The Elder Scrolls is one of my favourite game series, as I think my many editorials have shown. However, the franchise has not always had an easy time and one game that seemed destined to be a failure was Elder Scrolls Online. The game had so many issues and was so off putting to fans of both TES and MMOs and satisfied neither. The interesting thing though, is that rather than write it off as a failed spinoff and move on, Bethesda Softworks and Zenimax Online doubled down and found a way to make it work.
After revamping the game, the audience reaction switched quickly and played began to see the Elder Scrolls Online as being unlike any other Online RPG. The game actually has a lot of single player content available and adds heavily to the world of TES and the series lore by building either on mentioned events or showing previously undocumented ones. Journeying across Tamriel and exploring the different regions is breathtaking and the combat is actually much more fun this time, while still remaining true to the spirit of the series.
Whether it is exploring the land of the Orcs, to stopping the Planemeld, or returning to Morrowind in a beautiful expansion that acts as both a prequel to that game and at the same time also managing to offer clues and hints to what happened later in the main series ( you have to love that non linear storytelling), Elder Scrolls Online has something for everyone. We finally get to see the homeland of the Altmer and the Khajit and actually see things that have only been referenced in the lore before. In some ways, this has become a greatest hits for the franchise while also moving things forward.
The more you play, the more you ease into playing with others and truly come to appreciate what the game had to offer. Teaming with other players to take on dungeons and quests is excellent, and there are also mechanics to prevent griefers from bothering people playing by themselves for those who want to experience the new lore additions on their own. Gameplay ideas from Skyrim were taken and expanded and adapted for a multiplayer style such as expanding the marriage system and actually making it useful, and mechanics from Morrowind and Oblivion return but much more refined now.
The game has become a great platform to test out new ideas for future mainline games and see what works and what doesn’t, such as the aforementioned game mechanics from Oblivion and Morrowind. This isn’t even mentioning the nostalgia value the game has, such as returning to Morrowind and other classic locations and seeing what is different here. We even get some recurring characters from the series, making their earliest chronological appearance in a game.
The Elder Scrolls Online is many things. It is a game that brings the world of Tamriel to many people at once, as well as a game that allows the developers to test out new ideas for future games. But as the same time, it is a game that allows players to re-visit ( or finally visit) locations from previous games or that were mentioned in lore and see them in all there glory. More importantly though, this game is a perfect example of how to save a failed product and make it a success.