THE ELDER SCROLLS ONLINE: GREYMOOR
It’s good enough to keep you coming back for moor
At last, Skyrim is whole once again. East and west had been sundered due to temperamental High Kings, and also because this DLC hadn’t been released yet. Now, you can go west, in the open air. Go west, but life isn’t peaceful there. There are vampires and witches all over the place! And you’re just the hero for the job.
On the surface, Greymoor isn’t as attractive a proposition as the settings for past Chapters. There’s no one wow-factor addition. Summerset offered a gorgeous new area, while Elsweyr introduced dragons. Western Skyrim is largely aesthetically similar to the base game, and it doesn’t introduce any fan-favourite creatures. Get in and play, however, and none of this matters.
We can’t pretend to not be disappointed at the lack of a new class. However, vampirism has been given an overhaul as part of the free update accompanying the paid expansion. Skills, bonuses, and vulnerabilities have been reVamped to ape a traditional class. It’s easier to find a priest to cure you, should you so wish. Becoming infected in the first place is still a pain in the neck, though, forcing you to seek out a very rare enemy unless you can get another player to feed on you. Coincidentally, you can buy instant vampirism for a hellraising 1,500 crowns.
’MOOR IS HELL
If you played the pre-release prologue quest, you’ll know the main Greymoor questline sees witches and vampires working together. The most common enemy type we come up against during the story is vampiric, due to Harrowstorms, which either turn people into Harrowed (mindless shamblers), or Harrowfiends, sort of vampiric zombies. They’re often accompanied by vampires, so both your melee and distance skills get a workout.
The witches are held back as bosses or mini-bosses. In fact, Greymoor’s story has several boss fights, and they’re pretty good. As usual, auto-levelling means it’s a fair fight alone or in a group. Our Argonian necromancer, despite being fairly low-level, pushes through to the end with little trouble. We’re also pleased to find that the final quest is essentially just checking up on people in the aftermath, a welcome period of compassion.
The main story is mostly played straight (which is why we find it so amusing when, at one point, a young woman’s heartbroken speech
“AS USUAL, AUTO-LEVELLING MEANS THAT IT’S A FAIR FIGHT ALONE OR IN A GROUP.”
is undermined somewhat by an orc belching behind us). Similarly, some of the sidequests fill in details of this story, or hint at events that may come in future DLC. The developer uses others, as usual, to inject a sense of humour into proceedings. Our favourites include a talking bottle which leads to some gentle puzzling, and an elf who, despite being injured, still finds the energy to be deeply sarcastic while asking for our help. He didn’t look after him elf (sorry).
TESO VALUE
The new group events, such as defending a town from an alliance of giants and vampires, represent the usual explosive difficulty spike – don’t even think of trying those solo. If you fancy a break from fighting, the new antiquaries system is what you need. It’s essentially a Tamriel-wide treasure hunt employing two simple minigames. It has its own skill line, and you need to find ‘leads’, so you won’t be able to rush out and grab everything at once. With armour and furniture up for grabs, though, it’s well worth pursuing.
You’ll not only be adventuring overground, including through those iconic snowy mountains (though not as much as we’d like), there are also some large underground areas. Cavernous… er… caverns contain mini villages as well as the expected dungeons and Dwarven ruins. These places are dense with content. TESO has been welcoming to players old and new since 2016’s One Tamriel update, and in that respect, Greymoor is a perfect addition.
VERDICT
With carefully communicated lore, healthy doses of humour here and there, enjoyable new activities, and an abundance of content, this expansion has us falling in love with TESO all over again. Luke Kemp