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
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  1. kahow1107
    Jun 27, 2014
    0
    Don't listen to all the people saying it's good. They must have been paid or something.
    If you are a real fan of the Elder Scrolls series, you will hate everything about this game and immediately regret buying it. DO NOT BUY THIS GAME. The character creation depth and the fact that they made elves slightly less unattractive are literally the only things about this game that are even    Don't listen to all the people saying it's good. They must have been paid or something.
    If you are a real fan of the Elder Scrolls series, you will hate everything about this game and immediately regret buying it. DO NOT BUY THIS GAME. The character creation depth and the fact that they made elves slightly less unattractive are literally the only things about this game that are even remotely positive.
    1: Riddled with bugs and it's been months since launch.
    2: Botters everywhere with fly and speedhacks and you can hardly level your crafting because of it.
    3: Third person feels like the only option, and it really takes away from your character.
    4: The quests all suck. "Go here, talk to this guy, pick up this item, take it to this guy."
    5: The engine used to make this game is old and the graphics are mediocre at best (my system is really good too). The movement and mechanics also suck.
    6: Skyrim kicks the crap out of this game. In every single possible way.
    7: Monthly fee? How about no.
    8: The price for a half baked game that anyone could have made in their basement with the same publicly available game engine? How about no.
    9: Zenimax put no effort into making this game and it's really apparent within 2 minutes of leaving the character creation screen.
    10: Do you like micro-transactions that are more like $20? No? They have that, too.
    11: You have to buy a month of play time before you get your free month promised with purchase.

    Seriously, you will hate everything about this game. Do not buy it.    … Expand
  2. Blockz888
    Mar 22, 2015
    2
    3 months subscribed and I gotta say.. ESOTU still lacks value.. While everything is new, when you begin the game its great, its awesome! the newness creates immersion and I think for one to enjoy something you have to be immersed! but once you passed that butterfly phase you will quickly lose interest because the game is generally not immersive. As both MMO and Story based. Sadly that is3 months subscribed and I gotta say.. ESOTU still lacks value.. While everything is new, when you begin the game its great, its awesome! the newness creates immersion and I think for one to enjoy something you have to be immersed! but once you passed that butterfly phase you will quickly lose interest because the game is generally not immersive. As both MMO and Story based. Sadly that is the reason it will fail. It has many great ideas but they havent stood to standards, crossed the line many time for "money".There isnt a really clear msg to what eso is about? Its just this mix of elder scrolls content, place for you to do stuff but thats about it! It obvious, if they were doing well they wouldnt of switched to b2p. If you feel like playing it, I say try it out! Im sure you will enjoy it but I am also sure you will lose interest once you get past the butterfly phase. With every game that has existed you will always end up leaving it, but you will either leave satisfied or unsatisfied. ESOTU is definitely an unsatisfied experience... :(… Expand
  3. MaesterBest
    Mar 7, 2015
    0
    Nothing like any of the other Elder Scrolls games at all. If you want to play somthing that feels more like an ES game, play Guild Wars 2. This is just so horrible, i had such fate in this game.
  4. 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
  5. 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
  6. Wolfport
    Apr 16, 2014
    9
    This is the first MMO in recent years that seems specifically targeted for a gamer like me. I love The Elder Scrolls games and I also enjoy MMOs. I also feel like the RPG component is missing in most MMOs these days. Elder Scrolls Online provides an incredibly immersive experience with its beautiful visuals and artwork. The musical score is fantastic and I very much enjoy the level ofThis is the first MMO in recent years that seems specifically targeted for a gamer like me. I love The Elder Scrolls games and I also enjoy MMOs. I also feel like the RPG component is missing in most MMOs these days. Elder Scrolls Online provides an incredibly immersive experience with its beautiful visuals and artwork. The musical score is fantastic and I very much enjoy the level of detail put into this world. It is so beautifully crafted.

    In most MMOs it's common to skip the quest dialogue and rush ahead. One can truly savor this game by listening to the NPCs and following their stories. I have fallen in love with the lore of this game and players do get to make choices within quests that can change the outcome of events and NPCs may remember your choices and interact with you differently.

