The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited - Imperial City (PlayStation 4) Review

The entrance to the Imperial City is in the middle of the large open PVP area of Cyrodiil. Once reached, it leads to a familiar place for those who remember Oblivion, returning them to the familiar old sewers of the Imperial City. These sewers act as the safe base of operations for the forces marshalling to take back the city. Inside are a number of merchants, crafting tables and quest givers, along with a central room filled with ladders that lead to each of the six districts that make up the city. The districts consist of the Arboretum, the Arena, the Elven Gardens, the Market district, the Noble district and the Temple district. Each has a set of quests to complete, along with unique rewards and some roaming powerful mini-bosses, as well as possibly the biggest danger: enemy players. As all three of the game's alliances are pushing to take back the Imperial City from the grip of Molag, they're taking the opportunity to fight each other on top of the Daedric forces.

These new zones are all massive and feel very individual. While there are some old enemies from Coldharbour, there are also plenty of brand new enemies to overcome. All of these foes are veteran level 16, so while all this new content is advertised available for all players level 10 and above, it is a very bad idea to try and attempt it at such a low level, or without a group of allies, at least. The mobs in the area will pose a considerable challenge to any non-veteran or high level players when taking into account the roaming mini-bosses, the amount of closely packed groups of enemies and, of course, the constant danger of enemy players. Ideally, it's best to experience this new content as intended, exploring it after completing the main campaign and reaching the veteran levels.

The sewers don't just act as the hub and base for proceedings in the Imperial City; there's also a considerable sized zone to explore inside the sewers, filled with enemies and some nice surprises for those who look hard enough, including some brand new world bosses that pose a hefty challenge. There are also two new dungeons included: the Imperial City Prison and the White-Gold Tower, both of which are available in Normal and Veteran mode, and scale with the group leader's level up to Veteran Rank 16. The Imperial City Prison pits players against some of the best boss encounters seen thus far in ESO, with great mechanics and designs. The White-Gold Tower feels very challenging at the moment, especially in Veteran mode. With many bosses feeling like a DPS check, this will, of course, get easier as the new equipment from the Imperial City starts to become more widespread, but, at the moment, it feels more like the gear check is the bigger blockade than mechanics of the encounters themselves. Both dungeons are very good, with real care given to the design and structure of each aspect. There is a considerable challenge presented in both, some fantastic unique bosses and the signature story running underneath.

For those who can brave the new content, the rewards are appropriate for the level of difficulty. The most widespread reward is a brand new type of currency to collect known as "Tel Var Stones." All mobs in the Imperial City drop these; a standard mob drops four stones, champions drop 12, and bosses 100 or 400. There's an interesting feature for the acquisition of these Tel Var Stones in that the drop rate actually multiplies depending on how many are currently held. For 100, a multiplier of 2x is applied to all drops; 3x at 1,000; and 4x at 10,000. The bonuses make for much quicker purchase of the gear rewards that are purchasable with Tel Var Stones, which, in turn, make the whole experience easier, but carrying the stones instead of banking them brings with it a considerable risk. A death from a mob will result in a loss of 10% of collected stones - a painful and annoying result, especially with the dangers of other players. Worse still, if an enemy player happens to land the killing blow, they are able to loot all Tel Var Stones currently collected! It's a great motivation to encourage PVP in these new war-torn zones, but can be quite off-putting to newcomers and anyone not used to this type of PVP.

Along with the loot that can be purchased, there is plenty of other loot to be obtained, too, with over 20 new armour sets that can be obtained through crafting via two new racial crafting styles, Tel Var Stone vendors, dungeon runs and the Trophy Vaults. The Tel Var Stone vendors have a range of armour sets, along with the usual boxes that contain a random equipment item. The system of Trophy Vaults is new to the series. Both inside the dungeons and each of the districts there is a Trophy Vault filled with some of the best rewards of this new content, but they require another new token drop. These trophy items are unique to the equivalent zone or dungeon. The zone trophy items can randomly drop from the enemies in the zone, while the dungeon trophy items for the dungeons can only drop from bosses in the Veteran versions of their dungeons.

As with all MMOs, there is plenty to do to acquire the latest and greatest of equipment, and find the motifs to be able to craft the new Glass and Daedric racial gear, with lots of grinding to save up enough tokens to purchase the new armour sets. There is another type of prize that will likely be the most wanted of all the loot; rewards that will be more sought after than even the highest DPS weapons or best stat armour: the cosmetic rewards! There are new mounts, polymorphs, costumes and minipets for those able to overcome some of the biggest challenges in the new content… or just those willing to throw some money on the crown store. For example, completing some quest lines can reward giant Daedric bloodsucking tick minipets, a bit of luck when opening lockboxes can grant a Daedric polymorph ability, and for real cash, the Mind Shriven Steed is a superb looking horse.

Those with an ESO Plus account will receive the DLC for free, but anyone without will need to pay 3000 crowns. Strangely, the DLC cannot be bought on the PlayStation Store; it can only be purchased in-game via the microtransaction currency of crowns. Annoyingly, the DLC costs 2500 crowns and the denominations of the currency ends up leaving 500 crowns over, since 3000 have to be purchased. It's not a big deal, but feels like unnecessary cash grabbing. This is mitigated by the sheer amount of content presented in the DLC itself, which is easily worth the full 3000 crowns.