The Elder Scrolls Online

 PC
User Score
5.7

Mixed or average reviews- based on 2703 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,210 out of 2703
  2. Mixed: 447 out of 2703
  3. Negative: 1,046 out of 2703
Buy Now
Buy on

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. bigbeefytaco
    May 8, 2014
    5
    ESO is just an average mmo. the leveling system and crafting are amazing, but the gameplay is very dull and boring and the combat is very clunky and unresponsive. the botting and gold sellers are almost unbearable. the dungeons in the game are not bad if you can get past all the bugs. but imo there many free to play mmo out there that do a way better job with out a subscription i can notESO is just an average mmo. the leveling system and crafting are amazing, but the gameplay is very dull and boring and the combat is very clunky and unresponsive. the botting and gold sellers are almost unbearable. the dungeons in the game are not bad if you can get past all the bugs. but imo there many free to play mmo out there that do a way better job with out a subscription i can not justify spending money on such a average mmo. wait till it goes free to play but even then go try out other mmo games you'll probably find something better.… Expand
  2. brandog0
    May 8, 2014
    5
    ESO is a good game no doubt, but is it worth the subscription fee? hell no! there are way to many bugs and the game doesn't feel any different from any other MMO out there, even some free to play MMO's are better than this so why would I pay $60 for the game then have to shell out nearly 180 a month for a game that is average no less? but like I said it's not a bad game but a subscriptionESO is a good game no doubt, but is it worth the subscription fee? hell no! there are way to many bugs and the game doesn't feel any different from any other MMO out there, even some free to play MMO's are better than this so why would I pay $60 for the game then have to shell out nearly 180 a month for a game that is average no less? but like I said it's not a bad game but a subscription fee is way to much money when you can get even better games for free.… Expand
  3. Zargor
    May 8, 2014
    7
    ESO issues that made me unsub after a month:

    - No EU servers, no timeline for the move - Bugs ("Loading" anyone?), Exploits, Unbalance - just too many of them - Unresponsive combat, especially the weapon switch, especially in PVP - Bad PVP map/keep design - No real incentive for PVP - no point in taking or holding scrolls and keeps, everything is so easy there's no meaning to it -    ESO issues that made me unsub after a month:

    - No EU servers, no timeline for the move
    - Bugs ("Loading" anyone?), Exploits, Unbalance - just too many of them
    - Unresponsive combat, especially the weapon switch, especially in PVP
    - Bad PVP map/keep design
    - No real incentive for PVP - no point in taking or holding scrolls and keeps, everything is so easy there's no meaning to it - emperorship is a joke
    - VR content is recycled and unbalanced other faction's content that kills replayability and faction pride
    - VR content is a pure grind without any progression, it is meaningless and extremely boring
    - grouping tool is horrible and discourages group play
    - daedric invasion is a joke, dark anchors are repetitive and pointless, why should anybody care about closing them?
    - poor communication from ZOS, horrible maintenance practices, ridiculous statements about future content without any timeline - they're basically trolling people with vague statements
    - on rails questing which doesn't do much to promote exploration
    - bad inventory design and management
    - lacking UI
    - bots, bots everywhere
    - players, players everywhere - instancing done very poorly and making most quests pointless or impossible to do in the "proper" way - an engaging story is cool but what's the point if 10 people come by and wreck chaos on everything, fart, barf and dance around - this is single player design failing badly in a MMO

    All in all, ESO has very little new (which is badly designed) and much old (badly designed as well). The game has very little of TES and feels a bland, generic fantasy MMO.
    Last but not least, it appears it's going for 18£ with 60 days game time included.
    I have shelled 49£ for it during preorder and feel deeply insulted by this.    … Expand
  4. mastershakez
    May 7, 2014
    2
    If you're a big fan of Elder Scrolls, you will more definitely hate this game. If however you're just a fan of MMORPGs, well you'll likely think this is below par at best...who was this game targeted to again? On the plus side, you can play as an Imperial for the low low price of $95 for your first month!

    Final score: TotallyNotACashGrab/10
  5. Laeris
    May 6, 2014
    1
    I'll keep this short and sweet. If you are here looking for an Elder Scrolls game... you're sadly in the wrong place. Everything that made Elder Scrolls what it is... is not in this game. This is simply not an Elder Scrolls game. No criminal system, no open freedom, no sense of choice or consequences.

    In short, they would have been better off just naming it, "Online." TESO has no    I'll keep this short and sweet. If you are here looking for an Elder Scrolls game... you're sadly in the wrong place. Everything that made Elder Scrolls what it is... is not in this game. This is simply not an Elder Scrolls game. No criminal system, no open freedom, no sense of choice or consequences.

    In short, they would have been better off just naming it, "Online." TESO has no more in common with its Elder Scrolls roots than it does with games like WoW, Rift or EverQuest. I could go into the bugs or the half-baked quests and just terrible, terrible group mechanics... but I don't need to. This is a strictly generic online MMORPG. Nothing more, nothing less.    … Expand
  6. kbrulles7
    May 6, 2014
    3
    It's probably a great MMO - I dunno I don't play them but it isn't the same experience as the traditional Elder Scrolls game. I just couldn't get into it

    I hope to the gods they don't do this with Fallout.
  7. philginge
    May 6, 2014
    9
    Really enjoying this game, if anything the more I play the better its getting! Currently VR2 and enjoying the game far more then I did 1-50! Looking forward to the Adventure zone content, but I have got lots to explore and do before all that! :)
  8. Ultimx
    May 5, 2014
    10
    I dont know what the fuss is about the game, i kept hearing how bad it was but when i bought the game a couple weeks after the release it felt like an elder scroll game with other players in it.. So far ive been enjoying everything about the game, from the graphics to the character depth, the story, the quests, i got to say its very well done. The only problem i have is that there is noI dont know what the fuss is about the game, i kept hearing how bad it was but when i bought the game a couple weeks after the release it felt like an elder scroll game with other players in it.. So far ive been enjoying everything about the game, from the graphics to the character depth, the story, the quests, i got to say its very well done. The only problem i have is that there is no way to change the FOV so the first person might not appeal to some, but they are adding it soon, so im excited, and there is lots more to come in future updates, l theves guild and dark brotherhood :D… Expand
  9. moholdt
    May 5, 2014
    0
    I keep logging in and try to enjoy the game, I want it to be good. I really do. But it is so boring. It feels like a very slow single player game with other players annoying the **** out of you. Looting chests you want to loot, grabbing ores before you get it. Everything is expensive so you have to grind money. Stay away from this game.
  10. jrp07
    May 5, 2014
    10
    I can't believe all of the negativity here. I played WoW for 6 years, Rift for 2 years, GW on and off for almost a decade and I've got to say, this is my favorite MMO yet. The PVP is spectacular. You won't play another MMO with immersion quite as nice as this. Sure, it has the occasional bug, but the zenimax team has been very helpful and go through quite a few social mediums (reddit,I can't believe all of the negativity here. I played WoW for 6 years, Rift for 2 years, GW on and off for almost a decade and I've got to say, this is my favorite MMO yet. The PVP is spectacular. You won't play another MMO with immersion quite as nice as this. Sure, it has the occasional bug, but the zenimax team has been very helpful and go through quite a few social mediums (reddit, twitter, etc) to connect with you and help you.

    I'm really thrown off by some of the false comments here, such as you can't do the fighters guild quest line as a sorcerer? Not true... any class can do all the guilds, and any class can do basically any role... Sorcerers have no aoe control? LOL! sorcerers have the best aoe control in the ****ing game! You can do WHAT YOU WANT. Want to be a Sorcerer tank? Go for it! Nightblade caster? Sure! it's brilliant. You can join up to 5 guilds and each guild has it's own store you can list items on, which creates the way for specialized guilds such as a crafting guild or werewolf guild etc. Make your own guild with its own rules, and then go into pvp and capture a keep or a blacksmith under its banner!

    It seriously feels like half of the people who reviewed this game haven't even played it, and I'm guessing most of them that did got to level 5 and quit. The reviews here do NOT do the game justice, are people trying to force it to go f2p so they can afford it? I just don't get it. The game is absolutely gorgeous. Ran smooth on a 400vs400vs400 pvp battle I was in.

    I read another review that said ES:O doesn't have the open world feel of WoW and I haven't the slightest idea of what he's talking about. WoW was spent at quest hubs doing collecting quests or kill X amt of mobs etc. ES:O you can just run wherever you want in your zone and pick up quests as you go! See a black marker on your compass? Go run there and check it out, there's probably a quest for you! Sure, you will still have kill X amt of mob quests here and there, every mmo will it's the nature of the game, but on the whole the quests are much much more entertaining than classic mmos. I find myself actually taking time to hear what the questgivers have to say because they are well written the way ES always is. I've enjoyed every part of leveling my 2 guys to veteran rank 1, at no point did I feel like I was just grinding to get to max level.

    I've also read a review just now saying there is no depth or content in the game... are you kidding me? There are already a ton of dungeons and the amount of content you do just to get to veteran rank 1 is IMMENSE. It is not a cakewalk to level 50, it takes a decent amount of time to level because of the amount of content in the game. and when you do hit veteran rank, you are allowed to explore the other alliances zones with scaled up monsters so you have 3x the amount of content to explore... not to mention the adventure zones which are coming out. There is depth in other areas too, for example instead of just buying a mount you have the ability to feed it once every 20 hours and increase either its speed / stamina / carrying capacity... you can level your horse to 50!

    I also read that zenimax is adding the dark brotherhood, spellcrafting, a justice system where you can kill npcs like other ES games (with consequences if you're caught), horseracing, etc etc... they have an incredible amount of things planned and I can't freakin wait.

    Anyways, I want to get back to playing but if you're like me and check metacritic before you buy a game these reviews could leave you feeling extremely turned off at a glance... I implore you to search for gameplay videos from neutral sources so you can make up your own mind. I can tell you, though, from someone who has lived and breathed MMOs since I was a child that this game is the funnest time I've had in my life gaming since Vanilla WoW and I don't think I've ever been this immersed in a game ever... just take a look at screenshots with water on ultra settings in first person view... stunning. Did I mention I can run ultra with 4gb ram and a gtx 650 ti?

    If you are a fan of MMOs or gaming in general I strongly suggest this game. Seriously. A lot of the negative reviews here are completely false or tacked on in the first week of release when the game was admittedly a gongshow (most mmo releases are, by comparison this one was pretty smooth). Some of the negative comments are warrented, and there are improvements that can be made. What makes me optimistic is that Zenimax is constantly communicating with their customers, and they are already trending in the right direction judging by their first update notes. WoW was not a shiny diamond a month after its release. An epic, immerse framework has been laid for this game, and it is only going to improve with each update.
    Don't let the BS comments from the people who want to see this game fail dissuade you from buying, especially if you love MMOs. I'll be pvping on bloodthorn in the meanwhile :)    … Expand
  11. Malak41
    May 5, 2014
    10
    J'ai terminé les zones de ma faction, arriver au niveau 50 on passe automatiquement vétéran 1 et on peut aller jusqu'à vétéran 10 (vétéran 12 avec la nouvelle zone qui arrive dans quelques jours) donc 61 lvl. Déjà, à ce niveau-là (vétéran 3), ce que j'ai vu du jeu était juste immense, vraiment immense est super beau...

    Maintenant je dois faire les zones vétéran, c'est-à-dire faire les    J'ai terminé les zones de ma faction, arriver au niveau 50 on passe automatiquement vétéran 1 et on peut aller jusqu'à vétéran 10 (vétéran 12 avec la nouvelle zone qui arrive dans quelques jours) donc 61 lvl. Déjà, à ce niveau-là (vétéran 3), ce que j'ai vu du jeu était juste immense, vraiment immense est super beau...

    Maintenant je dois faire les zones vétéran, c'est-à-dire faire les maps des deux autres camps (coeur ébène et aldmeri pour moi) et là on en voit même plus le bout tellement c'est immense...

    On peut aussi évoquer Cyrodiil pour le PVP, que dire ? Ben quand on est à cheval au milieu d'une plaine et que l'on regarde sa carte pour voir où il y a de l'action et qu'ensuite on remarque une cinquantaine de cavaliers allier qui se dirige vers un fort ennemi, ben du coup on va avec eux pour participer à la fête, on est en plein seigneur des anneaux 0_0

    Bref, le jeu est très beau, vraiment immense, les quêtes sont scénarisées et parfois bien délirante, le doublage des voix en français est excellent, des milliers de **** livres en français, du monde partout preuve d'un jeu vivant et même bien plus... Des donjon vraiment excellent, le genre et renouveler c'est sûr et c'est juste l'un des meilleurs jeux auquel j'ai joué depuis plusieurs années.

    Donc je n'ai vraiment pas peur de dire que ce jeu est une bombe, vraiment du très très lourd et quand je lis certains commentaires sur certains sites j'ai le sourire, car je me rends compte que parmi les personnes qui critiquent le jeu, pas beaucoup y ont joué. Je n'ai même pas fini les deux autres zones et il me reste beaucoup à faire en cyrodiil...

    Ce jeu est fait pour rester sur la durée et il va clairement y rester.

    Maintenant les points négatifs :

    - Le mégaserveur EU est situé aux USA et ça lag beaucoup. Il faut donc patienter, car le megaserveur va arriver en Europe, mais quand, c'est une autre histoire. Normalement à la sortie du jeu sur console en Juin, mais ça c'est mon avis.

    - Pas mal de BOT (personnage contrôlé par logiciel) qui reste sur des points de pop (d'apparition) de boss de donjon public (pas les donjons de groupe) et qui reste là à taper pour monter en xp et j'imagine que ça doit ramasser automatiquement les objets aussi. (problème de moins en moins fréquent)

    - Des bugs, oui, il y en a eu pas mal, beaucoup ont été corrigés et c'est toujours comme ça à la sortie d'un mmo. Des bugs il en reste et ils seront corrigés à leur tour. Mais comment il ne pourrait pas y avoir de bug franchement ? C'est impossible, le jeu est immense, c'est colossal et on ne peut pas tester à fond ce genre de jeux sans qu'il y ait des milliers de joueurs qui se baladent dessus pour justement identifier les défauts. Un mmorpg de cette qualité et peut-être quatre ou cinq fois plus compliqués à faire qu'un jeu solo, aussi beau et grand soit-il. Aucun bug ne m'a bloqué dans ma progression.

    Franchement c'est le jeu que beaucoup de personnes attendait, on n'est pas dans un lancement foireux d'un mmo quelconque. Les possibilités sont sans fin, on peut devenir vampire ou loup-garou, participé à des batailles épiques genre seigneur des anneaux en pvp, le pve est excellent est vraiment super bien scénarisée, le craft des métiers est vraiment pas mal du tout, toutes les classes sont sympa à jouer, il y en a pour tous les goûts, énormément d'émotes en jeu (pour faire le mort c'est /faint ; ), bref...

    L'un des meilleurs jeux auquel j'ai joué.

    Le meilleur mmorpg auquel j'ai joué.    … Expand
  12. garth344
    May 5, 2014
    10
    Beautiful game, never get tired of playing it. Currently Veteran rank 1.

    Best skill system in any mmo Ive played.

    Best crafting system in any mmo Ive played.
  13. bbnj
    May 5, 2014
    0
    Stopped playing with 10 days remanining on my account. PVE is boring as hell, the world is bland and console budgeted, there's loading screens everywhere, and PVP is broken as hell in so many ways its ridiculous. And even if it wasn't it offers the same depth of a potato. Skyrim with mods is much more entertaining.
  14. Iluvatar21
    May 5, 2014
    3
    ESO plays immersive but feels dull & lifeless. Biggest offense: uses the TES name. A singleplayer game cannot be an MMO & vice versa!
    ===========
    HOW I RATE: 10-9 score: perfect or near-perfect don't exist; 8 score: one of the best games ever. Top score; 7-6 score: great but not one of the best; 5-below score: serious flaws.
  15. awais142
    May 5, 2014
    3
    An elder scrolls game thats trying too hard to be an elder scrolls game and an mmorpg, cant make its mind up. Graphics are dull textured, the gold you get off enemies is ridiculously low, horses cost way to much and they made sure of that by limiting the gold income from grind. Game is disgusting in party grouping, you cant help other people quest that you have done, so you just watch themAn elder scrolls game thats trying too hard to be an elder scrolls game and an mmorpg, cant make its mind up. Graphics are dull textured, the gold you get off enemies is ridiculously low, horses cost way to much and they made sure of that by limiting the gold income from grind. Game is disgusting in party grouping, you cant help other people quest that you have done, so you just watch them do it on thier own, wtf is the point in grouping for quests then??

