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. Synol
    May 10, 2014
    2
    Not quite as bad as Neverwinter but not better than any other game except Neverwinter. In terms of cash grabs about the same as Neverwinter.

    Graphics haven't changed any since Skyrim (most people claim its worse but looked the same to me). So they're decent still. The storyline is written great, as with all Elder Scrolls games. And that's where the positive aspects of the game stop.    Not quite as bad as Neverwinter but not better than any other game except Neverwinter. In terms of cash grabs about the same as Neverwinter.

    Graphics haven't changed any since Skyrim (most people claim its worse but looked the same to me). So they're decent still. The storyline is written great, as with all Elder Scrolls games. And that's where the positive aspects of the game stop.

    All the bugs from beta are still in the game, you couldn't even progress your storyline after release based on your faction. You will fall through the world randomly for no reason. You will get stuck on stairs. You will be dismounted from your horse while running along a road for no reason at all.

    The combat is extremely slow. There are very few skills per class and most are useless so you'll be spamming the same skills as every other Dragon Knight / Nightblade / etc in the game.

    The quests are spread out to the point where all you'll be doing is running around looking for more quests or running for days to turn in the quests you did. The quests have you backtrack often also, no streamlining at all has been done to make the progression smooth.

    At the end of the day if all you care about is Story you should grab this game and play through it inside of 1 month then cancel your sub and move on. If you care about having fun, the combat, quests, bugs or any actual gameplay aspects of the game then you should definitely avoid getting this game.    … Expand
  2. NC37
    Apr 21, 2014
    2
    This game was bad in closed beta, bad in open beta, and it should not deserve the praise it is getting. It tries to be SWTOR with voice acting and heavy story elements, but it fails completely. Everything is heavily instanced and it makes it very frustrating to play with others. One quest can totally change the instance and it makes it very hard to meet up. This was a huge flaw in betaThis game was bad in closed beta, bad in open beta, and it should not deserve the praise it is getting. It tries to be SWTOR with voice acting and heavy story elements, but it fails completely. Everything is heavily instanced and it makes it very frustrating to play with others. One quest can totally change the instance and it makes it very hard to meet up. This was a huge flaw in beta that was never fixed.

    UI would be the next big problem. They took Skyrim and slapped an MMO on it. So you got a very console friendly UI which just doesn't work as an MMO.

    This has been something the testers were very vocal about but the dev does not listen. I lost count of how many times I'd log in on beta to see fellow testers arguing about what they made this an MMO instead of a COOP multiplayer title. A COOP title in the Elder Scrolls universe, people wanted. They didn't want this.

    If you are interested in the lore, you'll easily get at least a month of gameplay out of this. But otherwise, there is no reason to play such a buggy, duct taped up, MMO. The rest of you...take it from a tester...don't buy into the hype. We tried to warn them, but they didn't listen. ESO will fail and it will fail hard in the end. Especially since it is released on consoles. This game will be perpetually held back by the consoles and it will not advance enough to attract more than the core ES nut.    … Expand
  3. 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
  4. phoofboy
    Oct 9, 2014
    2
    It's a bland MMO with a faint hint of Elder Scrolls lore and imagery thrown in. If it weren't the Elder Scrolls hint of flavor it would be 0 stars. Even still the game is a buggy mess.
  5. Meshuggah06
    Apr 10, 2014
    2
    Disclaimer: I played all of the open beta weekends and I am basing my score of 2 out of 10 on it. You may say, "hey that isn't fair to criticize a game based upon a beta build!" Normally you'd be correct, but since the last build was from 2 weeks before launch and it was just that terrible, there's no way i'd waste $60 on it much less the sub fee.

    The game had a terrible amount of    Disclaimer: I played all of the open beta weekends and I am basing my score of 2 out of 10 on it. You may say, "hey that isn't fair to criticize a game based upon a beta build!" Normally you'd be correct, but since the last build was from 2 weeks before launch and it was just that terrible, there's no way i'd waste $60 on it much less the sub fee.

    The game had a terrible amount of bugs. I had 15 quests in my questlog when I quit playing during the last free weekend because I couldn't complete them because they were either bugged or so high level there was no way for me to complete it. The graphics are ok, although it was more colorful than Skyrim. But the game is broken up into hub areas, so you can't explore the entire map the way you could in Skyrim. The loot drops are terrible. You can only get anything of worth as a quest reward. Literally every monster drop 1 or 2 gold coins and that was it.

