Update: Beta Tester Leaks Elder Scrolls Online Gameplay Footage

[Steven Bogos]

Update: Beta Tester Leaks Elder Scrolls Online Gameplay Footage

The footage shows off character creation and the first quests new players will encounter.

Footage showing off character creation and the first 20 minutes of gameplay for Bethesda's upcoming MMO, The Elder Scrolls Online has been leaked onto youtube. The character creation screen shows a huge variety of different customizations and nine playable races, but only three classes: Dragonknight, Sorcerer and Templar. The gameplay segments that follow look strikingly similar to 2011's Skyrim, wrapped up with a couple of new MMO elements.

New players will find themselves on a ship, having being discovered floating in the water by the captain. No kind of opening cutscene or explanation of what the game will be about and what you are supposed to be doing is offered. The game looks and plays almost exactly like Skyrim does, but with an MMO-style UI draped over it. Just like Skyrim, you can go into first-person mode, although there doesn't seem to be any hand or weapon animations for it yet. All NPCs appear to be fully voiced.

Later on in the video, we learn that the "constellation-style" skill trees present in Skyrim have been replaced with more basic MMO-style trees. Each class will have three different specializations, with the Sorcerer's listed as Dark Magic, Daedric Summoning, and Storm Calling. Quests are your standard "talk to this guy, kill six of these, collect four of these" style quests.

Honestly, apart from the fully voiced NPCs, this game looks like another horribly generic run-of-the-mill World Of Warcraft style MMO. We should keep in mind that this is still early beta footage, and the game is sure to change drastically as it leads up to its release, but at the moment it doesn't quite look as epic as the teaser trailer [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/121636-Elder-Scrolls-Online-Beta-Signups-Begin] they released a while back, when soliciting beta sign-ups.

You can sign up for the beta on the Elder Scrolls Online [http://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en/] website. The game is scheduled for release later this year.

Update: It looks like the video has been pulled from YouTube. A saved copy has been uploaded to Riot Pixels. [http://riotpixels.com/dvadtsat-minut-gejmpleya-the-elder-scrolls-online/]

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[008Zulu_v1legacy]

I am saddened the video doesn't indicate how many times the game crashed. Beta status aside, random crashing is kinda Bethesda's trademark.

Have to agree with it looking like another generic fantasy mmo.

 

[marcooos]

Its WoW in a elder scrolls face mask

 

[Rainforce]

sadly, I must agree: generic MMO pretty much right here.
why are people so afraid to stray from the WoW formula?
why the HELL can't they just make it more like the other TES games, just scaled to MMO level (slower leveling, harder prices/etc.)? not to mention the apparent inability to bring graphics to a niveau that doesn't scream like "from 6 years ago" (or at least make the graphics more scalable so people with hardware from 10 years ago can still play it)
*sigh* will give it a try either way. Maybe gameplay and graphics is not everything to a game : O

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

Kind of hard to believe this is game being released in 2013. I guess progress is overrated.

 

[Voulan]

I'd like to point out that the guy playing turned the graphics down to low at the beginning. Actually, that does look like the extent of the graphics. Huh.

I can't really form an opinion of it yet - the player was doing everything I wouldn't have done, which was just annoying to watch. The only thing I'm truly worried about is that maybe mages will have to use a staff, rather than their hands. I never use them in the base games because I don't like relying on other things to do magic, so I really hope it isn't required.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Generic and boring looking so far. But i guess its just the start of the game, doubt they would give you any really difficult stuff early on. I would rather a TES6 to be honest, not interested in MMOs, dont have time for all their padded out gameplay, to much space in between locations of interest and the constant grind to level up. I played WOW for a month and it was mind numbingly boring, have no idea how people get hooked on it.

So Bethesda, now you have your MMO itch out the way and it will fail. They all fail. Get to making TES6, which is what people actually want, and make it more like Morrowind than Skyrim.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

"Honestly, apart from the fully voiced NPCs, this game looks like another horribly generic run-of-the-mill World Of Warcraft style MMO."

What. A. Shock.

