After the May announcement of The Elder Scrolls: Online in Game Informer magazine in 2012, many Dovakin, who had not yet had enough of the snowy expanses of Skyrim, had their hands in dragon gloves itching, and under the horned helmet, fantastic images of duels on the Thu'ums, gatherings of the Companions on farming rare equipment and cooperative fulfillment of Dark Brotherhood orders in the spirit of Hitman games. "Multiplayer Skyrim, where, thanks to a flexible leveling system, everyone can play how they want and who they want in your favorite Elder Scrolls universe!" - this is how the developers from ZeniMax Online Studios positioned their brainchild. It's no joke, the fifth part of the series was miraculously good, the next - you can not wait six years, and what could be better than fighting off mud robbers in the company of Khajiit friends?

But after the release in April 2014, it became clear that, first of all, this is an MMO, which has all the subtleties of the genre, and there is no smell of Skyrim Online here. Many players and journalists criticized the crooked mount system, local level restrictions that did not allow free exploration of the surroundings due to invincible monsters; B2P subscription system, a large number of lags and many other sins. As a result, cool press reviews and the need to pay monthly for dubious pleasure scared away most of the players, as evidenced by weak sales, half-empty servers and an inactive community.

Learned? It is at this spot, 1000 years later, that Martin Septim will sacrifice himself to ignite the Dragonfires and save Tamriel from the encroachments of the Daedric Prince of Destruction.

However, almost 4 years have passed since the release and it seems that the situation has changed a lot lately. More than 78% of positive reviews on Steam and a permanent place in the TOP-10 MMOs in terms of sales leave no doubt that the increased online in the game is taking place. And this despite the fact that the creation of Gable is not the only platform for the sale of the game. ZeniMax Online has its own website with slightly different terms of sale. By the way, I personally took both of my accounts on the official website and played over 5000 hours in total. So what is The Elder Scrolls: Online like now?

After SkyrimOrsiniumlooks like native.

First of all, this, of course, is the same universe of the Elder Scrolls. Severe Nords fight giants in the snowy expanses near Windhelm, reclusive Argonians offer supplications to the Hist in the swamps of Shadowfen, and cunning Dunmer explore the long-abandoned Dwemer ruins on the island of Vardenfell. Soul stones for reloading weapons, Mundus stones as an analogue of guardian stones from Skyrim, rock riders, the Guild of Mages, Sheogorad, Hermius Mora and other Daedra ... In a word, the spirit of numbered episodes feels great in multiplayer as well. It is unlikely that in the same TES 5 you will be able to see how a half-naked Khajiit with a staff gathers a group of strong green-skinned warriors via chat, rushes with them to the nearest flock of dreughs and, after sitting behind pebbles, takes prey from the dead carcasses of monsters. But the general entourage of the game, as well as the graphics that are wonderful for an MMO, were perfectly shown at the release.

Capturing any of the districts in the Imperial City will bring your alliance not only additional loot from mobs, but also the possibility of respawning after being killed by another player.

Over four years, the developers have added an extensive list of new content. The first was Imperial City, which gave players a separate PvP zone with its own interesting features and two rather difficult, and therefore interesting for both beginners and overworked veterans, dungeons. Hello, damn The Planar Inhibitor! The city itself is globally destroyed by the attack of the minions of the evil Daedra Molag Bal, but some places can still be recognized in 1000 years in TES 4. Orsinium, filled with quests, has been released, bringing the PvE arena to the game with the best weapons in the game. Next was the long-awaited Thieves Guild with the ability to rob caravans and see the most difficult trial in the game. Dark Brotherhood showed the cities familiar from TES IV: Oblivion - Anvil and Kvatch, and also made professional killers out of the players and littered the cities with the bodies of NPCs, who immediately resurrected and again fell under the knife ...

Things are going well for the Thieves Guild.

Every player inTESIV andTESV represents what is behind that door.