    Once again, a game trailer misrepresenting a mission with the cinematic to this quest with an epic invasion of daedric army, which of course only consisting of only 2 enemies ingame at a time and having them greet you like its just another sunny day at the beach really? Tricking your fans with trailers is just sad. Many areas you see people just waiting to kill a boss, where the hell is the innovating combat ? You just wait around for major enemies to spawn during a quest line, its disgusting and very boring. Entire game feels like a borefest, very soon to go free to play in no time.    … Expand
  16. Laxika
    May 4, 2014
    4
    I just want to write down my first impressions with the game. I'm a huge TES fan, played through Morrowind 10+ times at least and played a lot Skyrim too (Well I not really like Oblivion). I immediately jumped into ESO. Well, it was a big learning experience for me. :)

    What I liked in the game: - Voiced dialogues: hell yeah, all of the dialogues was voiced. It was awesome. - TES    I just want to write down my first impressions with the game. I'm a huge TES fan, played through Morrowind 10+ times at least and played a lot Skyrim too (Well I not really like Oblivion). I immediately jumped into ESO. Well, it was a big learning experience for me. :)

    What I liked in the game:
    - Voiced dialogues: hell yeah, all of the dialogues was voiced. It was awesome.
    - TES world/story: yeah I really like the storyline of the TES games.
    - Hard: the game is not easy to play. (Yeah I got killed a few times when not paid enough attention.) This is pretty rare nowadays.

    What I disliked:
    - Quests everywhere: well, in this game I find quest everywhere what's really annoyed me. I don't want to play WoW or smthing like that (really dislike WoW), I want to play a real TES game. Morrowind/Skyrim was all about exploring. Yess, there was a few quest (I'll never forget the quest with the pillow lady in Balmora haha), but not quests to the max level. After like 3-4 quest I stopped listening to the npcs and just clicked all the dialogues randomly till I got the next quest stage. (This ruined the voiced dialogues part very quickly.) I got frustrated after like 15 quest so I went out to do some exploring. I started to search about random daedra shrines/barrows/caves/bandit strongholds etc, but haven't found any cool while in the old TES games it took me less than 5 mins to find a random Tomb/Cave etc! (Ok, I found a cave with a quest in it but thats it.) What i found is a hella lot more quests (what annoyed me even more).
    - World map: everything on the map is a scaled down version compared to the other games. I know its an MMO, but it's really ruining the TES experience for me. (I don't know if High Hrothgar is in the game or not but it would be something like 20 meter high max. Yeah that's what high mean in this game.)
    Vvardenfell is not in the game: SERIOUSLY WHY?

    I'm pretty disappointed with it. (Not because it's bad, but because it's only TES in it's story/name/world.) If you are liking the TES games because the same reasons as me, don't buy this. If you like WoW type questing stuff just go and play.

    Well, I missed the PvP. (Just tried it for a little. Too little to write anything about it.)

    Fortunately they responded to my chargeback pretty fast. :)    … Expand
  17. Flatline1984
    May 4, 2014
    10
    Been playing MMO for 15 years this one by far is the best I've ever played. I'm so hooked I've stayed up for days just playing this game I'm current a veteran rank 7 and let me tell you if you thought this game will stop at level 50 you are so wrong it only opens up ten fold.. If your on the fence jump over trust me you won't regret it.
  18. FrenziedRoach
    May 4, 2014
    6
    Solid combat system and character development save this game from being a disaster. They've been very good about cracking down on bots. However......

    Very group unfriendly at this time, making it impossible to help friends who come in late to "catch up" with you. If you get out of syc with your partner, be prepared to listen to them struggle on a quest that would of been a breeze for    Solid combat system and character development save this game from being a disaster. They've been very good about cracking down on bots. However......

    Very group unfriendly at this time, making it impossible to help friends who come in late to "catch up" with you. If you get out of syc with your partner, be prepared to listen to them struggle on a quest that would of been a breeze for the two of you.

    I'd wait a couple months for a few more bugs to get ironed out. There's potential here, but it's too early to tell if it will ever be worth the 60 bucks plus subs.    … Expand
  19. AdamE
    May 4, 2014
    10
    I was hesitant to buy this game because of the subscription. However, after taking the plunge and buying it, I would totally recommend it. The game looks great and the world is enormous. There are also tons of interesting quests to do. Overall, I imagine I'll spend a huge amount of time playing it.
  20. MaxArena
    May 4, 2014
    0
    Countless game-breaking bugs, reprehensible balance issues, absolutely laughable server performance, numerous unscheduled (further gamebreaking) hotfixes and maintenances, disappointing story-lines (Compared to EVERY other Elder Scrolls game), boring voice-actors (Cadwell excluded), a hideous economy system where everyone can craft everything they are ever going to need, end-game contentCountless game-breaking bugs, reprehensible balance issues, absolutely laughable server performance, numerous unscheduled (further gamebreaking) hotfixes and maintenances, disappointing story-lines (Compared to EVERY other Elder Scrolls game), boring voice-actors (Cadwell excluded), a hideous economy system where everyone can craft everything they are ever going to need, end-game content not even worth speaking of -- abhorring beyond belief: all of this is fused together into one of the most disappointing games I have ever had the misfortune of squandering 60$ on.

    I'd continue my checklist on the things that completely destroy this game and its title, but I'm confident that the character limit will not suffice. From one devoted fan of the Elder Scrolls series to another: DO NOT EVEN LAY YOUR EYES ON THIS GAME, IT IS NOT WORTH A SINGLE FRACTION OF THE DOSH IT ASKS FOR.

    That they even dare ask for a subscription fee for this average piece of **** is beyond me. I'd give this title a four, maybe even a five for the temporary entertainment it provided, but because of the franchise reputation it fails so miserably to uphold, it receives a 0. One can only hope that Bethesda issues immediate plans to meld this title with a free-to-play plan in the coming months in order to save what little dignity it still has.

    TL;DR:
    **** No.    … Expand
  21. Stargher
    May 4, 2014
    6
    I really wanted to like this game, but apart from character customization options, the story just couldn't keep me interested. I managed to play through all the starting areas, but the game lack the freedom and the spirit of the other Elder Scrolls games. Choices are meaningless and leveling is a chore. Quests are average and the whole thing feels lifeless. It is however an adequate MMO,I really wanted to like this game, but apart from character customization options, the story just couldn't keep me interested. I managed to play through all the starting areas, but the game lack the freedom and the spirit of the other Elder Scrolls games. Choices are meaningless and leveling is a chore. Quests are average and the whole thing feels lifeless. It is however an adequate MMO, just nothing special.… Expand
  22. xTobyMc
    May 4, 2014
    7
    The game is great, but I just feel the price to play the game and repetition of gameplay isn't worth my time anymore. I've been playing the game since beta and from initial release, but exactly one month later I'm quite frankly bored of the game. The look and feel of Elder Scrolls is definitely there, but it lacks the interesting NPC's and everything feels too non-interactive andThe game is great, but I just feel the price to play the game and repetition of gameplay isn't worth my time anymore. I've been playing the game since beta and from initial release, but exactly one month later I'm quite frankly bored of the game. The look and feel of Elder Scrolls is definitely there, but it lacks the interesting NPC's and everything feels too non-interactive and unrealistic. For example, characters show no facial expression and the quests they give you aren't interesting at all. It quite literally consists of speaking to someone, walking somewhere, collecting some stuff, killing a few people, then going back to the person you talked to. This is all the PvE seems to offer, over and over again. Personally I'm not a WvW or PvP fan either, so that doesn't interest me anyway. I'm also a solo gamer, and this game is definitely tedious if you don't have friends to play it with.

    I'm not going to slate the game and give it 1/10 just because I don't get along with it, because I know that many people will enjoy this game and I'm sure in a few years it'll be a very solid game. However, I would rather not be paying the subscription fee for what it's worth. If it was like Guild Wars 2 without subscription fees, I'd definitely reconsider playing it. I think I'll probably leave the game for a good few months and perhaps see how it progresses over time, perhaps they'll reduce/eliminate fees or make vast changes to the game.    … Expand
  23. intruder313
    May 4, 2014
    5
    Very average in most respects but the myriad broken quests (reported broken in Beta but launched anyway) bring it down further.
    The world may be large but I found it barren and as I'm not a big PvPer there was not much to do beyond the usual, turgid quest line.

    Needs more time in development to add content, but first they need to fix the stuff that they knew was broken at launch.
  24. JackandJoe
    May 4, 2014
    0
    So very disappointing. ESO is just so terribly bland and uninspired particularly with the endless, boring, on-rail quest chains and character progression, broken and poorly thought out grouping mechanics, dull, empty world with almost zero exploratory value, etc., etc., etc. Zenimax have tried to make both a single player Elder Scrolls game and an MMO in one, and in doing so have rippedSo very disappointing. ESO is just so terribly bland and uninspired particularly with the endless, boring, on-rail quest chains and character progression, broken and poorly thought out grouping mechanics, dull, empty world with almost zero exploratory value, etc., etc., etc. Zenimax have tried to make both a single player Elder Scrolls game and an MMO in one, and in doing so have ripped out almost everything that is enjoyable in each. A real black eye to a beloved franchise.… Expand
  25. ginnk
    May 4, 2014
    3
    Poor Elder Scroll Licence! This game is purely and simply bad! It's not an Elder Scroll game and not an MMO game, a bad mix of them. Pity.
    This game is not playable alone, if you want to level up , you could do this easily till level 7- After, if you wish to play alone, you have to stop the game, you'll can't do it - it becomes very hard to make XP ( 2 days to go to lvl 8, playing 8 hours    Poor Elder Scroll Licence! This game is purely and simply bad! It's not an Elder Scroll game and not an MMO game, a bad mix of them. Pity.
    This game is not playable alone, if you want to level up , you could do this easily till level 7- After, if you wish to play alone, you have to stop the game, you'll can't do it - it becomes very hard to make XP ( 2 days to go to lvl 8, playing 8 hours a day! That's purely inbelievable) Craft system is so ...bizarre - And there are still yet so much graphical bugs! (ressources dissapear just before you can collect them!) and fight are very frustrated, press on keyboard to escape doesn't work all time - sometimes yes, sometimes no... Then you die often - Very desappointing. Well, I go back to GW2, best solo playable MMO ever!    … Expand
  26. GoldAnt
    May 3, 2014
    10
    Great game. The people who are hating on this game are the ones treating it like an mmo where you blast through and try to level your character asap. The people enjoying this game are the ones actually doing quests, reading the lore, and immersing themselves in the incredible world that has been created here.
  27. MikeMosson
    May 3, 2014
    8
    I have played TES games for a long time and I have probably clocked a crazy amount of game time on them. I would say that it is not true that ESO is really a WoW killer, yea it is a good MMO and it is really good fun, but they have made it very expensive to play (£40 for a copy and then £8 a month). They have done really good things with the MMO by making the graphics good and you able toI have played TES games for a long time and I have probably clocked a crazy amount of game time on them. I would say that it is not true that ESO is really a WoW killer, yea it is a good MMO and it is really good fun, but they have made it very expensive to play (£40 for a copy and then £8 a month). They have done really good things with the MMO by making the graphics good and you able to go into 1st person mode etc which is amazing, I would suggest giving it a try because it's good but not as good as one of the single player games are.… Expand
  28. TheVindelator
    May 3, 2014
    9
    Buggy at times but wonderful in many ways. Graphics, quests and character progression are generally better than any mmo to date. It will take them some time before this game is perfect though.
  29. tmacdonald
    May 3, 2014
    9
    The Elder Scrolls Online is a great game which manages to make staple game features feel fun and fresh, and provides a world full of interesting places to explore. Everyone should take it upon themselves to play this marvellously crafted MMORPG
  30. YGint
    May 3, 2014
    1
    Played all beta days shockingly poor game.
    If you have a console then its much better as the game is dumbed down combat to make it work with console payers.
    Fight mechanics are a joke its not inventive its just poor. If you are like me a P.C player avoid this game till it goes Free To Play which will be soon. I love Elder Scrolls games this is not an Elder Scroll game. Joke of an MMO    Played all beta days shockingly poor game.
    If you have a console then its much better as the game is dumbed down combat to make it work with console payers.
    Fight mechanics are a joke its not inventive its just poor.
    If you are like me a P.C player avoid this game till it goes Free To Play which will be soon.
    I love Elder Scrolls games this is not an Elder Scroll game.
    Joke of an MMO I fortunately never had to pay the unbelievable start up costs thank God.
    Good points
    Decent not Nex Gen but decent graphics
    Bad points
    Clueless wanderlust of headless quest seeking completely directionless.
    Worst P.C fight mechanics no skill necessary at all therefore forget a challenge there is none (game mechanics great if you are a console masher and have no skills)
    You are paying a subscription and purchase price to Beta Test a game for a company who have no clue in MMO's
    Or you can believe the fanboys and paid reviewing lackeys    … Expand
  31. MARKET_DAY
    May 2, 2014
    1
    What a big fat turd.

    Yet again our hopes are dashed to pieces by a big name developer under-estimating what it takes to make a good MMO. And let me be clear, I'm not one of the players bashing this game because of all the bugs and technical issues at launch. That's whatever. Seasoned MMORPG player here back from vanilla EQ. I've sampled every big name mmo to date and I'm more than    What a big fat turd.

    Yet again our hopes are dashed to pieces by a big name developer under-estimating what it takes to make a good MMO.

    And let me be clear, I'm not one of the players bashing this game because of all the bugs and technical issues at launch. That's whatever. Seasoned MMORPG player here back from vanilla EQ. I've sampled every big name mmo to date and I'm more than familiar with rocky launches. They don't bother me, that's not the issue. This game is flawed at its foundation. Rotten from the inside, and no amount of tweaking or bug fixes will ever make it good. Bandaids don't fix cancer. (At least not yet? =D)

    The 2 fatal flaws:

    1. The combat sucks. That right there will murder your mmo in the womb. If they fixed every other issue and flaw this game has, it would still be a bad game if they left the combat the way it is.

    2. Half the players just wanted Skyrim with a multiplayer function. They didn't really want an mmo at all. They wanted their single player elder scrolls game, with the ability to run around with their friends and kill bandits together. The other half wanted a true-blue MMORPG with all its implied faculties. So what did Zenimax do? ~*The king said, "Get me a sword." So they brought a sword before the king. The king said, "Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other."*~ WHACK! And just like that, each crowd wound up with one bloody, viscera-leaking half of what could have been a deeply beloved game. ~*[Zenimax looks at their accountant] Where is TESO? Is she safe? Is she alright? [accountant replies] It seems...in your greed...you killed her... [Zenimax, clutching their collective skulls] I...? I couldn't have! She was alive, we made it playable on consoles AND the PC, I felt it! [Zenimax watches as their years of work and investment spiral the toilet bowl towards the inevitable F2P model] NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

    And now some knitty-gritty rambling.

    The combat is terrible (did I say that yet?) Whoever keeps peddling this "action MMO's are the future of the genre" idea should be castrated. No one wants to click their mouse for every single swing of their weapon in an mmo. Grinding trash mobs, while integral and necessary to the genre, needs to be as painless for the players as possible. TESO's combat system makes it incredibly punishing and tedious. And this whole active dodge/block mechanic is ridiculous and it needs to go away, it doesn't belong in an MMO.

    The story-line is mediocre, nothing new or exciting. Oh noes, a necromancer raising an army of the dead!? Whatever shall we-oh wait no one cares because this is boring.

    Leveling up is tedious (yeah, I'm using that word again because it suits this game so perfectly. In fact, I could have just typed that single word for my review and you'd know everything you need to know) even for an mmo. Again, mostly because of the failed combat system.

    I never even bothered trying the PvP due to all the horror stories I was hearing from other players.

    The 3-sided faction war was a great idea. There were a lot of great "ideas" behind this game. My hopes were so high. They got greedy, for one thing. For another, none of development staff were real MMO gamers. You can't make a good mmo if you're not good at playing MMO's. There's more I could say but I think I've gotten my point across to the whopping 2-3 people who will ever read this far. Time for pizza.    … Expand
  32. TheGroobster
    May 2, 2014
    5
    So I have been playing this game off an on including the Beta. There are some elements that the game does very well at and some that it fails spectacularly at. I will talk about the good things first.

    First of all, I love the class system and progression of your character. You can use any weapon with any class and there are tons of abilities to choose from. It really makes you think    So I have been playing this game off an on including the Beta. There are some elements that the game does very well at and some that it fails spectacularly at. I will talk about the good things first.

    First of all, I love the class system and progression of your character. You can use any weapon with any class and there are tons of abilities to choose from. It really makes you think when it comes to choosing new abilities. I also really like the crafting system. I was extremely disappointed with the GW2 crafting system. It ultimately pushed me to get ESO because it was so disappointing. However, I will say that researching traits can get confusing when trying to remember which traits you have already researched but you can easily find an add on for that which is another positive note. The add on system is really easy to use. Just drag and drop into your add ons folder and you are done.

    On a side note, PVP is very highly regarded in this game. I will admit I never really got to try it much. I went there as a low level and I didn't really like the experience. Sometimes there are players hiding and waiting to ambush you as you are on your way to the objective. I had a very hard time adjusting to the combat and understanding how I was supposed to play. I think it just takes some getting used to.

