Rate The Deadlands DLC

Elsonso

8

Haenk wrote: »

Deadlands feels "empty" - not much to do or explore there. Except for dailies, I see no reason to go there.
The town is "OK"ish, but again I don't see me spending more time there (except for dailies).

I tend to agree about the Deadlands zone. There is no draw and no reason to spend time there, long term. Get all the overland achievements and world bosses now, as it is going to be a low pop zone once everyone else is done with them. Sort of sad when you think of all the time and effort that went into making that zone.

The Fargrave city is an interesting prospect. It is part of the DLC right now, but could easily be the launching point for additional off-Nirn adventures in the future, with Fargrave being included with each new DLC that needs it. If this is the case, it could end up being more traveled.

TwinLamps

6

Story was poor, zone looks great, fishing was fun.

pleximus

1 - Didn't care for it

I'm avoiding it like the plague because the landscape reminds me too much of Vvardenfell (which I despise with an INTENSE passion). I hate places that look deserted, burned and empty. There's nothing to see, just ash and darkness. I hate hate hate it! Summerset and Murkmire are my favorite zones: Summerset for its beauty and Murkmire for bringing me calm despite the Little Shop of Horrors.

Whiskey_JG

9

I loved the story. I loved the new insight into daedric groups and their interaction with fargrave.
I only wish story battles are more "grandiose" and convey actual danger.
As a vet trial player the combat of main quests is very unappealing and almost laughable. I wish there would be veteran mode option for main quests aswell. Would make it more interesting.

As for npcs, we keep seeing the usual ones Eveli, Lyranth.....but THANKFULLY we got AROX!

AROX, AROX, AROX!!!

I cant convey how much I love this npc! Please ZoS make AroX a companion, not just a furnishing npc. I would compare this npc to Sheogorath. Absolutely nuts and crazy - I like!

Imagine taking Arox around with you in tamriel - with perhaps the option of him transforming into his monster form for a few seconds.

LadyDestiny

Gaebriel0410 wrote: »

Overall I thought it was pretty good, but in ESO perspective I'd ive it a 7,5 mainly because regular nature-y zones are much more my thing. Fargrave is brilliant and it gave me major Planescape Torment vibes, even while otherworldly stuff is usually not what I enjoy most in the setting.

As usual ESO dialogue writing and lore blows all MMO's out of the water imo, though some parts were wayyy too predictable, especially especially especially one of the parts near the end. Like always, I seriously love that even the most inconsequential small steps in quests will give you unique lines when you talk to the NPC's inbetween.

I didn't mind the repetition/exposition in dialogue too much, as I can imagine it's really helpful for when you have no time to play inbetween main quests. I'm the kind of person that always needs a recap when a new season for a series comes out, so while the repetition it's a bit much when playing through it in one go, I can kind of understand it really.

Lyranth is imo one of the most unlikeable quest companions in the game, the little mortal thing got old after one quest, and there's much better ways to portray that type of arrogance/callousness imo, especially when considering even her dialogue is well written.

Eveli was so-so, while she's okay as a side character, her super cheerful tea party vibe while travelling through Oblivion kinda takes away from the fact that the place is actually terrifying. Why does she treat it like a stroll through the park instead of the terrifying experience it should be? Gimme chars that are afraid of scary things, to set the atmosphere! So as a main char, a cheerful wood elf with pig tails is a definite no. Like Rigurt the Brash, chars like Eveli are best in small doses imo.

On the other hand everything about Madame Whim was glorious, and so was Arox.

The end battle looked amazing, very impressed (though tbh I always enhance my own experience by only using basic light/heavy attacks during those end battles to draw it out, kind of a shame but oh well).

Also the Fargrave pennants are one of the best new furniture additions.

I felt the same about evili in blackwood. She just felt out of place there and way too naive and childlike. I liked her in wrothgar and that story line, but not oblivion. I think zos could have found a different character to play her part much better.

Grandchamp1989

7

Good inputs in this thread.


What stood out to me:
-Arox
-Madam Whim
-I like how they made the final battle, given that everyone has to be able to complete it. Good compromise.
-Fargrave style and the hidden gems
-It was free

What I think could be better:
-There was a tad bit much filler dialogue for my liking.
-Lyrinth got a tad bit annoying. Atleast I don't have to hear "little mortal" every 2 minutes for awhile.
-Fargrave layout was a bit confusing, could have made things easier to access IMO.
-Deadlands while impressive felt a bit repetitive zone wise. IMO too much use of only a couple monotone colors.

All in all I give it a 7 as I think the good outweight the lesser good.

Finedaible

8

Finedaible wrote: »

Story was great, and it was nice to see more of an effort to make more detailed and interesting surroundings like Fargrave even if it is confusing to navigate. I suspect they had to split Fargrave into two and add all those doors because of the amount of assets, but I felt like the Shambles was kind of redundant since it is barely used at all. The overall plot still has some obvious elements of the usual formula, and some plot reveals were easily deduced the moment you set foot in Fargrave. I'm glad Eveli wasn't around for most of it because I still find her grating to listen to.

