Hands on with The Elder Scrolls Online: High Isle - Preview

Another year and another Elder Scrolls Online expansion is coming our way, but unlike other expansions which just add new lands, missions and characters, this one is adding something completely different, a card game. Thanks to Bethesda, we got to spend a good chunk of time exploring the new region, as well as learning more about it from Rich Lambert, the creative director for The Elder Scrolls Online. 

The Elder Scrolls Online is now 8 years old and while the game launched with some issues, when they pivoted to the One Tamriel update, removing the level cap for regions, it became a more familiar Elder Scrolls game, as opposed to the MMO model they were on. High Isle is the sixth major content release for the game, following on expansions like Morrowind, Elsweyr and Blackwood, though the categorisation as an expansion, is a bit misleading. If you have been playing on your own since day one and levelled up everything and your friend joins you, they can still run around with you, exploring the world side-by-side, with levels meaning nothing to the adventures you can share. High Isle is set to welcome even more players, with the new land of the Systres Archipelago, the home of the Bretons and will be packed with a new story, missions and for those players who want to deal out something a little different, a card game.

In my time with the game, I deliberately avoided trying to get through any major story plot points, simply because they wouldn’t carry across and I would have to do them again, but beyond that, it gave me a reason to explore the world myself. There are two major islands in the expansion, High Isle and Amenos, the first is where you begin, but you will travel back and forth between them and sadly there is no open water portion, just fast travel. High Isle is where the armies of Tamriel gathered when they went to war against the Slode and if none of this sounds familiar to you, then you are not alone, as the region and its history have rarely been touched upon in any Elder Scrolls medium. The second island is even more unknown, as it was mainly used as a prison island, with Amenos being a lush jungle island, with the main prison located caldera located on the island.

So that is the where, but what about they why, as in why are we going to explore this new land mass? That is simple, currently there are three factions that are ruling various parts of the land, Aldemeri Dominion, Daggerfall Covenant and Ebonheart Pact, but they come together on High Isle to begin secret peace talks. But as things are expected, there is a group of people who don’t want that to happen and they do all they can to disrupt the talks and keep the separation going, and they are the Ascendant Order. I won’t say any more than that, because a good story about politics, backstabbing and war, should be experienced for yourself, I will say though, the early missions don’t waste anytime with introducing the new threat to you.

When I first arrived on High Isle, I was tasked with meeting with a local leader, because as an unknown, people wouldn’t have preconceived notions about my allegiance, which is pretty standard. After getting the explanation about some missing ships, I was off and there were some people to talk to, but missing ships means a visit to the lighthouse. Getting to the location was challenging, because the Ascendant Order were surrounding it and not for the purpose of protecting it from invades, because they were the invaders. A chat with the lighthouse keeper, lead to another exploration further down the coast, in order to recover a statue that when blessed and placed at the top of the lighthouse, guides ships in. The Ascendant Order was willing to see all ships sunk, in order to keep their goals moving in their own direction, something that was pretty dastardly. Having restored the lighthouse, I started to explore the world more, because of the reason I said before and that is where I discovered a tavern, complete with, well maybe not the best card game in the world, but a pretty good tribute.

Ok, that was a bad joke on my part, the card game is called Tales of Tribute and is something different for the series, as it is the first time that you can level up, without taking on quests. The game is being introduced in High Isle, but the game will be in taverns all around the world, meaning locations you have been to before, but you need to complete the tutorial before it unlocks Elsweyr.. I mean elsewhere. The game is not just for battling against other players, it in fact will let you play on your own, undertaking an all-new storyline for the game, so you can enjoy the game as a PvE or PvP scenario. All that is well and good, but what is Tales of Tribute, as explained by Rich the game is a competitive, turn-based, two-sided resource deck building game. The game can only be experienced inside of Elder Scrolls Online, which means if you want to sink time into building the perfect deck, then you will have to do it in the game.

For anyone that knows me, they know that I am not a fan of digital card games, in any form, in fact I would rather get a deck of cards out and play with them, than any digital game. It didn’t matter if it was Elder Scrolls Legends, Hearthstone or any other number of the card-related games that have been released over the past few years, I see a card-based experience and I turn off. For Tales of Tribute, I did put time into the game, simply to see what this new experience within the world of Elder Scrolls Online was all about. The game board is broken down into four areas, there are one for each player, where your cards live, along with a middle portion, where the cards you are playing go down and on the right of the screen, is where you can end your turn and see who the patrons are. That is perhaps the biggest the change from other card games that are around, the patron cards are a group of cards that are thematically linked, what that means is there are cards that are based around a certain character or lore icon from Tamriel and with 8 unique patron decks to obtain, each deck consisting of 20 or so cards, there is a lot to collect. Beyond them just looking different though, each card also has their own unique mechanics, which comes into play for when you make use of them in game.

The basics are there, so each card has a playing cost, there are effects from the cards and things like power, but each card can have extra effects, such as giving you extra gold, letting you draw more cards and such. Some cards can even impact the play, by letting you look at additional cards, or give you extra power for attacks and such, it all sounds very interesting and given my limited time within it, something that is likely going to take a lot of time for players to master. There are cards that can be played, as part of a combo play, which can increase the perks granted to yourself, so holding onto select cards may help you out, if you can play them at the right time, however holding onto cards for the future may impact your ability to play the game now, so it is a risk/reward scenario.

Playing the game is pretty simple, at the start of each turn you draw cards and earn the gold associated with them, you then use that gold to play the cards you want, so if you end up with 4 gold from your draw, you could play two cards that have a value each of 2 or four cards that have a value of 1. You can also choose to interact with the patrons on the side of the screen, which in turn will allow you to resurrect old cards, if you have the patron that grants that, or make use of the other skills they offer. You play your cards, as you see fit, making the choices you want in order to gain prestige and when you are done, you end your turn and then wait for the opposing player to do the same. Winning is pretty simple, you just need to earn 40 prestige, so by playing cards via combos or destroying other cards, you can earn the points, but if you are more of a trickier player, you can also opt to bargain with the patrons on the side of the board and if all four patrons favour you, you can win, regardless of how many prestige points you have.

Playing all of this could be fun on its own, but there are rewards for taking part in the games, the first and most useful is gold, but there are also recipes, consumables, unique emotes, furnishings for your play and more. Some of these are going to be good for all, some will be great rewards for those who opt to create things and if you decide you want to enjoy the game via the PvP offering, there are also leaderboards that you can climb and if you are at the top of them when the current season ends, you can earn even more amazing rewards.

While the expansion will offer some 30 hours of new quests to undertake, trials and of course, Tales of Tribute, my time with the game was a lot shorter and the end result was that I wanted to keep playing. The location of High Isle was great to explore, it is much brighter and inviting than recent expansion, plus there were so many fun little nooks to explore, enemies to fight and story to discover, plus the addition of new music and characters to enjoy, make this new expansion one I can’t wait to enjoy in full when it releases this June.