SCORE:
Pros: Extremely feature-packed, a flexible skill point-based class system.
Cons: Lots of walking around with fetch/story quests and less combat sometimes.
Graphics: 9
Gameplay: 7
Performance: 8
Overall: 8
With the release of The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited, we thought it was time to head back to the world or Nirn and check out some of the new features and content that has been bundled into the newest chapter of this popular MMORPG. The key thing about TESO:TU is that the game has now dropped its required subscription and now players have unhindered access to the game for free, following a Guild Wars 2 "buy-to-play" business format, i.e. once you've bought the game you can play without spending a penny.
For many this was inevitable, the fact that very few MMORPGs can sustain a subscription-based business model and those that do either manage it because they have a huge IP (Final Fantasy XI and XIV), already had a working title prior to the F2P boom (World of Warcraft) or offer other alternates such as earning your sub fee as in-game currency (EVE Online). Aside from that there's only a few other titles that still have subs, but with an ever diminishing playerbase (Warhammer Online), and most that do try to go sub realise it's no longer profitable or no longer sustainable before they switch to some form of F2P (Star Wars: The Old Republic).
Whatever the reason we're checking out some of the accompanying features that are being highlighted with Tamriel Unlimited to get us up to speed with the most recent changes and see what the game now offers. It should be noted that the release of Tamriel Unlimited didn't in fact bring in most of the new features, many have already been around for a few weeks with earlier patches, but the new promo video highlights some of the things we imagine those players who quit the game because it wasn't worth the subscription might be interested in coming back now that it's F2P (players who already have accounts do not need to purchase the game again).
When checking over our list of features to try out it became quickly apparent that a lot of the new content is in fact geared towards veterans or groups. With the introduction of Upper Craglorn Adventure Zone (a low-mid level zone) players will gain access to some new quests and dungeon delves (dungeons in general have had their own facelift and improved loot drops), but most interestingly are the Trials where players can get together in groups of 12 to take on new challenges; the Trials will reward those players that complete them the fastest with a new trial launched each week. So whilst not specifically veteran content the likelihood of new players being able to pick up a group of 12 is highly unlikely. Whilst on a smaller scale the Dragonstar Arena offers up a 4 player survival mode combat where you fight back wave after wave of enemies over ten different arena environments with both a normal and Veteran mode; the later having its own leaderboard system to show the best players.
We did get to try out a more hands-on test of the new Justice System, essentially the developers have finally introducde mechanics to steal and pickpocket items, as has always been a fun pastime in the single player games. With its own new "Legerdemain" skill that helps players improve their pickpocketing, hiding and lockpicking, as well as lowering the cost of bounties when caught by guards and the ability to increase the amount of stolen items you can fence, it’s nice to see the implementation and the detail that has gone into the system. We actually inadvertently committed our first crime by firing off a fireball, killing some domesticated pet/livestock unintentionally, which popped up our Bounty UI showing our current Bounty value in gold coins, as well as our Wanted/Threat meter. The meter is broken up into two different colours, red being Kill on Sight where guards will hunt you down the moment you are spotted, though your red status only lasts for a little while if you perform a petty crime (pickpocketing, stealing, chicken massacre) however the white stays around longer and Guards will approach you as a wanted person.
This was our biggest issue with the system, when the Guards spot you then they sprint over and lock you out with a text dialogue straight away, giving you very little time to react. Here you get to pay off your Bounty... or you get to run. Of course, when confronted we ran and so the pursuit began. Our Bounty switched from white to red, fleeing being considered a greater crime, as are other crimes such as murdering NPCs which will also instantly flag your full bar as red. Evading the nearby guards wasn't too difficult, as the ones that spotted us weren't the main faction guards. Fortunately we had a Fence marked on our map, and by running over found a grid in the ground that we could escape into, leading us to a thieves guild style base of operations. Inside we found our NPC Fence who would buy our stolen goods, or for a charge, remove the stolen status from our items so that we could use them freely (though we had little use for guts...).
It's a fun little system, further improved when you add in the Enforcer element, other players that can actively hunt down criminals, take them out and recover the stolen goods and claim the bounty. That said when an Enforcer intervenes they then make themselves a target for the thieves, who can then counter the attack and try to take them down and re-recover their goods before the Enforcer reaches their own Fence type location. It will be interesting to see how the system plays out, but unless thieves can get access to some really great items, we don’t see it being worth the effort. When you compare it to old games like Ultima Online where players could steal from each other, then the similar style system that they had in place worked perfectly as it was players policing themselves. For TESO it seems more like a "let's have some fun getting into a little trouble and seeing if someone tries to hunt us" as opposed to really feeling like a successful thief; basically it feels like a very low risk-low reward system.
Other updates worth a mention: the Champion system, that now allows players to continue advancing and developing their character once they reach level 50 and unlock different constellation trees to increase their stats. Combat and animations have been given a revamp, with some of the combat maneuvers now being more action packed and explosive whilst the facial FX of NPCs have now been remastered to be more detailed and expressive. Guilds have had a revamp with the introduction of Guild Stores for merchant focused guilds to trade between each other, as well as being able to bid on NPC Guild Traders in the major settlements throughout the game, here the highest blind bidder each week can purchase the services of an NPC to sell their guilds items to other players, which will be all new and improved with the crafting updates and introduction of armor/clothing dying system; once more emboldening the player run economy.
Speaking of player run economies, or more importantly the destruction of them, many players will be happy to hear about the new spam filter system in place as well as improved efforts on bolstering bot detection. Anyone who has played the game for some time will no doubt have seen scripted swarms of bots running around farming and doing daily quests (there's enough videos out there) and it has long been an issue for the community as bots drive mundane item prices up and rare item prices down. We're not sure how but apparently these new updates will try to curtail this behaviour a little better (which given that the game now has a lower financial gateway for botters to get into the game, we sure hope they have).
So how will the game now be profitable? Well of course there is the initial payment of purchasing the game, which will create a nice lining for the developer's pockets, but away from that the game will concentrate on three main areas: Premium Accounts, DLC and the Crown Store. The Premium Membership Accounts still follow a subscription based model based on a 30, 90 or 180 day duration and will give players boosts on XP gain, crafting research, inspiration gain (Champion system) and gold acquisition. As well as this players will get access to any DLC whilst their account has membership status (what this future DLC will be we don't know at this stage, though we expect DLC will be purchasable without membership), as well as being given a stipend of Crowns at the beginning of their membership period (the number of crowns increases depending on the length of membership purchased).
Crowns are the premium currency to be spent in the in_game Crown Store, which was something we did get the chance to check out and, as a welcome to Tamriel Unlimited, we had been given 1000 crowns to spend. The shop is almost purely cosmetic with a variety of mounts, companion pets and costumes to purchase (we actually purchased a pink Jesters motley for our crime spree), bundle packs that come with treasure maps and some account perks such as playing any race in any alliance and a handful of consumable items such as repair kits and resurrections soul gems. Rest assured, there's no pay to win stuff in the shop, and we can only hope it stays this way.
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