I’ve been wanting to try out ESO for a while. For one, it’s on PS4 which means it’ll look pretty and two I’ve heard a lot of good things about it. I’ve been putting off actually buying it though. I rented it when it first came out and couldn’t get into it. The combat felt weak, the story was ok, and the character models looked kinda ugly. I returned it after a day and forgot about it. Lately it’s been creeping up in the news and I’ve met some people over PS4 that have had nothing but good things to say about it. Plus they just released a new DLC.

I found a copy of the game for $5 dollars at a local used store and fired it up. A friend of mine wanted to play together so we made some new characters and started our adventure. We ran around the starting city for a while racing through quest he had already done. I got acclimated to the combat and the skill system. It was nice to play with someone who was so knowledgeable in Elder Scrolls lore, as I have barely played more than 20 hours in Skyrim. I was having a bit more fun with it playing together. It really wasn’t until I sat down and played by myself for a couple hours to get my bearings that I started to click with the game.

My one dilemma so far is choosing a class. I’ve created 8 different characters trying out a lot of the different classes and skills. This is the one time I’m glad there aren’t a ton of classes to choose from, it’s hard enough with four. And then you have to decide between magika and stamina, and then what kind of weapon you want to use, and then what kind of armor there’s a lot of choice. Once I figure out the class I’ll have to figure out what race I want to play…so many decisions.Speaking of the character creator, I can’t remember the last time I was able to make a character with a beer gut.

The friend I’ve been playing with has his characters in the Ebonheart Pact faction and after restarting so many times, I’ve become very familiar with Bleakrock Isle. I really like the sturcture of the main quest there, gathering all the villagers in town before evacuating. And each villager only goes back to town after you complete their side quest. After the 8th time doing it all I’m so ready to move on.

After a lot of testing I’ve at least figured out the class I want to play formy first time around Tamerial, a magika nightblade. At first I was sure I wanted to be a bow and dual weilding stamina night blade but I liked the idea of a nightblade healer so much I just started over.I;m glad there are restats in this game if I ever want to try something different.

Even though I’m playing on PS4 there seems to be a ton of people in the starting zones even before Dark Brotherhood launched. I was actually surprised considering the game is about 1.5 years old on consoles now.One of my only complaint so far is that there is only voice chat, which I quickly opted out of while exploring. It wouldn’t be so bad if there weren’t people constantly blaring music, eating, or screaming for no apparent reason. Of course I’ll opt back in for group content but while I’m out in the world alone, silence is golden.