The free One Tamriel add-on was more of a work on a bug, as the ZeniMax developers put it on the stream: did not have enough resources and experience to implement these ideas.” A system of scaling players by levels, which finally gives the ability to comfortably explore the world from the very start and "go wherever your eyes look" without falling from one poke of a level 50 wolf. Two and a half years after the release, duels were brought into the game. Many smaller changes really changed the game in earnest and made the gameplay much more comfortable, for example, it became possible to invite characters from other alliances to the group.

Homestead - the next free addition gave the inhabitants of Tamriel their own housing and the ability to equip it to their taste and color, including adding crafting machines, a merchant and a banker to their home. If desired, it was possible to open access to everyone, which the guildmasters took advantage of, giving rise to the creation of guildhalls.

For some players, standard houses are not enough, so it turns out such a creative that was not foreseen by the developers.

But of course, Morrowind, announced in February of this year and released in June, has become a popular favorite. Sand riders and loud Silt Striders, roaring around Red Mountain. The great houses of Morrowind, in the struggle for power, do not hesitate to resort to the services of the assassin's guild Morag Tong. Balmora and just under construction Vivec. Almighty Tribunal… In a word, everything for which we once fell in love with the third part of the series. Even the main musical theme of the update was a remade composition from TES III: Morrowind. And not in vain. The feeling of nostalgia covers with a head, as soon as the character sets foot on Vvardenfell. And ZeniMax Online Studios did not hesitate to play on the feelings of longtime fans of the series and hit the jackpot. If all released DLS could be played with an optional subscription, then for Morrowind you have to pay separately at least 1,400 rubles and nothing else. “We also brought you battlegrounds there!” Indeed, there have been talks about adding Battlegrounds for a long time, but still the main innovation was the new game class Warden (Warden) - a kind of mixture of a shaman-summoner and a cold magician, focused on healing and supporting allies, but also capable of dealing good damage and even tanking. The resulting hybrid is essentially the quintessence of all other classes. And although in the role of a healer, the varden turned out to be quite controversial and unsuitable for veteran trials, even when paired with a templar, he is not capable of tanking the veteran version of Maw of Lorkhaj better than the Dragonknight (Dragonknight), but for all other in-game purposes, the beginner is a very interesting choice, even in pvp, straight arms turn him into a death machine, scattering Khajiit like kittens and stepping on the scaly tails of the Argonians.

Vvardenfell looks amazing!

With Battlegrounds ZeniMax Online also did not fail. On four maps, players are divided into three teams of four for the same goal - to score more points. And in what way it depends on the modes: the well-known Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag and Domination. Crashes and lags that literally made it impossible to participate in 4x4x4 battles at the start have long been fixed. In such an arena, blood flows no less than in the Imperial City, the regime is popular, and it is not difficult to form a group.

This is how the developers cut Veteran Ranks from the game.

But as mentioned above, without additional investments you will not get there. Donation is not required at all, most of the dungeons, quests and locations will be available anyway, but you can buy a subscription a couple of times, get in-game currency and buy the necessary add-on, and at the same time get rid of problems with an always cluttered bank - all resources are automatically sent to a bottomless crafting bag where you can get them at any time. One problem - once you try it, it will be extremely uncomfortable to play without a bag, your hands are reaching out to check every oncoming chest for the presence of sweet rolls.

New Year in Tamriel is calledNewLifeFestival and is celebrated at the end of December.

Among dozens of similar MMO grinders and bored mastodons like WoW, The Elder Scrolls: Online looks like a saving sip of skooma. Beautiful graphics and a deep atmosphere, many interesting quests and a variety of PvP/PvE, a large RU community, a low entry threshold and the ability to play without extra financial costs make the game, if not ideal, but a very worthy alternative for fans of the genre and the Elder Scrolls universe. Among the minuses: the lack of a Russian-language version (fixed by installing the RUESO addon), and indeed the need to install add-ons (the interface in the game is C grade, you can’t even see buffs / debuffs on the target!), Long elimination of old and frequent appearance of new bugs, Morrowind is sold separately. Many ideas are borrowed from other projects, but unlike most of them, TESO does not stand still, but changes regularly, keeping experienced players from getting bored and sweating those who came to the game after a long break.

