The Elder Scrolls Online – Closed Beta Review

This past weekend I was lucky enough to receive a beta key for the long awaited MMORPG, Elder Scrolls Online. After my beloved World of Warcraft was destroyed by expansions, I’ve been fiending for another MMO to waste my life on. Unfortunately, this was not it. 

Where is my mouse?!

For those of you who played Neverwinter, you know what I mean when I say your cursor ceases to exist. Instead you use the WASD keys to move around, like most games, but your mouse moves your direction instead. To “unstick” your cursor, you press the Alt key which pauses your game and gives you freedom to click at your leisure. This might be some gamer’s forte, but it sure isn’t mine. I feel trapped under Bethesda Softwork’s cruel thumb. 

The haphazard questhelper

As shown in the image above, Elder Scrolls Online decided to give you its version of the popular questhelper. However, rather than leading you on a path, it sticks an arrow on the bar at the top, waits for you to spin around enough to find it, then tells you which way to go. It operates like a compass.

While this method seems okay in theory, since it does tell you whether you’re above or below the objective, it doesn’t tell you how far to go, what will be in your path along the way, or how many different doors you have to go through to get there. For example – I spent 15 minutes in the first town going in and out of this doorway because the arrow told me to go inside the door for the quest, but then told me to turn around and go back the way I came. I rinsed and repeated this process until I gave up and started killing frogs instead. 

Please talk to me

One last criticism I’d like to make is the interaction between your character and others. I was spinning around, slamming my keyboard trying to get my character to talk to the necessary quest masters. I eventually had to slow down and tap W until I got in range to turn in the quest, which created a lot more thinking than necessary. This is the internet, don’t they know we’re too lazy for this (Cough, WoW)?

There’s better out there

All in all, I spent one Friday afternoon playing, and didn’t even finish out my weekend beta key. Understanding that the game is still in beta, and can improve, I still think I would rather play Neverwinter than this game. Or maybe even World of Warcraft, despite being bitter. All MMOs are generally the same, but this one has a few too many technical issues to enjoy quite yet.