So far the worst quest I have come across in The Elder Scrolls series (from playing Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim and ESO) has got to be the quest “A Lasting Winter” in the Elder Scrolls Online. In this quest, you are tasked with finding powerful relics for Queen Ayrenn’s ratification ceremony, as a part of the Aldmeri Dominion quest-line in Grahtwood. Upon arriving at the Falinesti Winter Site, you’re met by an NPC who gives a vague description of what’s going on. She asks that you find a different NPC, further in amongst the ruins. This NPC will, conveniently, be able to activate certain Welkynd stones around the area. So you have to guide him around an area with absolutely no enemies whatsoever, to watch projections of an Elf denying a Khajiiti trickster God the chance to sleep with her. Since there are no enemies, it makes you wonder why he couldn’t have gone and seen for himself, and just summarized things for you.
Upon completing this, we’re sent to yet ANOTHER NPC, who basically says “I don’t know what’s going on, but what you’re looking for is in one of the caves near here. Watch out for the Frost Trolls.” So you descend into the dig-site, and where you usually expect a plethora of enemy soldiers, you only get a handful of Frost Trolls and some random Skeevers (which doesn’t really make sense, and isn’t explained).
Here is a massive missed opportunity, as the whole setup is that the “big baddie” of this place, is a highly respected General of the Aldmeri Dominion, the very same Dominion that you’re trying to help. So, if you were expecting Dominion soldiers (who’d normally aid you in other quests) hostile or not, you’re in for a nasty disappointment, as only a couple of soldiers survived when the Frost Trolls “arrived”.
And regarding Trolls in ESO, they are tough, with lots of HP, and some powerful melee attacks (none at range though), but they are fairly tedious to fight, even for a group, as they don’t pose any diversity of threat, and because of their bulkiness, they slow down quest progression. Which you only ever want to do if the story is interesting enough, to make you want to experience more of it. And you’d think dealing with the imagery of a god SHOULD be an interesting concept, but here it feels forced.
You are given three markers, for three caves, and the quest says to “investigate”. In typical MMORPG fashion, this means that you have no idea which cave holds the answer. At least, and this is pretty much the only saving grace about this quest, it doesn’t have the mechanic where it’s ALWAYS the last place you look, that contains the answer. But it still breaks the natural flow of the story and play-through of the quest-line.
You find the vault, which would have been inaccessible until finding the correct cave, and enter, hearing that the Aldmeri General is inside, but all her soldiers would be captured inside. So you, again, expect hostile Dominion soldiers, but no, they have all been encased in ice. In their stead there are skeletons, ok, that makes some sense, I guess, but there are also Gargoyles. Not even more Frost Trolls, which though annoying would at least have been consistent. And the game offers no explanation as to why there are Gargoyles there.
You then bumble through an ice and snow-covered ruin, until you reach the General, who you try to reason with. That fails and you have to fight her. She then spawns a clone to fight you, and here is where things get a little buggy. Because of the way this fight is set up, you are to kill either the General or the clone, doesn’t matter, because the one you didn’t kill just becomes the real one, and if you’re too slow, will spawn another clone. If you’re too fast at taking them both out, the game doesn’t follow through, as the quest-line is MEANT for you to fight at least one original and one copy. Killing them too fast means that it doesn’t register, and you have to start the fight over and over, until you get the timing right. It also doesn’t explain why the General is able to spawn a fully non-ethereal clone, other than “she’s possessed by a God, so meh, magic or something.”
Never, since starting to play Skyrim in 2011, have a quest ever agitated me as much as this one quest did. And considering how I LOATHE the quest in Skyrim for Clavicus Vile (because of not one, but TWO characters with workbench-grinder voices), that says a lot.
But I am curious, what is the worst quest in a game that you’ve come across, and what makes it so bad?
Qa'Rajh Creations 