    This game also suffers from some of the drawbacks in other elder scrolls games as well as in MMOs in general where NPCs aren't really NPCs they're just there to tell you to go somewhere for a quest or stand around all day waiting for you to buy something. This is something that I've grown tired of video games. The leveling system is basically, "here's another attribute point. here's another skill point. Now you have a level 4 skill!" This game has a much more generic RPG leveling system than what you would be used to in previous Elder Scrolls game.

    What this game amounts to is an extremely generic RPG set in an Elder Scrolls themepark. I can't come up with any reason why someone would pay a sub fee for this game unless you like flushing money down the toilet. Is it even worth $60? I'd say no, but if you're a hardcore Elder Scrolls fan then maybe it's worth paying $60 and trying it for a month. Like I said, I quit playing it when it was free for me to play because I found it so bad. So I think that says it all. If this game at launch was totally free, I'd still rather play other F2P games like Path of Exile that I think are more enjoyable and of better quality than this game.    … Expand
  6. Maycus
    Aug 21, 2014
    2
    1) Combat was really bad, clunky bad. No feelings, nothing at all. Sometimes your blade goes through the mob, and nothing happened.

    Every character is bound to specific abilities, which is really boring. 2) Crafting/Professions is purely for nothing. Sure, it is useful at first, but you're stuck with that armor or weapon for hours until a Quest gives you a newer one. 3) Quests    1) Combat was really bad, clunky bad. No feelings, nothing at all. Sometimes your blade goes through the mob, and nothing happened.

    Every character is bound to specific abilities, which is really boring.

    2) Crafting/Professions is purely for nothing. Sure, it is useful at first, but you're stuck with that armor or weapon for hours until a Quest gives you a newer one.

    3) Quests are buggy, to the extreme where they can not even be done. You don't see your reward at the end like most other MMO's do. There's quests that send you through a Solo-Dungeon, that has a boss in there that can kill you in 2 swipes, and you do nearly no damage on him/her.

    4) Dungeons are just... Unprepared. They were quickly added in. Why did I say that? Take a look at some. It looks like they threw in a bunch of hills, grass, maybe some water, boxes/crates/barrels, some "trash" and finally a boss, who is just sitting there looking dumb and normally solo. Easy alone, but becomes extremely difficult when a trash appears. Not to mention, most of the time, the Bots got to him before you. So you're waiting, with the bots, for him to respawn just so you can try to kill him/her. Make sure you're faster than a bot.

    5) Player and Parties. Okay, most MMO's like to have player interaction, right? This game doesn't. You can add people to a party, for no extra benefits. Except for probably a group dungeon. Here's the kicker, if you remove them, they're still there in the same instance. They'll continue doing what they were doing which made you kick them. Worthless. Not to mention, you don't really share loot, it's assigned to one person and all of it is theirs.

    6) Now, I enjoy this profession a lot, and a lot of people hate it. Fishing. Extremely bugged. You catch fish that are worth about 3 gold (wow, so little) and you finally caught a rare fish. It disappears and you never really got it. Now, where's that excitement? Gone, and turned into anger. Those fish are worth a lot of Gold. Plus Bait is difficult to obtain. I mainly mean the Worms. Guts and Insect Parts are fairly common. Worms on the other hand must be gathered from plants, and other players are farming them as well.

    7) The game is $59.99 box price that comes with 1 month free. Okay, sounds fair... However, that 1 month free is worthless and will not activate, if you don't buy a month. Which requires a credit card, or a game card from a store (which I still haven't found) So great! You were not informed you needed a credit card, and just wasted about $60 for a game you can't play because you don't have a credit card, or the stores do not have a game card. Genius Elder Scrolls strikes again! -.-
    You can't even register your game online without a credit card, so worthless, once again.

    8) What kind of graphics are these??? I normally don't judge a game on graphics, but once I do, something is wrong. It doesn't even look as good as Skyrim's graphics, which is a older game. This is 2014, why give us a crappy looking game that doesn't play well? Not to mention, a lot of players, including myself, get a lot of graphical errors and it isn't pretty.

    9) Some of the voice acting... SUCKS. Example, talk Brackenleaf, whose a tree in a zone (don't remember). Yeah... it's a human's voice, not modified either. Doesn't sound like a tree would at all.

