ESO had a great run so far! With their expansion “Morrowind”, they definitely brought some veteran players back to the online realm, to visit an old but familiar area where you could roam around for hours and enjoy a nostalgic feeling of The Elder Scrolls 3. The new expansion has also been known by the community, but make no mistake, the Isles of Summerset is an entirely new territory for us to explore and a place that new and even veteran players will enjoy…
Morrowind brought us to a dark and grim territory where betrayal was known as “common courtesy”. Summerset is quite the opposite, except for the “betrayal” part. You’ll travel to the home of the High Elves with different mysterious forests and majestic architecture that’s surrounded by mystic flora and habited by mystical creatures. Summerset stands out with its beautiful landscape and amazing scenery. The environment is keen for the eyes due to the vibrant colors and summer green foliage.
The main story of this expansion is all about “Welcoming foreigners” to the land of the High Elves thanks to the decree that’s been set out by Queen Ayreen. It’s the first time that Summerset has opened its doors to foreigners but the “welcoming” isn’t going as planned… Razum-dar, a Khajit has informed you that different foreigners have gone missing and are nowhere to be found. Your first few missions are about investigating the situation that’s at hand and after a couple of quests, it becomes known to you that Daedric followers are responsible for the disappearing travelers. It’s your job to regain control of the situation and help as much as you can. These Daedric followers are everywhere, even in Tamriel and Morrowind. After a while playing, you’re free to go to the other territories and find out other parts of the story’s plot. It’s a great way to introduce new players.
During your playthrough, you’ll notice that there’s a guild within Summerset that revolves around Mysticism, namely “The Psijic Order”. The Psijic Order is involved within the main plot and by completing some quests, you’ll build up a great reputation with this new guild. These quests will unlock a new skill tree that gives you access to the manipulation of space and time bending. You’ll unlock 5 new active/ passive abilities and even a new ultimate skill that’ll definitely help you throughout the game. These skills will grant you the ability to reset your Health/ Magicka or even Stamina bar. You’ll be able to freeze enemies in their place due to your Time Stop ability. It’s a great addition to the series. The skills are all useful in different situations and they will help you to build the best character that suits your playstyle perfectly.
Even though the game is a Massively Multiplayer Online RPG, it doesn’t force you to play with others. The game gives you a great open-world feeling that you get from games like Oblivion and/or even Skyrim. The quests are build up in a way that you can perfectly solo it, ESO isn’t as gear focusing as other MMORPG’s tend to do. Most of the quest will be a lot easier if you team up, especially those big dungeons or even raid battles but most of the “main quests” can be completed while riding solo. So, it’s totally up to you if you want to team up or not. ESO also uses a feature to scale enemies to your battle level. Two players with different stats, equipment and skills can team up and both be useful in combat. This allows for creating different groups that include both skilled and new players.
There are some concerns with the game as well. I often find my game lagging in the worst scenario’s possible. During fights, the game can lag a couple of seconds which brings down the enjoyment of the combat system. Due to the lag, the game’s graphics go down as well. This is very strange, especially because the game’s 4 years old. You would have thought that a couple of these issues wouldn’t have gone unnoticed and be fixed by now, on the contrary. The loading screens also vary between different times and the interface of the game isn’t the greatest or even the most fluent. The developers try to make it feel like it has the same features as Skyrim, but the game’s interface lacks some innovation. The game can also feel a bit overwhelming at first because there are a lot of elements that’ll capture your attention. The game isn’t new but hopefully, the game developers will tweak some of these issues within the game.
Conclusion:
Summerset is a great big addition to the ESO realm and it’s enjoyable as well. A lot of new players will find their way easily throughout the expansion and even veteran players will feel at home. You’ll find about 35 hours’ worth of content with lots of things to do: a new skill tree, new equipment, new crafting skill “jewelry” and a lot of exploration with interesting quests. If you’re new to the game: ESO still has a great population and the Elder Scrolls Online has some great Lore to back up the game. The game is self-explanatory and even if you have some questions, there are enough players that will certainly help you in completing your goal.
