The Elder Scrolls Online – impressions of the PTA (PvE)
If adventure begins in prison or character is a prisoner who should run towards the unknown, to eventually save the world – you’re playing one of the last parts of The Elder Scrolls. At least that Oblivion begins with a scene in a jail cell that Skyrim opened criminals in society and even Morrowind represented us prisoners, sailing on the Imperial ship. That’s The Elder Scrolls Online , without thinking twice, casts the player in a very uncomfortable kind of camera to it give rise to a new adventure.
Character we have at your disposal in the new game, generated immediately – you can choose a race that will determine not only the appearance, but also belong to one of three warring parties, and along with the help of many sliders to give his hero a unique appearance. To choose from in the beta version offers four basic classes, 3 of them were initially oriented to the melee (dragon knight, thief and paladin), and one turned out to be a magician. Restrictions, however, are conditional, because no one bothers to dress the same paladin in rags, hand in hand and teach staff casts spells, instead of fetter on the ears of his armor.
After a brief introduction, which is both local learning mode, we get to the “great land”, where the adventures begin. I originally created a hero Breton, just because I’m going to play in the release version of the pangolin and therefore wanted to look at the beta content on the other hand, as a result, until it reach the hands to pass a lot of time. And here, after the initial scene in prison, begin to open the very first details of the game mechanics The Elder Scrolls Online.
Quests and choices
The main difference TESO the vast majority of other massive multiplayer role-playing games is a fundamentally different approach to the construction of gameplay. If to speak human language, then while the developers bring elements of MMO projects for a single pass, the game creators decided here to make a single MMO project.
At this point, you might think that in front of us again, SW: TOR, but in a different setting. And, of course, this is not so. Because, like it or not, SW: TOR is different from the same WoW basically what quests here announced, there is a common storyline, and you can select any of the options that will ultimately different versions of this task or in a couple of places even let you change the whole story on a particular segment
TESO offers a slightly different approach. For example, the same initial quest invites us to find 3 team-mates from among NPC to participate in further adventures. To complete the quest, you need one of them, not necessarily collect all three – and so you can continue. Of course, everyone will find interesting, but in general no one holds player and allows you to continue the journey with someone only one allies. And further on the subject, when completed several missions and about this choice is already forgot to think to offer a job in which you want to get into the castle and steal some thing. If you have a mage in the team only – it will give the opportunity to cut down the guard is not lethal way, but that’s all. Key need to steal. There is another ally? He steals the key for us, and we are left to deal with the security guard. Took all three satellites in the first quest? Excellent, the task becomes even easier. And next time, each of them also help reveal the secret door or hold a short way.
Amateur pogrindit your pleasure may resent that they are deprived of combat experience. But in fact, experience with fighting dripping miserable, and you need to do to pump job. Well, if you can do this by talking and not get involved in the thick of the fight, then someone from this bad? Only those who are accustomed to the standard MMO.
Some decisions will affect what happens in the future, opened to answer and perhaps even to some events. Unfortunately, the test was very limited and, as is the PTA , and then understand how some who have passed the quest was also difficult. No open wikis unavailable.
Tasks linked to various plot chains that fold into full stories and eventually change the game world around the hero. After some key events on maps appear new locations with NPC, opening up new tasks and other storylines. In this respect, all a little different from what we have seen in the standard-oriented solo game series projects TES.
Group content is also present. There are as event instances in which no group is better not to go (in front of it honestly warn), and various bosses in the game world, which alone kill problematic. Instances game automatically “wings” under the size of the group and the level of its participants, although check their banal “paravoza” failed. But go dungeon level 5 persnozhem level 10 I did not succeed, as though any small problems will not make mobs, bosses still hit unnecessarily hurt by sending to the top of the instance with a few strokes.
Monsters and bosses
Monstryatnik here is very extensive. To this question the developers approached the conscience and did not make a pair of identical enemies, and then replicate them to the whole world. Almost every task associated with a different type of enemies, all of them have a memorable appearance, patterns of behavior and abilities.
Of course, since most of them we just cut to the cabbage or burn spells, a particularly harp on them just do not have time.
Here’s a mini-bosses situation is quite different. Most chain jobs will eventually lead to some kind of player an extremely dangerous creature capable of easily deal with the character one by one, if you go to war “on the forehead.” To go through them, you will need to carefully pay attention to the environment, follow the phases and the like, to eventually emerge victorious, and not to die again.
Any spetsudary that need a few seconds of real time, such as two-handed swing an ax appear familiar to other games with red stripes, or indicators of the words “block shot” at the bottom of the screen. But that is all that we are given for the victory. Spell damage, attacks on the area, summoned monsters jumping enemy – all this no one advertises, so sit in front of the monitor as a relaxed and doing nothing will not work. Need to spin as uzhu a skillet to kill an enemy.
Exploring the world
The game world is not seamless, it uses system-hub locations. This does not mean that every step will be loaded or something will have to wait at every opportunity zoning. But the unique location, some castles and caves, different parts of the world will require a large download. If you want something to compare with what is happening, the first comes to mind is the same Skyrim, with the difference that here the city does not require zoning, if you come to the gate – you just walk into the desired location and go about their business.
Navigating the world possible on foot, on horseback or by special temples that make up the local network of teleportation. Initially buy the seedy horse is not possible, because prices are approaching space, so you have to basically run itself, because the horse to steal from some unwary NPC impossible.
Moving of the temples works as follows. If you activate one of them, in any other can “jump” for free. From an arbitrary point card be transferred to one of these points is possible for a small amount, but this action can not be done too often. If you teleported somewhere and you urgently, in a minute, you need to jump to another location, such a transfer would cost 4 times more expensive than the “regular” version.
