The Elder Scrolls Online: Imperial City

released on Aug 31, 2015

The Elder Scrolls Online: Imperial City is the first official DLC Game Pack for The Elder Scrolls Online. It contains several new zones including the Imperial City, many hours of quest and story content, new PvE dungeons, a huge PvP public dungeon, the Tel Var Stone system, an expanded crafting system, twenty-three new item sets, new Undaunted pledges, many combat and gameplay improvements and much more.


Released on

Genres

RPG


More Info on IGDB


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Meh. Lots of raids and PVP stuff. Spent a lot of time when I was a teen grinding in here, but there isn't much actual story or substance which I want regarding Elder Scrolls.

Reviewed after ~10 hours in the DLC zones - completed all quests, discovered all locations, did some world bosses. Also spent 2 hours in both DLC dungeons - Imperial Prison and White-Gold Tower.

I am playing all ESO DLCs in a chronological order, and this came first, right after I finished with my alliance quest and the main storyline of the base game.
Truth be told, I am glad they came to their senses and never attempted to repeat what they did with this DLC. PVP and PVE content rarely match, and especially so in a game where PVP is, and always will be, treated as a separate playstyle.
I do not mind doing side activities, achievement hunting or collectable scouring in a PVP zone – the constant threat of an enemy player ganking you, or a band of roving PVPers wiping you off the face of Tamriel when you turn a corner is an unmatched experience in ESO. It adds considerate danger and challenge to everything you are trying to do.
More so, Imperial City is completely different from Cyrodiil. In Cyrodiil, you can usually see enemies from miles away, riding down plain fields or attacking forts in groups. In the Imperial City (or the Sewers), enemies can appear almost immediately, from corners that you forgot to check or go around. Your only help is combat music that begins playing when an enemy player is nearby.
However, since the entire zone is PVP, so is its storyline. Besides that, the questline seems to be made for a casual solo player but requires significantly more experience than anything else in the game. In some instances, zone quests require you to fight off waves of enemies with bosses as challenging as world bosses. This means that unless you are a high-CP character with knowledge of the game’s systems, this storyline will, without a doubt, cause significant trouble.
And again, all of the combat encounters are also sprinkled with PVP on top. While you’re struggling to stay alive fighting off waves of bosses, a chance enemy player can easily come from behind and end your miserable 30-minute struggle with a story boss. To say it is annoying is an understatement.
The storyline itself is quite interesting lore-wise, but suffers from a very repetitive quest design, as each quest is clearly built around navigating a PVP zone and doing mostly combat encounters. A big diversion from quests in base game zones, as well as quests in later DLCs.
However, I must give props to the idea of the Imperial Sewers – a sprawling public dungeon space with PVP is exactly how the entire DLC should’ve looked like. No zone story, just messing around fighting bosses and players. The insane size of the zone means you rarely feel cramped against players, allowing you ample room to breathe and explore, but retaining the threat of someone coming around the corner.

Storyline and lore: 3/5 Mediocre. Good conclusion but bad integration with a PVP zone, and repetitive combat quests.

Environment: 4/5 Good. Interesting twist on Imperial City, and Sewers are both interesting and entertaining to explore. A bit too much trademark "Molag Balls purple" after Coldharbour, but what can you do right?

Gameplay and activities: 3/5 Mediocre (4/5 if I disregard bad mix of storyline and PVP). Fun PVP and PVE content when you're not trying to simply do the story. Weird choice to put a storyline.

Music: 3/5 Mediocre. Nothing impressive at all, mostly rehashed tracks.