Hands on with The Elder Scrolls Online Blackwood

Earlier in April, Bethesda and Zenimax Online Studios were kind enough to invite me to an online event that delved into the upcoming Blackwood expansion for The Elder Scrolls Online, what I learnt in that will be released soon, but as part of it, they also provided some very early access to the game and that was fun.

Before I go any further, I feel the need to point out now that this was an early build, so there were issues all around the place, textures either slow to load or not loading in at all, geometry of the world being a bit weird and so on, but even with that, I couldn’t wait to get playing. Now as much as I would have loved to explore every nook and cranny of the world, being that this was an early build I wasn't sure how much of it was available to me, so I stuck pretty close around Leyawiin and the surrounding regions. This is probably the most surreal part of playing the Blackwood expansion, from the moment I walked into Leyawiin, I knew where everything was, it was utter muscle memory and it all just came rushing back.

Now anyone who's seen any of the trailers or blog posts, or really anything relating to the Blackwood expansion will know that Mehrunes Dagon is a critical part of it. The story however starts off, a little more grounded and a little more familiar, members of an important council are being killed off and the only clue is left beside their bodies, a piece of parchment with the calling card of the Dark Brotherhood upon them. Now obviously I'm not going to go into details on the story because it is important that everyone experience it on their own, but I was enjoying the murder mystery aspect of it all, and even though I could predict some things, there were enough surprises to keep me guessing. How the final story plays out is going to be interesting, given that in past expansions the mystery has been used as a starting point, whereas here, it feels interwoven to core of the expansion. Of course one of the bigger aspects of the expansion, is the fact that the Gates to Oblivion are open again, letting you once again explore Daedric realm, but I never got up to that point for two reasons, one I was just enjoying running around the world and two I didn't want to.

Let me be clear, I say I didn't want to not because I don't like exploring the realm of Oblivion, in fact it was one of the things I loved most about The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion, but I didn't want to explore it here because it wasn't my character. Because this was a preview build, my normal character was not an option here so I had to choose a new character with pre-set levels and options and that's who I was playing as and because it wasn't me and the choices that I had made I opted to ignore that in favour of enjoying it on my own when Blackwood is released. What was interesting was the expanded land around Leyawiin, such as the town of Gideon, as previous trips around Cyrodiil, were limited down that way, but now Blackwood opens it all up, giving players more of an indication of what lies beyond the borders of Cyrodiil.

One of the new features that Blackwood is bringing to the game, is companions, which anyone who has played Skyrim, will know very well either out of delight or frustration. Here companions work similar, but there are a few changes that make them behave a little bit different than you might expect. They don't have levels like you do, instead you can power them up by giving them new gear and then choosing the skills that they have access to; if you want someone to be more of an attacking type you need to assign them skills that will facilitate that action, however if you give them healing skills they will do that more than anything else. You don't have direct control over your companions actions, so you can't tell them to go there, you can't tell them to heal you or to carry something, they are their own person. Because of my limited time in the preview build, I didn’t get a chance to experience this for myself, but having spoken with Rich Lambert, the Creative Director at Zenimax Online Studios, I am very keen to see how they play out, once I do get one of my own.

I really wish I had more time for the exploration in the Blackwood expansion, being able to enter Leyawiin and immediately know the layout of the town and the Castle, or better how to get to the Castle, was pure delight. There were enough changes that I didn't feel like they had just picked everything up from Oblivion and placed it into Elder Scrolls Online, I can put this down to everything feeling larger in ESO, but at the same time it was familiar enough that it felt like coming home. The surrounding countryside has a few things that line up with my previous experience with the region, but there is so many more location to discover and explore, that I wish I would have had more time to find them all. Having a chance to explore the Oblivion realm and find out more of the story, would have been amazing, but previews are limited time experiences, but having said that, what I have experienced has me wanting more and if you play The Elder Scrolls Online you should be very happy with what's to come.