    Though there are only 4 classes to choose from, one can make any of the four classes a healer, a damage dealer or a tank. There are a tremendous amount of skill lines a player can pick and choose from and this already rich system will just become richer when future guild skill lines are added such as from the Thieves Guild and the Dark Brotherhood Guild.

    Usually I can take or leave crafting in an MMO, though I am finding crafting in ESO to be very enjoyable. As someone who is actively crafting in the game, there is a lack of storage space for crafting materials and players who craft will spend an inordinate amount of time dealing with managing their inventory. For this reason I am deducting a point from the score.

    For those who enjoy some Player Versus Player action, there is Cyrodiil. It's a vast area where a player can also do PvE, complete quests and explore. It is optional to enter Cyrodiil and no one is forced to if they don't enjoy fighting other players. I have had a blast in my time in Cyrodiil so far.

    For me this game has a great deal of longevity and so far the community is very good.    … Expand
  7. Gabriellogan
    Apr 20, 2014
    9
    For starters this game is worth playing. I have been an avid PC computer gamer for 20+ years, played every MMO under the sun and played all the Elder Scrolls games.

    There are bugs and some are rather annoying but you can get over/around them 99% of the time. As I have seen written in another review " This game is not for everyone" I agree you really have to be a fan of TES and MMOs to    For starters this game is worth playing. I have been an avid PC computer gamer for 20+ years, played every MMO under the sun and played all the Elder Scrolls games.

    There are bugs and some are rather annoying but you can get over/around them 99% of the time.
    As I have seen written in another review " This game is not for everyone" I agree you really have to be a fan of TES and MMOs to get the most out of this game.

    As for a lot of people in the negative reviews I have just read, all I can see if people saying that it is too hard? seriously? I say make games harder give me a challenge I do not want to be spoon fed. I set myself challenges all the way through I would try to keep quests and enemies at least 3-5 levels higher than me, did I have a problem killing them or bosses solo? No not at all. I hate to be saying this but the people who are finding the game too hard perhaps you are not that good a gamer?

    Yes some quests are bugged and don't get me wrong it really annoys me that sometimes they are broken but there is so much content within the game that it really does not break the game, at least not for me.

    This voice acting in the main quest chains is great and I found myself really paying attention and taking in all the story, as I said before you need to be a Elder Scrolls fan and a fan of the lore.

    To another point the pvp is amazing fun from level 10 onwards you can join the war and you will be scaled up so you are not just a useless low level.

    The way the crafting system works is a real breath of fresh air, yeah it copies a few other systems from different games but it has enough of its own charm to really endear me to it.

    As for the lack of diversity in builds or how you form your class to your own playing style there is not much limitation at all, the only limitation you get is if you choose one class you get one set of three skill lines designed for your class but you have all weapon skill lines open to you, all NPC guild/faction skill lines open to you and goodness know how many combinations you can make to form what your perfect tool set is, ALSO you can at level 15 have two sets of weapons equip and you get another active skill bar for that weapon set, so your primary weapons and skill are exactly that, your primary, but the second set can be a "utility belt" idea so as far as not having enough active skill 10 is enough for me plus two ultimates.

    As for the quests being the "same old hat" I would say to the people saying that, you have obviously not explored the game I have found some hilarious quests and some really cool ones.