 

[alj]

I don't see how anyone can draw a conclusion form that video, this game is in very early beta if that, there is no real combat or anything in that video. As far as the graphics go that was on the lowest setting there is plenty of time for optimisation ect. I am not by any means saying that this game is going to be amazing i don't know ether way but i wont draw a conclusion until i see more.

 

[Hagi]

Actually pleasantly surprised by how much it's not a generic fantasy MMO.

- There's manual blocking and it seemed quite effective. In the fight he died damage was noticeably reduced when he blocked.
- There's no tab-targeting, although there does seem to be some aim-assistance.
- First-person mode is in and animations likely to follow.
- No quest markers seem to be present, especially no floating exclamation or question marks.
- Full movement during combat, no standing there and hitting each other in turns.
- Stamina-based sprinting is in, which hopefully is not used only for sprinting meaning it'll be an actual choice.
- ES style stealth is in, no turning invisible (besides spells that may be included) and hopefully taking some actual skill.
- ES style alchemy seems to be in, judging by the ingredients found on the starting rats. Hopefully this means all ingredients will be useful and not just high-level ones.
- Challenging? I must admit it's been a very, very long time since I've ever died in the starting zone of a MMO. The tester seemed to die easily when taking on multiple opponents and not doing much to avoid damage besides blocking once.

Certainly many things look like utter shit, the UI especially. But those are all the type of things that can be, and usually are, improved during alpha and beta stages.

The things that can't, the basic combat system, seems to be in working order and actually looks quite fun.

I'll definitely continue to keep an eye on this, it looks more and more promising.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

strikingly similar to 2012's Skyrim

Didn't Skyrim come out in 2011?


Anyway, I don't expect this MMO to last long.

 

[Ironside]

I hoped it would be more like the actual TES gameplay, this looks like a WOW-era combat system.

Let me guess, no sneaking around just ganking groups of enemies.

Another wow clone that could just copy paste TES gameplay into an MMO and be 100X better.

Well sneak is being implemented and I think they said if your skill was high enough you would be nigh on invisible to other players, but there are skills that can beak the sneak, so you cant just go round killing everyone silently (I think it was in a YogscastSjin video interview if you want to find it). Either way though - I dont particularly like the look of the game - another crappy WoW clone with crappy mechanics.

 

[War-hamster]

Looks kind of generic and boring actually. The elder scrolls community is very loyal though, if the game can get them hooked, I imagine a very long lifetime for this MMO with small but loyal fanbase.

I'll probably try it out once it inevitably goes free to play.

 

[Lazy Kitty]

I can't wait to play this, it looks amazing.
I might even pay for this one...

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

sadly, I must agree: generic MMO pretty much right here.
why are people so afraid to stray from the WoW formula?
why the HELL can't they just make it more like the other TES games, just scaled to MMO level (slower leveling, harder prices/etc.)? not to mention the apparent inability to bring graphics to a niveau that doesn't scream like "from 6 years ago" (or at least make the graphics more scalable so people with hardware from 10 years ago can still play it)
*sigh* will give it a try either way. Maybe gameplay and graphics is not everything to a game : O

WoW sells like crazy; people "clone" what's popular.

Same reason for the influx of CoD-like FPS' in the recent years.

I still might check it (TESO) but only because it's Elder Scrolls.

 

[Abomination]

I... like the character creation options?

I guess that's all I can say so far. The rest of the stuff is just MMO I've seen before.

 

[Rainforce]

sadly, I must agree: generic MMO pretty much right here.
why are people so afraid to stray from the WoW formula?
why the HELL can't they just make it more like the other TES games, just scaled to MMO level (slower leveling, harder prices/etc.)? not to mention the apparent inability to bring graphics to a niveau that doesn't scream like "from 6 years ago" (or at least make the graphics more scalable so people with hardware from 10 years ago can still play it)
*sigh* will give it a try either way. Maybe gameplay and graphics is not everything to a game : O

WoW sells like crazy; people "clone" what's popular.

Same reason for the influx of CoD-like FPS' in the recent years.

I still might check it (TESO) but only because it's Elder Scrolls.

I get that, but since when was stagnation so popular?
I mean, they could do BETTER already DID better. Instead they're trimming it down to decades old mechanics.

 

[VoidWanderer]

I pray to the Developer Gods to stop whipping the poor MMO horse to death...