ZeniMax has unveiled the first trailer for its newly announced The Elder Scrolls Online MMORPG. There’s no gameplay on offer at this early stage, and the clip itself is rather short. It’s long on subtle bits of awesomeness, though, including a brief tease of the familiar Elder Scrolls melody and a glimpse of the game’s logo (which features a telling three-part design to go along with the game’s announced three-faction PvP).
At this point, we’re still in the dark about almost everything TESO-related. Will it be a sandbox? A themepark? A marriage of the two? How’s the crafting, the character customization, and the questing? Your guess is as good as ours, so take a look at the clip after the break and let us know what you think in the comments.
Honestly, I’m going to wait and see, it is entirely too early to either praise or hate. I will say though, that Bethesda has a very tough road to follow. On one had, if they choose to follow the road with player freedom (sandbox), then they could potentially alienate a portion of their fanbase, due to the reduction (if not removal) of the ‘hero’ aspect. Alternatively, if they choose to follow the road which is ‘story driven’, then they alienate another portion that enjoys the openness of the past titles
Either way it seems Bethesda will piss off someone, but I think they really need to think and choose one path, because shooting for the middle ground does nothing but piss off those on either end, while producing a watered-down shell which the middle will play for five seconds (and while bitching the entire time) as they move on to the next sad attempt to appease the ‘WOW Crowd’.
As to a sandbox potentially eliminating the ‘go anywhere and kill everything’ approach that has existed in the single player games, I don’t believe that to be the case. If done correctly, a sandbox would deliver that exact ideal situation (This is what MMOs used to be like).
For what’s its worth, my two cents.