Elder Scrolls Online: First-person, exploring, and the Nightblade

This past week down at the ZeniMax Online Studios we got to play a lot of Elder Scrolls Online, the entire opening zone of the Daggerfall Covenant to be exact. The game played great but there are some new features and a definite mindset that the team was very happy to talk about. This is all previously undisclosed information, so no delays: let's talk about the new features first.
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First-Person View

Yes, it is in. To stop all the rumors and silly press assumptions: it is in. We were shown a great video of how it looks. It looks like Elder Scrolls, and the skills and weapons came across the screen really clear. I will say this about first person: I don't know how it will translate into PvP. In the open world AvA system, you are constantly going to want to look over your shoulder. You need that third person view to see what is coming in behind you and on the sides. It may just be a risk to go first-person, when you could miss out in this tactical advantage.

First-person view has always been a staple of Elder Scrolls and it should be really great to go through all of the PvE content in that format. The team is set on building a great RPG game and this definitely adds to it. Spells worked well and we got to see the dual-wielding maces beat down some skeletons in a graveyard. Also, we saw how skills work like the Dragon Knight's chain throw (Get Over Here!) attack. It ran smoothly and Matt said that they are still polishing the graphics and making sure it runs well for launch. So rest your fears, you will be able to run around in Elder Scrolls Online with a first-person view.

Exploring the Whole Wide World

Another new announcement came from the team about exploring the whole world of the game. For a while, it sounded like you could only explore the faction that you had joined at the beginning of the game. So the Ebonhearts would only explore Skyrim and so on. This has now been changed. Players who complete all of the PvE in their zone will now get the chance to unlock another zone at Level 50. Therefore, Ebonheart players can explore the content of the Daggerfall Covenant or the Aldmeri Dominion at Level 50. Once you make the choice the entire zone opens up to your character to explore. Matt did say that the loot you will get in the other zones will be really good, and after finishing the 2nd, you unlock the third. When you unlock the third zone that will give some of the best loot in the game.

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