This year's Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase featured some of the most anticipated Xbox and Bethesda games, along with bringing some attention to The Elder Scrolls Online: High Isle, which is coming to consoles later this month. This latest expansion for The Elder Scrolls Online brings some surprising new features to the game, along with introducing a region never-before-seen in an Elder Scrolls title.
The Elder Scrolls Online arrived in 2014, an MMORPG from Zenimax boasting a huge open world, fully voiced dialogue and applying many traditional Elder Scrolls gameplay features to an MMO setting. Players have the freedom to equip weapons and armor regardless of their chosen class, along with the option to join organizations that each have their own skill trees. Over the years, the game has received several major expansions that added new classes like Necromancers and organizations such as the Psijic Order. The game has even included previous Elder Scrolls locales such as Morrowind and Cyrodiil.
The game's latest chapter is High Isle, which was released a week ago as a $40 USD expansion. High Isle brings players to the Systres Archipelago, home of the magically inclined human Bretons and their famous knights. While many past expansions to the game have increasingly raised the stakes to apocalyptic levels, players are enjoying High Isle's more grounded storyline, which focuses on worldly political intrigue rather than yet another existential threat to all existence. The latest trailer shown at the Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase teases some of the story, involving a plot to reignite the Three Banners War which has been ongoing among the major factions since the game's inception.
High Isle comes with roughly 30 hours of story content and side quests, a fair amount for an MMO expansion when compared to Star Wars: The Old Republic's incredibly short expansion earlier this year, though slightly shorter than the recent Final Fantasy 14: Endwalker, which took upwards of 50 hours to complete. The new region also comes with two new companion characters to unlock which can assist players in combat similar to Star Wars: The Old Republic. A new collectible card game, Tales of Tribute, has been added, giving players something new to focus on as they visit taverns around Tamriel.
While the High Isle expansion hasn't brought anything groundbreaking like a new class or skill tree, the new story content is a welcome addition and the card game can serve as a means of encouraging players to explore the game's world to work on their collection. Much like The Witcher 3's Gwent, it gives players a reason to visit locations such as taverns and interact with NPCs they normally wouldn't. In this way, High Isle helps make The Elder Scrolls Online slightly more immersive.
The Elder Scrolls Online: High Isle is available for PC, and will be available for Playstation and Xbox on June 21, 2022.