Welcome to The Elder Scrolls Online Necrom and the Shadow over Morrowind saga! For the first time since 1994, the mystical borders of the Telvanni Peninsula are available for us to explore. The Daedric Prince of Knowledge, Hermaeus Mora, harbors and protects many secrets that are best kept from mortals and Daedra alike. Now, the One Who Knows’ most closely guarded mysteries are threatened by forces unknown, and reality itself is at risk!
In this Exploring ESO series, I’m going to dive into all the already-out expansions, chapters, and all goodies of The Elder Scrolls Online. ESO is available on PS4, PS5, Xbox, PC, and Mac and I played on PC via Steam. Thanks to Zenimax and Bethesda for the code.
If you have ever played the first-ever expansion from Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind you will like this. While not set in the same area it has the same overall vibe and look to it that makes old-school players feel right at home here. It is also one of the few places in all of Tamriel that is neutral to all the elves even though it is mostly inhabited by dark elves. The Telvanni peninsula is a strange and beautiful land with towering mushrooms and structures and vast open waters to the green hazed skies of the daedric realms in Apocrypha. This is also the first time we have seen this area since 1994 in The Elder Scrolls Arena.
In Necrom, you become an agent of Hermaeus Mora tasked with investigating a mysterious threat to the Daedric Prince’s most closely guarded secrets. You must seek out lost knowledge deep within the heart of the City of the Dead and walk between realities to uncover a vast conspiracy powerful enough to endanger Nirn and Oblivion alike. Necrom also features about 30 hours of content (even though it took me much longer) there are 9 main story missions alongside the random quests that you will come across and like the other chapters, it’s better to try and finish these random quests as much as you can to get some unique interactions at the end. As you delve deeper into this forbidding conundrum, you can encounter new and returning characters, including a powerful High Elf mage working with Mora called Leramil the Wise, the fan-favorite Morag Tong assassin Naryu, and many more.
Let’s Get Down to It
I have to say and maybe this is just me me but this chapter felt like it was sprung on us and not as promoted as say last year’s High Isle. By the time I remember it was that time of year, the code was already at my doorstep and then we had to cover summer games fest so this got pushed to the back burner. Even running into people around this expansion wasn’t super common compared to going to some of the older places like Skyrim or ever Morrowind itself where you still can’t get a moment alone. I don’t know if this was because of the apparent low promotion or that people were just so busy with other things.
However aside from that there is a new character class the arcanist and it is a powerful character with some unique moves. Especially the chest beam-like blast that reminds me of the bot companion in Nier Automata. I did use my main character for most of this review just for the sheer strength she has over new characters and certain perks that she had in conversations that would be more helpful than my other characters that don’t have those perks unlocked. This is also the 3rd new class ever brought in and the 1st new class since 2019 Elsywer’s Necromancers and 2017’s Wardens.
In this new chapter, there are a few new mounts. Tales of Tribute decks, 12 new fish, and non-combat pets to entertain you endlessly, there are also 2 new companions both of which I got but didn’t use all that much as I am still trying to max my relationship with the previous 4 companions. There is also a new 12-person trail called Sanity’s Edge, 10 points of interest, 6 striking locals, 3 in-world set stations, 2 public dungeons, 16 shrines, 6 delves, 6 world bosses, 18 sky shards, and 10 lore books. To add a cherry on top there are 2 new houses (a house at the bar that everyone gets for free and emissary enclave for 1.3 mil gold), with the new houses comes 199 new furnishing items.
The new chapter has brought in region-specific world events called Bastion Nymics for groups of 4 players. This aside from the 12-person Trial Sanity’s Edge was the only new content I didn’t do. It is a bit of a process to set up, it sees you having to fight herald seeker enemies which are very hard opponents, and get stuff from them to pour into the pools to go to that areas to fight. I also noticed that there seems to be some technical issues when I first played this expansion as I had to log out and quit several times because I couldn’t talk to or pick anything up.
Updates Baby!
Along with Necrom came some new and much-needed updates. Most of the updates were quality-of-life things that people have been asking for over the years. You can now favorite your collectibles and mounts. Not only does that mean that you can always find your favs but it means right at your fingertips will be your hard earn collectibles to show off to fellow players. You can also now natively fillet fish but I will admit it is not as good as Votans add on you can get off of Nexus mods or a place like that will do it automatically in stacks for you instead of 1 by 1 but for those who don’t use outside add ons this is great especially if you are trying to get your master fisher achievement or want to grind out provisioning. I will need to go back and get all those fish as well. Pray for me it’s gonna take forever.
While this expansion is cool and adds more to the world of Tamriel and gives us more about the history of Morrowind it is not my favorite. I really enjoyed High Isles from last year more than I enjoyed this and not just for all the things High Isles brought into the world. I will always recommend the deluxe edition mainly to get the new goodies but to also get every other chapter already released.
Necrom is a must-play if you are already deep into the world of ESO and want to see more of the secrets within. As the year goes and more of the content is dropped my opinion might change but as of right now this is gonna be a 7/10 for me but 70% is still a pass. Again thanks to Bethesda and Zenimax for the code sorry it took so long to get this out but y’all know I really like to dive into every corner I can. Stay tuned for more!
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ESO: Necrom
$39.99
Pros
- Beautiful Area
- Engaging Story
Cons
- Not as populated
- Harder to do world events
