REVIEW

The Elder Scrolls Online: Summerset Review

by Luke Walsh, May 29th, 2018

Summerset is a little more of the same in The Elder Scrolls Online but Zenimax Online Studio has improved and stuck with what has worked to deliver a decent expansion to the wider world of Tamriel and helped it be one of the best MMORPGs on the market. It’s much brighter and more full of life than the original starting areas set in the beautiful isles of the High Elves.

The latest expansion adds a massive new map to explore, with an entire storyline full of characters, quests, dungeons and more enemies. It will take you about another 40 odd hours to complete and if you are already invested in the MMO you will enjoy it all. If you are new to TESO then Summerset won’t feel too odd to start and jump into as the developers have designed it to be welcoming to newcomers both casual and hardcore.

Unlike when I first played TESO the storyline is much more engaging with a lot of interesting plot twists that don’t stick to the usual cliches. You’ll see some familiar faces and some newer ones as you travel across a sun-kissed landscape. Going from each quest both the main and side were enjoyable.

The main storyline tended to be a lot more serious but the side missions had a range of value from being humorous while others set firmly back in dungeon crawling and big boss slaying to progress. There are still the usual kill or fetch quests but wrapped around an intriguing story does help to make them much more enjoyable than your traditional grind quest.

As mentioned before, if you want to jump straight into Summerset you can do by creating a brand new character. This gives you access straight away to the expansion much like Morrowind did when it was first released. If you do have your own character from previously playing and levelling up then you can choose either.

It’s a smart combination of graphics and storyline as the story opens up from the one secluded Summerset isles to allow more immigration but it’s not all sunshine and cocktails. There is a darker underlying tone throughout the game of what the High Elves really want by bringing in a load of newcomers. Of course with this new element of races comes a sense of racism and classism as the High Elves are regarded as the “top class”.

I really enjoyed just exploring Summerset and soaking in all the culture and narrative that has been put into the game. It felt much more alive than the previous parts of the game and with a lot of side quests to undertake you can get a real feel for the Summerset Isles.

As a part of the quest structure you are given choices in Elder Scrolls fashion but like the other expansion, there was rarely any real consequence to the actions you take. If you did play Morrowind there are some hints to previous quests, characters you met and choices you made but if you choose to start a new, you won’t miss much.

One of the best parts of the TESO is the fact it balances well between solo play and co-op. You can easily go through the whole expansion and treat the game as a single-player or you can go full MMO and jump in a part with your friends. It allows most players who want the “original” experience to still have it, minus the group of other players talking to your NPC or dancing around them.

There’s been an addition of skills of crafting lines to add more variety but that is mostly what Summerset is able to achieve. Rather than bring in anything massively different it sticks to the expansion and really expands what is already there. One difference to Morrowind though is no new classes have been added which is a bit of shame.

Although it does not reinvent the wheel, it is not a bad thing, Elder Scrolls Online over the past couple of years have found what works for it and knows that. It is easy to jump in and out of the game and has been built to allow new players to easily enjoy the newer parts of the game without the grind through older content unless they want to.

Summerset might not be as big a step forward in expansion as Morrowind but knows the strengths of the game and does not disappoint for both existing players and new to the entire game. You’ll probably never get the full “Skyrim” experience most players are hoping for but as it is not a single player there are positives to it being in the MMORPG genre. It’s a great way of spending a couple of free hours, here and there.