    Now on to the negatives. First of all, I find the questing system to be EXTREMELY bland and boring. I appreciate that all of the quests are voice acted, but I don't feel like I am having any real influence on the world. Much of the quest text seems very played out and bland. I do not get immersed in the story.

    Another thing is the graphics. They are not bad, but they are not amazing either. For some reason the view distance seems to be less effective over 60-70%. The water and shadows look amazing. But I was expecting more. Also I find the character models to be bland as well. I have never met an ugly NPC. They are all supermodels.

    Another thing to note is that there just aren't enough choices in this game. This is supposed to be an Elder Scrolls game but I can't attack guards or steal. It would be neat if they implemented a crime system or some kind of morality system.

    All in all I find this game very bland and uninspiring. I do regret paying for it but something inside me keeps wanting to give it another chance. Maybe if I level up more and get to the next area things will be more exciting. I might still do that but at some point I am going to cut it off. I am very hesitant to say that this game is worth $15 a month.    … Expand
  33. ConorHat
    May 2, 2014
    1
    Sub fees for a mediocre MMO in 2014? Obviously Bethesda hasn't learned the valuable lessons from all the other game companies who have failed, or maybe they were just so cocky about Elder Scrolls they thought failure would be impossible. Go right now and watch Angry Joe's ESO review. He summarizes my thoughts in his video nicely, the URL is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ov3B26h12C4
  34. Shellback
    May 2, 2014
    6
    The best thing about ESO is the music and sound effects.On the negative side it takes hundreds of hours to unlock weapon traits (800 hours total for all traits). This is obviously a tool used by the developer to keep people playing for months so they can get subscription fees. If you played Skyrim and thought the melee combat didn't give you the feeling of a hard enough impact on aThe best thing about ESO is the music and sound effects.On the negative side it takes hundreds of hours to unlock weapon traits (800 hours total for all traits). This is obviously a tool used by the developer to keep people playing for months so they can get subscription fees. If you played Skyrim and thought the melee combat didn't give you the feeling of a hard enough impact on a Drauger's skull, then this game is an improvement. The sound effects and impact of weapons are better. However, the quests can be confusing. Sometimes I had to restart the game in order to activate an item or quest. It's buggy.The player does not have that "Hero" feel of Skyrim. Once again I got suckered into the pre-game hype. For those of you contemplating buying this game, Listen to the reviews. If you are not an MMO fan don't waste your money. Go play play Skyrim again. I leveled 3 characters over level 20. I wanted it to sinks its claws into me like Skyrim did and have me wanting more. It never happened. The game is very buggy. If you do decide to waste your money I highly recommend the High Elf Sorcerer. Auridon's music and environment is much better then the other two guilds. The Sorcerer is super powerful with morphed perks. It wouldn't suprise me if Bethesda is just using this game as a test platform for the new single player Elder Scrolls game that they are rumored to be working on. I own every triple AAA game made in the past 10 years. I've been gaming since DOOM came out in 1993. If you are not an MMO fan don't waste your time and money.… Expand
  35. Inudiablo
    May 2, 2014
    5
    Being a long standing ElderScrolls + MMO fan(As I assume 90% of the reviewers claim) I had really high hopes for this game.

    The Good: I generally thing that this game looks good. Cranked up 2 max had me Ohhhing and Awwwing here or there. The humor is present, and with an amazing(sometimes not) voicecast it really brings the humor to home. Especially considering it's all elder    Being a long standing ElderScrolls + MMO fan(As I assume 90% of the reviewers claim) I had really high hopes for this game.

    The Good:
    I generally thing that this game looks good. Cranked up 2 max had me Ohhhing and Awwwing here or there.

    The humor is present, and with an amazing(sometimes not) voicecast it really brings the humor to home. Especially considering it's all elder scrolls based. Hearing jokes about kwarmas, skooma and the like really add charm to this game.

    I love that the npcs talk about you and what you have done. It makes walking around even without a party feel less empty.

    The bad
    Very uninspired quest design. There were a few solid quests here or there, but for the most part it is the same quest every single mmo has had before it. Go kill this many, go collect this many. Even the quests that have you choices that are unchangeable feel like they have no impact. Because they really don't impact all that much

    Goldspamming is a massive problem. And Zenimaxs response has been a bit lackluster. It is understandable though. Considering I don't even know HOW they would get rid of all of them. But regardless it does make general chat unusable. With bots constantly spamming.

    The ugly:
    Glitches.... Never in any mmo I have ever played have glitches been this rampant. And such terrible glitches at that. Market destroying dupes, falling through the floor(Happens a couple times every time I play), Quests just not completing. Monsters not doing what they were scripted to do (Walked through a aggressive area and the AI completely ignored me.) This is actually what made me decide to not resub. I can't justify the $15 a month along with my initial purchase for the dire straights this game is in right now. And the argument that all the forgotten mmos before it made the same mistake is disingenuous to all the people who paid for content they are not getting. For such an expensive game you should demand excellence, but the customer support is terrible.

    Overall: 5/10
    I don't understand how someone can give this game a 0/10 and keep a straight face. It is not by ANY means a 0/10. But it is also not a 10/10 that some people have put up. This is a solid game if you can get past the bugs that I could not. But it is absolutely nothing new. It is extremely... Average.    … Expand
  36. Ipara
    May 2, 2014
    7
    First my background. Played WoW for almost 7 years, was involved in the Rift Beta, SWTOR, Tera, and currently involved in the Beta of Wildstar, I've always enjoyed the Elder Scrolls series, so what's not to like with ESO? Well, for me, it's quite a bit. Having been a part of several of the Beta weekends before launch I, as well as others, had several issues which were never reallyFirst my background. Played WoW for almost 7 years, was involved in the Rift Beta, SWTOR, Tera, and currently involved in the Beta of Wildstar, I've always enjoyed the Elder Scrolls series, so what's not to like with ESO? Well, for me, it's quite a bit. Having been a part of several of the Beta weekends before launch I, as well as others, had several issues which were never really addressed until after the game went live, but as of today, May 1st, there're still correcting issues that should have been corrected before launch. In fact some issues even got worse before release and the worse part is the developers never really listened to us Beta testers since the survey forms never changed and there was no forum to voice our opinion on what was going on. First of all the graphics are amazing, the voice acting is good. The way the quests are handled, etc. is just like playing a Elder Scrolls game, so it's real easy to jump in and start playing, however... Everything seems to be the same color palate. Armor, buildings, other people, all seem to be made up of the same color combinations, boring and lifeless. Combat, to me, is really badly done. As stated by others, you only get 5 combat options, and it seems everyone is a magic user. It doesn't matter if your a staff user or a warrior, everyone it seems has some sort of ranged attack. On the surface it may seem good, but it isn't! Combat is really bad in the game. The combat reminds me of WoW, but worse. Tera on the other hand has a great combat system, but has other issues. Fighting one on one is not a big deal, but when you face several bad guys at once you'd better be very good on your feet and have health potions or you'll die, and die ALL the time, even though they're at your level. Good luck killing that "boss" person to complete that chain quest. You get my point! There's no combo attack moves, even weapons don't seem to be much different from each other. I love challenges, but I find the combat system lacking. Quests are still being fixed, my favorite being a character who appears and talks to you in German... Crafting in the game is really boring. I feel the game has promise, but most people feel they "rushed" the game to market. I think if they spent another 6 months on the game it would be a lot better then it is currently. The flip side is Wildstar! The game doesn't release until June, but the game is rock solid at this point with very very few bugs of ANY sort.… Expand
  37. Delaro
    May 2, 2014
    5
    Shallow, flavorless, generic, bland, uninspiring and, monotonous.

    Cons: Flooded with Bots and gold farmers at launch. Really slow response from GM's. Multi broken and bugged Quests sometimes for days on end. Boring repetitive quest system. Boring Combat system and Weak AI.... Mash 2 buttons FTW. Repetitive Scenery and landscape. Monotone and very uninspiring NPC's. Pros: Very    Shallow, flavorless, generic, bland, uninspiring and, monotonous.

    Cons:
    Flooded with Bots and gold farmers at launch.
    Really slow response from GM's.
    Multi broken and bugged Quests sometimes for days on end.
    Boring repetitive quest system.
    Boring Combat system and Weak AI.... Mash 2 buttons FTW.
    Repetitive Scenery and landscape.
    Monotone and very uninspiring NPC's.

    Pros:
    Very visually appealing.
    Crafting system is decent
    That's about all I can think of... Really not much more got my attention.

    This game missed the Hype by leaps and bounds, what we have is a $15 a month game that offers less than many of the massive amount of free to play Asian MMO's ripoffs. I felt as though I was playing a game based 12 years ago, there is nothing at all new about this title nothing inspiring or memorable that would make me want to keep playing.    … Expand
  38. The_Noob
    May 1, 2014
    0
    I bought Imperial Edition paid $80 for this game, as a fan of Elder Scroll series.

    After 3 weeks of moderate to intense playing, I reach to conclusion that this game is a FAIL. Pons (Good points in it): --------------------------------- 1. Superb graphics and music/sound 2. Storyline and many side quests to keep you going 3. many items to collect 4. huge maps to explore 5. PVP    I bought Imperial Edition paid $80 for this game, as a fan of Elder Scroll series.

    After 3 weeks of moderate to intense playing, I reach to conclusion that this game is a FAIL.

    Pons (Good points in it):
    ---------------------------------
    1. Superb graphics and music/sound
    2. Storyline and many side quests to keep you going
    3. many items to collect
    4. huge maps to explore
    5. PVP kinda fun at beginning

    Cons. (major limitation/failure)
    -------------------------------------------
    1. No market / Auction House (AH): basically its very hard to sell the item you gain from hunting/grinding or the items you make to other players.

    2. No Admins or Mods in the game, since its early access till now. No customer support at all.

    3. many hackers/ money spammers/scammers/ads: they created their own accounts in the game based on some exploit and spam everyone in the game, you get their spam on chat, private messages, guild invitation, guild messages, admin messages, all sort of things.

    4. Item Duplication: occurred on 18th April (as i heard by some people), game dev. didn't talked about it. Those who knew about it, made more than 100k gold... and it caused collapse of the gold value in the fresh start of the game. (no money removal, or server rollback to remove the excess money), and since there is no online admins or moderators, finding exploits by dev. are always too late.

    5. PVP quest exploit: occurred on the first days of the game, there was a quest in the PVP map (Cyrodiil) that gives a lot of experience and can be repeated indefinitely... Some people reached from lvl 10-50 in 12 hours playing only from playing this quest. Later they fixed the quest but it was late, many people already maxed the levels in the first 4-10 days and made the unbalance in the PVP server.

    many more things, in conclusion, this game only fun at the start, later you will see that there is no fun like playing skyrim or other series of Elder Scrolls, no depth in the game, just grind, do quests, collect items (harvesting) do pvp and pay them $15 a month. No customer support, a lot of gold spammers, many bugs/crashes/ exploits, unbalanced pvp.... not worth it. go play another mmorpg game better, this game got ruined cause of lack of support and early glitches and exploits.

    Perhaps the only way to this game now to be fair, if they open a new mega server...    … Expand
  39. Johan701
    May 1, 2014
    3
    It's a MMO game that ends up being played as a mediocre single player.
    It actually fails at keeping you willing to play it.
    The whole problem of this game has always been and still is, trying to combine the elder scrolls to a MMO environment, someone says they failed, someone says they did a great job, what i think is that they made a mixup that is barely decent in both aspects, the    It's a MMO game that ends up being played as a mediocre single player.
    It actually fails at keeping you willing to play it.

    The whole problem of this game has always been and still is, trying to combine the elder scrolls to a MMO environment, someone says they failed, someone says they did a great job, what i think is that they made a mixup that is barely decent in both aspects, the REAL PROBLEM, sadly is that you don't really want to have a barely decent mixup of these two things.
    That's why people always played single players immersive games and MMOs separetely.

    It lacks the depth and immersion of a real single player "elder scrolls" game. It's not really bad, they made a good effort trying to eliminate the usual mmo-like quests (kill 20 X, gather 15 Y) but they ended up being repetitive in other kind of stuffs(ghosts and dreams anyone?) and that ends up being boring anyway after a bit of time.

    What i found incredibly disapponting on the MMO aspect is the total lacking of game mechanics complexity. There are no builds, the are really no items to choose from.

    It seems like there is a lot of personalization of you character (many skill trees, strange combinations like mages in heavy armor with dual wield)... but it's not really personalization if you can revert that anytime and end up being able to do anything and to complete every single skill tree just by collecting all the skill points.

    When i heard some people from DAOC worked on it, i hoped to finally see a game where equipment wasn't just a dress piece with a color to measure his effectivness for your character.
    I believe i've never seen a mmo with such a dull and pointless equipment system. Crafting is almost useless, enchanting makes a 4/5 dmg difference from droppable glyphs. No personalization, no builds, no creativity involved even here. Nothing even close to resemble daoc really good equip-system.

    PvP is chaotic, the combat system feels strange and doesn't help you at all,.
    You pass all your time trying to understand what to do and where to go, but what happens is just 1 faction alternatively crushing another, forever and ever. You need to make a lot of walking to reach fights that always go entirely 1-way. with not even many people dying.

    Pvp rewards are just non-existent , you make pratically no exp points and after the first levels you advance in rank very slowly, even worse if you aren't in a group.

    Personally i think this mmo is just another useless hole in the water, it could have been an almost-decent single-player experience if he didn't require you so much time to level up and see the main quest ending.

    They tought naming Daoc and inserting a 3 realm RVR pvp system to think people would blindly come to play thing ignoring the fact that it's not 1/8 as deeply structured as daoc was in terms of equipment/builds/classes and setups.

    I mean, even comparing a game with 4 classes with one who had almost 30 different ones? come on...

    Also the 4-people parties are really bad and limitative.    … Expand
  40. Acabar
    May 1, 2014
    9
    The game has had a pretty solid launch, especially in comparison to other MMO launches out there. I'll break things down into the game's look and the game's feel.

    LOOK: The game is very pretty and well optimized in my experienced. I've played this game using a dated graphics card (GeForce GTS 440) and a new card (GeForce GTX 760). The 460 ran the game pretty well on medium to medium    The game has had a pretty solid launch, especially in comparison to other MMO launches out there. I'll break things down into the game's look and the game's feel.

    LOOK:
    The game is very pretty and well optimized in my experienced. I've played this game using a dated graphics card (GeForce GTS 440) and a new card (GeForce GTX 760). The 460 ran the game pretty well on medium to medium high settings with some tweaks here and there. The 760 runs it pretty much at max with hardly any FPS issues.

    PvP also seems to be very well optimized from a look/performance aspect. I've spent a few hours in Cyrodil and find that even at higher settings, the FPS stays pretty stable with a a lot going on.

    Animations are good for the most part. Only complaint I have is sometime NPC animations, specifically when conversing with a NPC is somewhat awkward or clunky at times.
    Combat animations are nice and the collision you have with NPCs makes the combat feels more solid in comparison to over MMOs - abilities have some weight behind them.

    FEEL:

    Overall, the game seems nicely balanced and bugs, while there are some, are not too terribly wide-spread. What has impressed me the most is Zenimax's response to bugs. Yes, it has caused longer maintenance times or unannounced down times, but it's something to be expected from a game that has such a large scope.

    The classes have plenty of differences between them to keep things interesting and I absolutely love the skill system and how it works. You truly can build your character however you really like to and have that character fit a certain role or play style. It also allows a ton of customization in regards to play style in general - want to make a caster that can tank? Go for it. How about a rogue healer? Have at it. Many of these ideas are viable with the right skills and equipment.

    The stories are awesome, as is to be expected from Elder Scrolls and the voice acting is pretty decent. Dungeons provide a decent challenge and aren't just zerg-fests and have good side stories with them.

    OVERALL:

    The biggest issue people will have with the feel of this game is that its not a standard Elder Scroll experience and not really a standard MMO experience, but some mix of those things.
    The game plays great and has a ton to do. Dungeons are fun and the quests are a blast to go through.

    I'd recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the Elder Scrolls series and MMOs, with the understanding that its kind of a blend of each.    … Expand
  41. HiDef90
    May 1, 2014
    10
    This is my first MMO and I've had a blast learning this new style of gaming. So much fun in a world I know and already love. Bugs are sometimes frustrating however they are NOTHING like some of the reviews say they are. These are clearly die hard MMO fanboys just freaking out. If you want a new game to play and be addicted to, this is the one. Loving it :)
  42. pXel
    May 1, 2014
    0
    The most horrible MMO released in past years. The story is nice as always, but still not as good as other TES. The progression of the character is blocked often by lots of game bugs, and sometimes you don't have any options to where to skip. As you progress more and more the game gets more and more unfinished. I've been goggling for information from other players on how to find a way pastThe most horrible MMO released in past years. The story is nice as always, but still not as good as other TES. The progression of the character is blocked often by lots of game bugs, and sometimes you don't have any options to where to skip. As you progress more and more the game gets more and more unfinished. I've been goggling for information from other players on how to find a way past problems, but there isn't much information on this topic available or none at all. The only option is to rely on the game's support team.

