With the release of the latest expansion in The Elder Scrolls Online saga Blackwood (Check Out Our PC Review!), Zenimax/Bethesda have also released The Elder Scrolls Online: Console Enhanced. A collection of the base ESO game and all previous expansions, including Blackwood. Not only is this a collective set but also comes with a next generation console upgrade of the entire game.
I’ve dabbled in the world of Tamriel previously here and there, but while I find the game to be quite fun, perhaps in my adult life, I just don’t have the time to invest in a MMORPG. That being said, I’ve heard nothing but great things about Blackwood, and with this next-gen upgrade I couldn’t resist to take a peek. The PlayStation 5 upgrade gives you the options of “Performance Mode” and “Fidelity Mode.” I played the game for a quite a bit on both modes and I think the Performance Mode is the much better way to experience ESO. While the game does look quite beautiful in places, I didn’t find the upgraded graphics/textures extremely noticeable. While I’m happy they are there, Fidelity Mode isn’t the quantum leap people may suspect from the PS4 version. It does play in 4K at 30 FPS, but when turning on Performance Mode, I felt I didn’t lose that much resolution. What I supposedly lost in resolution I certainly gained in frames, playing at a very clean 60FPS.
There is another perk to playing ESO on a new generation console, everyone’s favorite quality-of-life enhancement, MUCH shorter loading times. I recall on the last gen consoles the loading times were very daunting to get through, but back then that was the norm and we persevered through the waits. I didn’t whip out my stopwatch, but the new load times seem exceptionally minimal in comparison. At the very least, they’re easily half as long. With the 60 FPS and these way more digestible load times it would be safe to say that going back to the previous generation would be out of the question once playing this one.
There is however one major issue, it may not be an issue to some, but to all the trophy hunters out there, I regret to say that all of your previous earned trophies on PS4 do NOT carry over when continuing your play on this version. This misstep hurts me internally, because many other games that have come out with PS5 enhanced versions have given the player the ability to not only transfer their save, but will automatically pop all previously gained trophies once again. I believe this needs to be remedied with a future patch, because it isn’t easy collecting trophies for ESO, and in some cases would be very difficult to backtrack and redo tasks to unlock said trophy. So, for longtime players on previous generation consoles that are proud of your hard-earned trophies, seeing none of those accomplishments being carried over to the new hardware can make this a tough sell to upgrade.
It really comes down to what will bring you back to the world of Tamriel – all the new quality-of-life upgrades that next gen consoles have to offer or in a nice convenient collection of all previous expansions to catch up on (or both!). If you don’t care much about trophies, or at least the trophies you have previously earned with this game then jumping into this “Console Enhanced” edition is a no-brainer, it’s a great package that will help keep this game going for many more years to come. With the great buzz going around for Blackwood I especially recommend this ESO edition for the absolute newcomer. For the trophy hunter like me, there is that large hurdle of transitioning and leaving something behind that will eat at me, but like I said, I really hope it’s something Zenimax/Bethesda looks into and patches.
7.5/10
Check Out The Elder Scrolls Online: Console Enhanced Trailer:
For more information, visit: https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/home
PlayStation 5 Review
Gaming since I was given an original Nintendo as a kid. I love great storytelling and unique ingenuity. When both collide in a single game, I'm a happy gamer. Twitter/IG @NickNavarro87
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