    10) Remember the professions? Yeah, you have to get recipes just to progress further in them. And they're about a 1% chance to find inside houses... Yeah... Have fun. Oh cooking and fishing? You'd think they go together, right? NOPE. Completely useless. In fact, fishing, though I enjoy it, is useless in the game if it has no use in cooking.

    Positives?

    1) The nature and towns in this game is great. Honestly.

    2) Story isn't too bad, but could have been a lot better. Quite boring honestly.    … Expand
  7. trojanvirus
    Apr 4, 2014
    2
    I agree, this game is a generic MMO with a Elder Scrolls Theme. Its not like any other Elder Scrolls game, its a Elder Scrolls Headache. I think I would rather play Cyrus of Redguard than this fail mmo. DDO is still a much better game than this. Not even voice chat, random party formation, hardly any player to player interaction, spamspamspam, gold vendor central. I know startup MMOs haveI agree, this game is a generic MMO with a Elder Scrolls Theme. Its not like any other Elder Scrolls game, its a Elder Scrolls Headache. I think I would rather play Cyrus of Redguard than this fail mmo. DDO is still a much better game than this. Not even voice chat, random party formation, hardly any player to player interaction, spamspamspam, gold vendor central. I know startup MMOs have problems, but this game sucks.… Expand
  8. macharius39
    Apr 18, 2014
    2
    It looks pretty, has Elder Scrolls tagged on to it and has some interesting concepts. Yes, I'll give it that.

    However, game crushing bugs plague this title: e.g. people losing their bank items, slots, gold, skill points, being banned for having duplicate emails sent to them by Zenimax due to a bug THEY created, etc,etc,. Thousands of people have been affected (I am not exaggerating).    It looks pretty, has Elder Scrolls tagged on to it and has some interesting concepts. Yes, I'll give it that.

    However, game crushing bugs plague this title: e.g. people losing their bank items, slots, gold, skill points, being banned for having duplicate emails sent to them by Zenimax due to a bug THEY created, etc,etc,.

    Thousands of people have been affected (I am not exaggerating). Zenimax's answer? "Fix" the bug, then try to bury the official thread about people who have lost stuff with no compensation (which Zenimax bald-facedly lied about) and then ban accounts.

    Customer support is a joke. They close your ticket after canned responses and do nothing to actually help you. Zenimax obviously outsourced it to a company who is only interested in closing tickets and padding stats and not resolving problems. I've had multiple tickets closed on me with no action taken by Zenimax other than to send me an automated Customer Satisfaction Survey

    I can't recommend this game. It never should have been released in the state it was in. Bugs that plagued the beta all made it into release and then got worse. Patches have helped but it's still unacceptable to release a game in the state it was released in.

    The complete lack of customer service and the lies from their "community managers" just add insult to injury. STAY AWAY FROM THIS GAME!    … Expand
  9. Phoxly
    Jun 10, 2014
    2
    Very poor game. I am sad to say that I wasted my money on it. This game is in no way a predecessor to the previous Elder Scrolls games, and it shames the license. I had absolutely no fun playing it, and I recommend this title no nobody, ever.
  10. gcd872000
    Apr 17, 2014
    2
    I can't take it anymore. At first I gave this game a positive review after like 2 days of play. I realize the error in my ways because it only took one week for the game to become completely boring. The combat is like dragon age 2 where you just button mash and use random abilities. Ranged combat is pretty much useless(no more sneak attacks from 50 meters away like skyrim) to use the bowI can't take it anymore. At first I gave this game a positive review after like 2 days of play. I realize the error in my ways because it only took one week for the game to become completely boring. The combat is like dragon age 2 where you just button mash and use random abilities. Ranged combat is pretty much useless(no more sneak attacks from 50 meters away like skyrim) to use the bow you have to be pretty much right ontop of the enemy which defeats the point of using a bow. The world they created is beautiful and has plenty of diverse creatures too bad the only thing to do in it is run around and kill random creatures, you can only interact with certain objects like herbs and ore deposits. The quests are mostly all kill and fetch quests. The leveling and skill system makes no sense at all, the game randomly increases skills that you have equipped on your action bar, even if you don't use them. They totally ruined the simple crafting system that skyrim had implemented. Now you have to find schematics to make certain things and of course they and the materials are really rare, of course you can buy them from other players but why would you they'd probably charge you 10 thousand gold. Its like the developers all sat down an said "Lets take all the positive improvements skyrim implemented and just throw em away. This game is not worth $14.99 a month this game is not worth the $59.99 initial price.… Expand
  11. Braghez
    Oct 27, 2015
    2
    Not a game appealing to MMO players, not a game appealing to TES players...they tried to make an hybrid to attract people from both "worlds", but in the end they just created a mediocre game.
  12. CptFlippy
    Apr 11, 2014
    2
    Re-reviewing this game after a week of normal play and it is still disappointing.