    When you contact the support team(I have good reasons to think there is only a guy hired) you get a few fast copy-paste answers from their poor FAQ section of the site that sometimes is not even on the topic, he also provides you with the link for the FAQ section. They don't even bother to analyze if the answer they provide will be able to help you at all or point in the right direction. When you are completely blocked by game bugs you expect some fast help or a workaround to unlock your progression. I've replied to the poor answer from the support team, and asked for a real solution to get past my problem. The reply was even worse than the first on, complaining that their job is hard and they are doing humanly efforts. The guy still didn't analyzed my problem and try to find a solution on how I could skip to the next map, he just brought in some more excuses. Also you would expect to talk to the support team in-game, but this guy got all my contact information name, email etc. without my consent in order to be able to contact me.

    Regarding maintenance time you will be shocked. They start unplanned maintenance quite often and the scheduled maintenance is sometimes planned the prime time of the evening. I remember one time after wasting all evening waiting for the maintenance to finish, they installed a bad patch and the server crashed, resulting in another 2 hours of wait, followed by server flooding when everyone tried to log in resulting in massive server lag.

    The PVP is a little disappointing, first of all they have a "mega sever" technology, but that doesn't mean your player wont have to join one of the many PVP servers (they call them "Campaigns"). They were smart here by putting some nice names to fool the players into thinking they invented something. In order to play PVP, you have to choose a PVP player that you will not be able to change for 3 months, unless you pay for it). The PVP servers are unbalanced, and when a server get full(they get full!) you have to wait in line to enter. When you enter a full server you'll first notice the mass PVP is a crap because the "mega server"™ can't take the load and lags horribly. The only thing you'll be playing is spamming skills/spells and wait a few seconds to see if the target is dead, or he got healed etc.

    The dungeon/group finding is very poor, at least at middle and end levels, you get only in some group setups that always fail, some even disband before the dungeon is started as people know that the setup will fail gloriously vs the difficulty of the dungeon. Also the wait time is huge.
    The economy of the game is poor due to bugs/exploits.

    Compared with rival games:
    - the number of content blocking bugs is huge, with no chance of getting around some(no one will help you);
    - the customer support is embarrassing(on other games I was really happy with the outcome of the discussion with the support team) ;
    - the cost of purchase and monthly payment is higher;
    - their so praised server is a joke;
    - the PVP is not like you would have expected it because of technical issues(multiple servers just like any other MMO, full servers are extremely lagging, servers that re not full are boring)
    - a lot of time wasted during maintenance that occurs mostly when you have free time to play
    - dungeon grouping is very poor, I doubt you will enjoy doing group dungeons in this game
    - economy is broken

    Conclusion: If you are big fan of TES and want to try it, you have been warned this is not really TES, this is a horrible copy-cat version of TES with lots of problems developed and maintained by an inexperienced team of blunt people. I won't recommend it to anyone, TES fans or not.    … Expand
  43. niceburger
    May 1, 2014
    1
    I literally lost interest in 5 minutes, not even kidding it's so boring. Just stick with Skyrim I'm gonna cancel my sub for this game, biggest waste of money in my whole entire life.
  44. Querelle
    May 1, 2014
    10
    It's the best storytelling MMO so far. A world immersive, rich and beautiful and enormous waits to be discovered. I have never been so absorbed by a MMO-World. I really love this game! For me it's the best Elder Scrolls game so far because it is much more storydriven and you can feel the leitmotif much more than in any other Elder Scrolls game...
  45. GuruChaz
    Apr 30, 2014
    9
    I played in the beta and I wasn't sure I wanted to purchase this game. It felt like I was playing a flat single player game and just chatting with people online. I don't know what happened but about a month after release, I decided to trade a few PS3 games in at Gamestop, pay the difference, and get Elder Scrolls Online. I have to say that I am enjoying the release version of thisI played in the beta and I wasn't sure I wanted to purchase this game. It felt like I was playing a flat single player game and just chatting with people online. I don't know what happened but about a month after release, I decided to trade a few PS3 games in at Gamestop, pay the difference, and get Elder Scrolls Online. I have to say that I am enjoying the release version of this game way more than I did the beta version. There's a lot more polish and the game doesn't feel as flat. It's been enjoyable as both a Nightblade and a Sorcerer. Dungeon groups are fun and the story line and quests are abundant and well done. I'm a picky gamer and I will sincerely give this game a 9. I don't know who is giving it a 6.2 or whatever. That's ridiculously low...stupid low, in fact. It's really good if you like Elder Scrolls and especially the crafting system.… Expand
  46. armoredchimp
    Apr 30, 2014
    6
    I don't know. It's definitely a little disappointing, I really get the sense they couldn't quite decide on how much to go in the traditional MMO direction and how much to try to retain the singelplayer Elder Scrolls feel, and in the end they try to accomplish both fully but satisfy neither.

    First of all, the good: The graphics are very pretty, and don't require new hardware (although    I don't know. It's definitely a little disappointing, I really get the sense they couldn't quite decide on how much to go in the traditional MMO direction and how much to try to retain the singelplayer Elder Scrolls feel, and in the end they try to accomplish both fully but satisfy neither.

    First of all, the good: The graphics are very pretty, and don't require new hardware (although running it on new hardware makes it look much prettier). The fact that the whole game is voiced makes it feel like a complete product, although after awhile you start noticing the same voice actors (not nearly as bad as Oblivion however, which had like 4 people do all the voices). The crafting system is enjoyable and is probably my favorite aspect of the game so far, you need to invest skill points into a trade if you want to actually become proficient at it. Instanced dungeons are also pretty fun, although I think the loot system for instances in Wow was far better (in this everyone gets their own loot, and in instanced dungeons it is always the same stuff so there is no point in running them again). Combat in general is fine, although at earlier levels it is pretty brainless.

    The quests are well written for an MMO, and they definitely try to make you feel like you are doing something important, but after a while you realize you are just running to talk to NPC A, running here to kill NPC B, run back to NPC A to tell him, then run to NPC C for some reason because they felt like that quest wasn't long enough and you needed to travel a litlte more. And a lot of these quests take 20 or so minutes and barely nudge your EXP bar at all, but you don't get as much EXP from grinding mobs like in other MMO's so you basically are always running around talking to NPC's who always act like YOU are the sole savior of Tamriel and are incredibly important, but it's an extremely fragile illusion when you have 10 people clustered in one room waiting for the boss to respawn so they can finish the quest. Another thing that massively breaks the immersion is the constant, 24/7 gold spamming, they even email you in your private box. My ignore list was over 40 after just a few days of playing yet it did nothing to stop the endless flood of gold spam, forget about interesting conversations in zone chat because it just doesn't happen (maybe in higher lvl zones it does)

    I played it feverishly for the first 10 days or so after I bought it and haven't touched it in about 10 days since. I'm going to pick it up again soon (mainly because I paid for 3 months subscription.....if I had just done a free trial I would not have been impressed enough to subscribe). It just doesn't quite draw me in enough at the moment. I think this does have the potential to be much better than it is, but as of right now I am definitely regretting spending $100 on it.    … Expand
  47. Exoaria
    Apr 30, 2014
    7
    The Elder Scrolls Online does not, by any means, break any molds in its vanilla construct. It is one of the most innovating releases in the online gaming industry that I have seen, but is failing in more than one aspect. You need to come to the game without any fresh expectations of the previous games.

    There is no opportunity to be a part of the community. Exploring a new town or city    The Elder Scrolls Online does not, by any means, break any molds in its vanilla construct. It is one of the most innovating releases in the online gaming industry that I have seen, but is failing in more than one aspect. You need to come to the game without any fresh expectations of the previous games.

    There is no opportunity to be a part of the community. Exploring a new town or city does not feel any different to exploring the last one, and quests are seldom entertaining or bringing anything new to the table. The level of progression and gameplay is definitely a step back from the console versions; but to look at it for what it is (an MMORPG) it is far more invigorating than most grind-fests on the market today. There is an extensive amount of lore and dialogue in the game to keep it fresh.

    Combat is severely stunted by your internet connection. The lack of Oceanic servers have made it very hard for Australians like myself to fully enjoy the game as there's at least a 300ms delay in all actions— whether that be attacking, rolling, sprinting, or just generally activating items or NPC's... it begins to feel very disconnected. Obviously I can't base the review on my own internet inadequacy, and so I definitely have to say that all fighting in the game is backed up by a solid amount of mechanics. Fighting enemies, especially in groups requires tactics and is far from something where you're simply menacely clicking and mashing numbers.

    The 5-slot skill limit gives a solid backup to the extensively customization available when building your character. Of the 4 classes to choose from, there is a lack of meta which is made up in the fact that by morphing your abilities you can effectively play any role with any class.

    The visuals are ground-breaking for any MMO that I have seen so far. However, the world still feels oddly disconnected and there's an inherent lack of any life. Bird's don't fly away when you walk near them, and everything does tend to feel very static. This does a disservice to the amazing quality of graphics, but does not take too much away from the level of beauty Zenimax has created.

    Endgame does not appear to have much content outside of PvP, but Zenimax appears to be very well committed to constant updates and content being added to the game. I am enjoying it thoroughly so far and intend to look at my subscription as a level of support to that dedication.
    The Elder Scrolls Online is not particularly innovative in light of the series, but for an MMORPG definitely takes some steps into new grounds which I'm most pleased to see. I will continue playing for some time.    … Expand
  48. Endenium
    Apr 30, 2014
    10
    This is easily the best MMORPG I have ever played. Its a fairly balanced hybrid classic ES gaming and classic MMORPG formula. It brings many new ideas to the genre, but then borrows too many dated clichés. Some of the quests are brilliant. Others are bland, grocery list, grocery shopping quests. Get this. Get that. However, with the seemingly 1000s of quests in the game, I seriously cannotThis is easily the best MMORPG I have ever played. Its a fairly balanced hybrid classic ES gaming and classic MMORPG formula. It brings many new ideas to the genre, but then borrows too many dated clichés. Some of the quests are brilliant. Others are bland, grocery list, grocery shopping quests. Get this. Get that. However, with the seemingly 1000s of quests in the game, I seriously cannot blame them for eventually running low on great ideas. Perhaps they just shouldn't have made the leveling process quite as long? Maybe. Maybe not. They had to appease such a wide variety of players. There's no doubt that even if they cut leveling time in half that people would just **** about not having enough single player material. No one should complain though as there is truly something in this game that should satisfy anyone and everyone. There is so much content packed into it that it is just straight up astonishing. IMO any gamers that hate this game were probably former hard core MMORPG players that burned themselves out playing WoW or something, and are bitter nerdos that just can't seem to allow themselves to enjoy anything that doesn't recreate that experience in the exact same way. Its like those old bitter men that complain about "kids these days" and new music that comes out. They keep comparing it to a time when they were just generally happier in life, PERIOD. And they blame the new game or new music for their own failure or capacity to have fun or enjoy something.

    ESO is fun as **** if you approach it with an open mind, an open heart, and a willingness to make the best of something that reaches so far in so many different directions. It is quite enjoyable, just as long as you don't compare it to the glossy nostalgia of biased memories. It will never compare to the memory of your favorite dream from long ago. It will however, be completely fulfilling and rewarding if you allow yourself to embrace something new in your life instead of resenting anything and everything that isn't exactly what you once had.    … Expand
  49. JudgementisMine
    Apr 29, 2014
    7
    I found Elder Scrolls Online to be flawed but nowhere near as flawed as some of the ignorant criticism it has attracted. It is a good, solid Elder Scrolls story that has been bent badly in places to fit MMO requirements and conventions.. It has more bugs than it should, but these are slowly being mastered. Its chief faults are quests that are sometimes rigid and over-scripted, problemsI found Elder Scrolls Online to be flawed but nowhere near as flawed as some of the ignorant criticism it has attracted. It is a good, solid Elder Scrolls story that has been bent badly in places to fit MMO requirements and conventions.. It has more bugs than it should, but these are slowly being mastered. Its chief faults are quests that are sometimes rigid and over-scripted, problems with balance (too hard/too easy), and problems hitting the right level of complexity in such things as crafting, neither too convoluted nor too simple. The hostile reaction it has received from some parts of the gaming community is frankly childish. One noted "critic" attacked its "boring" quests by putting up a graphic of a Khajiit that was saying "Boring, boring, boring." There was literally no other argument than that. That's the level that some people are conducting the discussion on. In a way, the incoherent spite is revenge on Bethesda for not making every one of its games exactly the same as Morrowind, which enjoys a fervent-a-little-over-the-edge-of-sanity fanbase that I have dubbed "Morrowwindbags." Another sore point is the subscription fee. Even though this works out to about 50 cents a day for the first year and less thereafter, and even though new content is already being added to the game, less than a month after it was released, the very idea that they pay for anything additional seems to throw certain people into hysterics. But no free lunch, children, no free lunch. Complain if you don't get enough for your money. Don't mewl and whine because you have to pay. The only thing that ought to be free is bug fixes.… Expand
  50. Gubz
    Apr 29, 2014
    3
    This game is not Elder Scrolls, and it was a ZeniMax online studios game.

    The game lures you in with the lie of Elder Scrolls gameplay and the slaps you across the face with ZeniMax's complete ineptitude at creating an MMORPG. This game has a good crafting system and a good environment, everything else is a complete shlieb. (Something that clearly wanted to be something better, but    This game is not Elder Scrolls, and it was a ZeniMax online studios game.

    The game lures you in with the lie of Elder Scrolls gameplay and the slaps you across the face with ZeniMax's complete ineptitude at creating an MMORPG.

    This game has a good crafting system and a good environment, everything else is a complete shlieb.
    (Something that clearly wanted to be something better, but didn't put for the effort to get there)

    The PvE balance is a joke, the PvP is one giant bland zergfest, and you can safely assume that pay-to-win micro-transactions will soon be on the way.

    Rift is better, and it's free. Alternatively, you could play World of Warcraft for the true 5 star MMORPG experience.

    My advice would be to avoid this game at all costs. I want my money back.    … Expand
  51. procyon
    Apr 29, 2014
    3
    I went into ESO with high expectations wanting to join a community that I thought would be vibrant and fun. It turns out that I was in for a letdown. The NPCs voices are voiced at least in Ebonheart by New Zealanders whom Zenimax has chosen for it's dunmer or dark elf race. But all the major ones are voiced by the distinctive voices we heard in Skyrim. So distinctive in fact that hearingI went into ESO with high expectations wanting to join a community that I thought would be vibrant and fun. It turns out that I was in for a letdown. The NPCs voices are voiced at least in Ebonheart by New Zealanders whom Zenimax has chosen for it's dunmer or dark elf race. But all the major ones are voiced by the distinctive voices we heard in Skyrim. So distinctive in fact that hearing the same ones on character after character begins to melt them all into the one waxy image in the mind's eye. Add to that bodies that do not move when you are speaking to an NPC and you are interacting with at best what I describe as a clothed upright log. Also the game is full of bugs. the bugs get patched and this opens up the way for more bugs. Disgustingly the game has an autoban feature. For instance say too much, even via helping other players and this broken auto ban feature will see it as spam and ban you without even the decency of an email to let you know they stole your game from under you. Or fall thru one of the many holes the developers left in this bugged out world and you can be banned for cheating. Don't expect an email to notify you they banned you, you are left to try and get fail after fail attemps logging into the game the following day wondering why you cannot log in. It is criminal. Then you are left with WEEKS, in the case of many players, trying to get some answers out of support. They don't seem to care and they are giving the impression they do not want us playing their game. Sadly I have found Elder Scrolls Online seriously wanting. I never see two or more players grouped up tackling PVE missions for example as you will see in Guild Wars 2. It's just single players running around, mostly not helping others (unless there is something in it for them), The loot system is another bone of contention. Chests abound, but arguments avail as it's first come first serve. If you want a fun immersive community game to play as an MMO then I suggest you look farther afield. ESO is lacking in just about everything, the graphics are not up to the latest that you will find elsewhere and the combat feels off, askew. Don't waste your money here.… Expand
  52. HotGeekCity
    Apr 29, 2014
    7
    Wow. Harsh reviews are harsh. The game isn't amazing, but it's an MMO in it's FIRST THREE WEEKS. Lol. Calm down there, haters. ;) It's far from perfect, yes. Many bugs still, and the game seems to almost want you to play solo except for dungeons and raid instances, and I can't even comment on the PVP yet as I've only rolled 2 low end characters, but the game is fun! Big, prettyWow. Harsh reviews are harsh. The game isn't amazing, but it's an MMO in it's FIRST THREE WEEKS. Lol. Calm down there, haters. ;) It's far from perfect, yes. Many bugs still, and the game seems to almost want you to play solo except for dungeons and raid instances, and I can't even comment on the PVP yet as I've only rolled 2 low end characters, but the game is fun! Big, pretty vistas. Good, solid combat. Quests are semi interesting and not just your usual MMO fetch or kill quests all the time. There's definitetly some things that could be fixed or tweaked, like the sense of realism they try to bring to the game sometimes makes playing it difficult (why can't we find vendors on the map?!? Why is there no auction house?!?) but for the most part the game works well. Feels a lot more like an Elder Scrolls game if you play in 1st person, but I almost never seem to find myself doing that as it's a bloody MMO and I can see more in 3rd person. Lol

    Overall, it's worth checking out if you're an Elder Scrolls or RPG fan. Good, but room to improve. Even if you just get it on sale and only pay for a month of game time, I'm sure you'll have fun. :)    … Expand
  53. Shasta2344
    Apr 29, 2014
    3
    Terrible, I have always been an Elder Scrolls fan, but this game is neither a good MMO or a good ES title. I played this game for about 15 hours, I kept telling myself something will make this game be worth the $50 I shelled out. Unfortunately, I was wrong.

