The Elder Scrolls Online – Screenshots and Details

Xbigy Game's Kamran Draeger writes:

Only hours after the first announcement of the Elder Scrolls Online coming from Gameinformer, the full feature has been leaked to the internet, in which Zenimax Online speaks of the “bold new direction” they plan to take the franchise.

[NYC_Gamer]

Well,since it seems to be 3rd person maybe it will have a real combat system...

[brodychet]

I'll be watching this, not completely sold yet.

[zeal0us]

Soon as I see a video of the combat,questing and crafting I might be sold.

I hope they upgrade the graphics because they look a little dated.

[jthamind]

i'm not sold at all now that i've read more of the details. third person only, no choice to switch to first person, and no real time action combat like the Elder Scrolls games. they could have turned the MMO world upside down with this game, but instead, they're going the traditional route, not taking any chances.

*sigh* oh well.

Guild Wars 2, here i come!

[Drake117]

I too am not completely sold yet, not even close. I actually had a very negative opinion of it this morning when i first read about it. I am a long long long time ES fan and this worries the hell out of me. But after reading this article my mind is a little at ease. No the combat is not like ES, sadly, i love the ES combat it fits with the single player experience perfectly(for me any ways), but translating that combat into an mmo would't fit at all, I mean really who thinks that 2 ppl running at eachother in first person view swinging their swords will be fun let alone not frustrating?
On the other hand it seems they too are breaking away from the mold of traditional mmos just like GW 2 is. I honestly don't want to write an essay here so try to stay a little positive an if you can lol read the little article pages out of the mag. Just a few examples are that they too(like gw2) are breaking out of the holy trinity of mmos (tank, healer, dps) and the leveling experience is much closer to that of an ES game rather than wow or other mmos.
Here just read this atleast, it should shed some light.
http://xbigygames.com/wp-co...

[DeadlyFire]

I agree completely jthamind.

Its like their first decision is well this is a MMO we can't have first person view. Takes a big chunk of the Elder Scrolls feeling away right there.

[IronFist]

It sounds like it could be good, at least better than WoW from the looks of it.

[Piegoose]

I'm tired of mmo rehashes of WOW and/or Everquest. Either try something new, or dump this and make TES 6 Valenwood or something that can actually be good. Also, if there isn't even 1st person or real-time combat, then this isn't Elder Scrolls at all, so for right now they aren't getting a penny from me.

[Lazy_Sunday]

Why make a TES game based on lore? HMMM I dunno sounds like a good idea. I mean we didn't make an innovative sandbox RPG game with great questing elements and lots of player freedom. We certainly didn't make a great game before that allowed players to create and add on content to their experience, nor did we allow players to pick their own factions and allow their experience to grow as a journey rather than a crappy MMO that's already been done before.

Well, since it has a hotbar, no first person combat is seen yet and it's probably an MMO clone since it's unfortunately made by "MMO veterans" who make tedious tiresome grind experiences (which I'm sick and tired of seeing) instead of people who know how to make games with actual content.

I don't like it yet.

Nobody wants to play an MMO the way MMOs are played since they're practical rehash with a lot of boring elements. If you want to enjoy the time you spend doing something you're better off getting a Gamefly membership and paying $15/mo to play a new game once a week instead of paying $15/mo for annoying bullshit you've seen and done before ten years ago in WoW.

They have two years to make this the unbalanced piece of awesome like TES is known for. And if they can't do that they should at least make a TES game with co-op since that's all I really want if they can't get the damn MMO right.

I might sound angry and irrational, but come on--this is ludicrous. They have the perfect game to make into an MMO, and they couldn't do it right. Come on Bethesda. It better be awesome or Imma be pissed...

[admiralthrawn87]

the dev says hotbar keys. it'll play like other MMO's

[cannon8800]

@ NYC_Gamer

That doesn't quite make sense to me. It doesn't have to be in third person to have a real combat system. A real combat system would be in first person point of view; just like how we see with our eyes. We don't have eyes twenty feet behind us, looking down at us from an angle you know lol. The only good thing about third person is that you can see a lot more of the environment.

[TheGameFoxJTV]

Exactly, Mount and Blade has a good combat system no matter if you're in 1st or third person.

[BraveToaster]

Are you telling me you don't love backpeddling and mashing LMB?

[ATi_Elite]

well guess i gotta pay attention to E3 after all this year to see some game play video of TES ONLINE!

[paybackprahl]

Wow, color me completely disinterested in this game. The colors, the third-person hotkey combat, skill trees that limit your options; that is not Elder Scrolls.

[RankFTW]

Well they need to make it like an MMO, can't have a warrior healing and a mage smacking people with swords.

[kamruk]

Yet civilians can still be taken out... maybe that's just the scenario they want to paint for "random events" that everybody can be killed, evil choices and all. I can't see that making it into an MMO outside of random encounters, otherwise people would just take out village after village. But they are still working on fixing those things I guess

[paybackprahl]

I see no reason why they *need* to make it like anything. Isn't the whole idea to carve a new path in the genre? Instead, The Elder Scrolls Online looks to simply be taking the tried-and-true MMO WoW formula and applying it to TES fiction.

There's always room for pioneers, and I don't want ZeniMax to fall back on MMO conventions for one of the most important games ever.

