The Elder Scrolls Online: 7 Key Elements Previewed & Rated

By Joshua Lloyd-Jones / March 30, 2013

At the PAX East convention this year, I was able to get hands-on with the new Elder Scrolls Online game and thought WhatCulture's readers would like to get some more information on a game that, until late, has been kept half cloaked in shadows. I'll explain the ins and outs but if it leaves you with any questions - feel free to ask in the comments below or on my twitter account! Visually, it sets itself out to be a beautiful game. Each surface carved with immense detail like an artists masterpiece. The water flows perfectly and world looks very much like the previous titles, paying attention to every bit of detail. The expressions and surroundings are stunning from the first glance. The most surprising thing for me about ESO is that they've dared to be their own game in an already dominated genre - a risky strategy that I feel has been very rewarding for them as a team. To start, I created an Orc Fighter - a simple melee class so I could get a true feel for the mechanics of combat as well as searching every nook and cranny of the starting area. We'll start from the bottom and work our way up. I've tried to squeeze as much information in as I could from my play time, so without further ado, let's get into the bones of the beast...

7. Character Creation

A big thing about the Elder Scrolls games, for me, is the amount of detail you could go into when creating your character. With an advanced slider system, you could make him/her your own, unique person. Choosing the length of your cheek bones, the width of your jaw and how close together your eyes are may seem trivial but they contribute towards making your own hero and starting a journey in a different way to yourself. Character creation begins with choosing your class and race, moving into the slider mechanics and finally, the naming of your hero. The first thing that caught my eye when I opened up character creation was that they had kept a majority of the races. This means you could pick your sly and stealthy Kha'jiit or the silver tongued Argonian that you may have played through in any of the other games. One of my favorite things about the character creation in ESO is that you are able to give your character both a first and last name - which should erase the annoying task of finding a name that isn't taken. The creation is very reminiscent of the the other Elder Scrolls games apart from one thing - they had removed the early game star-signs. However, when probed about this, the development team reassured me that there will be hidden shrines around the world - much like in Skyrim - to counteract the lack of an astrology system.