From Zenimax Online Studios and Bethesda Softworks got rid of a paid subscription. Starting March 17, all Windows and Mac OS users have been automatically updated to Tamriel Unlimited - as the name suggests, after purchasing the client, you can play it without any restrictions.

Those who have never paid for a subscription (its cost was $15 per month) now need to pay only once - for the game itself. The standard digital edition of the computer version is offered on the official website of the project for 4,099 rubles. , which is similar to the cost on Steam. Those with an active subscription at Tamriel Unlimited launch will receive the bonus of free membership to the premium ESO Plus program. They are guaranteed free access to all future add-ons, a 10% boost in hero development, and 1500-9000 crowns (new in-game currency) depending on the duration of the subscription (30, 90 or 180 days). DLCs ​​and optional items will be sold for a fee in the Crown Store virtual store. All details .

The transfer of the game to the traditional payment model, which is not very popular among MMOGs (Guild Wars 2 also uses it), was announced in January of this year. Against the background of the publisher's statements made in April last year, this decision seems rather strange. Then in an interview with CVG, Bethesda's vice president of marketing and PR, Pete Hines, noted that a monthly subscription is the best payment plan for The Elder Scrolls Online. The free-to-play system, according to the head of Zenimax Online Matt Firor (Matt Firor), the game is completely unsuitable, because "it does not allow to provide all players with an equal opportunity."

Shortly before this event, the developers released the largest update to date - the sixth in a row. It brought high-level dungeons to the game, designed for parties of four users who completed the main quest line. It also introduced new challenges for parties and two new systems - Justice (allows you to steal things from merchants and kill NPCs, as well as punish criminals) and Champion (provides new opportunities for character development with a veteran rank). In addition, the update introduced a lot of smaller changes - from simplifying the use of inventory to improving facial animation. The full list of changes can be found at this link.

Console versions of The Elder Scrolls Online will be distributed according to the new model at launch. On PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the game, along with all released updates, will appear on June 9, 2015. These versions will additionally require payment for a PlayStation Plus and Xbox Live Gold subscription, respectively.

Long before the official announcementardent fans already dreamed of playing together, they only imagined it brightly and rosy. So you called your best friends and rushed through the dungeon, scattering Daedra and sipping Alto wine. Rich booty, desperate fights, an extremely fat leader who blocks the way to the desired treasures. And then - trips to taverns, running from the guards ("Come on, stop, criminal bastard!") And bathing in the fountain.

Of course, such fantasies came from a great love for the game world: a person loves to share joy, and therefore dreams of luring comrades to the island of Vvanderfell (or to the glorious Cyrodiil, or to Skyrim, the kingdom of frostbitten ears). TESO did not initially have a cozy entourage characteristic of its predecessors. Reality, as always, is a little different from expectations.

Imperial ambitions

After online The Elder Scrolls makes a long jump into the past - about a thousand years ago from Alduin's epic fiasco. From the relatively stable period of the Empire's rule - to the era of the Interregnum, when Tamriel was torn apart by internal contradictions. The future power of the Septims fell apart into three equal unions - an extremely convenient occasion for global PvP.

Altmeri Dominion is a solid conglomerate where the high elves reign supreme over the wood elves and khajiit. Inflated Altmer imagine themselves as a chosen race, which is obliged to command others. Alliance Formed in Northwest Tamriel Daggerfall Agreement, an association on a mutually beneficial basis of the Bretons, Redguards and Orcs. The Bretons are enterprising revisionists, their king Emeric aims to rebuild the empire. Finally, the east and north of the continent are occupied by countries Ebonheart Pact, a loose association of peoples driven into a corner during the Akaviri invasion. The Nords hate the Dunmer, the Dunmer hate the Argonians, and they have an eternal desire to gut everyone.

