Chris InglisThe Elder Scrolls Online: High Isle is this year’s major chapter update to the eight-year running MMORPG. There is plenty of great new content to sink players’ teeth into whether you are a brand new player or a veteran returning. The Tales of Tribute card game adds a new activity to do back in towns to take a break between quests and so far there has been a great community vibe from it, with quality chats and banter in zone chat which is great to see.
Two new companions were also added with Ember, a Khajiit sorcerer and Isobel Velois, a Breton knight voiced by Laura Bailey. These companions give you more options to diversify your character build when soloing or grouping content. I previewed the new content in April which you can read here, and having now completed the main storyline, I can confidently say that The Elder Scrolls Online: High Isle is superbly written and extremely engaging, even for an 8-year vet of the game.
The developers at Zenimax Online Studios have certainly hit their stride, especially considering they have been working from home for going on two years. The Ascending Tide dungeons DLC and now this High Isle Chapter certainly feels complete with no corners cut. The epic landscapes with sunflowers sprawled across open fields, sun shining during the day and the soft moonlight with the glow of fires at druid stones and huts in the distance at night time. Then shifting to the dense forest areas of Amenos, with rain and thunder storms lighting up the dark pathways.
It was certainly a pleasure to explore every corner of High Isle and Amenos in my adventures. I was fortunate to have a guided tour by two Zenimax developers last month which you can read here. It was interesting to hear that as we were traversing an area of coastline, one of the developers made comment that he noticed improvements and changes made from the week prior. It goes to show their level of detail and commitment to ensuring the best experience for players come release.
Rather than there being a big baddie to take down like the Daedric Prince of Destruction, Mehrunes Dagon from last year’s Blackwood chapter, High Isle concentrated on a tale of political intrigue. We get to help uncover the plot of the mysterious knightly order, The Ascendant Order, as a storm has sent ships from the Three Alliances off course. As I progressed the story, I found myself enthralled by the dialogue and writing, urging me to keep playing. The new world events, Volcanic Vents, ties into outcomes of the story too which is interesting.
In between quests, and to salvage/sell the loot I had collected, it was good to often take a break and queue up a game of Tales of Tribute. I was thankful for this queueing ability rather than having to run back to town, find a tavern and find someone to play against. Daily quests are available that can send you off to old zones to play a game there, or against other players.
I have been playing Tales of Tribute for a couple of hours now and I still haven’t got my head around all of the card mechanics. The tutorial and early games are a good introduction, and as time goes on players are going to unlock new patrons and decks. At the start of a game, you choose two patron decks and your opponent chooses two, then all decks are shuffled together in the tavern pile. You and your opponent are assigned ten cards each at random. Unlocking more decks via gameplay doesn’t necessarily give power players an advantage, as all decks are put together.
In order to win a game, one player must reach 40 prestige points or by gaining the favour of each of the four patrons, which is really down to luck of the draw and meeting their requirements. Each win in Tales of Tribute give you tribute rank experience which lets you play against tougher npcs, as well as a bag with random loot inside which includes some gold, crafting materials, recipes and other items. Now that I have finished the main story quests, I will be putting more time into Tales of Tribute.
The two new companions added in The Elder Scrolls Online: High Isle, Ember and Isobel, are well worth recruiting. Companions level up by gaining experience points from killing enemies, and you can purchase basic companion gear from a npc merchants. Better companion gear is dropped from monsters killed, particularly from bosses. The current drop rate seems to be very low though, and I still haven’t fully outfitted the two companions from last year’s Blackwood chapter, nor have I maxed their experience levels. I found Ember’s sorcerer skills to be the best pairing with my warden, though Isobel taking agro with taunts and her templar skills often helped us get out of a pickle. Mirri and Bastion still have work to do so I will likely switch back to playing with Mirri for a while yet.
In terms of rapport gains, which will unlock personal story quests for the companions, Ember benefits from completing Mage/Thieves guild dailies, general thieving activities, harvesting rune stones and killing wolves and werewolves. Isobel’s rapport is raised by completing Bolgrul delve and a High Isle world boss dailies, killing delve bosses, completing volcanic vents, talking to alliance leaders, blacksmithing and crafting sweet food. Based on this, it’s certainly worth having Isobel with you during the main High Isle quest lines for easy inadvertent rapport gains as you quest, but it all depends on your playstyle and guild preferences.
As I was playing through the new content, I thought back to my time in ESO over the past eight years and I rate the High Isle experience as being one of the more engaging story-wise, and not just the main storyline either. I loved doing quests for the druid circles spread around High Isle, with a particular quest’s singing that was beautiful and calming. If I was to compare High Isle to any previous chapter release, I feel that 2017’s Morrowind and 2018’s Summerset releases are on equal playing ground in terms of fun, engagement and sense of adventure. You would think returning to iconic Elder Scrolls locations such as Skyrim (Greymoor) and Oblivion (Blackwood) would be more of a draw card.
Funnily enough, what do Morrowind, Summerset and High Isle all have in common that the others don’t? They are their own island land masses not mixed in with existing zones. I feel it’s a more contained area to play in without distractions of lands beyond the border zone of connected massed like Blackwood, Elsweyr and the others. Is there enough here to bring back veterans of the game and keep them invested? Most definiteiy, given there’s 20+ hours of story content, new companions to recruit, new dungeons to explore and new treasures and items to loot. Plus Tales of Tribute has already proven to be a hub of activity in Gonfalon Bay.
I wonder though if the ESO formula needs a shake-up next year, especially as we’re nearing the game’s 10th anniversary in 2024. We are about due for a new playable class. We had the Warden added in 2017’s Morrowind and the Necromancer in 2019’s Elsweyr. However, I think a new class may not necessarily be enough to make ESO stand out and forge new paths in the MMORPG genre. We have had new guild skill lines added like the Thieves Guild and Psijic Order, new gameplay elements such as Antiquities and now Tales of Tribute.
There has also been a rework of the champion points system, but what else could ESO do to give it a bit of a refresh and stay ahead of the pack? Maybe a level cap increase? Power players will likely reach the new cap within hours. Perhaps new skill lines for each of the six current classes? A new skill line to explore for each class means that every player would have a reason to come back and play their characters in a different way.
Don’t get me wrong, I still love playing Elder Scrolls Online. I love returning to the game each quarter for new content, and getting a whole new chapter in June each year. I love the new reveals in January and the media events that follow. However I do also wonder what change could be in the works that takes the game into the next 10 years. No doubt the smarter people at Zenimax has things well in hand, and the prospect of the game’s 10th anniversary fast approaching is exciting. I am loving my time in Elder Scrolls Online: High Isle and will continue playing Tales of Tribute and levelling up/gearing my companions. I am looking forward to the next dungeon DLC as well as the last story DLC to wrap up the year-long Legacy of the Bretons storyline.
This review utilised a key provided by Bethesda ANZ. The Elder Scrolls Online: High Isle is available now on PC/Mac and will launch for consoles next week on June 21, 2022.
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