpedal combat here. You have to be on your toes, especially in fights against multiple enemies, unless you want to get your face well-acquainted with the ground. Blocking power-attacks, dodging AoEs, and interrupting enemy abilities are all integral aspects of the game's combat system, and frankly it just works."
There Is Always Hope!
In general people read what they want it to say and not what the poster is trying to say
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
i read alot about class customitzacion and that you will be able to have a lot of options and skill lines to pick but i can't find an answer for this.
How many active skills (skills you can use and put in the hotbar) they have on each skill tree ? i know its still an early beta and that alot is missing but that is a very important number(its not the same 5 active skills per tree than 10 or 15 ...) that noone answered so, if you remember, how many skills you had in one skill tree ? for example lets say the 2h skill tree you used or any of the templars skill trees?
hmmm. well I played a bit of skyrim last night when i came back.
I don't know what he means by "backpedal" Or at least in the way he means it . the combat is the same in that you click your mouse and swing. However, though it is "crisp" in that it's very responsive, it all feels "lighter" than Skyrim combat.
Last night I tried movign around a mob in skyrim to get a comparison and ESO is "faster". You move faster than in Skyrim though there is more of a sense of "weight" to your character in Skyrim. You do get a sense of "weight" while running or jumping down. The great sound helps with that. But again, you can move quickly in Combat.
When fighting that Imp I could strafe around him very quickly. The same motion is slower in Skyrim.
I would say that you do have to block and use other attacks to be successful. As I mentioned, just cllicking away didn't burn that imp down and only when I started to use the bash and power swings did I have a better chance. I imagine with multiple enemies you would have to be on "your toes" though again, I didn't see any of the advanced ai they were talking about.
@pacov, the world is actually pretty beautiful. But again, because it's an mmo and graphics have to be kept down a bit it doesn't have the fidelity that Skyrim has. I had made the comment to the guy I met at PAX that "sometimes" it felt like an elder scrolls world and sometimes "not". The architecture is there and going up the tower I found felt like going up a tower in skyrim (to a point - it felt like one of the keep towers but in a more ruined state) but it's slightly off. To that end, the dwemer spiders and sentries look like they are lifted from skyrim (from a video that was playing). But "no" not SWToR like at all. I would say your avatar is pretty impressive and the armor seems fairly detailed (for level 6 armor).
It's a beautiful world though, don't get me wrong.
@Saintwalker, The only fireballs that I experienced were the fireballs the imps were throwing. They looked decent and sounded failry good. I'll be honest, the lighting in the CGI trailer we were watching while in line looked and sounded "more real". I'll pay attention to the fireballs a bit more today. I can't say they bowled me over but then again I was too busy marveling on how they followed my movement.
@Genark: not sure. No hotbar was apparent while I was playing. I do know there is weapon switching so you can have a few skills from one weapon and then switch and have a few from another. I'll tell you that I noticed quite a few skills greyed out while I was picking the two that were available. I'll see if I can get a better sense of that today.
Ok, I'm going back into the trenches (PAX lines) . Have a great one.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Thanks a lot for sharing your experience
Though there are topics (like following projectiles) where many people think different about its pretty sad that some people just want to "defend their holy grail". Its a demo designed for the PAX East.
Can you tell us something about perks maybe? I can't really imagine how a class determines your skills while you are able to choose perks for some weapon- and magictypes. Are there just "perktrees" like in Skyrim which are available for every classes and some class-specific perktrees?
Hello Sov,
You mentioned that it at times felt like a "Generic MMO", now this is a loose term. So I have a couple of questions about what that statement meant to you and how the game felt.
1). Is it a good generic MMO feel to it, or a poor one? As in does it feel like a failed reskin of WoW or just like an MMO?
Reason I ask is because an MMO is meant to feel like an MMO in the same manner crab is supposed to taste like crab. Whether it is in a good way or not is not being stated.
2). Is it a good game?
Reason I ask is because MMO's like WoW aren't really good games. They are good MMO's but not good games. So in other words, would you enjoy the game even if it had no other players in it? Or is the game purely reliant on the social part.
3). What are your PERSONAL thoughts about ESO? Be as biased as you wish.
Well, I ask this because it's the one thing you haven't brought up yet. Anyhow, Cheers mate!