The Elder Scrolls Online Beta - Summary and Suggestions

G'day there guys and gals!

With a highly sought after beta comes many willing gamers wanting to take the plunge, to be one of the few to roam the bare bones of a video game before it's released to the world. With special thanks to my friends Jacinta and Linc, they were kind enough to pass on a spare code and allow me to explore the world of The Elder Scrolls Online.

One of the most common used annotations for this title is "If Skyrim had a Multiplayer mode, this would be it." and to some degree, they are correct. While the world looks, feels and plays like an Elder Scrolls game, it has little aspects of a traditional MMO. Characters and enemies are bland and almost plain boring with the voice acting being their only saving quality to care about them at all. Combat, while absolutely enthralling, is the standard Bethesda enemy: If you're in sight, they'll attack, slash and bite. This also brings into mention the unfortunate item collecting. While doing side missions or main quests you will find a small variety of tasks to do; enemies to attack, sneak past/find and so on. However due to the amount of other players these characters, allies or no, can already be found dead, in combat with a dozen other players or already spoiling some sort of surprise mid-game. The reason I'm mentioning this is due to item collecting flaw; any quest item that needs retrieving will automatically be there, even if another character interacts with them first. However this does not apply to in-world items. If near-by chests, loot, barrels or other miscellaneous object, they will appear empty.  This can be a massive set back not only in improving yourself but in exploration of the world.

Don't get me wrong, exploring the world is one of the most fascinating things about the game; as always Bethesda has produced a game that not only looks utterly beautiful but it wide opened with many different veritable locations such as farmland, mountain ranges, snow and whole other areas to enjoy. 

The developers have definitely listened to the community about customisation and leveling, with by far one of the best customisation systems I've seen in an Elder Scrolls title. While still having presets, gamers can now modify their facial features even more, as in the Saints Row character creation system, by reshaping the different bone/face structure while still looking like a character from the lore.

Overall while short, the Online Beta was definitely a massive success. While I'm still highly unwilling to pay monthly rates for this title, hopefully Bethesda continues to listen to the fans and makes modifications and revisions. Until the release, it's just a waiting game.

Suggestions:

+Lower monthly fee (None at all will attract a larger crowd)

+Allow items to respawn for other characters

+Beef up interactive missions (Other players will take your portal/follower, let them be player based!)

+Make currency more available. 1 coin for one enemy, you can reach Level 10 before having enough before being able to buy new weaponry/items

+Loading screens can cause random deaths