Elder Scrolls Online was announced just a few days ago. Already, thankfully, some details are surfacing. It looks like Bethesda will not be breaking the MMO model with this game – which may disappoint some. On the other hand it does look like they’re trying to appeal to traditional Elder Scroll players as well.
Details seem to be coming from Game Informer. They seem to have an “in” with either ZeniMax and Bethesda. Norolak at NeoGaf has put together a list of what’s been reported already. The list below is a distilled version for Geek Native readers.
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- Game development started in 2007. Elder Scrolls Online is due for a 2013, PC and Mac, release
- The pitch – “This time, saving the world from the awakening of ancient evil is only the beginning. What happens when hundreds or thousands of prophesied heroes all think that they should be Emperor?”
- Your soul has been stolen by Molag Bal – which is why you keep on coming back from the dead
- The game is set “1000 years in the past”
- Level capping should take about 120 hours of game play
- Each faction will have different levelling content
- The game is fully voice acted and presented in the third person
- There will be no PC housing, pets or NPC romances
- There will be mounts, but no flying mounts
- Dragons are unlikely
- Fast travel will happen from wayshrines
- You can’t be a werewolf or vampire
- The Daedric Princes will be involved
- The game will support sneaking – but they’re not sure how that’ll work yet
- The game uses an MMO approach to classes and experience points
- Elder Scrolls Online is a “hubless” design in that quests are implict rather than explicit – however, some direction comes from prompts/placeholders via NPCs
It remains to be seen how many MMO players steer off towards Elder Scrolls Online or even how many Elder Scrolls players come to the MMO. There are surely Skyrim converts who are almost unaware there is a series of games that came before Bethesda’s internet meme smash hit.
