Over the years since The Elder Scrolls Online, went, well online, I have dived in a few times, usually with the release of an expansion, but none of them have held my attention for too long. Not because they are bad or anything, but purely because I have other games that I need to play for reviews and while nice locations, there has never been any need for me to invest in them, but when Bethesda announced that the next expansion would be taking people back to the frozen lands of Skyrim, I knew I would be in it the moment I could.

I have been playing around in this space now for the past few weeks and having a blast, there is an all new story, new characters, but perhaps the part that I like the most, I am getting to spend time, exploring a world that I know. Since The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim was released back on 11/11/2011, I have spent hundreds, upon hundreds of hours in the game, from the original Xbox 360 release, then on PC, then Xbox One, Switch and most recently PlayStation VR and the reason why is simple, the world has a charm that I can’t stay away from. The only real caveat I have to mention before going any further is that the expansion only provides you with the western half of Skyrim, which is still a massive piece of land to explore and oh boy, did I explore.

The story, which I will touch on below, starts off near Solitude, at least once you are out on the map and without having to even think about where I was, I headed on the path right to Solitude. The coolest part was, being my first time entering the gates, I did not see someone getting their head chopped off, instead, someone had been stabbed and I was the only one that could help them. That leads into the story, but it was also a bit of a change from the other welcomes to Solitude and honestly, that alone helps provide a sense that this is the same but different. Wandering though the walled city, buildings where in the same spots, but there were a few differences that stood out, making it feel different, heading out of town and wandering down the road, there was a host of things that look the same, but again, just slightly off.

Of course, wandering around the world also proved to be a hazard, due to the range of enemies that were everywhere, sure there was bears and Spriggans to deal with, but the new expansion also adds in vampires, well not adds them in, as they already existed, but instead adds in a lot of them. Vampires are the big bad this time around and unlike past experiences, you will now encounter them in the wilds of Skyrim. They are more of a threat than ever before, as they are working with other groups, in order to achieve their desires, what those are is something to discover. The opening missions have you running around the lands surrounding Solitude, but soon after, you can start heading down south and into more of Skyrim, including familiar places, just without snow everywhere. I don’t want to say to much about the story here, as I for one haven’t experienced a lot of it yet myself, but so far it seems like it will be a fun one to discover.

Exploring the world can prove to be quite the arduous task, thanks to the new Harrowstorms, these storms are the newest world events and when they appear, all the people and creatures contained within its radius will either be turned to a mindless husk, or if you are unlucky, a ravenous being. These events can be contained, if you and a group of plucky adventures get in and close it, you can avoid the trouble they bring, but even if you don’t there is fun to be had in taking down the things it creates. Vampires though, those bloodsuckers can be a challenge, not Fennorian though, he is cool, but the others that you meet, they are a challenge, they are fast, strong, oh and they love to drain your health from you.

There was loads more that I got to sample, but that will have to wait for the review, for now though, things are looking up for me and time in Elder Scrolls Online and I am ok with that.