The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited (Xbox One)

The Elder Scrolls Online has been available on PC since April of last year, when it cost something like 15 bucks a month in subscription fees. This past May, however, Bethesda did away with the subscription fees on the PC version and renamed the title The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited. And since June, Tamriel Unlimited has been available for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. You can, however, upgrade to a premium membership called "ESO Plus", which gets you exclusive in-game content, access to all current and future DLC, and a monthly allotment of Crowns, the in-game currency. Still, even without ESO Plus, TESO: Tamriel Unlimited offers hundreds of hours of entertaining gameplay.

Let's Make a Character...

Like in the other Elder Scrolls games, the first thing to do is create your character. This can take a little while, due to the huge range of available options – not just cosmetic ones like eye color, hairstyle, or body type, but also your sex, your voice, and your first few character attributes. You decide right at the beginning whether you're going to focus on magic or on physical combat, what class your hero will belong to, and what faction you want to join. Your choice of faction will determine what races will be available to choose from: the Ebonheart Pact is composed of Dark Elves (Dunmer), Argonians, and Nords, whereas the Daggerfall Covenant includes Bretons, Orcs (Orsimer), and Redguards, and the First Aldmeri Dominion is made up of High Elves (Altmer), Wood Elves (Bosmer), and Khajit. Of course, if you want to try out different races-class combinations, you're always free to create several characters on your account.

One of the most important differences between The Elder Scrolls Online compared to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim or TES IV: Oblivion is, unsurprisingly, the MMO element. Instead of exploring a vast world all alone, you can join together with countless other players from around to world to complete quests, raid dungeons, or go on treasure hunts. The emphasis here is on the "can", however, since it's not really something you have to do, either – there's enough content for you loners out there to spend several hours completing quests and exploring the world unencumbered by teammates. But you'd better get used to the hundreds of other heroes that populate the world of Tamriel and who might be trying to comeplete the same mission as you.

A Blessing and a Curse

The advantage of the whole MMO thing is that any time you find yourself in a real bind, there will always be lots of other players that are willing to help you complete more demanding tasks and defeat tougher enemies more quickly and easily than you would be able to otherwise. This isn't always a good thing, though, something that's especially apparent when you're down in a cave looking for a certain item and find that the bad guys aren't really putting up much a resistance because one or more other players have just come through and killed them all, and they haven't respawned yet. When this happens, some quests are little more than a stroll through a dark place.

You also run across quests where other players have killed a quest target right before you get there, and you have to wait for them to respawn. And even more annoying is when you've cracked open a chest, and then while you're trying to make some room in your inventory, another player snatches the goods from right in front of you.

If you're the kind of player who enjoys regular team play with other players, you can always join a guild, though at this time there aren't all that many of them in the Xbox One version. The cool thing is that you can belong to five different guilds at once; however, you can only be the leader of one guild at any given time.

Don't Get Lost, Now...

As you might be expecting for an Elder Scrolls game, the world in The Elder Scrolls Online is huge and highly diversified. You can visit the frozen peaks of Skyrim, the murky depths of Black Marsh, and the deserts of Elsweyr, among several other locations around Tamriel. There are quest-givers all over the place, ready to set you off on a wide variety of errands. One time you might be rescuing an NPC from harm, other times you might have to collect certain items, follow someone, or cleanse a dungeon of monsters. One cool thing for team players is that there are special dungeons that can only be completed if you're in a group. If you want, you can also join one of the traditional NPC guilds, though as of this time only the Mages' Guild and the Fighters' Guild are available. Don't worry – they plan on adding the Thieves' Guild and the Dark Brotherhood at some point in the near future.

Still not enough for you to do? Then you can go out looking for "Skyshards" hidden throughout the map for extra skill points, vanquish powerful creatures, take in the lovely scenery, and leaf through books and other reading materials. There are tons of different ways for an adventurer to pass the time in Tamriel. Wayshrines provide easy access to TESO's fast travel system. Just visit them once and they'll stay active. If you don't trust this arcane mode of travel, however, you can always buy yourself a mount at the stables. It's easier to earn money by completing quests rather than trying to sell items, as merchants are pretty stingy and auction houses are only available within guilds that have 50 members or more. That's a bummer, since you often end up having to sell items for way below their actual value, and creating your own items is really only worth it if you plan on using them yourself. Your character can learn different crafting skills like Woodworking, Alchemy, or Blacksmithing, and by combining the right ingredients (such as Jute, Iron, and Wood) produce a wide range of items. You can also unlock various dyes and design your own clothes.

