Taking a guided tour of The Elder Scrolls Online: High Isle - Preview

In doing what I do I get a lot of time to play games, both for reviews and previews but it's very rare to have a developer walk me through something these days, at events walkthroughs were pretty common, but in the socially distant world that we have now, they are not. Which is why when Bethesda invited me to go on a walking tour of their upcoming Elder Scrolls Online expansion High Isle, I was so intrigued that I had to say yes.

High Isle is an expansion that is a little different from what the team at Zenimax Online Studios have released over the past few years, and that's because it doesn't deal with interdimensional beings or other insane cosmic threats. The story that players will get access to, when they delve into this expansion is more of a political thriller, as a group of individuals come together to end the war that is plagued The Elder Scrolls Online since it first launched. Though what good is a political thriller without an adversary and here players will get to meet and fight the Ascendant Order, a group that don't necessarily just want to stop the peace talks but break up the factions as well.  This is of course where the player comes in, attempting to stop the threat and allow the peace talks to continue, players who have already started the yearly adventure with the earlier chapter will get a glimpse at what's to come, but the real threat still awaits.

The expansion itself offers access to three islands, though the third will not be open until later in the year, the first one is High Isle and it is where players will arrive, when they are ready to start the new story, it's also where the new raid launches from and where you find a lot more law for the Bretons. the second island is the more dangerous of the two and that is Amenos, or as was described during the walkthrough Escape from New York. When I got hands on earlier in the year, I didn’t get to see Amenos, purely due to time, so it was nice to get a sense of what awaits and trust me, it looks nothing like High Isle.

Perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of the High Isle expansion is that for the most part, the story and lore that the team built for it, was entirely driven by them. In years past when I have spoken with the developers, I usually ask a question like, how much of the world were you able to create and the answer has always been the same, they are building it based on what the games have established. For High Isle though, there is little known about the region, there is one main line about the creation of The All-Flags Navy and it launching from High Isle, but the rest is all original, which is going to be something fun to discover when it releases. This blank canvas means that the team have been able to do things their own way, from the architecture down to the characters that you get to meet, including Brahgas, the elf willing to teach you how to play Tribute.

The city that you land upon, which is nested as part of Gonfalon Bay, contains buildings from various eras of Breton history, but it isn’t like you have modern designs with ancient castles, everything still feels similar. The best way I can compare it, is with the Disney Infinity art style, you could have Buzz Lightyear next to Iron Man and Darth Vader and while different, they still looked the same, it is the same here. Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the city though, is that while it does belong to the Bretons and as such is a Daggerfall Covenant location, it is considered to be a neutral place, so any one from any faction can come here, think of it is as the Switzerland of The Elder Scrolls Online. Which is also a fantastic location as to why the peace talks are taking place, which is a core aspect of the story line that is being told in this year’s expansion.

Something that is new for the game are volcanic vents that are dotted about the landscape, these are world events that players can take part in, think of them like the Oblivion gates from The Elder Scrolls IV. When they are active, there will be lava and fire around them, monsters would be emerging from the ground below, with the placement of these vents all over the place, including Amenos. These world events are designed for groups, so while you can solo it, you likely won’t do to well, so teaming up with some friends is very important, if you want to take part in these events. The vents and other smaller sections of the world will occasionally force critters out and you can fight them on the overworld, but if you venture into the delves, you can find many more of them. In fact, the delves here are opening up due to the volcanic activity that the island is experiencing, which also explains the volcanic vents that have sprung up and that same volcanic impact is tied into the third island.

There was much more that was shown off, but in order to avoid spoilers, I won’t dive into much of it here, but we got to see a chivalric order, ship building yards, druid encampments and more. While past expansions have been loaded with content, they are always familiar in a way, tying back into the lore that we know, so with the near-blank canvas here, everything feels fresher. While time was running out, the folks from Zenimax Online Studios did want to show off Amenos, and it is nothing like we have seen before. The island is a prison and there are two aspects to it, there is the small town where you land, with a few places to spend your coin, but the rest of the island is a prison. How it works here is that once people are sentenced, a spell is cast upon them and once they are in, they can’t leave, or that is what the legend says. It is a dangerous place, because there are prison gangs, folks attempting to survive there, but there are monsters that are unique to this location and lest you think you could sail away, the shoreline around the island is rocky and dangerous to all ships.

The Elder Scrolls Online: High Isle is out today for PC and Mac players, with console gamers getting access in a few weeks and it seems to be one of the most interesting locations in the history of the game, purely because they were unshackled from the lore that all the other locations already had. How this shakes things up going forward is anyones guess, but having been shown things, by the developers, really puts some context around all the little details that go into building a game world and elevates the respect I have for the people that do make this fantastic experiences.