The new chapter of The Elder Scrolls Online saga is coming soon and it is looking like it’s going to be a visual feast for the eyes. Not only will the new chapter High Isle be set in the beautiful Systres Archipelago, but it will also be a break from the dark events of Blackwood where Mehrunes Dagon threatens all of Tamriel.
The storyline itself is around 30 hours of gameplay, with a new prologue quest. When you look at the map of Tamriel, High Isle (or rather the Sysres Archipelago) is situated to the west of Tamriel. Although it looks smaller than many areas on the map, the developers have assured us that looks are deceiving in this case and that the explorable space is similar to other chapters.
READ MORE The Elder Scrolls Online: High Isle Announced
The Elder Scrolls Online: High Isle is a chapter focused on political intrigue as the Three Banner War is the centre of the storyline. The Sysres Archipelago is made up of two islands from which the Breton nation originated:
- High Isle is the largest island and home to high society – because the Bretons are a fuedal nation, High Isle is where all their nobility and upper class live. Here you can expect a lot of wealth and class, finery and quite possibly snobbish dialogue from Bretons with their noses in the air, while exploring beautiful cliffside locations with magestic castles.
- Amenos is a smaller island that holds a prison built into a caldera, mainly for those who the society of High Isle deem as “undesireables” and political prisoners (think the Tower of London vibes). With the dank prison and the lush, jungle rainforest, it should prove to be an interesting area to explore.
The team over at The Elder Scrolls Online has explained that the storyline for High Isle is a lot more grounded than some of the chapters we have seen. There will be a little cloak and dagger action as secret peace talks happen, but the team doesnt want to give away whether or not your choices and actions will make a difference (which usually means that it probably will, but they don’t want to spoil it for us). The different orders will be fighting it out for control of High Isle – The Ascendant Order seems to want to disrupt peace at any cost, while The Steadfast tries to work toward helping the people in a humanitarian effort to reconcile the factions.
New additions to The Elder Scrolls Online with the High Isle chapter include:
- A new trial: Dreadsail Reef – Similar to Rockgrove in size, the new 12 player trial is a little different to what veteran TESO players are used to. The nobels will send you and your allies to fight the Dreadsail pirates at their island hideaway.
- Tales of Tribute: A new “tavern” card game coming to TESO which allows you to play against your friend (and frenemies) or NPCs. You will be able to build your card decks as you play through storylines and complete missions in-game and you will not be able to trade or sell them – you will need to unlock them in-game.
- Two new companions: Ember, a Khajiit sorcerer with an attitude and Isobel Velois, the upstanding Breton knight.
- New world event: Volcanic Vents – uncover the secrets of the volcanic fissures that have started appearing on the islands of Systres with the help of the Stonelore druids.
- AMD FSR support
- New quick-select wheel to be added to PC for emotes, consumables, etc. (similar to how console players have).
- Mundus stones will now be added to the armoury (due to popular demand by players – see… some game companies do listen to their community)
- Leaderboards are being re-factored
I was able to play a preview server of the new High Isle chapter, and I can tell you that it looks really amazing so far. Of course, with it being a preview version, there are some elements that will change and some tweaks that have to be made. I am truly looking forward to playing the PTS server to capture some pre-launch footage of the new chapter to show all the new elements.
PC requirements for The Elder Scrolls Online: High Isle are the same as in previous chapters, so there’s no need to worry if you are already playing the game on PC. Some really good news for console players is that the developers have no plans to make upcoming chapters exclusive to newer generation consoles, so you can still happily play The Elder Scrolls Online on Playstation 4 or Xbox One without feeling like you are going to miss out on the new content.
The Elder Scrolls Online: High Isle releases on 6 June 2022 on PC and on 21 June 2022 for console players.
This article was written by Sheree Buchholz
