[Review] Elder Scrolls Online Blackwood

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Blackwood Chapter is a DLC chapter for The Elder Scrolls Online (ESO). Blackwood adds a location of the same name as well as the new Companions feature, and is expected to launch on June 1st of 2021 for PC and on June 8, 2021, for the Playstation and Xbox.17‏/05‏/2021

 

The denizens of Tamriel gear up for the next chapter in the year-long Gates of Oblivion storyline taking place in Elder Scrolls Online. What started with the Flames of Ambition DLC now continues with The Elder Scrolls Online: Blackwood Chapter. To players familiar with The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, I assume some of the story and setting is quite familiar. Personally, having only experienced Tamriel through Elder Scrolls Online, I was excited to get my hands on the preview for Blackwood. Here is what you can expect.

Blackwood is set to release in June and will primarily focus on Mehrunes Dagon, the Deadric Prince who will be the main antagonist in Gates of Oblivion. We learn about how the Longhouse Emperors made a deal with this devil, reveal conspiracies and plots, all while fighting to stop Mehrunes from taking over.

The butler did it?

Blackwood is teeming with murders and it’s up to you to solve them. I won’t be spoiling the exciting parts for you so look forward to diving straight into a meaty 30 hours of new content including side quests, a new Trial, Oblivion Portal World Events and completely new features.

When speaking to Rich Lambert, the Creative Director over at ZeniMax, about the references to Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, he said “I won’t go into spoilers obviously, but there may be a nod or two in there. Oblivion Portals, our new world event are kind of like the precursor or the initial science experiments, so to speak, of Mehrunes Dagon. Kind of to see how the technology works, so you might see some cool things there.”

The real Elder Scrolls is the friends you make along the way

With the addition of the brand new Companions system, Blackwood is poised to be one of the best chapters in TES history for players who have had their friends join the game with them and then abandon them along the way (this totally did not happen to me). After unlocking a companion, players can explore Tamriel with them, having additional support in combat while they adventure.

According to Creative Director Rich Lambert, “Companions are essentially adventuring buddies, able to do pretty much any content except PvP. They are your permanent friends in the world.”

The companions can be levelled up, assigned abilities, various roles and equipped with items. There even seems to be a system for personal quests and maintaining cordial relationships with them.

The rapport system acts similar to a personal reputation system with your companion, changing depending on how you behave with them in the game. One of the best features of the Companion system has to be the fact that your virtual buddies count towards the player limit requirements for events, meaning you can easily swap out your human friends (if you have any).

Returning players rejoice

With the new chapter also comes an extension to the overhauled Champion Point system, with players being able to reach Champion Point 3600 with Blackwood. As someone returning to ESO with their old characters (many of whom were created solely for crafting), I was pleased to see that veteran players will be able to upgrade their existing heroes and jump right into Blackwood to experience the content. According to ZeniMax, there is also an updated tutorial and starting area planned which will be very useful for both new and returning players.

“ESO was all about your personal journey through the world.” Says Lambert. “And we chose Chapters instead of Expansion for a very specific reason, because Expansion means only for veteran players. At least in MMO space, that’s kind of the connotation. And that’s not how ESO works. You can play the content in any order. You can go anywhere. So Chapters is that terms we like to use, because of that. For a new player coming in, explore the world. If you see something on the horizon that looks interesting, go towards it. That’s kind of the magic of ESO.”

Blackwood will feature a special 12-player trial called Rockgrove, involving three unique bosses and a bunch of new gear to unlock. Completing all the achievements for the trail earns players a new mount as well.

While speaking to Rich Lambert, he managed to get us pretty hyped for them: “If I had to choose just one thing, I’m going to say the new 12 player trial Rockgrove.” He further shared, “The team, over the last couple years, has been really pushing the boundaries on what is and isn’t possible in our engine. And they were able to do something in one of the encounters that I didn’t think was possible at all. And I told them that when they originally pitched them. Like there’s no way you could do that, there’s no possible way.

And they found a way to do it and prove me wrong!”

There are a bevy of quality of life improvements in the upcoming update, from the technical performance updates to a new combination system for perfected and non-perfected gear. Bethesda is planning to hit it out of the park with Blackwood, and so far we’re impressed. The emphasis to welcoming new players into a daunting world that has been spanning almost a decade is commendable and the companion system looks genuinely fun, with a lot of potential.

The Elder Scrolls Online: Blackwood is set to release on June 1, 2021 for the PC, Mac and Stadia platforms and on June 8, 2021 for the PlayStation and Xbox consoles.