[Drake117]

Yeah who says they need to make it like other mmos. Just because other companies haven't tried a "warrior healing himself" or "a mage smacking people with swords" doesn't mean it cant be done. I am very worried about this game, so far it doesn't seem like ES at all. Just like payback said it sounds more like Wow with ES fiction or in other words just another mmo that's doomed to fail because of no innovation. Without the elements of an ES game this literally just becomes another generic fantasy mmo. First KOTOR and now ES :(

[Drake117]

After reading the article a little more i have not lost all hope yet. It seems like yes the combat will be alot like other mmos which in ES case that might be a good thing since ES combat wouldn't translate all that well into an mmo. It seems like they are taking some good things from both swtor(fully voiced, Player decision, story). And The upcoming GW2( World events and radiant quests) as well as staying true to the ES franchise by having random caves to explore and Guilds. My very polar opinions about this game kind of represent how it could turn out, if done the right or wrong way lol, it could be amazing or it could be terrible, only time will tell.

[TheGameFoxJTV]

Sure you CAN! Why can't you!? lol, this is what makes elder scrolls, Elder Scrolls. You take that away, you're left with boring ass bullshit that's been done too many times before.

[pr0digyZA]

Looks more like a Kingdoms of amalur mmo from the pics.

[mynameisEvil]

My thoughts exactly. Already, my interest has waned. Art styles shouldn't really be replaced like that. It's like making Fallout look cel-shaded. You just don't do it.

[gtxgamer2]

bug bug bug bug bug bug bug. they should've just added co-op mode to elder scrolls instead of mmo

[Fragger2k8]

Would have been a lot more fun, too.

[lucifon]

Third person perspective and a hotbar for skills... other than The Elder Scrolls universe so far this is sounding exactly like your cookie-cutter fantasy MMO. This year the industry really seems to finally be realising people don't want that anymore, are Zenimax maybe a few years too late?

[FuchiBOT]

Ugh another theme park MMO .... can we evolve this genre already? Elder Scrolls = sandbox ... you take that out and it's not elder scrolls.

[DeadlyFire]

I have a feeling its going to crash and burn and Zenimax are gonna lose doe big time.

3rd person, hotkeys?, limited skillsets?, what about this game makes it Elders scrolls?

[life doomer]

we just have to wait and see, it's too early to judge

[CAPSLOCKFURY]

and give up the chance to be right?

[blackhammer]

I dig the concept art. That's about it.

[Ascalon94]

my time and money is already going to Guild Wars 2. (hell, look at my username.)

[turgore]

I dont know. I always thought MMO is the crappiest genre, but it would be nice exploring the entire continent this time around.

[Shinuz]

Do we really need an elder scroll mmo? why not just make a co-op mode for the main game in the series instead, anyway that's what I'd prefer.

[Genecalypse]

This looks fucken horrible. Hotkey bars and no first person are nails in the coffin. Its like the developers made a completely different game and needed brand recognition so they used The Elder Scrolls series. TES has always been sort of low fantasy, these screenshots look like Everquest or WoW, massive color infusion. At most TES could have co-op with a friend or something.

This whole thing seems so redundant, TES games are supposed to already simulate a real living breathing world, filled with characters that have their own "lives" so to speak. We dont need an MMO that attempts(AND FAILS) to fulfill that aspect.

This game goes against key concepts and mechanics established in all TES games. I expect massive lore rape. Imagine for a second running into the Imperial City and seeing 12 year olds spamming ARROW TO THE KNEE, this shit happens in MMOs and TES Online wont be any different.

[Ninjamonkey82]

Prefer Elderscrolls as a singleplayer experence thats why ive suck with it seen Arena. Personally i don't like the idea of online and i hope this will be a seperate thing and will not find its way into a full Elderscrolls story release.

[unknownhero1123]

it looks like a run of the mill MMO without the elder scroll's charm to it. They had a chance to change MMO's as we know it but instead they are being followers and not leaders.

[BraveToaster]

I'm just expecting another WoW clone. Also because it's Bethesda I'm expecting an awful engine, terrible graphics, terrible optimization, and lots and lots of bugs.

[Sargerus]

the developer isn't Bethesda, is Zenimax Online Studios

[BraveToaster]

Oh. Well then I have no idea what to expect.

[kesvalk]

hotbar oriented gameplay...

i pass...

[jessupj]

I feel the same as all of you.

They really had an opportunity to create something fresh and amazing, but instead they opted to go the lazy, safe route and do everything we've already seen before.

Very very disappointed.

With what I hear about Guild Wars 2, when this TES online game releases it's going to be dead in the water; nobody is even going to think about playing it when GW2 does everything far better.

[TheModernKamikaze]

I don't really like it. Sorry.

[wollie]

If this has a subscription it will die.

[Saryk]

The only way I would be interested would be Skyrim in a MMO and very small servers/shards!

Edit:
Oh it would have to go the Guild Wars route too! No P2P and item shops!

[VoggNogg]

I think they should of just stuck with a small multiplayer count for co-op or messing around purposes (somewhere around 4-6 people).

[Baka-akaB]

It looks horrible , like some sort of evil spawn of Dragon age wih the colorful wow .

[iNFAMOUZ1]

disgusting, dont mess with the brilliant first person elder scrolls!!

[Prince_Dim-Lu]

I can't wait for this to be a Xbox 720 launch game!

[coojo]

looks like shit

[european_cannon]

This looks terrible.

[icecoldfire]

hope it doesnt pull of a blizzard here with there world of warcraft where u have 2 pay2play online on a monthly subscription