It was good to see them attempt to make the environments more dynamic with enemies scurrying about more chaotically.

Arox was the star of the zone and easily one of the most entertaining characters since Abnur Tharn and Cadwell. I'd sacrifice Mirri and Bastion to Mephala if it meant Arox could join me, lol.

The only major thing lacking I think is a major feature. Companions just didn't scratch that itch for me. Like, what do I need to do to get a Daedric Crescent weapon skill line up in here, hmm? Would have been fitting for the Deadlands in my opinion.

I would like to add to my post that the Blackwood chapter zone is so bad by comparison (Blackwood is a 3/10 at best) that I found myself questioning why the chapter even exists during my playthrough of the Deadlands. I understand that they tried to construct the stories so that they could be played out of order, but this would not have been an issue if they had just concentrated all that effort into one single update per year instead of delivering a bare-bones "expansion" chapter with a marginal feature (companions) and splitting it from the grand finale. It feels very piecemeal, like we are being swindled into buying a whole product twice. On a positive note, at least Blackwood owners got Deadlands for free during the event, so maybe they did realize this to some extent. I just hope they change this year-long format going forward because I honestly think they could do so much better without the formulaic releases.

LadySinflower

Since it STILL hasn't dropped for console, I have no idea. I don't understand why we have to wait a minimum of two weeks beyond the PC crowd for everything. Just grumbling.

whitecrow

I'm still withholding my vote until I've explored more but so far I am impressed with Fargrave. Complex, but feels like a real city. Pretty colors and lighting too. I hope all those paintings can be found in the game! I don't really understand why there's an outskirts wayshrine when you can't go anywhere from there but back into the city though...

I was expecting the whole of Deadlands to be a hideous orange-red eyesore like the portals in Blackwood...glad it's not.

KhajiitLivesMatter

1 - Didn't care for it

Jeremy wrote: »

KhajiitLivesMatter wrote: »

Grandchamp1989 wrote: »

From 1 to 10 what do you give it?

its one of the WORST dlc cause 0 new interesting content like an arena raid or new system - just 5new quests and a tiny zone

content done in less than 2days

(same a souther elswyr or dark brotherhood)

litterly anything would be better than that even just another dungon dlc

You got the new armory system.

I'll admit it's a bit underwhelming in it's current form. But if it ever gets improved upon to where it allows players to truly switch builds on the go that would be a nice addition to the game.

yea but thats no content its just a system which is rly damn overprized [snip]

only good for console players i guess

[edited for bashing]

ArchMikem

6

Overall, just slightly above average. I'd like to try and be a little thorough about this,

My general reaction:

Initially I was led to believe there'd be more to Fargrave than JUST the city, even up to the point where I saw there was a "Fargrave Outskirts Wayshrine". It made me think there was more to the realm than just the city to explore. Got even more excited when the outskirts was expansive Desert, only to be crushed when the "Outskirts" was just a small pocket of rock walls forcing you into the City.

The City is okay. I don't like the Daedric accents nor the giant rib cages of Daedric Titans scattered. I'm just not liking Daedra period at this point. At the very end Eveli asks you how it feels to have faced down a Daedric Prince. Sweet child, I've faced down, like, four or five by this point. Merrunz is just another notch on the scabbard. Killing The Hound back in Malabal Tor had more of an emotional impact on me than banishing the Prince of Destruction. I will give props to that final Boss Fight though. Was pretty hectic, even though I realized the game gave me Allies that were healing me faster than a lot of dedicated Player Healers do.

The Dialogue is as hand holdy and catering to a short attention span as Blackwood was. I skipped quit a bit of it whenever It came up that way, and that's saying something since I tend to read everything. Also the same "Press A until the game solves it for you" cube puzzle was reintroduced. That was fun. I'm in agreement with everyone else about certain Characters. Arox's voice actor should get an award for Best Performance.

Visuals:

The Art team has only refined their ability over the years, it's always apparent, to the point where some locations makes my One X chug a little. Looking forward to when I can finally appreciate everything on a Series X without lag. The Deadlands I can appreciate had work put into it, the skybox and distant objects create a believable landscape. I...just don't like it. I don't like Oblivion. I got more excited going to Fort Sundercliff. (Which looked great) That's another plus, the Questlines had a couple pretty nice set pieces.

Story:

I think most people saw the plot twists coming miles away. Anchorite being the Fourth Ambition was pretty obvious the entire time shortly after her introduction. I never caught on to how all of the Ambitions were children of Emperor Moricar though. Just thought they were random taken kids. I don't understand Sombren turning at the end. Was it him reading the Xarxes? Form of Indoctrination coupled with desperately wanting to understand his Power?

Already mentioned how much the story held my hand. I don't like being treated like I'm forgetful. Especially when the Quest requires you to be reminded of something before progressing.