    I'm going to give it a half a**ed rating which is more than it deserved. Graphics: Decent, nothing too exceptional though.    Terrible, I have always been an Elder Scrolls fan, but this game is neither a good MMO or a good ES title. I played this game for about 15 hours, I kept telling myself something will make this game be worth the $50 I shelled out. Unfortunately, I was wrong.

    I'm going to give it a half a**ed rating which is more than it deserved.

    Graphics: Decent, nothing too exceptional though.

    Combat: in the same old MMO standard its a giant grind fest.

    Quests: Boring you'll notice familiar voices from Skyrim and all they did was remind me of what a really ES game was like.    … Expand
  54. sstouby
    Apr 29, 2014
    9
    So at this very moment the User Rating is 6.2. I've just finished reading all of the review, and there is a lot ! (I'm studying computer-science with pc-games as my speciality!) ESO is a beautiful MMO and well designed, overall a great game and yet a medium User Score. If you don't know the game and came here to see if you should buy it, don't let the low User Score frighten you of.So at this very moment the User Rating is 6.2. I've just finished reading all of the review, and there is a lot ! (I'm studying computer-science with pc-games as my speciality!) ESO is a beautiful MMO and well designed, overall a great game and yet a medium User Score. If you don't know the game and came here to see if you should buy it, don't let the low User Score frighten you of. Guessing it's wow players last cry for help, bashing the game.
    Everyone is entitled to a opinion, but giving it 0 for being ugly, or for bugs(I've encountered 2 minor so far) or ''THERE ISN*T ANY DRAKES! WTF!", is just retarded. And I can honestly tell you, there is a lot of retarded people reviewing this game. Giving it 5 or 7 or whatever is understandable, and the game might not be what you expected, fine! But giving it 0-1 for being the worst game ever is just counterproductive.

    Stability:
    Anyway, so far I've played 20 hours of game time, and have experienced zero serverdown time, zero lag, zero waiting in queue time, which is pretty impressive -- 2 Points!

    Graphics:
    The graphics are of the chart. Really impressive, even close up and the spells looks amazing! And it's a freaking MMO !
    --2 Points!

    Gameplay:
    Many people of bashing haters will tell me otherwise. But the truth is that the combat feels way less clunky then Skyrim. The world feels alive, with NPC's sticking to rutines like you know for Bethasda games, and therefor the game doesn't at all seem static like other MMO's. The enemies are very alive and have have different abilities, which makes every encounter unique.
    --2 Points!

    Content:
    The Skill tree in this game is very unique for other MMO's. There arn't any specific path you must follow. Everything is open and possible.
    The crafting is very, very well designed and is one of the best crafting systems I've seen in recent MMO's.
    The world is huge, like you would expect in a MMO, and there is endless quests just waiting for you.
    - 2 Points!

    Replayablity:
    All quests are fully voiced which actually makes it playable as a single player game, without mindlessly grinding. Also like 30 % of quests come with an important choice which changes to quest completely. It's also worth mentioning the quests are beautiful written, like you would expect from Bethasda.
    --2 Points!

    Other:
    Great community always willing to help you out. So overall a great game. The only thing I have a little problem with is Bethasda aiming the ''big'' raiding party to be a 12-man raid.. And I'm a huge fan of huge raids like 25 people or so. This is of course just my opinion but that was a little bummer for me. (May come, we can't know)
    --1 Points!

    OVERALL SCORE = 9 POINTS!
    Great game, very well written/designed and well worth the money. I'm impressed you can buy a game this good for this low cost. There is a sub-fee to take into consideration before buying the game. But if you plus 2 months of sub-fee payment to the price of the game, you will be able to play it for 2 months and if it still intriges you, then it's well worth the sub-fee ! Great job Bethasda and ZeniMax Online !    … Expand
  55. pr1v1t
    Apr 28, 2014
    7
    This is my first review on Metacritic, so bear with me. I'm old school (from the days when CJayC still ran GameFAQs), so I'll be giving separate scores for each category.

    My score ranges are: 9-10: The best on the market, or pretty close to it (because nothing's perfect) 7-8: Good / Very good. With a few tweaks here and there, could have been a 9-10. 5-6: Decent. Not bad. Not great. A    This is my first review on Metacritic, so bear with me. I'm old school (from the days when CJayC still ran GameFAQs), so I'll be giving separate scores for each category.

    My score ranges are: 9-10: The best on the market, or pretty close to it (because nothing's perfect)
    7-8: Good / Very good. With a few tweaks here and there, could have been a 9-10.
    5-6: Decent. Not bad. Not great. A lot of generic stuff that is both unoffensive (read: not terrible) and uninspired falls here
    1-4: Varying levels of suck. Something is inherently broken, blatantly bad, or just plain not fun.
    0: A game so terrible that it rivals the awfulness of both E.T. and Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing games

    Overall score: Not an average, but usually pretty close. The overall score is just my overall opinion of the game. It may or may not be an average, as sometimes games are more (or less) than the sum of their parts.

    Graphics: 8. The graphics aren't exactly the best on the market, but they ARE the best I've ever seen in an MMO. Given the size of the zones and scaling issues inherent in MMOs, the ESO team did a great job. From a technical standpoint, the graphics are great. From an artistic standpoint, they're pretty good, but could have had a bit more flavor.

    Story: 7. This one was a tough call between a 7 and 8. The story is relatively derivative, as many ES titles are. The voice work is hit or miss. However, the fact that the entire game is voice-acted and (to an extent) interactive pushed it over the edge for me. It's by no means a GREAT story, but it is better than you'll find in most MMOs.

    Gameplay: 8. The combat system is in the vein of TERA, albeit a bit more sluggish. The crafting system is a nice change of pace from the "create all" and wait game of a certain other MMO I used to play, and the questing is a nice change of pace from "kill/fetch X of Y". That being said, the quests could have been more varied, as so many of the quests involve the same basic premise (if you play it, you'll understand; otherwise, I'd rather keep this spoiler-free). Also, while the game is a themepark MMO, it actively promotes exploration through level-appropriate zones by way of offering extra skill points for those that do. The character creation is great, and the game supports add-ons much the same way WoW did. The bad news? The skill bar is ridiculously short (five slots, one reserved for "ultimate" abilities). Grouping, while fun for endgame, PvP, and dungeons, is broken for open-world leveling/questing due to the manner in which the phasing system was implemented.

    Bugs: 4. It's an MMO launch. There are tons of bugs. Nothing breaks immersion and fun like having to re-log because the item you need for your quest either won't work or won't show up on the screen. That being said, these bugs are being fixed quickly. I'll update this in about a month in order to reflect any progress made. While the dev team is fixing bugs quickly, that doesn't change the fact that many are still there and annoying as hell.

    Overall: The game doesn't feel like an Elder Scrolls title, but it IS a solid game in its own right. It's not the best MMO ever, but it's definitely not bad. It also has quite a bit of potential, which is not reflected in the review score (potential != current state). If you're looking for a fresh MMO to add to your collection, definitely give ESO a shot.... just wait a month or so for them to work the kinks out first.    … Expand
  56. toaster00
    Apr 28, 2014
    9
    Incidentally, I'm willing to accept that scores from maybe 3-8 are honest expressions of opinion which differ from mine. But scores of 0? Please. That's just preposterous. Even if I only looked at the (rapidly disappearing) bugs and not the solid fundamentals, this game can't seriously be rated below a 5. Scores of 0 smack of an organised campaign by WOW neckbeards to keep people playing aIncidentally, I'm willing to accept that scores from maybe 3-8 are honest expressions of opinion which differ from mine. But scores of 0? Please. That's just preposterous. Even if I only looked at the (rapidly disappearing) bugs and not the solid fundamentals, this game can't seriously be rated below a 5. Scores of 0 smack of an organised campaign by WOW neckbeards to keep people playing a dying game.
    This game is, at worst, an acne-spotted teenager who has a good future if things go right. WOW is a senile old man that smells of cheese and whines on and on about the old days.    … Expand
  57. Subxaero
    Apr 28, 2014
    1
    No..Just no. I play the game 25 days now...Apart from the first week which normally gave me the impression of something new, the game is a huge let down
    1:) Sluggish combat system ,range bold bad-melee feels like nothing connects to the enemy and sometimes u need to check his hp bar to make sure
    2) The UI is beyond terrible, u cant see anything,hp-names-least of information 3)Quests at    No..Just no. I play the game 25 days now...Apart from the first week which normally gave me the impression of something new, the game is a huge let down
    1:) Sluggish combat system ,range bold bad-melee feels like nothing connects to the enemy and sometimes u need to check his hp bar to make sure
    2) The UI is beyond terrible, u cant see anything,hp-names-least of information
    3)Quests at first sight look good(no grinding etc, nice dialogues) but then as u level up u realise actually u get no chalenge at all, go talk to someone then to someone else, i expected at least a bit of a challenge at higher lvls..Only 2-3 voice actors,after sometime u easily realise it
    4) Brightest spot here-graphs are awesome i'll give em 8/10
    5) Crafting is very interesting with a few inovations , difinitely above average, especially the trait research is something new and fresh
    6)Game economy is beyond bad...U need to be on at least 3 guilds to have a decent amount of items to buy and respectively people to sell to
    7)PVP is decent, i like the big map and AvA thing, still has many flows though and the lag is insane, sometimes u cant move
    8)Bugs.. oh my god..people compare it with WoW and they forget they have 10 years if difference which is equal to a century in terms of tecnhology,bots?...dozens in public dungeons and dozens in open world u cant even touch the mob sometimes
    Overall it doesnt worth the sub FOR SURE, i wont say dont buy it, because its a big release and personally i never regret testing and buying big releases, i tried to like this game much but i just cant    … Expand
  58. Uberphat
    Apr 28, 2014
    10
    Been playing this game for about a month now. It's a very nice, fresh take on MMOs. Not sure why everyone is so upset, but me and many others are having a great time. Grouping up and doing quests is great, but if you are solo it's very nicely built so when u run into other people, if you are both attacking you both get credit for killing even tho you are not in the same party. Lots andBeen playing this game for about a month now. It's a very nice, fresh take on MMOs. Not sure why everyone is so upset, but me and many others are having a great time. Grouping up and doing quests is great, but if you are solo it's very nicely built so when u run into other people, if you are both attacking you both get credit for killing even tho you are not in the same party. Lots and lots of amazing lore, this game is rich in prophetic history and oozing with brilliant storytelling. UI is minimal, clean, and very elder scrollish. Bosses are fun, detailed, and surprise you from time to time. PVP is a glorious beast of its own. Massive raids storming multiple castles on multiple fronts. AvAvA Battles are incredibly exciting and amazing spectacles to behold, and partake in. Combat in itself is very fun and action driven, just like in all elder scrolls games. Make no mistake the graphics are beautiful. The art team deserves a special merit for spending the time to detail all the environments and capturing the essence of what elder scrolls is all about. Crafting is by far the deepest I've seen so far, on par with games like EvE. The only down side is the first couple weeks were riddled with bugs, and still a few left over. Also the game crashes quite frequently and unexpectedly at times. These things will be fixed down the road as with any other game. Overall, one of the best MMORPG I have ever played. Its fun, engaging and very exciting at times, while at other times its beautiful, serene, and really immersive.… Expand
  59. Butrflis
    Apr 28, 2014
    9
    Absolutely the most stunning MMO Ive played and Ive beta tested many and played most of them. A few bug remain hence the 9/10 rather than 10/10. You definitely have to be intelligent to play though. This is not a game for the lazy who want an easy grind or those with less brain power. It requires you to think. Give our current population of gamers this may be a problem and a reasonAbsolutely the most stunning MMO Ive played and Ive beta tested many and played most of them. A few bug remain hence the 9/10 rather than 10/10. You definitely have to be intelligent to play though. This is not a game for the lazy who want an easy grind or those with less brain power. It requires you to think. Give our current population of gamers this may be a problem and a reason for neg reviews only coming from the user population and not the critics so much.… Expand
  60. John_Mullins
    Apr 28, 2014
    4
    I have now spent over 2 weeks in the game, a week of attempts at solid playtime.. and the second week desperately trying to convince myself to even click the .exe file to load the game. Even after doing so, my play time gets less and less each load up.

    Ignore the "OMG THIS GAME IS TEH BEST EVAH!" reviews on here.. seriously. Your gold prices are absolutely INSANE. Seriously. My    I have now spent over 2 weeks in the game, a week of attempts at solid playtime.. and the second week desperately trying to convince myself to even click the .exe file to load the game. Even after doing so, my play time gets less and less each load up.

    Ignore the "OMG THIS GAME IS TEH BEST EVAH!" reviews on here.. seriously.

    Your gold prices are absolutely INSANE. Seriously. My level 10 Templar just got a 2,000 GOLD REPAIR BILL.. at level TEN. TEN. As in, 1 and 0. TEN. What the ()*#%$ is this crap?! 17k for ONE horse... you're kidding me right?

    Third - While I applaud your battle against spambots, you guys simply aren't doing enough. WHY do I have to ignore a bot, THEN report a bot, THEN type and select dropdown menus, THEN submit the repot, THEN wait around for confirmation? Go play WoW. Take a page from their book. (please, Im BEGGING you at this point..) Click name - Report Spam. BAM. DONE. Instantly Reported/Screenshot/Ignored. All in ONE mouse click. ONE. This is 2014, not 1998. I shouldn't have to feel like I'm working with DoS just to submit a spambot report. DON'T turn into FFXIV ARR and just put this on the back burner.. THIS NEEDS ADDRESSED ASAP.

    Fourth - Spambots are annoying... Bots FLOODING dungeon bosses are even more so. Seriously. My wife and I cannot complete a SINGLE dungeon because of the 30+ Bots named IHSDHSCBHA and ASCFRFJSAS using Templar Spear. Honestly, it's so beyond annoying that it's becoming outright anger inducing at this point.

    Fifth - This is why almost EVERY MMO moved far far away from "public" dungeons ala EverQuest 1998, "Camping" mobs, idiot trains, and a flood of bot farming kills any sense of "immersion." Not to mention there is ZERO challenge involved in any of them due to the fact there is a constant congo line of players running in and out.. so no mobs are ever up to actually FIGHT. IT IS 110% MIND-NUMBINGLY BORING.

    Sixth - Mages suck. Im sorry, I hate to say it.. I dont WANT to say it.. but it's true. They are absolutely TERRIBLE. Unless you take a VERY specific skill selection (freedom of customization is OUT the window for a mage.) you are 100% useless. 99.99% of the time, Im out of mana before I've killed the 2nd mob on a 3 mob pull.. I guess I just tell jokes to the last mob and hope it dies laughing? Meanwhile the Templar/Nightblade/Dragonknight are still wailing away full power with no downtime.

    Seventh - Have I mentioned yet the gold prices in this game are absolutely jacked up beyond all human reason and comprehension? Seriously. When It costs 100 gold to MAIL an item to someone... YOU. ARE. WRONG. 10 Gold JUST to send a regular mail is obnoxious to begin with.. but ADDING massive amounts of gold cost for EACH item sent in said mail is just plain stupid. Flat cost, with a SMALL fee PER item sent, NOT a ridiculous fee per VALUE of item sent.

    The game's grouping is a COMPLETE disaster, utterly boring, buggy and just plain tedious. The Dungeons are the EXACT same way.. the "bosses" are a joke, no challenge, no excitement.. nothing.

    No housing, no wives/husbands, no kids, no pets.. armor designs are bland, brown, and look like stuff I saw in Morrowind 20 years ago.. with about as much enthusiasm.

    No Stealing, no assassinations, no crime.. NOTHING. There is NO "Choice" here. You do WHAT they say, WHEN they say it. PERIOD.

