so lets get to this!

the zone:
first off props to connecting it to surrounding areas, this seems to be avoided and it was a nice change to see ZOS getting over there fear of connecting the world.

i have to admit to at times being very disappointed with the zone, the imperial aesthetic does not seem to lend itself to the expansion zone size, and specifically sections of the west side of the zone felt like riding across Cyro (as i guess is appropriate) but thats also widely regarded as a horse simulator and this is no different.

it felt very empty at times (couple reasons for this)

i went back to Elsweyr to kind of compare distance traveled to nodes / monsters / points of interest, and to be fair it was kind of similar. the difference is expansions sometimes seem to do this *space for the sake of space* thing, and if its Cyro it REALLY just feels empty. Elsweyr was a desert in alot of places, or a drop dead gorgeous grand canyon. the space actually accentuated the zone and some of those locations could not have had the impact or been designed the way they had, had they not otherwise been in an expansion setting.

the place this works in Blackwood is in the south east section there is a more shadowfen style swamp, and the large amount of space its able to take up actually makes it feel as intended, to be this vast uninhabitable swamp full of danger and disease and someplace normal beings dare not venture. this section is done better then the swamp in Shadowfen itself because it lacks the physical space to bring that concept home.

Greymoor didnt have this problem because it was split between two zones, Elsweyr really used the space to flex the desert and canyon muscles, Vvardenfell had actual zone sized areas and biomes split by red mountain making it feel like several smaller zones had been mashed into a donut, and Summerset had an interesting wheel and spokes design to its landmass that also kept wide open useless areas to a minimum. (aside from the one canyon in the SE leading to sunhold that is just empty, the eastern pass)

i would also like to note while i was musing on the boring nature of the Cyro "tileset" that i enter spaces like the public dungeons (in this case the northern one) and the architecture and theme and mood all come together and create an amazing location and atmosphere. and im disappointed something like that was relegated to a public dungeon and did not have a larger influence over a section of the zone, have the spooky nature of that dungeon spill out and effect the surrounding countryside a bit to spice things up.


the other reason it feels empty. . .:

lack of Dolmen / Harrowstorm / Geyser / Dragon / etc.

every other expansion zone had large swaths of its space dedicated to these public events. Elsweyr in particular had alot of space dolled out because the dragons needed to be able to land in various areas and move. the map of Blackwood is similar in size to other expansion zones but missing half a dozen massive public event locations, this has gone a LONG way to making it feel empty. it really feels like an oversized DLC zone that was just ssssttttrrreeetttccchhheeeddd out.

on the portals to oblivion themselves. . .

i like many others had to be expecting the oblivion style portals, the classic dagon ones. we have seen these used in other quests within the game. and instead they are replaced with tiny portals that are the same in design as the wandering hedge mages that accidently summon a clanfear and need help killing it, these portals really dont feel epic or inspire any kind of idea that your stopping some sort of daedric incursion, and if your new and riding by you might not pay it any mind if you had seen the little encounters in previous zone and didint know these were different.

when i entered the first one and it said "public dungeon" i was like "oh thats clever" as i had thought that they turned a public dungeon into a section of oblivion and you use random daedric portals to enter it, after about 5 seconds of exclaiming as much to a guildie they corrected me on what was actually going on and my response was literally "oh. . .i gave them too much credit there for a second."

and while the idea and design of these "events" might be a little confusing and underwhelming they are at least interesting, except for one large nagging concern in the back of my mind. . .

i cannot help but think that this is an engine / lag issue, and that public events have been sectioned off because the game cannot handle all of this taking place in one zone and so the solution became find a reason to move public events into their own instance. anyone who plays Cyro for any amount of time knows that the ESO engine just CANNOT handle large scale events / combat. and thinking back on it i do recall harrowstorms being an issue in greymoor for a while there.

i have seen these kinds of changes in other old MMO's i play that have such bad spaghetti code that they have to re work whole events because they just dont function as intended anymore, and its disappointing to see ESO system creep its way to that point and do so little about it, especially when Cyro players have been screaming to the point of exhaustion for years about what the few problem systems and skills are (and always have been)

the quests:

have to say, not even going into main quest or details because of spoilers, that quests have been a million times more of a delight over Greymoor. i admit to hating that expansion because everyone and everything didnt want you there, it was all "OUTSIDER, GO AWAY, WE DONT TRUST YOU, NOTHINGS WRONG, YOUR LYING, GO AWAY, GO AWAY, I DONT BELIEVE YOU, GO AWAY!" and it got to the point that i just wanted to let the vampires have them. if i could have sided with the grey host in that DLC i would have. i dont care if that was the edgy theme you were going for, it was wildly uncomfortable and annoying to play through and i have never been so happy to be done with an expansion, markarth was better.

to Blackwoods quests however, very nice. some of them have been down right charming to do. i appreciate how few are "end of the world" quests and on some occasions just someone needing some help with something. some of the returning characters were nice to see, and there were some new characters that i hope we get to know better. (i know i said no spoilers but there is one argonian in Gideon that was so honorable and understanding that i hope i see more of him despite him clearly being kind of a throw away NPC)

the companions:

im torn, i never really use companions in mainline elder scrolls or fallout games and these are poor imitations of those. i dont mind that other people like them or want them, and would never criticize anyone for enjoying them. and to be fair, i can see with improvements where they could end up, but i cannot give praise to what something MIGHT be.

they feel not complete. why is gearing them a grind? why can i not put any kind of headwear on them or change their hair? why is their rapport such a grind? why can i not bring them into daily random dungeons if my friend and i are going to summon our allies to avoid getting two zergy randoms, nope it de summons them and plops in two zergy randoms, great. why are they only useful where you dont need them to be and dont function where you want them to?


and this all would be less of an issue if i didnt know for a fact that coders and engineers were working on THIS. not designing a new class or skill tree, not fixing bugs or trying to find solutions to lag. not dealing with terrible class imbalance. but this.

they were probably working around the clock on making this feature work and getting it out the door in time for Blackwood, instead of doing any number of things i already listed that i would honestly prefer.

and thats what honestly ruins them for me.



thats it from me, i dont do number ratings, its above Greymoor and below Summerset, Vvardenfell, and Elsweyr for me.

ill be eager to hear what you all think, how are you enjoying the new expansion?