I enjoyed meeting Madam Whim. Always had a spot for Dark Seducers (Mazken). Especially when the Lore taught me they have a general tendency to tolerate Mortals instead of kill them on sight. I'll also agree with everyone's annoyance with Lyranth constantly calling us "Little Mortal", even though that's supposed to be her personality. The Bladebearers were also an interesting change from the usual. Honorable, Respectable Dremora.

In the end, 6/10 More likely to go back to Markarth.

UntilValhalla13

4

Things I liked:
The visuals and art are really nice.
It looks cool with the lightning effects.
I did also like more personality from the daedras.
The roaming world bosses were something new, somewhat.


Things I didn't like:
The city layout feels kinda the same from clockwork city. It's just annoying to traverse.

Return to Madam Whim.

I'm pretty sure I'm almost done with the main story after a few hours. Most of the quests are literally "Explore/investigate X area", and it's just a circle, where you have to ride around looking for... SOMETHING. (That wasn't "the thing", though. Keep looking. Nope, that's still not it. Keep looking. Ah, finally.)

Return to Madam Whim.

That random tunnel in the northern part that dismounts you for some reason, when there are other tunnels that you can ride through. That's nitpicking though.

Return to Madam Whim.

The permanently stuck in-combat bug that is STILL in this game somehow and has now made its way to PvE. (sprints off to the nearest trash adds half a mile away to slowly kill me and hope it goes away)

Indigogo

Had my first peek today (ps4) and a lap around felt like clockwork city but make it demons and fire.

When I popped into a portal, and discovered it was exactly like Blackwood, I was glad that the dlc was a give-away.

Red_Feather

I haven't played it yet but considering that since I started in 2018 every zone added is a checklist built from a formula and lacks anything I'd find engaging, then I really doubt that I care to care what the new DLC zone is. I haven't even done murkmire, beyond Blackrose Prison or markarth, beyond Vateshran, in all this time and doubt I ever will.

FeedbackOnly

9

Hard decision, but good sets, and landscape does it for me. If it had more monstets it would do it for me

adriant1978

5 - It was Mediocre

Haven't finished all of the side quests yet, but the writing in the main quest was pretty poor IMO.

Do they have to make our characters constantly sound like complete idiots, being led around by NPCs who are much smarter and better informed than they are? I appreciate that they can't cover all roleplay eventualities but it feels like in their attempts at being neutral the writers have in fact dumbed the player's dialogue down to the absolute lowest common denominator. My most played characters are mages, smart people, and the stuff they were forced to say really had me picturing a big dumb barbarian.

Otherwise I found the story achingly predictable with a couple of "twists" anyone could surely see a mile off. And Eveli still gets on my nerves. A lot.

Some of the new NPCs were cool though, especially the various Daedra who we don't normally get to see as anything other than mobs to kill and definitely not as people we can talk to.

freespirit

Every year I pre-order the new chapter even though I am way behind in my questing!

I have literally just started Greymoor. 🙄

I often wonder what I do for so many hours every week whilst logged in! 🤔

Blinx

3

Lyranth's little mortal this, and little mortal that got on my last damn nerves, I NEVER want to see her again!, Navigating Fargrave was a nightmare, there's a side quest with fart jokes(like seriously guys cmon, tacky!), and it's pretty obvious whom the 4th ambition is, once you meet them, so for me the only thing I enjoyed was having Arox as a side kick, so glad I didn't pay for this.

YstradClud

7

Would of rated it higher as it had a significant story portion to it and finished up the Oblivion theme for the year but..

Sylvermynx wrote: »

I'm not into Daedra, lava, and flames.

DreamyLu

8

My vote is limited to the content I touch.

I like the Deadlands, mainly because:
- I find the town Fargrave very nice.
- I enjoy that we can wander freely nearly everywhere without having to fight continuously.
- I appreciate that fighting foes remains generally very fair, even for a casual player like me.

On the other hand, I dislike - a lot - that it's an all brown/grey dry rocky landscape. I prefer green, water and/or snow.

cro25519

8

Really liked the zone! Not so much the plot.

Amazing zone though, it was beautifully made.

Malborn66

1 - Didn't care for it

Hated Oblivion.

An allergic to Oblivion Portals as they were always rubbish.

So have not bought into the 2021 year at all.

Even 1/3 price is too much for a lousy year and do not get me started on Eveli being a ***.

CoronHR

6

i felt that it was good, but i don't like so many load screens in fargrave.

and the oblivion portals...well, same as with blackwood, they're underwhelming.

i like the sever a lot, and the burn is ok.

i do think fargrave is quite atmospheric, but with all their q4 dlc's, they don't put crafting writ boards and quartermasters, so, like all other q4 dlc's, the area depopulates and winds up being very empty.

the idea to put traders behind a load screen was bad.

Snow_White

4

I feel like the writing gets worse with each chapter.

I also wish they’d stop bringing back favourite characters from previous content and ruining them.