 

The chapter’s story will revolve around the Longhouse Emperors and what the Daedric Prince of Destruction, Mehrunes Dagon, is up to in the area. Returning to help us uncover what is happening are two fan-favorite characters, the Dremora Lyranth from the base game’s main story and the wood elf Eveli Sharp-Arrow from Orsinium. Rich also confirmed that players should expect to see other familiar characters, such as Alchemy, Stibbons, and Lady Laurant.

 

When you have one summoned, companions receive a separate amount of experience while sharing in your adventures throughout Tamriel, up to their max level of 20. Companions also have their own gear that only drops when they are adventuring with you. If you want that new heavy armor for Mirri, she needs to take part in your adventures. Unfortunately, companions do not have their own inventory space other than for the gear they are wearing, and players will have to find space in their inventory or bank for any extra companion gear they might want to keep. Companions also only wield one set of weapons at a time and have no armor sets… yet.

Companion skills for the tank, healer, and DPS roles are based on an ESO class but are not carbon copies of player class skills. Various companion skills will unlock when using different weapons and as they gain experience. You can then assign skills in the companion menu, where they will be prioritized according to what order you place them in on the action bar and which ones are not on cooldown at a given time. For example, if you want a companion to fill the role of a tank, then you will need to slot tank skills, equip them in heavy companion armor, and place a taunt to the left side of the action bar so that it's used more often when off cooldown.

Concerning groups, companions will take up a slot in a dungeon or raid group when summoned but do not count towards the group’s reward bonus or experience bonus. They will also perform basic combat maneuvers such as CC break and dodge rolls. However, the companion AI cannot help you pull a level or stand on a platform for that you will need actual players.

When I asked Rich if we can expect to see one more additional companions before the end of the year he replied that while they don’t really talk about what is coming in the future players can assume that if a feature is successful and well-liked, then the team tries to add and expand on it. The antiquities system is a good example, where the team tries to add to the system with almost every update. Rich indicated that he was particularly excited about companions because it offers a new way to deliver content and new stories, but also gives players a little bit more ability to customize characters. For some players who are not quite at the top in terms of combat, it gives them access to even more types of content.   

One important question that was asked is if companions will have an impact or cause any form of server lag? Rich explained that is something the team has been very conscious of and has done a ton of internal testing around. The team, at this point, is pretty confident that companions will not cause any issues, but so far, they have only done internal testing. So they are cautiously optimistic while continuing to tune and tweak things as the system gets ready to go live.

Along with the Blackwood chapter will also come a new 12 player trial, Rockgrove. It will have three unique bosses, each with a hard mode to challenge veteran players. New gear, titles, and cosmetics rewards will all be present as well. For the achievement completionist raiders out there, there will also be a new mount.

The enhanced console edition will release at the same time as the Blackwood Chapter. Beyond the improvements already known Rich specifically mentioned the edition halving load times on next-gen hardware. For those curious, Rich confirmed the following targeted framerates/resolutions:

Xbox Series X/PlayStation 5: Performance Mode - 60FPS at 1440p/Fidelity Mode - 30FPS at 4k

Xbox Series S: Performance Mode - 60FPS at 1080p/Fidelity Mode - 30 FPS at 1440p.

I also asked if PC players would see any benefits along with the enhanced console edition release. Rich confirmed that most, if not all of the benefits, are already present on the PC. He did however mention that there is new tech for PC currently being worked on, but they are not ready to talk about it yet.

A new feature announcement that I was unprepared for was Endeavors. Players will be able to find Endeavors under the Group and Activity Finder, and they will be personal to the account, so no need to do them on multiple characters. Endeavors will provide players with various daily and weekly goals to complete. Upon completion of an endeavor, the rewards include experience, gold, and Seals of Endeavor. Players can use the seals to purchase items from crown crates. Rich did confirm that players will be able to purchase anything from a crown crate using a new tab at the top right of the crown store on PC. When I asked about the approximate time to purchase an item of X rarity from a crate he stated that the team is still tweaking that and will be right up to release. On the plus side if you really wanted a specific cosmetic or mount, now you can save up seals for it just by playing the game.

 

requirements:

Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system.

OS: Windows 7 64-bit.

Processor: Intel® Core i3 540 or AMD A6-3620 or higher.

Memory: 4 GB RAM.

Graphics: Direct X 11.0 compliant video card with 1GB RAM (NVidia GeForce 460 or AMD Radeon 6850)

DirectX: Version 11.

Network: Broadband Internet connection.

 

 

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