The alignment on the map of the province of Cyrodiil changes suddenly and dramatically: the timely initiative of several people is a possible guarantee of joining a rather large territory.

Not out of boredom began a general meat grinder. The heart of Tamriel, the province of Cyrodiil, has fallen into the hands of Molag Bal, a Daedric prince who tricked the capital into taking control of the capital, turning the imperial elite into his puppets. In this, the necromancer Mannimarco helped him a lot - the overthrow of the villain will be the goal of the story line of quests.

Despite the fears of an agitated public, the integrity of Nirn was not affected. Daggerfall is more like Daggerfall than a Chinese village, the ashen wastelands of Morrowind are truly ashen and gloomy, albeit punctuated at times by slightly less depressing landscapes. The elves have been robbed of their hereditary ugliness (“not a bug, but a feature!”), But the eared muzzles do not attract much attention.

The population is generally small and apathetic. After the relatively good scenery of life in Skyrim, the behavior of non-player characters in TES Online causes strong rejection: they walk back and forth on a wretched spot, from time to time stick to an anvil or other machine and simulate work. Interestingly, some unwashed sailor without a single quest for his soul and without a trading tent can be caught sleeping! The presence of at least a minimal value for players chains the unfortunate with invisible chains to the place where crowds of subscribers will look for him. But they are much more likely to chat - all the remarks are voiced, and the talkers even allow themselves elementary facial expressions and gestures. How rich, as they say.

The bank resembles the van from Daggerfall - only not available anywhere. That is why the queues here are like in one notorious domestic financial institution.

However, there is a problem of a more global nature - there are no clear differences between the unions, there are no features that would create the image of this or that commonwealth. Roughly speaking, the Pact is distinguished from the Dominion only by the climate and national composition. There is no fundamental difference in architecture: if Skyrim, Morrowind and Sentinel still stand out from the general row with log huts, Japanese decorations on the roofs and the likeness of minarets, then Valenwood from the Summerset Isles was clearly molded according to the same patterns. Actually, this is a natural result of scaling up: more available territories - fewer features. Fortunately, the unpleasant proportion did not affect the saturation of these territories.

In Coldharbor port with a hole in the side

The adventure of the future war hero begins - according to a long tradition - in a dungeon, in Coldharbour, the sad abode of Molag Bal. A stereotypical prophet, blinded by reading the Elder Scrolls, helps us slip away into the world of the living, where ... leaves us to the mercy of fate. Say, take a walk, young man, and I will look for a way to show Vivec's mother to the sinister Daedric prince.

The title storyline continues in fits and starts: occasionally a mysterious old man calls us to the carpet and entrusts us with something heroic. You have probably already guessed that in terms of value and depth, the tasks are inferior to even the not so brilliant story in Skyrim. Much more importance is attached to the military-political alignment of forces: a parallel storyline consists of operations at the front and in the rear, intrigues, and sometimes even investigations.

The ability to tell stories with the help of subject expositions cannot be denied to the masters of Bethesda.

But, according to tradition, side quests go out of their way to surprise the player with their originality and humor. True, at first, a whole layer of assignments of the form “find my guars” should be thrown out of their number. Almost every settlement of the studied Tamriel contains at least one unfortunate caravaneer (farmer, cattle breeder), whose cattle scattered around the surroundings.

And already against the background of careless shepherds, such classic “Scroll” tasks, inspired by Sheogorath himself, stand out. So, the Khajiit keep tigers on moon sugar farms so that they eat rats and other pests. But the greedy rodents got so drunk on dope that they “took away” even the striped predators, who previously regularly exterminated the brats, and now arranged an endless siesta. Rats are devastating the fields with impunity, and soon a commission of Altmer will visit the plantation and arrange such a thing! .. However, the essence of the task is to shell the nests of electric scarabs.

