A brand new chapter in the Elder Scrolls Online is finally here. This time it is set in the Western end of Skyrim and returns to its frosty roots. Wether you are new to ESO or an avid fan, there is something in the new expansion that will please everyone. If you are a fan of Skyrim (come on, of course you are!) this feels like the most true expansion of that title. The missions are fantastic and the story once again excels expanding the world with Lyris (voiced by Jennifer Hale) and Fennorian two new characters to explore with. While all of this does result in some great new content, it pales in comparison to the previous packs with some of the action and bite size missions not diving deep enough into the lore to have real impact. The sizeable update is enough to keep fans happy and continuing to play for the foreseeable future.
The main story focuses on a group of evil vampires who are implementing strange weather events across the city of Solitude. The main quests are a little fetch quest and busywork. It is worth pushing through to get to the dungeons. The designs and combat have been well thought out and is the most enjoyable part of this part of the game. If combat isn’t your thing, there is a new Antiquities activity which you can engage in. This new feature allows you to accumulate items for your house and rare equipment. You do this by using a magical scry which is a new mechanic for ESO.
The boss fights are thankfully quite challenging. I did a lot of levelling up and item gathering before I could get past them. This made up for the repetitive story missions that I finished up in around 25 hours of playtime. There is a daily event that comes in the form of a storm called Harrowstorms. This mode allows you to join up with other players and take on large quantities of enemies that all spawn in the one place. It was probably the part of the game that I enjoyed the least so I didn’t spend too much time on this.
Visually this update is stunning. There is a lot of ice and snow that really sets this part of the ESO world apart from previous titles. One of my favourite locations was Blackreach, located below the surface it is a large series of caves that with large ruminating mushrooms, stalactites and water filled with luminous algae. This is the easily the best part of the game and I thoroughly enjoyed my time here. The locations inside of Greymoor Keep and Dusktown are beautifully detailed and I really hope that this is utilised in future expansions.
If you are looking for new content, Greymoor does deliver an expansion into the world of Elder Scrolls Online. The new location of Blackreach takes things underground and adds a new element to the series. While the missions are full of busy-work and fetch quests, there are some great additions with the boss fights providing a challenging end to the story missions. Dungeons provide a challenge and their design are a great new addition. Jennifer Hale’s vocal skills for Lyris provides an interesting character arc and expands on the lore of this section of Skyrim. Fans of the online game will enjoy the additional hours they can sink their teeth into, while there is more content coming as part of the Dark Heart of Skyrim year-long adventure.
The Greymoor expansion is out now for PC, PS4 and Xbox One.
