the elder scrolls online: Necrom is the next chapter of ZeniMax Online’s MMORPG and it will introduce a new class, reimagined locations sure to be exciting for Elder Scrolls fans, multiple ancient mysteries to unravel, and tentacles. Lots and lots of tentacles.
As revealed in the recent Xbox and Bethesda developer live, Necrom is coming June 5, 2023 to PC and Mac (or for those on consoles, June 20) and will bring players back to Morrowind, specifically to the eastern coastal region known as Telvanni. Peninsula that is home to the ancient city of the dark elves from which the chapter takes its name. Since Necrom was last seen in 1994 The Elder Scrolls: ArenaThe first game in the series, the new expansion gives ZeniMax Online the chance to update and expand the city of the dead for modern audiences. It also presented the opportunity to revisit the fan-favorite region of Morrowind, a place that ESO Creative Director Rich Lambert said the development team has a particular affinity for and that the team delved into previously for the chapter. Morrowind 2017 game.
“Obviously we’re not going to go back and recreate one by one what was in Arena,” Lambert said. “Things have changed a lot since then, and the general fidelity of things wouldn’t work if we did it that way. But we wanted to capture that essence. We went very deep into the story, really digging into what the city was about, its history, why what was so important. And then taking a lot of the descriptors from the traditional books and interpreting them in a way that is believable and realistic, but also lends itself to legends. In one of the legends, Necrom was based on the bones of this giant beast that Vivec killed. When you move into the city you see these tall spires, rock-like structures. If you look at them, you might interpret them as the ribs of a giant creature. And then you want to dig into… We really lean a lot on that kind of thing when we were going to design the city and also the surrounding spaces”.
welcome to apocrypha
But that’s only part of the expansion. The other will take players to the Oblivion realm of Apocrypha, the home of Hermaeus Mora, the Daedric prince of knowledge who commonly appears as a writhing mass of tentacles and eyeballs. Despite Mora’s Cthulhu-esque appearance, the Daedric prince is neither good nor evil, and he will recruit players to help them protect a deep, dark secret that, if discovered by the wrong people, could unravel all of reality.
Apocrypha is a mysterious realm filled with literal mountains of ancient books and manuscripts. He was last seen as part of Skyrim Dragonborn DLC, and while ESO will stay true to the look and feel of Apocrypha as established there, the ZeniMax Online team will also put their own flourishes on the realm.
“It’s very different to anything we’ve done at ESO up to this point…one of the biggest things we try to do is make sure it feels different year after year,” Lambert said. “That was a great goal, to choose something that was a little more alien, a little different. I love the vibe and the feeling of cosmic horror. Everything is a little weird and weird. It’s something different and unique to Elder Scrolls.”
Enter the Arcanist
Hermaeus Mora and all the forbidden knowledge hidden in Apocrypha goes hand in hand with what is probably the most exciting new addition to the expansion: the Arcanist, the seventh class in the game and the first new class since the addition of the Necromancer in 2019. tome- The Wielded Arcanist is a casting class that generates combo points and spends builders and uses forbidden knowledge to support allies or deal damage to enemies. From transforming his arm into a wave of tentacles to damage enemies to teleporting across the battlefield and casting rune magic, the arcanist has offensive, defensive, and support abilities. Lambert said the goal was to make Arcanist easy to pick up and play, while still offering a lot of depth. For players who want to go even deeper, the game’s ability transformation system will allow for even more customization, with some abilities capable of transforming from combo point generator to spender or vice versa. Some abilities that by default do not interact with the combo point system can even be modified to do so.
“There’s a lot of mastery, but it’s also very easy to pick up and understand,” Lambert said. “It’s ‘I press this button and I get this thing. And while this is working, I press another ability and it spends it and does something cool for me.'”
The release of Necrom’s chapter this summer is a highlight of Elder Scrolls Online’s 2023 roadmap, but the year-long story titled Shadow Over Morrowind will technically kick off in March with the Scribes of Fate update, which will add two new dungeons. and will serve as a prologue for Necrom. chapter. Additional updates in the second half of the year are likely to get fans excited as well. In an unorthodox move, the team will forego adding an additional dungeon later in the year as they have in previous years to offer a quality of life update that will focus on bug fixes, performance improvements, and delivery. some long-requested features. as a pre-made group finder. The game will still receive four major updates per year as has been the case for the last eight years, only this time one of those updates will be dedicated solely to polishing and improving quality of life, something Lambert said the community has requested.
“Last year we had a bit of a bumpy ride in terms of stability,” Lambert said. “A lot of self-inflicted wounds. So we want to reinforce a lot of those processes and clean up a lot of those things.”
But that’s not to say there isn’t any new content Elder Scrolls Online players can look forward to later this year. Teased at the end of the chapter’s reveal stream, Lambert confirmed that the team is working on an “endless dungeon with a friend” mode for ESO. When asked for additional details or if the mode would feature roguelike elements, Lambert simply chuckled and said that players would have to wait for more information, but it certainly sounds like something fans will want to keep an eye on towards the end of the year. .
The Elder Scrolls Online: Necrom will launch on June 5, 2023 for PC and Mac players, and will arrive a few weeks later on June 20 for consoles. It is available to reserve now.
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