Characters are upgraded in the TESO using skill points, which you get by leveling up or by collecting Skyshards. Trying to level up simply by slaying monsters is only of limited value in this RPG. You can distribute skill points in a variety of different skill trees, and it's up to each player how they want to specialize their character, even to the point of deliberately training in certain skills. Skills are divided into Passive, Active, and Ultimate types, and you get to decide whether you want to improve your weapons, armor, crafting, or class-specific skills. Attribute points allow you to increase your character's

Health, Magicka, or Stamina.

PvP

If you prefer to play against other players, starting at level 10 you can travel to Cyrodiil at the middle of the map and mix it up in PvP battles. Your character will be buffed up to level 50 so they can compete with other high-level players, but your armor, weapons, and skills remain the same, so you pretty much don't have a chance against "real" level-50 players, who will simply be much better equipped than you. The good part, though, is that if you die in Cyrodiil, your gear doesn't suffer any damage, though the same cannot be said for when you die elsewhere in Tamriel.

At the beginning of a PvP match, you choose which one of the available campaigns you'd like to complete, then you start off in a stronghold that's been captured by your faction. Then you have to try to take control of the towers and supply sites (mills, mines, etc.) held by the enemy factions or complete PvP quests – these include scouting missions, bounty missions, conquest missions, etc. There's enough content for seasoned PvP players to sate their bloodthirsty appetites. If you try to go it alone out here, you're going to get killed pretty quick, as your opponents are among the best of the best.

When you complete quests and capture enemy positions, you receive Alliance Points, which function as the currency in the PvP zone of Cyrodiil. You can use them to purchase better weapons, siege engines, and other useful items.

Good Folks Go to Heaven...

Another interesting thing is that the citizens of Tamriel have their own possessions, even treasures. If you should go down the dark path of a thief, you can even relieve them of their belongings. But be careful – if you get caught, you're going to have to face the consequences. Merchants might refuse to sell to a thief, or raise their prices ridiculously high.

Apart from the main storyline, there are tons of other adventures that provide hours of entertainment. Even when you reach level 50, the game doesn't get stale, as there are veteran versions of dungeons for you to complete, which are much harder than their normal countrparts. There's also the Dragonstar Arena and the "Adventure Zone" of Craglorn. Playing through these, you can earn Champion Points, which you can use for all kinds of skills to make your character even more powerful.

The Xbox One controller adaptation works pretty well. You can set special attacks and certain items to particular buttons, too. This makes it easier to equip them in combat, but combat is not all that easy, either. There are just too many button combinations you have to master, which makes it harder for beginners to get a feel for things. But after you complete a few quests, and get a little experience with the combat system, you should be able to get the hang of it. From then on out, it's just a matter of mappig new skills to buttons and leanring how to use them with the others.

Beautiful ... From a Distance

The graphics in TESO: Tamriel Unlimited are pretty solid, and they manange to capture the atmosphere the series is known for. Players who place a high value on detail might find the graphics a bit disappointing, however, and you can really tell that they didn't use the Xbox One's next-gen capabilities to their full potential. Whenever you get closer to rocks or to buildings, the muddy textures that form the building blocks of the game world become obvious. On the other hand, the scenery looks amazing from a distance, and sometimes it's nice to just enjoy the view from certain vantage points. But from a distance, mind you. The other characters that populate Tamriel look really great and are animated realistically. The day/night cycle is also pretty nice, as is the dynamic weather.

In terms of sound, they did a great job with both the voiceovers and the sound effects, though I do have to mention that the voice chat can get pretty annoying at times. While I was playing the game to review it, I kept getting distracted by completely inappropriate commentary from other players butting in. Burping might have been one of the nicest things I heard in the TESO voice chat.