    To sum up this game is worth it and remember as with any MMO it IS the community you play with/against that marks a great MMO.    … Expand
  8. ravenclaw77
    May 17, 2014
    4
    Level 8, 6 hours /played. Extremely disappointing. Combat is boring, I prefer WoW / LotRO / RIFT / FF XIV style. Story is weak for Zenimax / Bethesda. Hard to know where to go or what to do at times. Still lots of bots, lots of vulgar language, lots of gold spammers. Feels strongly as if the developers vastly under-estimated how much work was necessary to make a good MMORPG. Going back toLevel 8, 6 hours /played. Extremely disappointing. Combat is boring, I prefer WoW / LotRO / RIFT / FF XIV style. Story is weak for Zenimax / Bethesda. Hard to know where to go or what to do at times. Still lots of bots, lots of vulgar language, lots of gold spammers. Feels strongly as if the developers vastly under-estimated how much work was necessary to make a good MMORPG. Going back to RIFT because it has fun and challenging combat, top-notch PvP, Great co-op dynamic content, fantastic instances, and a great amount of personal customization / character builds. This game tremendously hurt my view of one of my favorite developers.… Expand
  9. thierry83
    May 16, 2014
    0
    Well what i tink
    Game is still beta, a horrible buggy mess.
    Customer service is full of roleplaying trolls.
    TESO can be recommended only to the fans of the genre, who accept its flaws: repetitiveness, not very exciting combat and lots of simplifications. This "Skyrim online" is well made, but not very original.
  10. ToughCrowd
    Jul 24, 2014
    3
    ESO is a true flop of its genre. The rough gameplay makes for a unenjoyable experience. While the animation is somewhat groundbreaking, it lacks energy and the voice overs are rather grainy. Voids in the structure and plot of the game create a very unlikeable atmosphere. Having played previous elder scrolls titles Online strayed from the traditional lore that made me fall in love with theESO is a true flop of its genre. The rough gameplay makes for a unenjoyable experience. While the animation is somewhat groundbreaking, it lacks energy and the voice overs are rather grainy. Voids in the structure and plot of the game create a very unlikeable atmosphere. Having played previous elder scrolls titles Online strayed from the traditional lore that made me fall in love with the series. It's saddening to see such a disappointing product from a favourite developer. All in all, Zenimax's first outing into the world of MMORPGs was an anticlimax. Perhaps their next venture may bring some more success, but for now I look forward to what they can do with their minds trained on the franchise.… Expand
  11. D0n0van
    Sep 1, 2014
    3
    This game broke my heart.
    All the hype, all the years of wishes........ and it turns out to be a shoddy and greedy grab for fan$ dollars.
    It was like a bad relationship break up. I was sad, angry and just felt empty inside. And no one cared when you cried about the servers always being down during prime time in Australia. OR that all the servers were flooded with hackers and bots.    This game broke my heart.
    All the hype, all the years of wishes........ and it turns out to be a shoddy and greedy grab for fan$ dollars.

    It was like a bad relationship break up.
    I was sad, angry and just felt empty inside.
    And no one cared when you cried about the servers always being down during prime time in Australia.
    OR that all the servers were flooded with hackers and bots.

    Trying to quest with friends is as much fun as installing windows on an old pc using 50 floppys.
    Why did they make it so hard and unreliable?

    I hope the people behind this game feel bad for what they did to the elder scrolls.
    It really is a crime against a video game franchise.    … Expand
  12. bombrero
    Apr 24, 2014
    4
    I was in the beta for a long time until right before it was launched, and all I have to say is that it must not be considered an Elder Scrolls game (It degrades the ES lore for it's own fitting sake), but it fails as an MMORPG too. As an MMORPG, and having played World of Warcreft, Tera and Guild Wars 2 (I played more than these, but these here are the better templates to compare TESO'sI was in the beta for a long time until right before it was launched, and all I have to say is that it must not be considered an Elder Scrolls game (It degrades the ES lore for it's own fitting sake), but it fails as an MMORPG too. As an MMORPG, and having played World of Warcreft, Tera and Guild Wars 2 (I played more than these, but these here are the better templates to compare TESO's aspects) I couldnt find anything new or revolutionary in this game, or even any aspects with a better or refreshing execution than in the previous games i had played. First time I played, I noticed the combat felt floaty and shallow, since I had the expectations that this would be the strong aspect of the game. The combat was slightly tuned throughout the following beta sessions, but it ended being a mix of Guild Wars 2 and Tera systems that ended up feeling inferior than its counterparts. The quest had no appealing, and the rewards were discouraging, something we beta testers complained about several times during all of the beta sessions, but was never fixed, just like much other things, like race mixing, trade systems, ability approach and development, npc's placement and presence on important areas, broken quest that were never fixed, and for god sake, the party system! You cant share a quest with your friends. Well, you can, but they still will have to do them by themselves, so it doesnt matter that you shared a mission it will be the same as going alone, since you will have to perform the same actions, but with two or more people, meaning less loot , and more time to complete, since there are more people gathering objectives. We complained about those things, we filled the surveys in each beta session, and we got ignored. You looked up in forums just to see hundreds of people complaining about the same problems, which never got fixed.