    There is no UI, no nameplates, no way to tell good from bad from merchant or beggar. You waste AGES just trying to figure out which NPC's sell what and where.. the entire time you could be doing something actually FUN instead. Using the weak ass excuse of "immersion" as a smoke screen for their absolute failure to realize what an MMO is actually SUPPOSED to be.

    There is NO Customization for 3 of the 4 classes. Especially mages. Want to be a pure storm mage? #(*$ You. You're useless. Want to focus on a healing staff and Dark Magic? (#$# You. YOU'RE USELESS! Want to just summon Daedric minions with some cool storm powers? .. yeah.. you already know where it's going. USELESS. What happened to summoning weapons, armor etc. What happened to the ACTUAL mage SPELLS?!

    The WORST part is you are supposed to be "The CHOSEN ONE! OMG!" ... again.. for the 10,000th game... only now.. there's 2 million+ other "CHOSEN ONES!" running around right next to you.

    This is a cookie cutter mmo with NO free trial and a LIMITED access Beta to steal as much money as possible before it goes Free to play in 6 months once the word gets out how absolutely terrible it actually is. Maybe less.    … Expand
  61. Bekah
    Apr 28, 2014
    10
    The best benefit of elderscroll is the skill system. They combined an skill based talentsystem with the elder scrolls learning by doing attempt. The result is an very free Skill system that gives you much place for individuality. The fights are much more dynamic than in other mmo and at some parts the fight are quite challenging. The voice acting and the lovely designed quests improves theThe best benefit of elderscroll is the skill system. They combined an skill based talentsystem with the elder scrolls learning by doing attempt. The result is an very free Skill system that gives you much place for individuality. The fights are much more dynamic than in other mmo and at some parts the fight are quite challenging. The voice acting and the lovely designed quests improves the leveling process. The groupcontent is quite good perhabs it's a bit to few in the early game, because leveling together is difficult because of the phasing ( it's more based on random grouping than focused on an leveling experience together). [bythe way mobbs grinding in openworld in an 4 headed group is the fastest way to level). The PvP is awesome, but it's nearly pointless to join it before max level, not because you can't to anything but because its slowdown your leveling process. Furthermore if you are low level your an to easy aim for small groups so you need a big group of 24+. In the PvP area are repeating pve quests, you can lvl quite fast there but it's still questing, the advatage this quests are not phased disadvantage the quest repeat randomly so it's some sort of grinding and not evera group member has the same one. But it's pretty fast way to do it together. one or two times an dgo to the next nexus of quests in cyrodil. The main Story is okay and quite typical for the TES series also it feels a bit more stretched because of the slow leveling process of the MMO genre. Crafting is awesome in this Game, it's simple flexible enough to support every build you come up with. But pvp raiding is very much fun and looks awesome. The instances are designed for 4 people. They are nothing new but there are a lot of it, because there are extended veteran versions of every instance of the low lvl areas. Every Instance gives you one skill point so and there is and skilltree you can only level with them, the loot is a bit to low open world mobs drops better. Concerning it is an MMO the bugs are quite few i have played now about 150 hours and have had 2 quest breaking buggs and one is fixxed already than a week. So overall the game is a pretty good MMO , the best thing about it is the skillsystem and the crafting everthing beyond this is MMO typical on a quite high niveau. I Substract one point because in of the unconfortable questing in groups.… Expand
  62. lordwardall
    Apr 28, 2014
    1
    They should rename this game "The Elder Bug Online". So buggy it's horrible.

    ToI give it a 1 because some aspects of the game are fun.

    Maybe in 6 months after tons of fixes, I will give it another chance.
  63. Kizdaen
    Apr 28, 2014
    10
    This is the perfect MMO. I wasn't a huge fan of the elder scrolls series or anything, but I had tried oblivion and skyrim and enjoyed them a great deal. I am however a huge fan of MMOs and have been ever since the first time I logged into everquest shortly after picking up a copy of ruins of kunark. And this game recaptures some of the same awe I had when I first realized online gaming wasThis is the perfect MMO. I wasn't a huge fan of the elder scrolls series or anything, but I had tried oblivion and skyrim and enjoyed them a great deal. I am however a huge fan of MMOs and have been ever since the first time I logged into everquest shortly after picking up a copy of ruins of kunark. And this game recaptures some of the same awe I had when I first realized online gaming was a thing.
    I suspect that due to skyrims popularity there will be some first time mmo'ers so I'm trying to keep that in mind as I write this review.
    The first thing I noticed were the graphics: very high quality visuals with all the wonder of the nirn you've seen before but with new areas to explore and new wonders to discover. The lighting effects and shadows are nothing short of breathtaking. I literally gasped the first time I saw a sunshaft coming through a broken window.
    Combat is done amazingly well. I play a tank and the feeling you get the first time you successfully bash an npc out of a heavy attack and then knock them down with one of your own, that's just rewarding. Far superior to the auto attack system used in other games.
    Leveling up is a lot of fun too with quests that engage you in the world and present you with decisions that effect the world around you. And I'm not talking in just the immediate sense of "throw this bucket of water and that fire goes out" although that is present, I'm talking in the "you find out this quest giver is a traitor to her people, should she be given an opportunity at redemption, or be exiled or executed, and the choice you make doesn't just effect the end of that quest but it effects all the interactions you have with that tribe or city afterward .
    This game is truly the best mmo on the market and I could talk about it indefinitely.
    I'm giving it a perfect 10.

    Kizdaen Gix
    NA megaserver    … Expand
  64. Jezirah
    Apr 28, 2014
    10
    I love it.

    I have played it until now about 250 hours and just hit Level 50... so much more to find and explore...
    No review can show you whether you like it or not.
  65. 211216819
    Apr 28, 2014
    4
    It was a big disapointment... Best graphic i ever saw in a mmopg (the world is just beautyful and everthing is different), BUT the quests just have to much bugs.... there are quests where you run hours of hours and dont know what to do... for example one quest could be "find xyz" GREAT if u missed the "filmsequence" you dont know anything about the quest and can read about the questIt was a big disapointment... Best graphic i ever saw in a mmopg (the world is just beautyful and everthing is different), BUT the quests just have to much bugs.... there are quests where you run hours of hours and dont know what to do... for example one quest could be "find xyz" GREAT if u missed the "filmsequence" you dont know anything about the quest and can read about the quest afterwards to get some information.... I really wanted to enjoy it but hours / days of searching for something you dont find ist just frustrating and not fun.....and the pvm is also buged ... for example if the montser infornt of you uses a skill and u just walk away from the montser (getting out of the hit range) the monster will hit you! ....… Expand
  66. BlindingBright
    Apr 28, 2014
    6
    It's like Skyrim and Guild Wars 2 had a baby.... but Skyrim found out that Guild Wars 2 was cheating on it with Dark Age of Camelot, and now Skyrim is left to raise their illegitimate child. You wanna love it, but every time you look down at it's cute little face you're reminded of how that B*&#h Skyrim cheated on you.

    This is the first MMO that has gotten me to turn off the background    It's like Skyrim and Guild Wars 2 had a baby.... but Skyrim found out that Guild Wars 2 was cheating on it with Dark Age of Camelot, and now Skyrim is left to raise their illegitimate child. You wanna love it, but every time you look down at it's cute little face you're reminded of how that B*&#h Skyrim cheated on you.

    This is the first MMO that has gotten me to turn off the background noise and to focus on... *gasp* playing it versus tuning it out or making me stare at a spreadsheet in motion. Other people cover the gripes pretty well; I'm still a loyal player, just frustrated. Currently dealing with CTD's, broken grouping, bugged quests, non-connecting combat, and weird disconnects. I'll re-re-review when this little runt gets older and learns how to walk without falling on it's face.    … Expand
  67. Neizir
    Apr 28, 2014
    9
    Here's my review:
    Questing: Can be either good or bad depending on whether or not you care about a game's story. If you actually care about the story, you're in for a real treat with questing in ESO. Every quest is fun and immersive if you listen to the story. Simple fetch or kill quests (There are very few of these, by the way.) will actually have some meaning towards them and sometimes    Here's my review:
    Questing: Can be either good or bad depending on whether or not you care about a game's story. If you actually care about the story, you're in for a real treat with questing in ESO. Every quest is fun and immersive if you listen to the story. Simple fetch or kill quests (There are very few of these, by the way.) will actually have some meaning towards them and sometimes don't even feel like they're "grindy" quests at all even though they clearly are. For example, "Kill 6 bandits because they killed my family." feels like less of a chore than "Kill 6 bandits because pigs can fly.". If you just whiz through the dialogue and go straight to the objective, you won't like questing and everything stated above will just go ahead and contradict itself, feeling like a typical MMO grind. In my opinion questing is good fun if you're not a rusher who skips as much as he can to get to the end of the game. 8/10 for Questing.

    Combat: For a real-time system, ESO's combat is sort of a mixed bag. Melee combat is excellent. Hits feel like they have an impact, thanks to screen shaking and collision detection and "Ouch"-sounding sounds. Blocking and interrupting, however, don't really feel that necessary, except when the enemy charges up a special attack. Bow and Staff combat isn't brilliant and feel like they need to have more of an impact through both sound and sight. Combat is generally fun but more can be worked on regarding ranged combat. 7/10 for Combat.

    Graphics and Visuals: Aboslutely stunning, the only other MMO I can think of that looks better is Planetside 2, and that uses something along the lines of the Unreal Engine. The textures are very high quality, and shading and lighting can't get any better than what they are now. Even in PVP, where there are hundreds of players and effects on the screen, my R9 270X, the equivalent of a GTX 660 Ti, maintains a solid 30 FPS. The art style, however, really hinders how visually appealing ESO really is. If the art style were on par with Skyrim, ESO would easily beat Skyrim by a country mile in terms of graphics. 9/10 for visuals.

    Exploration and World Design: Exploration is one of ESO's greatest strengths. There is no sitting in cities waiting for an LFG queue to pop, in fact sitting in a city at all gets you to somewhere equivalent to where a penguin would get if it tried to fly (In short, nowhere at all.). Even if you use the game's built-in LFG tools, you and your group still need to walk to the entrance of the dungeon and need to discover it before teleporting to it again. The game's brilliant megaserver helps make this possible. Sure, if you just wander off for miles you won't really get anywhere either, but level scaling like in the other TES games isn't possible in an MMORPG. There's still lore books, skyshards, quests every step you take, solo dungeons, world bosses and more. There's an infinite supply of content in this game.
    Speaking of the megaserver, I think it really promotes that sense of community in the game and brings me back to the old days of WoW, where someone who was found trolling or being nooby was called out and never got invited to a group. Plus the technology embedded into it prevents overcrowding while at the same time maintaining a healthy number of players in the game space. 10/10 for exploration.

    PvP: Absolutely nothing negative can be said about PvP in this game. It's just...literally flawless. Seriously, how can you dislike hundreds of players battling it out for hours over a single fortress with siege weapons like trebuchets and their faction's might? A single castle isn't all; there's 18 forts across the 16 square mile area for you to ransack, as well as ancient Ayleid ruins, NPC towns, Dark Anchors etc. Thanks to these PvE objectives, you don't have to march with all your factions' might to another keep, you may unexpectedly find a player of the opposing faction in the town or ruin you're exploring encouraging small-scale PvP for those that want it. It's also balanced perfectly, maybe thanks to ESO's nearly-classless style of character building. You don't even have to be a high level to be viable, you can go in at Level 10 and have your stats boosted to match a level 50s, bar maybe a few passives. 10/10 for PVP.

    Game Systems
    There are still a plentiful amount of bugs in the game, and bots and gold sellers run rampant throughout the zones (particularly Stonefalls, Glenumbral, Auridon and Coldharbour). Customer Support itself is very responsive and I know they do alot of things to stop these bots. I've even seen a Game Master physically manifest in a dungeon and caused bots to disappear. However, the amount of bugs and bots are not good at all. 6/10 for Game Systems/Customer Service

    Endgame and Longevity
    Raids that are actually hard, Heroic Dungeons, Adventure Zones, Veteran Rank questing, PvP, lorebooks, Skyshards, questing... What else is to be said? There's a ton of things to do in ESO. 9/10 for Endgame.
    9/10.    … Expand
  68. Torain
    Apr 28, 2014
    10
    I never expected to say that: Elder Scrolls Online is one of the best games that I ever played!

    At first, I want to give you a summary of some positive aspects of Elder Scrolls Online: -great character creation! the best I've ever seen --- -great skill system with much depth in the end and no class restrictions --- -great gameplay --- -dynamic fights! --- -enjoyable quests, much    I never expected to say that: Elder Scrolls Online is one of the best games that I ever played!

    At first, I want to give you a summary of some positive aspects of Elder Scrolls Online:

    -great character creation! the best I've ever seen ---
    -great skill system with much depth in the end and no class restrictions ---
    -great gameplay ---
    -dynamic fights! ---
    -enjoyable quests, much variety
    -great immersion, athmosphere, game feels much more alive than any other MMORPG ---
    -beautiful graphics, better than any other MMORPG
    -beautiful sound
    -much more to explore than in any of the existing MMORPGs!
    -great PvP, even though much alike Guild Wars and DAoC
    -grouping is fun in dungeons and PvP
    -great crafting system, finally crafting is really worth paying attention to it!

    Reviews like Angry Joe's are extremely biased and just polemic in my opinion.
    For instance, graphics are criticized by many people for being not as good as in skyrim. But this is a MMORPG! Graphics are still the best of any existing MMORPG and even better than some single player games.
    There are only a few bugs. Don't get fooled by people, who claim that the game is totally bugged! The overall performance is much more stable than at the release of World of Warcraft, for example.
    Phasing and group questing is also not ideal. But I (and everyone else that I know!) never did grouping for quests in MMORPGs anyway. Groups are more important for visiting dungeons, doing PvP and trading etc and that works fine! So the social part of the game is not better or worse than in other MMORPGs when it comes to the decisive parts.

    Every game has its downsides!
    Still, the aspects that I listed in the beginning of this review really stand out.
    I liked World of Warcraft, Everquest and Guild Wars, but I enjoy Elder Scrolls Online even more.    … Expand
  69. Jilted
    Apr 28, 2014
    0
    I can see Zenimax is really fighting to hold their flagging scores. Just the day before yesterday the reviewer score was at a 74 and now some unknown "review" site pumped it up a point back into the green, not on what the game is, but what they "hope it could become". Then you have all these first post 10's in the user reviews which rattle off the same points just in different orders.I can see Zenimax is really fighting to hold their flagging scores. Just the day before yesterday the reviewer score was at a 74 and now some unknown "review" site pumped it up a point back into the green, not on what the game is, but what they "hope it could become". Then you have all these first post 10's in the user reviews which rattle off the same points just in different orders. They've also gone on the attack for reviewers like Angry Joe, Francis/Boogie, and many others, saying that it's just now the "Hip(ster)" thing to do, and bash on their game. Then they go around on fake accounts posting things like "try it for yourself, why would you trust some unknown reviewer?" like like $100+ just to try their shoddy game is chump change. Suck it up Zenimax, you failed and failed hard. It's not because it's just "cool" to hate your game, it's because you didn't listen to anyone who fairly criticized your game during beta and keep trying to blame everything from WoW to Hipsters for your failure. This is the third time I've said pretty much this, let's see if this one sticks without mysteriously disappearing.… Expand
  70. udmatador
    Apr 28, 2014
    5
    I really wanted to like this game, but I felt it did not translate well to the MMO genre. I felt that they tried too hard to focus on the leveling up and grind of the game rather than the mischief and freedom that the ES series has. It's not a bad game per say but it's not the Elder Scrolls either. I've spent about 30 hours with it and I'm just tired of it already. I'd much rather putI really wanted to like this game, but I felt it did not translate well to the MMO genre. I felt that they tried too hard to focus on the leveling up and grind of the game rather than the mischief and freedom that the ES series has. It's not a bad game per say but it's not the Elder Scrolls either. I've spent about 30 hours with it and I'm just tired of it already. I'd much rather put another 300 hours into skyrim than play this game. If your looking for a MMO with a decent grind, nice graphics, and ES type gameplay than check this out, but if you're thinking you're going to be playing a new Elder Scrolls installment with the same level of detail, than you're going to be disappointed.… Expand
  71. rdrunner10
    Apr 28, 2014
    10
    For the last few years I have felt WOW is just plain boring I have always hated the bad character models but have accepted it as a price for playing that game. While finally someone has made a game which better to play and also looks better. This is probably the best MMO since DAOC and probably will end up being even better then that game. Great job Zenimax.
  72. kheas
    Apr 28, 2014
    9
    I started playing this game in Beta and was immediately interested in pre-ordering the game. I am glad I did. This game gives me everything I liked about the single player Elderscrolls games but with a larger area to explore and more options than ever before. I am thoroughly enjoying myself and look forward to the future expansions to come.