But the world, as in Skyrim or Oblivion, it is better to run himself. There are a huge number of jobs, hidden caves and abandoned ruins, which directly leads nothing but study which brings the experience, loot, achievements and other bonuses, positively affecting the pumping.
Also, just so you can find the ingredients for crafting, but this I will tell you later.
Bleeding hero
All content is described rigidly bound by level. However, high-gain jobs nobody forbids, but make them unlikely to succeed. Here the world is not adjusted to the player, so you need to swing yourself, to be able to somehow move forward on the storyline.
Bleeding and confused at first glance seems pereuslozhnennoy, but nevertheless “something such” it is. Increase our levels, levels of ability and skill levels of the class, as well as increased levels separately crafting abilities and all sorts of additional skills.
That is, the player has a general level, which rises gradually and which quests are tied. Each level we are given 1 point skills for that open capacity. Each class has three independent branches abilities with its system of levels that you can download separately. In addition, he has a weapon and twigs, and branches of different armor. And if that was not enough, and even the ability to grow in each level separately from the branches of skills and the general level of the hero, and to achieve a certain level of ability and still need to be converted into other, choosing one of the two possible paths of development.
To this must be added the whole manifold and that each new capacity requires several components (general level, the level of branches, sometimes the current level of capacity) – in general, the system is complicated to explain in words it is problematic, but generally understood it quickly.
The overall level of pumped hero slowly but levels abilities branches grow much faster. Therefore, to develop character, willy-nilly, you need to perform side quests in the hope that they will provide for new glasses abilities that will improve the pump or something from the available set.
And keep in mind that the hero on the panel may be made only 5 basic abilities and one ultimate special ability that aktiviruesh only in the most extreme cases.
Equipment
Developers heeded pleas and provided us with a normal “doll” character, so equip the hero became convenient. The only new “trick” here is a special slot for “cosmetic” clothes that “flies” as soon as the battle begins.
Unlike various F2P-games this slot is the key for some tasks and generally helps to save much nerves, because there may be equipped gang uniforms and go to their camp without causing draw fire from all sides. In general, the solution is comfortable and is used very often.
Things, as usual in any MMO, and have a number of parameters can be different colors, improve different characteristics … What I am telling you, here itemizatsiya anybody no questions cause, and except for special slots for cosmetic equipment is nothing new here.
Kraft
This part of the game is very similar to its “big brothers”. As the exploration of the world we are getting a huge amount of resources that need to “remake” in the normal things for the character.
Gather resources everywhere, but their number is considerably less than in Skyrim for the reason that you can pick up is not all – you have to pass the no-man’s loaves of bread and apples, because they are inactive objects. But the mini-map resources do not appear (at least at lower levels, but maybe somewhere on some opportunity is realized) and you need to carefully look around, searching for the desired ore or grass.
Crafting things himself as follows – we come to the correct “machine”, select the type (such as weapons or armor), choose the material and the number (depends on item level), the appearance and properties.
Here is necessary to explain that to give some specific things you need to look to disassemble and explore the subject of the right kind. With properties more difficult – to study the properties of the object takes 6 hours real time, that is, if you want to at least be able to enchant his two-handed ax on additional critical damage need to find a hatchet, parse it for 6 hours and then get the right skill to be able to do the same axes. Knife the same procedure will have to do from scratch.
Each type of craft your own recipes, reagents, features and complexity, so it’s time to study at least one will take a lot of discipline kraft. Therefore, in the final game of any quality kraft, I think, would be expensive, and it will be appreciated very much. Even seemingly ordinary food.
Social functions
At first it seems the game is not an MMO, but the usual single “with chatik.” Over the heads of the players are no icons and names, they do not appear on the map, and eventually mixed with the NPC in town. They too are running about their business, sometimes fighting, sometimes looking for something, and players can be distinguished except in appearance. But as much flashy things were found, and the style in everything that you see on the screen, about one, no one in their appearance in the eye is not evident.
Himself fully functional social system test failed for several reasons. First, there was someone to collect from the guild, as the press test players was small enough, and doing all the legwork for jobs and not communicating. Secondly, it was off PvP, and therefore this aspect could not see.
All the same basic functionality, such as the system of friends in a personal correspondences and drafting groups have implemented and no worse than in other games.
Graphics and Performance
The game looks like for me, very well. Textures are great designers work at the highest level, all pleasing to the eye. Furthermore animation. She, unfortunately, to put it mildly “not very”. The strangest thing that is worse than just moving the character, but the surrounding humanoids suffer much less. Animals and fairy creatures so do look good.
On our PC (Intel Core i5-3470, with 8GB of memory with the video card GeForce GTX 780 Ti ) has issued a clear game 70-80 frames per second on an ongoing basis, so that no discomfort during the passage of the content was not. But in mass battles I have not yet participated, so do the final conclusion I would hold off.
Unfortunately, the beta client has been extremely unfriendly TESO configured with respect to any software, video recording. PlayClaw simply “would crash” client, FRAPS when writing down to unplayable fps mark of 10, OBS records video jerks (although it does not affect gameplay, but it is impossible to watch the footage), ShadowPlay simply does not see the game. So, today the only option to write something – use hardware recording source, but I did not have the technical capabilities to implement it.
Overall experience
Importantly, what needs to be ready in the case of The Elder Scrolls Online – this is no ordinary MMORPG. If other games like TSW or SW: TOR, just add to the usual MMO formula and a good story is not the most straightforward development, TESO instead dilutes the single-oriented MMO game content. As a result will be played after a couple of months and want whether after passing storyline pay for a subscription – remains an open question.
Answer it, we hope, will help the study partially PvP-content and high-level dungeons in the final version.