    In the end, it ended up being a mediocre to average MMORPG that made you constantly think: "This was so much better in Tera/GW2/WoW depending on the aspect you were analyzing".    … Expand
  13. 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
  14. Unworthy
    Apr 6, 2014
    5
    It's just boring. You start in a prison, again, of course. You listen to the pointless babbling of uninteresting characters. Some sort of prophet. Some sort of undead power, some sort of lich king, some ancient artifact and portal. Seriously? Yawn.

    The combat sucks. Hard. It takes the dodging system of The Secret World but leaves out its dynamic abilities. Instead, you just have    It's just boring. You start in a prison, again, of course. You listen to the pointless babbling of uninteresting characters. Some sort of prophet. Some sort of undead power, some sort of lich king, some ancient artifact and portal. Seriously? Yawn.

    The combat sucks. Hard. It takes the dodging system of The Secret World but leaves out its dynamic abilities. Instead, you just have standard MMO abilities on a hotbar -- sic the pet, shoot a poison arrow, and then autoattack. Except you can't even autoattack, you just have to keep clicking the left mouse button over and over. And then push 1 for poison arrow again when it runs out. Every once in a while, a red shape appears. You must double-tap a direction to dodge it within, oh, 5 seconds. Whoop-de-doo.

    The writing is unbelievably bland. The quests are stupid. Go here. Talk to this guy. Listen to him talk about something irrelevant. Collect 5 of X/Meet 3 of Y/Kill 3 Z and collect their soul motes. View unskippable, high-production-quality and utterly boring cutscene about some sort of undead spirit war... oh, come on, what year is this? You can't come up with anything more interesting?

    The graphics are technically excellent and utterly lacking in creativity. Everything looks stoic, sullen, brown and boring. There is no artistry or soul to the landscapes and somehow, nature looks industrial. If id software made a MMO, this is what it'd look like -- straight and to the point, and not particularly interesting. It clearly serves as the backdrop to something else in the game that was supposed to take center stage, not as a thing in and of itself to be explored and loved.

    But... what is that something else? Six hours into the game, I still haven't found it.

    Maybe it was the hype. Maybe it was the promise of freedom, or the lure of better combat. Maybe it was just that faint hope of something, anything different to set it apart from the diseased MMO orgy. But I'm not impressed. The Elder Scrolls died a little today. And the MMO industry slips further into oblivion.    … Expand
  15. johnangel
    Apr 12, 2014
    5
    Not a very good game not a very a bad game average in every way.
    The Good : Voiced quests,Interesting combat,Crafting
    The Bad : Not true to the lore, Unresponsive combat ; press a button wait a second then see it happen.

    Not worth my time.
  16. 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
  17. 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
  18. DarknessDragon
    May 23, 2014
    3
    Very bad. Crapy gameplay, boring story and almost has no liberty. Full of bugs, the unique thing i liked is the combat system. I played almost 20 hours and i found it very disappointing. This is not a Elder Scrolls, this is a crapy online game.
  19. Ansatsu83
    Apr 7, 2014
    7
    This review is based upon the issues at launch.

    The game has a ton of potential, IT DOES NOT PLAY LIKE ELDER SCROLLS!!! If you cannot accept that its not like skyrim, you wont like this. On launch, it is beyond buggy, it should still be in beta. They have had two patches to fix broken quests in the starter areas in the first three days of launch. Their beta testing had failed miserably    This review is based upon the issues at launch.