There are also reverse cases: the captain of the ship in Stros M'kai asks to gather together her crew for a raid on the home of a local nouveau riche. Toward the end, it turns out to be a glorious parody of Guy Ritchie's adventurous comedies, but at first you want to drop everything and rush off to the nearest ship to Sadrith Mora.

Sometimes a single skill point is much more valuable than a premium trinket. Weapons are a vain world of things, and you can't drink away experience.

As promised by Zenimax, quest givers don't cluster near the bazaar or in the town hall - even in the wilderness there is a restless soul who has unsettled affairs. But we were lied to about something else - about the possibility of freely exploring the world in any direction. “Just roll on all four sides,” the game advises on the loading screen, however, powerful enemies will meet you in all four directions, and the further you run, the hotter and more painful their reception will be. Technically, wandering around without a rudder and sails will work out even at the third level (fortunately, you can skip the introductory chapter), but a rigid binding of the power of the mobs to the location will doom all attempts to communicate with wildlife to failure.

At the behest of dark forces, in some places the line between Nirn and Coldharbour becomes thinner, and various creatures begin to seep through the crack to be destroyed.

The world drawn by Zenimax Online became such under the guidance of curators from Bethesda, who previously built landscapes in past games in the series with their own hands. This world is ascetically pleasant, a little chaotic and charming, but - that's the trouble! - very much does not like to give freedom. In the realm of research, Zenimax has completely relied on the rules of online amusement parks, leaving no room for unexpected discoveries.

I blinded you from what was

Therefore, the satisfaction of adventure instincts insistently requires a well-trained character, and here in the sleeve of TESO there are, if not aces, but at least kings. The generation of appearance is detailed enough to make the characters at least original. There are settings for height, physique and even the softness of facial features - from the good-natured physiognomy of a baker to the angular muzzle of an unscrupulous adventurer.

When it comes to specialization, there are many forks in the path. Suppose we have chosen a class - nightblade (thief), dragon knight (warrior), templar (priest) or wizard (wizard). Within the specialty, there are three subcategories: for example, the wizard chooses from summoning Daedra, elemental magic, and dark arts. It is more expedient to develop one thing, but there are no technical prohibitions. Each discipline contains a list of abilities, both active and passive: all sorts of magical monsoons and other perversions. Standing apart is the ultimate ability, which recharges for a very long time, but it also makes a decent rustle. All special moves are bought with learning points that drop with levels.

The choice of development vector is difficult, but not too significant: improved variations of one ability do not change the essence and simply increase the benefits of using it.

A skill upgraded to the required condition gives rise to two alternatives: say, a wider radius of damage or a lower cost of application in mana. The growth of specific skills comes through their use - viva, old farts, everything is as before! That is, almost - banal experience points are still responsible for a set of levels.

Weapons are grouped by combat style: if staves are used on their own, then the sword can go with a shield, or maybe with other one-handed weapons. Each of the categories has its own techniques, which together create a joyful picture - the choice is fabulous! And no one forbids a knight with a branch of dragon strength to arm himself with a bow. True, racial abilities may remain unused, but their specific weight is small enough that nothing prevents them from dressing a wood elf in iron armor.

Cooking is the most accessible of crafts, but also the most transient; soups and tinctures give temporary increases to the characteristics.

Six possible crafts will allow you to collect everything that the adventurer needs - in addition, hand-crafted equipment is an order of magnitude superior to the rewards or what gathers dust on store shelves. Of course, to achieve certain success, you will have to work for more than a dozen hours.

To fully reveal the talents of a blacksmith, eight skill points are enough (the same ones that are spent on learning combat skills): they will be spent on developing the handling of materials so that you do not have to mess with ordinary iron for the rest of your life. Other acquired abilities - an increased percentage of extraction of special resources, the detection range of deposits - are just conveniences that are not necessary.