    This is the MMO for fans of the    I started playing this game in Beta and was immediately interested in pre-ordering the game. I am glad I did. This game gives me everything I liked about the single player Elderscrolls games but with a larger area to explore and more options than ever before. I am thoroughly enjoying myself and look forward to the future expansions to come.

    This is the MMO for fans of the Elderscrolls series and play style. It is not the MMO to replace WOW but one that will appeal to those of us that like the solo game-play of Elderscrolls and would like the option to play with others. If Bethesda were smart they would market this game more toward the non-WOW players and try to bring on board people like myself, solo gamers.

    I cant give it a perfect 10 but it comes darn close (9.75 if I could). Great game, beautiful graphics, excellent controls and UI. A few glitches and bugs but overall I Love it.    … Expand
  73. Luckyduck
    Apr 27, 2014
    0
    This game is trash. The combat is floaty, the classes are horribly unbalanced, there's endgame besides Cyrodil, and the business model thinks it deserves to be both a subscription based game as well as a cash shop driven game. To add insult to injury, you need to cancel your sub 30 days in advance, so if you didn't cancel immediately after signing up to try your free month, you're goingThis game is trash. The combat is floaty, the classes are horribly unbalanced, there's endgame besides Cyrodil, and the business model thinks it deserves to be both a subscription based game as well as a cash shop driven game. To add insult to injury, you need to cancel your sub 30 days in advance, so if you didn't cancel immediately after signing up to try your free month, you're going to get billed for another pay period, whether you want to or not.

    Fire Matt Firor already, quit giving that guy a job. He doesn't deserve one in this industry. Then bring in Todd Howard to fix this abomination he didn't even want.    … Expand
  74. Rekia
    Apr 27, 2014
    4
    As a single player experience, it's obviously lacking, as most MMOs are. The thing that really ruins it for me is that it doesn't do the multi player experience well either. I gave it 4 because it is fun for about 10 hours, by yourself, but then you start to want more out of an MMO.

    The idea of this game is great, but the actual implementation of it is severely lacking. The Elder    As a single player experience, it's obviously lacking, as most MMOs are. The thing that really ruins it for me is that it doesn't do the multi player experience well either. I gave it 4 because it is fun for about 10 hours, by yourself, but then you start to want more out of an MMO.

    The idea of this game is great, but the actual implementation of it is severely lacking. The Elder Scrolls IP is really the only thing that makes this game playable.

    Pros:

    - I've always wanted to explore more of Tamriel and this game allows you to explore a lot of different cultures and environments in the Elder Scroll's lore.

    - Action based combat similar to Guild Wars 2

    - A lot of the quests actually have very interesting stories

    Cons:

    - Imagine an Elder Scrolls game where you couldn't run around collecting all the Daedric artifacts, hoarding random stuff you find in people's homes, or decorating your own home - basically there's a lot of limitations in this game that make me feel very "homesick" for a real Elder Scroll's title.

    - The action based combat is very unresponsive and basically a watered down version of GW2's very successful combat system . You only get 5 skills and an ultimate on your bar at any time, and only skills that are on your bar gain experience and level up. It ends up being that everyone has to choose the same five skills because you don't really have room for situational skills.

    - And by unresponsive, I mean sometimes you want to switch your weapon in combat to pull out that bow, but it takes 2+ seconds after hitting the hotkey before it registers. Sometimes enemies will appear to be several feet away, or facing the other direction, and yet still hitting you. Which makes the dodge mechanic pointless since the red ground indicator is not always in the correct spot. Also, dodging doesn't always work, even with full stamina.

    - Dodging takes stamina. Blocking takes stamina. Weapon skills take stamina, so if you used all your stamina using your weapon skills (there is no auto attack, so you probably did) then you don't get to dodge or block that huge attack that may or may not one shot you. I hope you like caster classes because they're just 100 times better than any melee weapon or bow based build.

    - Some classes and weapon types are just better than everything else, the combat is not at all balanced, not even remotely.

    - Many progression halting bugs. All of the quests are part of a quest chain. Each icon on the map is one quest chain area that you must complete in order to get enough experience to continue on to the next area. There are MANY bugs that prevent a quest from being done, which prevents the quest chain from being continued, which means your character might be super underleveled for the next area.

    - Dungeons and killing monsters barely rewards any exp, only quests are worth decent exp.

    - The end game content consists of doing all the quests in the other faction's areas with absolutely no role play or story reason for doing it. I started out as a a loyal member of the Daggerfall Covenant helping the King against the Aldmeri Dominion and the Ebonheart pact, but now I'm helping the Aldermi queen for some reason. Basically, the reason is because it's the only thing to do at level 50+ and rather than have new content for end game, they recycled the other quest areas, basically eliminating any desire to make an alt of these other factions.

    - More bugs. There's a bug that basically makes it so that you can no longer attack or do anything in combat until you die. Certain weapon skills cause it, so it happens often. There's a bug where everything in your entire bank disappears and all the bank upgrades you bought are gone. There's a bug where your helmet randomly disappears while you craft. A lot of skills are bugged too.

    - Phasing. All the quests are phased, so you're in a different "phase" or instance of the game after completing a quest. You know how in World of Warcraft, when you're in a different phase from your group member, it asks "Your friend is in a different phase, would you like to join them?" This game does not do that. There is NO way to join your friend in their phase, and ALL the quests are phased, so the only way to level with a friend is to never do anything without them. You'll never be able to help a guildy or a random person with their quests.

    - Many instances are solo. Some quest lines can only be done solo and you can't help or be helped during them. Really hope you chose a caster based build because the game gets impossibly hard for melee characters later on.

    So in conclusion, this game is pretty fun at first, then disappointing. I'd put it in the "borrow from a friend, but don't spend $60 on it" category.    … Expand
  75. ElvenArcher
    Apr 27, 2014
    3
    not a good mmo or multiplayer game
    not a good tes or singleplayer experience
    it's not anything it is meant to be.
    but it is everything it's not meant to be.

    avoid it at all 'costs'... get it?
  76. Liquidfire
    Apr 27, 2014
    9
    Lovely game, A fresh look upon MMOs, and one that has caught my attention after my last MMO (Wish).
    Exploring is awesome, not feel to rush to level 50. There are a few down sides though, but I am sure they fix them soon.
    1. Auction House + Bots and goldsellers(but that's just programmer vs programmer). 2. Some minor bugs, which can easily happen in complex games like this. A lot of    Lovely game, A fresh look upon MMOs, and one that has caught my attention after my last MMO (Wish).
    Exploring is awesome, not feel to rush to level 50. There are a few down sides though, but I am sure they fix them soon.

    1. Auction House + Bots and goldsellers(but that's just programmer vs programmer).
    2. Some minor bugs, which can easily happen in complex games like this.

    A lot of people are whining here, because they don't have patience. It's by all means not a bad game, and don't let the negative review, let you think that.    … Expand
  77. Pieman2901
    Apr 27, 2014
    9
    Elder Scrolls Online is a fantastic effort by Bethesda. The game looks amazing and the combat is fluid and exciting. Improving on the usual block and slash mechanic, Elder Scrolls Online also gives you abilities and spells to use in the heat of battle, without having to select it through a series of menus. The character creation is also very improved. You have more options, but it isElder Scrolls Online is a fantastic effort by Bethesda. The game looks amazing and the combat is fluid and exciting. Improving on the usual block and slash mechanic, Elder Scrolls Online also gives you abilities and spells to use in the heat of battle, without having to select it through a series of menus. The character creation is also very improved. You have more options, but it is easier to use and create a character that looks how you want. During character creation, you select a class as well. These classes choose what abilities you have, but do not limit your weapon choice. The world is incredibly open and while your exploring you can find old temples, shrines, and quests everywhere. The PvP is where this game shines the most. Once you are level 10, you can join the alliance war, and fight for the throne of emperor. The sieges are exciting and fun especially with the siege engines that you can purchase. My only complaints are that on some alliance war servers (called campaigns in game) there are people who raid while everyone is offline and take all the keeps. The game also can get a little stale if you play too much at a time. The subscription fee is outrageous as well, having to pay for a 60 dollar game with another 15 dollars. Overall, Elder Scrolls Online is a fantastic MMORPG that will please MMO fans and Elder Scroll fans alike.… Expand
  78. ngmr97
    Apr 27, 2014
    4
    I don't have much to say, but please, you can't ask for monthly fees by creating just an alright game. A lot of people complained about World of Warcraft's monthly paids but it was successful anyways, and that were because it was an outstanding game and a huge innovation in the MMO market. TESO is not even innovative, is just another MMO condemned to the model F2P.
  79. Glyxhormon
    Apr 27, 2014
    10
    Das Spiel ist vor knapp drei Wochen erschienen.
    Ich verstehe den ganzen Ärger der Spieler nicht. Es macht sehr viel Spaß, ich spiele teilweise vier oder mehrere Stunden am Tag. Es ist eindeutig das bessere Skyrim.
    Ich bin 26 Jahre alt, meine Freundin und ich spielen es gemeinsam. Es sind zwar nach wie vor Fehler im Spiel, das ist wahr. sie arbeiten bereits an den Problemen. Aber man    Das Spiel ist vor knapp drei Wochen erschienen.
    Ich verstehe den ganzen Ärger der Spieler nicht. Es macht sehr viel Spaß, ich spiele teilweise vier oder mehrere Stunden am Tag. Es ist eindeutig das bessere Skyrim.
    Ich bin 26 Jahre alt, meine Freundin und ich spielen es gemeinsam.

    Es sind zwar nach wie vor Fehler im Spiel, das ist wahr. sie arbeiten bereits an den Problemen.
    Aber man muss den Entwicklern eine Chance geben, sie geben sich große Mühe.
    Allgemein, welches Computerspiel hatte nach der Neuerscheinung noch keine Fehler?    … Expand
  80. Netchy
    Apr 26, 2014
    6
    Can't even log into the game because it takes 30 minutes to log in. Quests bugs everywhere.

    There are some issues and bugs with the game that have been around since the beta or since the early days of the games release which still haven't been fixed.

    Do not buy or wait for the game to go F2P.
  81. Pickle-Tickler
    Apr 26, 2014
    8
    This game is neither amazing, nor terrible. It is decent. If you are a hardcore elder scrolls fan looking to get into MMO's, give it a shot. If you are a hardcore MMO fan (WoW player) don't bother. The money that Zenimax want you to pay to play this game is absurd. If you want someone to pay 80 bucks for the game then a $15/month subscription fee, the game has to be better than any otherThis game is neither amazing, nor terrible. It is decent. If you are a hardcore elder scrolls fan looking to get into MMO's, give it a shot. If you are a hardcore MMO fan (WoW player) don't bother. The money that Zenimax want you to pay to play this game is absurd. If you want someone to pay 80 bucks for the game then a $15/month subscription fee, the game has to be better than any other MMO on the market, and the bottom line is, it isn't. When they eventually drop the subscription fee in the future, DEFINITELY pick this game up, so much content and fun to be had in the game. PvP is arguably the strongest aspect of the game, but if you are really into the Elder Scrolls lore, the PvE in this game is made for you. Taking price out of the equation, 8 is my score. If I would rate in the current price for the game, it would be a 6.… Expand
  82. Sevvy88
    Apr 26, 2014
    5
    What can I say? The game isn't bad. It's certainly not the worst MMO I've played, but does that mean it's great? Sadly, no.

    It does what it does passably. It's a theme-park MMO set in the Elder Scrolls universe. That in itself might be enough to put people off from it. My real issue with the game stems from the fact that everything it does, it does only passably well. Combat? Guild    What can I say? The game isn't bad. It's certainly not the worst MMO I've played, but does that mean it's great? Sadly, no.

    It does what it does passably. It's a theme-park MMO set in the Elder Scrolls universe. That in itself might be enough to put people off from it. My real issue with the game stems from the fact that everything it does, it does only passably well.

    Combat? Guild Wars 2 has better. Exploration? Same. Story? SW:TOR presents and delivers a better RPG element and main story than ESO does. Graphics? Final Fantasy: ARR is much sharper and with the times. The visuals are nice, but ultimately remind me of a Warhammer Online in HD. Dynamic events? See Rift and, again, Guild Wars 2.

    Like many people have pointed out, the game is just so painfully average. It's not the most on rails of the theme parks, so that at least is a plus, and the voice over questing -is- better than the "Read this huge text box" type mechanic, but simply having these traits isn't enough. WoW long stopped being the game that I judge MMO's by, because since WoW, we've had some great additions to the genre. Anyone who has played MMO's in any mentionable capacity in the last 10 years will constantly be feeling like they've done all of this before. I find myself bored after an hour or so.

    So, the game doesn't really bring anything new to the table. For people just picking up their first MMO's or who are truly in love with the Elder Scrolls world (the lore -is- very good) then this game might knock it out of the park. For your average MMO player looking for the next star in an already overcrowded sky of games though? I fear this is not it.

    Not bad, but not great. It just "is what it is." Another theme park. I fear the game often has more considering re-installing Skyrim or Oblivion, even Morrowind, rather than continue playing it. It is hard to tell who they exactly were making this game for.    … Expand
  83. htdffggssdfgfds
    Apr 26, 2014
    2
    Well i have played many mmorpgs. The first thing i thought was pretty cool, was the cold dark look this game carries. That with the quest dialog. Untill i reached level 14, i realized that everything in this game is just repetitive. Kill monsters, smith, make food lol. I guess you can just try to hit level 10 and just have fun player killing. Long story short. I could not go any furtherWell i have played many mmorpgs. The first thing i thought was pretty cool, was the cold dark look this game carries. That with the quest dialog. Untill i reached level 14, i realized that everything in this game is just repetitive. Kill monsters, smith, make food lol. I guess you can just try to hit level 10 and just have fun player killing. Long story short. I could not go any further after level 14. Simply had to quit it felt like it was a chore to continue. wasn't addicting. Also, after the game came out after two days. I seen people who reached the max level already. ????? what???
    well. Have fun with this game- i'm out lol    … Expand
  84. libno
    Apr 26, 2014
    2
    Now from what I hear, PvP is a marvel. If only the game were captivating enough to bring me even halfway there.

    The Elder Scrolls Online features gameplay and combat reminiscent of previous installments in the franchise as well as more generic MMO elements. However, both of these aspects feel dumbed down, which is quite surprising because I was unaware that both point and shoot    Now from what I hear, PvP is a marvel. If only the game were captivating enough to bring me even halfway there.

    The Elder Scrolls Online features gameplay and combat reminiscent of previous installments in the franchise as well as more generic MMO elements. However, both of these aspects feel dumbed down, which is quite surprising because I was unaware that both point and shoot mechanics and skill bar grinding could be simplified. This blight of gameplay was achieved by also taking the slow pace of the traditional MMO gameplay and merging it with the monotonous fps/tps gameplay.

    Once you leave combat behind, you are left with the quests. After suffering through a highly generic tutorial, players are brought to their faction's starting location. However, instead of being thrown into an event such as those from Guild Wars 2, a decision driven story instance like SWTOR's, or quite simply a decent world, like almost every MMO ever, we are thrust into a harbinger for some of the most bland and MMO-esque quests in history. In fact, the very first quest I received was a debt-collecting quest, where I talked to bandits and they fought me for 2 seconds and then paid up. After having to farm the same four bandits ten times, I began to yearn for even a "kill 10 wolves" quest.

    In short, ESO advertises elements of PvP and exploration that are deviant from more traditional members of the genre, but fails to bring the player to these points by neglecting its core elements.    … Expand
  85. Arkan01d
    Apr 26, 2014
    0
    I wanted to point out something no one else seems to have yet; the amount of negative reviews for this game and their ratio in comparison to other Elder Scrolls games on Metacritic. Morrowind: 139 positive (p) : 9 negative (n) = 6.5% of the reviews were negative. Oblivion: 351p : 70n = 19.9% negative reviews. Skyrim: 1,391p : 230n = 16.5% negative reviews. ESO: 717p : 433n = 60.4% negativeI wanted to point out something no one else seems to have yet; the amount of negative reviews for this game and their ratio in comparison to other Elder Scrolls games on Metacritic. Morrowind: 139 positive (p) : 9 negative (n) = 6.5% of the reviews were negative. Oblivion: 351p : 70n = 19.9% negative reviews. Skyrim: 1,391p : 230n = 16.5% negative reviews. ESO: 717p : 433n = 60.4% negative reviews.

    Some players have made the statement that the series has gained in popularity and therefore it's only natural to gain more negative reviews, but we see from the data that even though Skyrim's total user reviews increased by 385% it's negative ratio decreased nearly 3% in total! That is an amazing feat especially for a game franchise. Typically later installations receive more exposure, but more bad press as well. But what about the press?

    From the 116 total professional review scores, over all three previous titles, there were ONLY 2 mixed (yellow) reviews. No negative reviews are recorded on Metacritic. Both mixed reviews were for Morrowind. So the last two titles could be considered an improvement over each other as nearly all new installments of a continuing series degrades or receives lower scores from the press who are looking for more with each new release. Now we turn to ESO where the press has nearly as many mixed reviews as they do positive.