    The game has a ton of potential, IT DOES NOT PLAY LIKE ELDER SCROLLS!!! If you cannot accept that its not like skyrim, you wont like this. On launch, it is beyond buggy, it should still be in beta. They have had two patches to fix broken quests in the starter areas in the first three days of launch. Their beta testing had failed miserably and testers were not given enough time to report bugs. The company still pushed a half finished game out the door and... honestly.... the bugs, at launch, really break it. So far I have encountered six quests where I cannot progress. Since I play in the form of a completionist and not a power leveler I cannot complete a zone and that reduces my play time... Despite the completely unacceptable, buggy, and pathetic release the game is not bad. The real issue is balance, balance in pvp and pve is a joke in this game, it makes wow look halfway decent, in terms of balance... as bad as that sounds. Two handed weapon damage is a joke, there is little point to using two handed weapons. Every other weapon type, in the game, deals a lot more damage... There are no excuses for half of this, just none. If you want to release a beta at least be ready for some very harsh criticism. That having been said, it is still fairly fun and will give you several hours a week of enjoyment... Now hopefully they will fix the bugs before the end of the first month...    … Expand
  20. Phatsnake
    Apr 5, 2014
    7
    The MMO genre has become stale and is in dire need of an overhaul. Unfortunately, The Elder Scrolls Online is not it. TESO is torn between trying to follow in the footsteps of the single player experience of Skyrim and its predecessors while combining the boring mechanics of MMOs that we're too familiar with. In its defense, the game has some of the most gorgeous environments I've seen inThe MMO genre has become stale and is in dire need of an overhaul. Unfortunately, The Elder Scrolls Online is not it. TESO is torn between trying to follow in the footsteps of the single player experience of Skyrim and its predecessors while combining the boring mechanics of MMOs that we're too familiar with. In its defense, the game has some of the most gorgeous environments I've seen in an MMO, but aside from that the core of the game is lacking.… Expand
  21. Joryn282
    Apr 7, 2014
    9
    This game, I like it. I played the beta and it made me want to buy this game. It's fun, gives you enough Elder Scrolls to be satisfying, but enough new things to remain interesting. The character models look better in my opinion than the models in Oblivion and Skyrim, and the environments look pretty good. I look forward to seeing what they do next with this game.
  22. 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
  23. windmillent
    Apr 7, 2014
    9
    There is so much to do, craft, and explore. The graphics are wonderful and doesn't look like Pixar or Disney, the armor is realistic and not silly looking and over-sized. The crafting system is simple, yet complicated and interesting to work with, it even takes the trait learning (offline leveling) from EVE, which adds even more flavor. There are quests everywhere, you just have to getThere is so much to do, craft, and explore. The graphics are wonderful and doesn't look like Pixar or Disney, the armor is realistic and not silly looking and over-sized. The crafting system is simple, yet complicated and interesting to work with, it even takes the trait learning (offline leveling) from EVE, which adds even more flavor. There are quests everywhere, you just have to get out and explore to find them, its a remarkably open world feel on the mainland. I started in beta in November and the game did not interest me at all; however, as the beta's trudged along the game improved dramatically. It is deep in lore, the megaserver means your never alone, the PVP is like nothing I have played in years, truly spectacular, even if your not a hardcore PVP'r. The dungeon mechanics are very fun and easy to learn. The skill tree is just complicated enough to make it feel like your choices really count and that your character is unique to you. I think with the modern MMO, ESO has stuck a very good balance. The launch went remarkably smooth; although, some of our guild did find bugged quests, there were work-arounds and they were quickly addressed by Zenimax. One recommendation I would make is to do your homework for this MMO, there is over 20 years of lore behind its story, and when I came into it and started playing I knew very little. This made the game very boring and confusing (for instance some characters call a race a dark-elf, another person might call them a dunmer, and there are 10 races), it doesn't hold your hand or tell tons of back-story. ESO expects you to know the races and their history already; however, I spent some time watching You-tube lore videos (which there are some excellent quality ones available) and suddenly the world made since and the game had much more depth. This is a game where the story matters and really helps the player to feel engaged in the world. If your wanting a fresh take on the MMO genre then give ESO a chance, it just might surprise you and give you an MMO home for years to come.… Expand
  24. tagos
    Apr 8, 2014
    8
    This game almost deserves 10. Stick with me while I knock off 2 points.

    This is clearly a game released 'ready or not' on a marketing schedule. There are ongoing issues that leave some players (like me) virtually untouched while hitting others hard. These issues are being continually addressed but even so - not good enough. Unfortunately Customer Service ranges from at best,    This game almost deserves 10. Stick with me while I knock off 2 points.

    This is clearly a game released 'ready or not' on a marketing schedule. There are ongoing issues that leave some players (like me) virtually untouched while hitting others hard. These issues are being continually addressed but even so - not good enough.