And there is a need for traditional hard training "on cats". Because you can’t get used to forging metal except by forging it and screwing pebbles for effects and quality improvement (from green to blue, from blue to purple), so that a weighty combat caliper costs more and beats the crap out of enemies more cheerfully.

Despite the formal lack of auto-aim, spells find their target themselves, and mob power hits will reach your back from a distance of a good eight meters.

Perhaps the character development system in TESO succeeded better than anything else. There is sufficient flexibility, and logic, and some fidelity to traditions that does not fall into senile insanity. True, not everyone will be comfortable in battle - a modest artisan, a dock in tailoring light armor, may not be able to cope against a crowd of robbers. And a long-distance mage who has invested in mana, without support and support, will quickly pass in front of opponents with melee weapons. The magician of the cloak and dagger also takes a fair risk - what if a mob respawns right in front of his nose and disrupts the sabotage?

It is not necessary to receive a task before rounding up quest monsters. In most cases, the reward will be given anyway.

If with a friend went on the road

It is worth taking a friend with you, as the game takes on a different form, albeit not quite transformed. Travel restrictions are reduced (it’s not a sin to strangle a beast five levels older than yourself together), less fuss with living creatures, and some bosses are not killed alone at all. In addition, the team masters classic MMO dungeons and anchor gates that supply Nirn with all sorts of evil trash from Coldharbour - either the gate to Oblivion, or the rifts from. In general, everything here is quite standard, and you can count the ways of interacting with another player on the fingers of one hand. There are command combinations of attacks (one spilled oil, another set fire), but this is rare and is more common in PvP.

Before the fight, a gloomy soldier sadly plucks the strings. Time to remember fallen comrades and think about future losses.

At the same time, the mechanics of global PvP indescribably pleases with the accessibility and elegance of work. Just ten levels of monsters - and welcome to Cyrodiil! Here, alliances divide the territory of the province, based on a system of redoubts. Each fortress is a set of powerful walls, computer-controlled guards and a portal that allows you to fly between the bastions. The capture of the Imperial City is considered a conditional victory: the capital was surrounded by six fortresses, the possession of which gives the alliance the right to take the city. The emperor receives all sorts of bonuses and a unique uniform, and his subjects will be limited to bonuses. When the ring around the capital is broken, everything will start all over again.

Featured:
Operating system: Windows 7 64-bit or Windows 8 64-bit
CPU: Quad Core 2.3GHz or equivalent
RAM: 4GB RAM
Video card: Direct X 11 compatible graphics card with 2GB of memory (NVIDIA GeForce 560 Ti / ATI Radeon 6950 or better)
Hard: 60GB free space
Internet: broadband internet from 1 megabit per second.

The plot of the game takes place long before the bloody events of the last game in the series. At a time when there was no single power and when Tamriel was divided into three warring parts: the alliances of Aldmeri, Daggerfall and Ebonheart.

Aldmeri Dominion(Bird) - the union of elves and Khajiit. The main enemy, the Colovians, greatly weakened and exhausted the union politically and on the fronts. Despite this, the Aldmeri Dominion is a strong ally and a formidable foe.

Ebonheart Pact(Dragon) - an equal collection of dark elves, Argonians and Nords. Initially, they fought for the freedom of the peoples, then they waged bloody wars because of the desire to seize Tamriel in their hands.

Daggerfall Covenant(Leo) - An alliance of Orcs, Redguards and Bretons. The smallest union of all listed. At the same time, it is the strongest in military and political affairs.

Each player at the beginning must choose for whom he will fight. Think before you choose. Each faction has its own advantages and disadvantages.

According to the plot, the main enemy of all unions is Molag Bal, progenitor of vampires and owner of enslaved souls. He is gathering a huge army of undead, titans and other hellish creatures far beyond the borders of Tamriel in order to strike and conquer the kingdom.

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