    What conclusions can we make given the data at hand? ESO is not a very good game in the cannon of the Elder Scroll series.    … Expand
  86. CasanovaGamez
    Apr 26, 2014
    0
    Update after more time do not give your money to these people. This is not a game, this is not Elder Scrolls this is the biggest let down you will ever see/play.
  87. Judas_IV
    Apr 26, 2014
    10
    This game follows the Elder Scrolls series It pulls in references from Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim.
    The look of this game is astounding! The game play is familiar if you've played any MMO before.
    The ability to have such an open ended creation tool to create any type of character is far better than the constraints of other MMO's or even single player games. The questing is very    This game follows the Elder Scrolls series It pulls in references from Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim.
    The look of this game is astounding! The game play is familiar if you've played any MMO before.
    The ability to have such an open ended creation tool to create any type of character is far better than the constraints of other MMO's or even single player games.
    The questing is very story driven to where you'll have a chain of quests before it resolves, and gives questing much more significance than simply grinding animals for pelts.

    I love this game and despise the folks that feel entitled to play with out paying for quality in a subscription based model. To them I say....If you can't afford it, don't blame the game. I hope it keeps out the haters and whiners that plagued WoW for so long.

    If you like Elder Scrolls and MMO's, then this game is going to make you very happy.    … Expand
  88. Rarisk
    Apr 26, 2014
    5
    I had high hopes for this game, after reaching VR1 I feel like i had to grind my way up due to broken quests.
    The last 2 levels of the game had no content because of the 2-4% of quests along the way that didn't work. There are limited ways to gain experience effectively and I feel like the developers are forcing us to play the game a certain way.
    The game looks good, not great. On the    I had high hopes for this game, after reaching VR1 I feel like i had to grind my way up due to broken quests.
    The last 2 levels of the game had no content because of the 2-4% of quests along the way that didn't work. There are limited ways to gain experience effectively and I feel like the developers are forcing us to play the game a certain way.
    The game looks good, not great.
    On the plus side combat is smooth-ish, NPC's are dumb at times but the combat system is refreshing.
    This gamer hopes that in 2-6 months the game will be polished and worth a second look.    … Expand
  89. Nonforthem
    Apr 26, 2014
    10
    Fantastic game. Get TES world and the MMO genre together really well. Glad it's not a Skyrim 2, but an TES(may people don't know, but it is TESV not SkyrimV), glad the game did not take stupid things of the singleplayer series that would ruin the game(no way you can be all you want in this game, but everything RACIONAL that you want), glad they didn't ruined the lore(My biggest concern)Fantastic game. Get TES world and the MMO genre together really well. Glad it's not a Skyrim 2, but an TES(may people don't know, but it is TESV not SkyrimV), glad the game did not take stupid things of the singleplayer series that would ruin the game(no way you can be all you want in this game, but everything RACIONAL that you want), glad they didn't ruined the lore(My biggest concern) and glad you can not kill someone with one arrow in stealth. The game is really amazing, the PvP is just awesome, the dungeons are kinda good(just don't like dungeons that much) and the questline is good.

    Problems:

    Irrational skills-Not really a problem, but everyone who likes realism and logic will hate those wings coming from nothing and these "dark shards" that has never been in lore before, they could have made skills with the 6 schools of magic(yeah, there is one thing called "Mysticism") and some weapons ability.

    Stealth- It is really non-sense and works like you are REALLY invisible sometimes, and the system to PvE is just dumb, didn't seen any difference on stealth while in light or dark, neither the noises I made had difference, only the distance and enemies sight works.

    World- The world is wonderful and well-made, Daggerfall is just incredible, but there are some non-sense, they made the political concerns in the world just ok(well, way better than in Oblivion, if there was any politic in Oblivion), but I think they should had make the world darker and evil, people just seems to be cool, and there seems to be like a good side and evil side, when both should be evil-neutral and just with different points of view(e.g The Aldmeri Queen's brother seems to be evil, but for me his point of view is just right and he should take the throne back). OH, btw, Cyrodill isn't a jungle. And the races should have more differentiation in culture, architecture, art and religion, just the Dunmer and Nordics seems to be really different.    … Expand
  90. Laoca
    Apr 26, 2014
    0
    For the most part you will find it is a good game. This is until you reach the higher levels. Certain classes are impossible to advance in the main storyline, as well as quests, typically from the mages guild or the fighters guild. The game at higher levels becomes completely impossible if you are a healing class or certain DPS classes. The only class that can actually play through isFor the most part you will find it is a good game. This is until you reach the higher levels. Certain classes are impossible to advance in the main storyline, as well as quests, typically from the mages guild or the fighters guild. The game at higher levels becomes completely impossible if you are a healing class or certain DPS classes. The only class that can actually play through is the Tank classes without much issues. Essentially at higher levels this game becomes frustrating and impossible to complete. There are still way to many bugs that have been ignored in the main quest lines. You will find it is nearly impossible to play without add-ons as well. Trading between guilds and players require it if you desire to actually find the items you are searching for. Anyone who writes a positive review has never played higher level as a healer or half the dps classes. This game will fail and is not worth even starting as you will quit from the stupidity of this company's game creators.… Expand
  91. JoeCool
    Apr 26, 2014
    6
    Forget all the 10/10 reviews from launch day, they're not just worthless, they're misleading. The game isn't a good Elder Scrolls game, and it's not a good MMO. It's more of an average MMO with an Elder Scrolls skin slapped onto it.
    There are still many, many bugs. Partying up is simply not recommended as it'll harm your own advancement in PvE. Questing grouped is horrible. Many things    Forget all the 10/10 reviews from launch day, they're not just worthless, they're misleading. The game isn't a good Elder Scrolls game, and it's not a good MMO. It's more of an average MMO with an Elder Scrolls skin slapped onto it.
    There are still many, many bugs. Partying up is simply not recommended as it'll harm your own advancement in PvE. Questing grouped is horrible. Many things that have become standard for an MMO are just not there. PvP is reasonably good, it's just a bit pointless.
    It's just not worth the money, let alone a sub.    … Expand
  92. EndiHaxhi
    Apr 26, 2014
    5
    i must say, my first elder scrolls game was skyrim. i played it, liked it and then teso came out. when i heared it had a monthly fee, i thought: this guys had a success with sp only games, every one of them. heck, skyrim is the only game that is sp only that is played more then 50000 players everyday, which is bizzare. but bethesa is becoming money hungry. they want money and they want toi must say, my first elder scrolls game was skyrim. i played it, liked it and then teso came out. when i heared it had a monthly fee, i thought: this guys had a success with sp only games, every one of them. heck, skyrim is the only game that is sp only that is played more then 50000 players everyday, which is bizzare. but bethesa is becoming money hungry. they want money and they want to get it just like ea and activi$ion does. if the fee keeps running, i wont even bother with the new elder scrolls game. they let me down this time.… Expand
  93. DRMtookMYlife
    Apr 26, 2014
    6
    The big question here is: Is it worth the price? In short, no. $60 up front and $15 a month thereafter is not a fair price for the quality of this game. The game isn't bad certainly but the bugs can be seriously aggravating. There are few things I can think of that are as extremely frustrating as dying because my attack inputs weren't responding. Because the series is known for havingThe big question here is: Is it worth the price? In short, no. $60 up front and $15 a month thereafter is not a fair price for the quality of this game. The game isn't bad certainly but the bugs can be seriously aggravating. There are few things I can think of that are as extremely frustrating as dying because my attack inputs weren't responding. Because the series is known for having bugs is no excuse when this much money and effort was put into producing the game. Combat is a bit too drawn out and not quite fun enough for me. The most enjoyment I get out of this game is exploring the vast world. The cities are large and interesting and I'm excited to see more of it. I just wish combat breaking bugs and slow leveling were addressed better.… Expand
  94. Zeata23
    Apr 25, 2014
    0
    I came into this game, thinking it would be disappointing, and prepared for a terrible mash-up of too many games, appealing to too many people. I got that, and worse. The launch went smoothly, but the game breaking bugs were too many, entire zones have reset on me, and the PvP wasn't worth it. I wanted to like this game, I still do, but it's just so difficult. I regret buying this game.
  95. RuyKann
    Apr 25, 2014
    8
    Some early bugs that have inspired some negative reviews but the game is just getting better and better. It is beautifully designed and the new 12 player team modes are supper cool and make the game much more dynamic. Not higher than an 8/10 because they should have taken a bit more time to make the release bug free. If you like Skyrim you'll probably like ESO.
  96. JoshW
    Apr 25, 2014
    6
    Pros

    * Lore - Story is amazing * Voice Acting - The best of any MMO, by far * Crafting (Very detailed, lots of options to customize) * Addons - Whatever gaps there are in the UI, users are fixing it and making game more manageable. Graphics (with SweetFX enabled) * Incredibly Immersive * Support - ZOS has responded to 90% of my tickets, very polite and very responsive. * Questing    Pros

    * Lore - Story is amazing
    * Voice Acting - The best of any MMO, by far
    * Crafting (Very detailed, lots of options to customize)
    * Addons - Whatever gaps there are in the UI, users are fixing it and making game more manageable.
    Graphics (with SweetFX enabled)
    * Incredibly Immersive
    * Support - ZOS has responded to 90% of my tickets, very polite and very responsive.
    * Questing - Quests are plentiful and fun

    Cons

    * Micromanagement - From inventory to repairs, it consumes a lot of time (When I'd prefer spending that time playing rather than managing it). If you love micromanagement, this is for you.
    * Chat interface - I find it clumsy and outdated. Hard to notice when someone's talking to you.
    * Questing in group - This is the biggest let down... if you've already completed the quest you won't be able to see where your buddy is going. If you're the one completing the quest, your friend will feel like a hireling; if your buddy is completing the quest you'll find yourself thinking "There are better and more effective ways to grind".
    * Key Mapping - Yes, you'll have to manually setup each and every char... Unless you're sticking to Zenimax' default setting.
    * Replayability - Once you reach 50 you'll have to go PVP or you'll feel like you've got little else to do (Unless you really love the lore and you want to complete all quests and play with different factions, which’s not my case)
    * Customization - Crafting is really fun and very complex. That's where you'll be able to customize your existing char, because as of today, you can't change skins nor dye your armors and weapons.
    Monthly Fee - I prefer F2P with a game store... I usually spend more than 15 a month, if the items offered make a difference (customization, commodities, benefits)
    * Upgrades - Did you click on the wrong Horse upgrade? Suck it up and either discard the horse or just cope with it. I personally made 2 mistakes and that was it, I'm stuck with those mistakes.
    * Daily stuff - This is my personal opinion but I don't like how the game forces into connecting to it (or fall behind) with your chores. This is not an issue with ESO alone... most MMOs I've played have the same problem.

    Bottom line, this is an innovative game that has an awesome lore and it feels like a fresh start compared to other MMOs. However, it's not awesome enough to keep me playing it on a subscription model. I have already cancelled it and the game has been uninstalled.    … Expand
  97. lucasshark33mic
    Apr 25, 2014
    3
    Very much looking forward to this one, but having played the beta my expectations plummeted.

    And the release version is alas no better. On the plus side the game has huge scope, and voice acting throughout (although the delivery is often interminable sloooowww). Now on to the negatives, and alas there are many. - The game is utterly bug ridden. Uncompletable quests, clipping    Very much looking forward to this one, but having played the beta my expectations plummeted.

    And the release version is alas no better.

    On the plus side the game has huge scope, and voice acting throughout (although the delivery is often interminable sloooowww).

    Now on to the negatives, and alas there are many.

    - The game is utterly bug ridden. Uncompletable quests, clipping issues, getting stuck in the middle of scenery and disappearing completely off the gaming area. It still feels like an early beta.
    - The combat is a mess. You have only a minimum of skills available at any one time, and your energy/magic supply to use these runs out after about 1 billionth of on a nano second after each fight begins.
    - User interface is highly unresponsive. I have lost count of the times I have clicked the same skill five or six times before the game actually responds (and no this is NOT because there was no power/magic available).

    With a few months works, and a complete overhaul of the combat system it may yet grow into something worthwhile, but my advise to anyone considering this title is to give it a miss. At least for now.    … Expand
  98. gerar
    Apr 25, 2014
    1
    Laugh out loud at the 10's. They could only come from corporate shills or people with the lowest of low standards. This game is a train wreck and the bodies are piling up fast.

    Endless load screens Progress ending quest bugs Accounts banned for no reason Potentially economy destroying duping bugs Disappearing bank slots and items It really feels like bots and gold sellers are 20%    Laugh out loud at the 10's. They could only come from corporate shills or people with the lowest of low standards. This game is a train wreck and the bodies are piling up fast.

    Endless load screens
    Progress ending quest bugs
    Accounts banned for no reason
    Potentially economy destroying duping bugs
    Disappearing bank slots and items
    It really feels like bots and gold sellers are 20% of the player base
    Constant client crashes
    Combat is clunky at best (how anyone can say this is fluid is beyond me)
    Graphics are nice but the color schemes are bland at best
    Character creation is great until you realize how generic every single race looks when it is the same re-skinned skeleton
    Zerg-fest PvP
    Tedious PvE

    Of course the shills and low standard folk will scream "But but but it's an mmo they never have a smooth launch"

    And I will say " It's 20-fricken-14!"

    They have years of past mmo successes and failures to research and they put out this? A generic mmo with The Elder Scrolls slapped on it to sell some copies? A shame really.

    I did give it a "1" because it installed and uninstalled pretty easily.    … Expand
  99. Koloski
    Apr 25, 2014
    10
    This is the best MMO, I've played since WoW. This game is well done and has me and my friends playing an MMO again. At 40 years old, I thought MMO's were a thing of the past for me and my group of gaming friends. But, for whatever reason this game works.

    I'm actually enjoying leveling and exploring. I haven't felt that way in a really long time. I don't feel the rush to cap my    This is the best MMO, I've played since WoW. This game is well done and has me and my friends playing an MMO again. At 40 years old, I thought MMO's were a thing of the past for me and my group of gaming friends. But, for whatever reason this game works.

    I'm actually enjoying leveling and exploring. I haven't felt that way in a really long time. I don't feel the rush to cap my level for the real game to start. There are some quest breaking bugs from time to time, or the oddity here or there. Some issues with guild banks, dupes etc... But, all that is just normal MMO release stuff.

    Every game has those issues on release. I don't care what anyone says. All games have problems, for the most part this game is completely playable and that is the key. It is almost impossible to completely test an MMO till it goes full production. I think in general they have reacted well to the issues and gave timely updates, which is key for communication sake.

    To me a true test of an MMO is enjoyment and longevity. I know me and I can grow tired of an MMO quickly. But, I can tell from the first month if I'm going to stick with it. Like Star Wars, I knew I was going to burn out on that game quick. But, it was a great ride for the first 30 to 60 days. This game has enough systems in place and the character development is so varied that, I know I'll be playing this for a long time.

    Lets be honest, Bethesda or whoever the parent company is called Zenimax or something just do things right. They will provide content, they will design better systems, they will perform. Just like they do with all their key franchises.

    I know the trend now is to give MMO lower scores, because sites have been burned in the past for giving great reviews early. But, this game is going to be a classic and will thrive. It deserves a 90+ and I'm sorry to see the low metacritic score on it overall. I was hoping that MMORPG would be one who actually took their time to give it proper praise and also appreciate what they tried to do here.

    Most reviews all praise how fun it is, but then give it a 70 to low 80 score. I don't get that. The graphics for an MMO are great, the sound is good, music good, quest design good, story good, extra systems good. The only real knock on it is the bugs right now and gold sellers. What game doesn't have those?    … Expand
  100. Lillepekka
    Apr 25, 2014
    1
    Game is still beta, a horrible buggy mess.
    Customer service is full of roleplaying trolls.

    PvP is crap. Just grind your ass to lvl 60 and defeat your opponent by looking in their general direction and undress and gently touch the number keys with your balls.
Page:

Awards & Rankings

4
#4 Most Discussed PC Game of 2014
14
#14 Most Shared PC Game of 2014

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
71

Mixed or average reviews - based on 64 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 27 out of 64
  2. Mixed: 36 out of 64
  3. Negative: 1 out of 64
  1. CD-Action
    Jul 23, 2014
    60
    Eight years of development, a team consisting of even 250 people at some points, budget reaching hundreds of millions of dollars. It’s a pity that this ‘Skyrim Online’ disappoints both fans of previous Bethesda games and MMORPG veterans who expected some fresh air in the stale genre. [06/2014, p.44]
  2. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Jul 8, 2014
    60
    A well done MMO that can lure players not familiar with the genre. But if you've played MMOs before, this one doesn't offer anything new, nor anything exciting.
  3. DarkStation
    Jun 16, 2014
    50
    60 days was more then enough time for me to determine that I would rather spend my time elsewhere.
    Read full review
See all critic reviews »