Last night I haven’t really played much of the DLC, but I have learned a lot about it. Some good, and some bad. Let’s go over the list.
But before I do, I’ve learned the plot of the game. It’s pretty much what it said: meet the God, Lord Vivec and assist him with an affliction.
The Good;
-Morrowind as a whole..freakin’ breathtaking vistas. And the player homes aren’t that shabby either.
-The music in this DLC is the music in the original game, and it sounds so good (reminds me of the songs of the OST in Pandora).
-The two Delves I’ve been in so far are quite unique. They have their own theme (instead of (so far) not looking like reused assets) and aren’t like anything I’ve seen in this game.
-It actually has these legendary ‘silt striders’, called ‘Caravaners’ (that I’ve only heard from the lore of the game)! How I ‘found’ them was hearing a low growl behind me outside of Vivec City. Looked over and…HOLY FUCK! And they actually work just how I read, showing up at hubs!
-There are new enemies in this game, which I assume are native to the region.
-The main questline has been completely changed. There’s no more Prophet, no more Molag Bal, and no more Harborage. It (in a sense) feels like a continuation of the storyline. The only thing that ruins it, is my character not knowing what Daedra are.
-So far, the questing is pretty good.
The Bad;
-It seems they absolutely enjoy putting invisible walls almost everywhere (during some quests where it won’t allow you to hop off of a building).
-Of what I feel was ‘single player dailies’ (from what I understand right off the tin) seems to be The Undaunted in disguise (especially one telling me to do a….Group Boss).
-You can get started with both the Mages and Fighters Guilds right there in Vivec City (and getting the same Intimidate and Persuade passive perks for dealing with dialog). However I noticed a bug of both NPCs, where the voiceover stops after I tell them “I’m ready to join (X Guild)”. At least, I hope it’s a bug and not ‘working as intended’.
-The ‘Warden’ class, isn’t what I expected. It’s truly a Melee class instead of a Ranged class like the Sorcerer. I feel I’m going to require help until I get to the point I can unlock the bear pet to assist me, and test its abilities out (or at least help me practice an early game Ranged rotation that will work for me(for both Single and Multi-Target scenarios)).
-The ridiculous number of “I need you to sneak in” sections of a lot of questlines (and winding up with a bounty every. fucking. time (no matter how hard I attempt to be good at it). One time I ended up snapping and went on a murderous “fuck this: EVERYONE DIES!!!!” rampage, only to get my ass handed to me by a guard. At least it cleared my 451g bounty.
-An overuse of ‘parental’ invisible walls to prevent the player from hopping off of a building. They only hurt the immersion more than help the player ‘not hurt themself’ like an overprotective mother.
The Neutral;
-I’m confused on how the quest flow goes, but I think it’s similar to how Wrothgar does it (aka, go to where it tells you but you can do optional quest hubs on the way there).
-A few map addons (like ‘Quest Map’) don’t work in the DLC, however ones like ‘SkyShards’ do.
-Vivec City isn’t that massive, but the fact buildings are double-deckered ontop of eachother, it takes awhile to navigate.
.
With that wrapped up, I got my response (as expected) of if I’m able to renew my subscription before it expires. And just like the first time I had to contact them (because of the ‘granny2.dll missing’ issue), the person completely and utterly confused my question with something else, thinking I “wanted my Crowns earlier”.
I explained my question yet again, and instead of seeing “I’m sorry for misunderstanding your question”, I was told no it’s not possible, stating “the system won’t allow you”.
Ok. I’m convinced Zenimax is being ran by HAL9000 now. “I’m sorry, Benie..but I’m afraid I can’t let you do that.” So I asked for a more ‘transparent answer’ (and also wondering where in the hell has my $15/mo for the past year, been going to??). I feel it’s being pocketed, instead of making systems better for all of us.
And their response to that, was just precious. Not only did they ‘solve’ my issue (by closing it and refusing to respond anymore), they claim their customer support team “is not included into the decision making of how and why the billing system is designed the way it is.” Oh. Wow. So, I have no way to contact their billing support? Was..this not their billing support?
On top of that, the person tells me to either “make a feedback ticket” or “post in the forums”. No, and DEFINITELY no. Even going as far as suggesting to pay for a subscription that lasts longer.. SURE! That’s what you guys want!
I doubt at this time I’m ever going to get my answers, just like any another AAA company… it’s impossible to get a non-bullshit answer. Zenimax has too big of a fucking ego that they feel I don’t deserve to be given a straight answer (even though I was once a paying customer, it means nothing to them).
So what am I going to do about this? Am I going to just allow my existing ESO+ subscription to expire and not re-establish, or am I going to just accept their ‘answer’ and do it when it expires? I haven’t decided. The way I acted above, you would assume I would be once again be claiming I would delete my chars and never play the game again…but again, it would only hurt myself and not the company. They don’t care if I continue it or not.
I also learned the subscription ends on the 6th, not the 4th. Which gives me time to level up. I could just say “I just don’t care anymore… take my fucking money and choke on it!!” like I did with Morrowind. But look what happened when I did. I get these amazing vistas that look like it took a really, really long time to develop. Yet I can’t say I’m “happy with my purchase”…not yet anyway. But at least I finally understand the point that it wasn’t included with ESO+, which is..good. It’s not like the other DLCs. It’s not just a landmass full of quests (like Wrothgar), but completely overhauling the new player experience. I really do appreciate that; it’s not what I expected it to be.
I don’t often compare ‘price’ to ‘quality’ when it comes to video games, as I tend to steer away from the bad ones that were slapped together in five minutes through Unity and trying to profit upon it.
Meh. I hate to say it, but Zenimax, even though they do questionable things…they still produce a high quality product. Morrowind alone, kind of feels like a lot of money was put into it. It’s not their fault I never got informed of Morrowind not being included with ESO+, and they make up for it with a very pleasing atmosphere (even though I never played the original game that people claim is ‘the best’ in the entire Elder Scrolls series). Personally I found Skyrim awesome (because dragons of course), and it felt like the best $60 investment I made in a long time.
So..there you go. Depending if anything changes in the near future, I will (on the 6th) re-establish my ESO+ subscription. Zenimax’s servers don’t suck that bad to warrant an investigation on where player financing is going (at least, by the majority of players).
If something happens that causes 80% of the loyal fanbase to leave (I’m talking PvP/BG/Trade Barons..the people that put a lot of hours (and money) into the game) because they can’t stand the bullshit (of whatever), then I’ll finally have something against Zenimax.
But until then, as before, I hope they choke on it. 😛