    Unfortunately Customer Service ranges from at best, indifferent through to actively malevolent in the case of the scheduling of the regular EU maintenance for Sunday morning.

    'Our convenience, not the customer' appears to be their motto. Not good enough if you want people to buy into a premium price game with a monthly sub.

    And now I'm going to tell you why I immediately took out the longest (180 day) sub I could. The reason is actually very simple. This is the best MMO I have played in a number of years.

    LOTRO, Star Wars, Guild Wars, Rift and Conan? None come close.

    What makes it so good?

    First - the setting. It's Elder Scrolls. It's Tamriel bought to life. You are in a setting with a depth that shows in the books you find, the look and feel of the regions. the background chatter. The graphics are top notch and very 'Skyrim'. Not seen better in any MMO.

    Second - the questing. Quest chains are constantly engaging. They all have a real purpose and are disparate threads that weave together into an overarching story line. No 'go kill 7 wolves' or 'go gather 8 bits of wood' because basically 'I'm a lazy-ass NPC who can't be bothered' nonsense.

    Plus - it's all voice acted. Not by the usual 'will recite dialogue for food' in off the street bilge. We're talking Michael Gambon and we're talking John Cleese. We're talking real professionals at every turn. The story quality and story-telling is basically first class in every respect.

    Third - and this is the big one. This is what makes this game so good. This is what will have you creating different characters and thinking carefully about your options. I'm talking the character development and progression system, which is as close an implementation of the traditional Elder Scrolls 'build the character you want' as you could get in an MMO.

    It begins with choosing a Race. These have different bonuses but aren't of crucial importance. You them choose one of the 4 classes. Classes each have their own skill lines but are just a starting point on which to build the kind of character that suits you. More on this later.

    You get 3 basic stats -Health, Stamina and Magika. The latter 2 are the resources that power skills. You get points to allocate from levelling and from completing some quest lines.

    These interact with Weapon, Armour, Guild, Race, and Alliance skill lines.

    How you spend the character points you get from levelling, questing and discovering 'skyshards' is what really shapes your character. In other games if you want to tank and be the melee guy you would pick the Dragon Knight ESO class, throw on heavy armour and shove a sword in his hand.

    Not in ESO. You want to be a Sorcerer and be able to tank? Throw on heavy armour, pick up a big sword, develop your healing and shielding skill - maybe learn to summon a big-ass Storm Elemental to take some heat and off you go.

    The freedom is incredible. One of my characters is a Dragon Knight. These are basically tanks with a way with fire. But I'm old and slow. I don't like tanking but I do like some of their cool skills. So - put him in light armour, specialise in fire staff magic, choose a range of supporting skills and you have a Pyromancer Battle Mage. Fantastic. That's just one example and I cannot emphasise enough how great this system is.

    I was going to bang on about the in-depth crafting system but this is going on too long. But I will tell you about the combat.

    This is an action based combat system. You pick 5 of your skills (driven by stamina and magika and which can be morphed into a choice of enhanced version with skill points) for an action bar (and a 6th Ultimate Super Skill). At level 15 when you get to swap weapons in combat this is 12 skills. It sounds limited but it is not. It enables you to develop routines and tactics to suit yourself. I'm a bit old and slow so I like to keep the dodging and rolling to a minimum. I can build for that. You can build for your own strengths and weaknesses.

    Finally I'm giving a big shout-out for the PvP. There is a whole Province where Alliances can wage war (no PvP outside of it). There are Keeps to attack and defend, dungeons to explore and siege engines to hurt people and smash stuff with. It is incredible and I'm saying this as an inveterate non-PvP type.

    Way too long story short. If you are an Elder Scrolls fan or a fantasy MMO player you can buy this game with absolute confidence you will have a lot of fun.

