The Elder Scrolls Online Beta Weekend: First Impressions

Well, I was lucky enough to get a beta key for the Elder Scrolls Online beta event last weekend so I dove right into it. Most of the press I've seen regarding ESO has been from the perspective of long-time Elder Scrolls fans looking for their next fix rather than an MMO player checking out a new entry in the genre, which seems a bit unusual to me. Now I certainly have some experience with the past Elder Scrolls games but I wouldn't consider myself a hardcore fan of the series.

So, here are my first impressions of the game from the perspective of a fan of MMOs rather than Elder Scrolls specifically.

Thief Impressions and Comparison to Thief II

With all the old franchises receiving reboots I'm somewhat surprised that it took so long for Thief to get the treatment. Because the Thief series has always held a bit of a niche appeal there's been a lot of speculation about the reboot and whether or not it would carry the spirit of the older games or fall into the trap of over-simplification for mass appeal.

I decided to do as fair a comparison as I could between old and new, so I replayed several hours of Thief II: The Metal Age before touching the new Thief. I examined both old and new with a critical eye, trying hard not to let my own nostalgia of the series cloud what it actually was in order to give the reboot a chance to stand on as even ground as possible.

Here are my thoughts and impressions after playing the first 5 hours of each game side by side.

Dark Souls and Punishment

Prepare to die - we literally designed it to be unavoidable.

Dark Souls and Demon's Souls get a lot of well deserved praise because they do so many things right. In a time when most games will shy away from difficulty or challenge in the name of mass appeal these games will kick you to the curb, hold a knife to your neck and make you beg for more. They have great combat feel, immersive worlds, variety in gameplay, and epic bosses.

But I'm not here to tell you what the Souls series does right - I'm here to tell you about the few things they do wrong and how it sabotages the entire experience.

Bit Rant: Guns and Disempowerment

Today I'm going to try something a little different with a new series I call Bit Rant. Basically this will just be a humorous rant against popular mechanics or topics to approach them from a different point of view. As such everything here should be taken as parody rather than literal critique.

With that out of the way, let's talk about how horrible the mechanics in modern FPS games are and how they directly undermine their narrative themes!

To The Moon and Interactive Storytelling

To the Moon is an indie game that came out in November of last year. I think for most people it flew under the radar - in fact the only way I discovered it myself was by chancing across it while perusing the indie section of Steam during one of their (in)famous sales. The game itself is quite good and I highly recommend it to anyone that is interested by the trailer, but what I'd really like to discuss isn't the game itself but where it (and games like it) belong in gaming.

Bastion: Choice, Morality, and Metaphysics

When I first played Bastion I was expecting a fairly competent hack and slash game with an artistic aesthetic - what more could you reasonably expect from an indie title for $15? Once I got into the game however I began to realize that Bastion was far more than that; it engaged me in a way that I haven't been in years. Every facet of the game feels deliberate and necessary, culminating in one of the most powerful moments in gaming I've ever encountered.

But before I get too far ahead of myself...

Spoiler Warning

I'll be talking extensively about a lot of the major events in the game as well as all of the relevant context. If you haven't played this game yet I cannot overstate the need to stop reading and go play the game for yourself - the game is a work of art and worth every penny of the cost and every minute of your time.

Xenogears Retrospective Part 3: Fei and Freud

In part 3 of this retrospective I'll be examining the character of Fei a bit more closely and his relation to the part unification theme in Xenogears. I will of course be talking about elements that occur late in the game, so if you haven't played the game you might want to skip this one.

Spoiler Warning