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The Elder Scrolls Online: High Isle Review
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Member UncommonPosts: 12,599
Post edited by lotrlore on
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When drama can become Drama that's rather too alluring for MMO developers, indeed when Drama can become DRAMA they can lose their heads.
And ESO's cliffhanger does make some sense in that it's setting up an entire year's worth of content where the chapter expansion is just one part. BUT since it's the big content drop of the year, the cliff hanger, especially where it lands in the story quest chain, is incredibly unsatisfying. It's not a natural feeling cliffhanger where the story ends up there as part of its natural progression. Instead this feels forced and out of place, just like it did in Blackwood, Greymoor and more.
It's so unnatural that, as I mentioned in the review, this is another time that when the story quest chain ended, I said out loud to my party "Wait, that's it?" I couldn't believe that's where it ended.
It's not like ESO has no experience with stories that take several zones to tell. The original Molag Bal story arc takes you through 6 zones before its conclusion. The first two chapters with a DLC in the middle, Morrowind, Clockwork City and Summerset are a trilogy.
But each one of those vanilla zones and the zones that are part of the daedric triad invasion arc can all stand on their own and have satisfactory resolutions to their part in a larger story within their zone. They tell a full story and then the arc continues in other zones with another full but related story. They were clearly episodic with each part standing on its own.
Last year's chapter + fall DLC combo, Blackwood/Deadlands was also pretty bad with not telling 2 separate related stories but instead one single story split by brute force. High Isle takes this amateurish storytelling to an even lower level.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
I thought we were done with the easier versions but the Volcanic vents aren't even as tough as the Summerset geysers which can be easily soloed just like dark anchors.
But they are also stale because they are all the same static location group event that play pretty well the same as any other and are done literally in less than 5 minutes with enough players doing them.
I'm a fan of open world group events and IMO, they add something missing in many MMOs: an informal opportunity to play with others, much different in their casual, drop-in nature from the standard, instanced group events with player role and numbers limits.
I had hoped that by now someone in some MMO would have matched or surpassed the more spontaneous feeling, zone disruptions and length of Rift's zone invasion events. ESO certainly hasn't.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
Fair. I think I just want the general difficulty in the over world to be higher in general.
Full out invasions were truly massive in scale. Beyond that, rifts were integrated into play in so many other ways dolmens and such are one trick ponies in comparison.
거북이는 목을 내밀 때 안 움직입니다
The predictable, Scooby-Doo type stories, where the antognist is "insert highly known and respected individual here who no one ever expected! here". How many times are they going to use that same twist? You can see it coming from a mile away at this point. Or at least write it better so it's not so glaringly obvious. There's always a moment in the story, early on, where the villain basically gives themself away, through their words or their (in)actions in response to a threat.
I'd love to see them mix it up. I'd *really* love to see them go Big on a story. Raise the stakes. Bring the whole of Tamriel into it, not just a small corner of it. Something the scale of the Molag Bal story, or even bigger. Bring older zones back into it - let its effects touch everywhere.
It's weird. The last stories to really get me engaged and interested were DLC... Specifically, Murkmire and Orsinium. I loved everything about Murkmire. The last expansion I enjoyed was Summerset - though even stretches of that felt forced and dragged out. For Morrowind, I actually enjoyed the Balmora side story more than the main story.
As for the content... It's beginning to give me the same feeling FFXIV does one expansion to the next. Same cookie-cutter approach, repeated over and over, with different scenery and some new names. Only things that get me excited are the return of liked characters.. for me that's Naryu and Eveli. Always fun hearing Bill Nighy's delivery of King Emmeric's lines. I really love exploring the dungeons - they're always so well done, IMO
Anyway... I didn't even make it completely through Blackmarsh before deciding to just move on again. I don't even know if I'll bother going back at this point. Each return has been shorter than the last, and maybe I should just take that as a sign.
I'm not familiar with that system.
Champions Online has a system of the same name. It allows you to create a custom archnemesis for your hero, costume and all, select their minion type, and their overall nature which affects their behaviour and dialogue when you encounter them.
After you will sometimes run into their minions through the course of play. Defeating them will often provide a clue to the villain's nefarious plan of the day so that you can show up and thwart their flunkies or perhaps encounter the archnemesis directly.
Rewards come along with specific to that system to entice participation, of course. So far as I know it is the only superhero MMORPG to have that feature, perhaps the only one overall.
거북이는 목을 내밀 때 안 움직입니다
Pretty neat.
It's somewhat similar to the emergent game play of the ARPGs made by Soldak Entertainment. Basically, instead of the NPCs is those games passively hanging around until you encounter them they act on their own agendas while you pursue yours. Dynamic situations arise.
While the aesthetics of their games aren't that great they have interesting features that while similar between them are tweaked to be somewhat different for each title.