    Bugs are temporary, class is permanent. This is going to be a 5 Star game soon.    … Expand
  25. zombiechan
    May 28, 2014
    3
    It wasn't the bugs that bothered me so much as it was that it was just not Elder Scrolls. I much rather of had a borderlands co-op for games like Morrowind and Skyrim. The combat was interesting and the questing was a little more interesting than most MMOs. But it just wasn't that great, and made me just want to play a real Elder Scrolls game.
  26. momointheunderd
    Apr 22, 2014
    3
    Terrible. Just awful. It's embarrassing to have a title as large as elderscrolls be associated with such a boring mediocre game. Hopefully the next Elder Scrolls Is done right.
  27. Fancypenguin
    Apr 23, 2014
    4
    Hey kids! Do you like The Elder Scrolls? Have you always wanted to play it online and explore the vast expanses of Tamriel with friends? Well too bad, you're going to be incredibly disappointed. Where do I even begin with the disappointment in this game? There are so many incredibly stupid design choices its baffling. First things first, I just have to come out and say that this game isHey kids! Do you like The Elder Scrolls? Have you always wanted to play it online and explore the vast expanses of Tamriel with friends? Well too bad, you're going to be incredibly disappointed. Where do I even begin with the disappointment in this game? There are so many incredibly stupid design choices its baffling. First things first, I just have to come out and say that this game is a HUGE cash grab. They lock the imperial race behind a pay wall right off the bat. You have to buy the collector's edition to unlock it. WHAT THE F*** This is downright criminal when you're already paying 60$ for the game plus a 15$ subscription fee. Next, there aren't instanced dungeons, meaning that if somebody else is in a dungeon and they kill the boss or take loot out of a chest you then have to wait for it to respawn. I'M SORRY, IS THIS THE ORIGINAL ULTIMA ONLINE? IS IT 1997? This is unacceptable in MMO's now a days. Get used to standing around in dungeons waiting for loot to respawn, or for bosses to respawn so you can run through a mosh pit of people, hoping to get 1 hit on it so as to complete the quest or continue the quest line. Gold is WAY too hard to get, every enemy drops like 1 or 2 gold and horses are incredibly overpriced. Why? Well you didn't think Zenimax and Bethesda would miss the chance to sell you the collector's edition that comes with a horse would ya? The story is generic and uninteresting and while the game is fully voice-acted which is great, it is very hit and miss quality wise. The graphics look dated, but are quite good for MMO standards. Questing is a huge disappointment. Every quest is the stereotypical MMO "kill x amount of x" Or "Fetch x" uninspired and dull. One of my favorite gaming moments is that quest for the Dark Brotherhood in Oblivion where you have to go to a dinner party and assassinate each person in the house 1 by 1 without the others finding out its you. That was awesome. Why aren't there more quests like that in this game? Oh that's right, because its an MMO, its legally obligated to have watered down gameplay and quest variety. The game has a huge amount of content, which can only be added on to as time goes on. This would be great if everything wasn't so far away with so little to do while traveling between quest objectives. Maybe the most heinous, inexcusable offense of ESO is the fact that it takes the signature open world of The Elder Scrolls franchise and condenses it to linear paths to get to the next quest objective. Sure the game is open world, but you won't want to explore anything because you can only really gain experience from completing quests, and not from fighting enemies, you know like a real elder scrolls game! Another serious design flaw is the fact that every enemy levels with you, meaning that instead of having some enemies be a low level and some being a higher level, they just make mud crabs level 30 when you're level 30. This takes all the immersion and exploration factor out of the game because you're rarely if ever going to find an enemy that you can't handle. Overall, when quests aren't being bugged out, (honestly about 2/3 of them) they're dull and uninteresting anyway. Another stupid design choice is the fact that, because dungeons and quests aren't instanced, when you play with friends, every person has to do everything separately, whether it be getting quest objectives or doing puzzles in group dungeons, defeating the purpose of playing with friends which, you know IS THE WHOLE POINT OF THIS GAME! Crafting makes no sense and pvp can be summed up by two words: Running Simulator. Combat is stiff and repetitive and impossible in the weightless and floaty 1st person view. The customization is a step up from past ES games, even if the armor all looks the same and the soundtrack is amazing. When the only thing the game gets truly right is the soundtrack, you know its having a rough go. I went into this game as both a fan of The Elder Scrolls and to some extent a fan of MMOs, knowing that it wasn't going to be a Skyrim like experience, but was so disappointed in both aspects. Ultimately, ESO is nothing more than a lazy cash-in that preys on starstruck ES fans and both Bethesda and Zenimax know it. It doesn't help that the modern Gaming hype machine has brainwashed them into thinking this is a good game. There are far better MMOs out there, like Guildwars 2, FFXIV ARR and hell even WOW is still going strong. This game is un-fulfilling to both fans of MMOs and the Elder Scrolls series. If this did not have the ES name on it, it would be just another mediocre MMO that wouldn't get any time in the limelight. Not worth 60$ plus 15 bucks a month. Wait till it goes F2P or P2W which honestly probably won't be too long. Hopefully Bethesda takes the riches from this game and makes a good Fallout game or new single player ES game.… Expand
  28. gofesnadra
    Apr 7, 2014
    7
    The only MMO I've put tons of hours in and got totally hooked on in the past is WoW. I have tried Rift and Guild Wars 2 but was disappointed in those and didn't play them more than a few hours.

