Reviewed after ~35 hours of gameplay. Zone story and almost all side quests complete, all points of interest discovered and completed, both dungeons explored and partially beaten, Maelstrom Arena is sadly only half-done, but most exploration- and quest-based achievements complete.

Can’t say a single bad thing about this DLC. I wholeheartedly enjoyed it.

This is ESO’s first expansion-sized DLC, before their usual annual release schedule of expansion, DLC and two dungeons was even a thing. If this DLC would be released today, it would certainly be a chapter.

The environment is a somberly beautiful one. There are visible improvements in environmental design everywhere you go – areas are more fleshed out, interiors are more detailed and varied, and everything seems to “stick” better. This is in start contrast to the base game, where a lot of the zones looked like they were half-arsed and a set of 10 different assets for each “race” was near-randomly plopped everywhere you go.

Here, there is a very satisfying variety in subzones – from the frosty north, to a tundra-like Morkul Plain, all the way to the beautiful pine and spruce forests of the Frostbeak Ridge. Orsinium itself is a marvel to behold – the first city in ESO that FEELS like a city, and not a glorified MMO plaza with 5 oversized “buildings” surrounding it. I am glad that ESO (starting from Orsinium) embraced the fact that they are not – to no one’s surprise – a mainline TES game, and decided that they do not need to make every door openable, and every building enterable. This allows for a much denser, more beautiful cityscape, and one that feels a lot more interesting to explore as you discover small overlooks, balconies, little alleyways and whatnot.

The main story was fun and engaging, and thankfully never relied on a single gimmick to carry it through. A lot of the things that subsequent ESO releases have since taken for granted were first introduced here, so I am as much praising ESOs general DLC quality as I am praising this DLC in particular – the reliance on fetch and kill mechanics is drastically reduced, the quests are varied and do not follow a linear path through the zone as if you’re going through an amusement park, but leave significant areas for you to explore, the characters are fun to engage as well. Yeah, the plot twist is expectedly easy, but if you treat this story as something that you would read in a folk tale rather than a fantasy novel, you’ll be alright.

The side quests are also fun – especially Stibbons and Raynor/Kireth duo quests. Fun. There are also THANKFULLY finally achievement activities that aren’t based on dungeons, boss killing or angling. Loads of fun were had collecting the exhibits for the House of Orsimer Glories and jumping off the waterfall. A little bit less fun was had trying to find the solicitor and the fighter for those two annoying achievements. Failed that.

The two public dungeons are also engaging and diverse – especially Old Orsinium, which had a very thematically strong quest and overall atmosphere.

And obviously, the Maelstrom Arena is a great, unique addition to the game. An amazing way to test your solo skills in a fun and engaging game mode, also a great piece of worldbuilding in there as well.

Storyline and lore: 5/5. Ridiculously nice improvement to Orcish culture, nice quest variety.

Environment: 4/5. Diverse environments with lots of interesting discoveries to be made.
Gameplay and activities: 5/5. Amazing addition of Maelstrom Arena, nice collectable quest, nice dungeons.

Music: 4/5. Impressive at times.

Tamriel is an interesting place and I always want to explore a new area (or revisit an old one) in that world as well as the culture and customs of the people who live there. This has always been the exciting thing a new Elder Scrolls game even if I fully admit that I didn't like IV or V that much. An MMO with a regular release of new expansions is a good means of exploring this instead of waiting many years between mainline entries even if these DLCs will never be as deep as a full game. In this regard, I think Orsinium is quite successful. The Orsimer were never an Elder Scrolls race I was particularly interested in but I've come out the other side of this expansion feeling differently. I might play as an Orc in VI if it ever comes out. The story is pretty good even if the basic plot is fairly familiar with stuff you've seen in the base game. Kingmaking and an evil cult. There's so many evil cults in Elder Scrolls Online. Still, I enjoyed playing through and was interested in the characters. The new zone, Wrothgar is fun to explore and I liked the city of Orsinium itself. The base game cities could be pretty boring so the DLCs have stepped up in that regard. There isn't anything new with the gameplay but I did enjoy the solo Maelstrom Arena. It's nice to have solo content that's actually pretty challenging and it gave you new weapons that are still very useful for builds 8 years later. Definitely worth playing through if you enjoy the main game.