    Elder Scrolls Online is the only MMO after all these years that I have totally got hooked on. The leveling is fun and different, the PvP in Cyrodiil is amazing. I've done a few dungeons and    The only MMO I've put tons of hours in and got totally hooked on in the past is WoW. I have tried Rift and Guild Wars 2 but was disappointed in those and didn't play them more than a few hours.

    Elder Scrolls Online is the only MMO after all these years that I have totally got hooked on. The leveling is fun and different, the PvP in Cyrodiil is amazing. I've done a few dungeons and they've been fun as well. The playerbase so far seems to be more mature too. Also the launch was the smoothest launch of an online game that I've ever been part of.

    Sure, there's a few bugs that they will probably fix in the first patches, but nothing gamebreaking.

    I would highly recommend this game to everyone who likes MMO's and Elder Scrolls and urge you to play to at least level 10 before judging so you can try Cyrodiil and the dungeons!

    It's sad that most of the negative reviews here are written by people who haven't played this game for more than a few hours at most and haven't seen any real content at all. They only judge the game because it plays different from your average MMO. MMO's in general also get a lot of hate and sometimes in justice, but I for one will gladly be paying the monthly fee for this game. It's well worth it.    … Expand
  29. Whifflebat
    Apr 6, 2014
    10
    This game is absolutely incredible. End of story. Leveling is a PLEASURE, with very immersive quests, and an engrossing storyline. And thats just the PVE. The PVP is a massive continually changing battlefield. This game is so well executed its insane, I'm completely converted from a WoW fan to ESO.
  30. CasualClark
    Apr 13, 2014
    10
    ESO is an excellent MMO and frankly a much better game than I thought it would be. I've grown weary of all the negative complaints that the game should be Free to Play or that it isn't innovative enough. What hasn't occurred to people is that they continue to compare the game to Skyrim and the earlier Elder Scroll games in terms of innovation and being more wide open, sandboxESO is an excellent MMO and frankly a much better game than I thought it would be. I've grown weary of all the negative complaints that the game should be Free to Play or that it isn't innovative enough. What hasn't occurred to people is that they continue to compare the game to Skyrim and the earlier Elder Scroll games in terms of innovation and being more wide open, sandbox experiences, but somehow forget that MMOs and Single Player games are very different implementations, the MMO having a much higher level of complexity.

    There is NO other MMO like this, and I'm having a blast with it. You can compare the AvA to Guild Wars 2, and in general, the concepts are similar. But ESO's AvA has a context in the overall ESO universe, reinforces the Elder Scrolls lore, and is absolutely massive in scope. The environments are far more detailed and immersive than any MMO I've played. Crafting has a lot of depth and doesn't force you to spend hours leveling your craft just to make gear for your players level. The soundtrack is epic, and for the most part, voice over work is quite good.

    Point is, people set the bar so high for ESO in expectations, yet even they didn't know how Elder Scroll would be turned into an MMO. In this case, the developers have made a lot of great decisions, and like most MMOs, they will continue to refine and improve it in the future. So I am very excited about ESO, much more so than after my hours in beta. Don't let the negative reviews keep you from trying this game - there are things that can be improved, but seriously, this is a fantastic game.    … Expand
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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.
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