    As to be expected with the release of games these days there are a ton of bugs, some that are seriously crippling, like everything in your bank disappearing or that really cool epic armor on your head just disappearing. Quests are broken and it seems that the higher level you get the less testing seems to    Re-reviewing this game after a week of normal play and it is still disappointing.

    As to be expected with the release of games these days there are a ton of bugs, some that are seriously crippling, like everything in your bank disappearing or that really cool epic armor on your head just disappearing. Quests are broken and it seems that the higher level you get the less testing seems to have been done, which makes sense as they had a limited beta.

    It doesn't even have the feel of a normal MMO because they gave it the base Elder Scrolls GUI but then cut back on its functionality. You have 7 slots attached to keyboard keys, 1-5, Q, R, 1 special R which is really lame as the power builds up while you fight and drops when you are not which means you rarely use it in PvE. The 7 slot Q is attached to a quick slot which means you can have several items on that, but can only use them one at a time and there is a cool-down timer on them. So that epic battle in Skyrim where you clicked through 30 potions, not going to happen in ESO.

    The limited key functionality and simplicity that they have is clearly been done to make the titles transition to consoles easier. The greatness of the Elder Scrolls series is the graphics and how fantastic the game looks. ESO misses this mark completely, the graphics just are not there and seem like they maybe that way for console release.

    The interesting thing about player and bank inventory space is that you can see where they could put a F2P or P2W system in place immediately without having to adjust game mechanics. It is almost like the expect this game to go F2P at some point.

    With that in mind, there is no ground breaking systems here that are just the best thing ever, there are gold farmers, bots and spammers in the chat. With nothing really holding people other than the PvP which again is not ground breaking, and the hope of future releases of new lands I do not see a financial sustainability in the 15 dollars a month plan. I suspect before the one year mark either an announcement or the actually change to a F2P model. I hope that Bethesda sees this not as a title to build off of, but as a third part release for the MMO market.    … Expand
  13. bigbob123
    Apr 5, 2014
    2
    Cool. My first review got deleted so here I go again.
    1. Constant Crashing in PVP.
    2. Infinite Loading screen in PVP. 3. Helmet randomly deleted during crafting or turning helmet off. 4. Lots of issues with the mounts in the game. Random dismounts, falling through world, being unable to move after mounting. 5. Bugged quests all over the place. 6. Random falling through world. 7. The    Cool. My first review got deleted so here I go again.
    1. Constant Crashing in PVP.
    2. Infinite Loading screen in PVP.
    3. Helmet randomly deleted during crafting or turning helmet off.
    4. Lots of issues with the mounts in the game. Random dismounts, falling through world, being unable to move after mounting.
    5. Bugged quests all over the place.
    6. Random falling through world.
    7. The disable /stuck in Cyrodiil. God help if you if you get stuck in Cyrodiil. Support says "Go play another character".

    And the list goes on and on. Full of bugs, and no word from Zenimax on when the plan to fix this.    … Expand
  14. MrKazool
    Apr 24, 2014
    2
    -decent graphics, but very dull armour/weapons; players and npc's look very much alike;
    -peculiar trading/guild design - no AH, trading limited to guild-members; whoever designed this, should be probably fired immediatelly; not to mention that guild bank does not work most of the time;
    -EXTREMELY buggy - feels like a beta, rather then release version - several broken quests, UI issues,    -decent graphics, but very dull armour/weapons; players and npc's look very much alike;
    -peculiar trading/guild design - no AH, trading limited to guild-members; whoever designed this, should be probably fired immediatelly; not to mention that guild bank does not work most of the time;
    -EXTREMELY buggy - feels like a beta, rather then release version - several broken quests, UI issues, missing chats, missing achievements, instance bosses bugging etc - very, very annoying, when u can not finish main story quest for several days; AND - lo and behold - patch notes lied on a number of occasions, mentioning fixes, that actually did not happen, or did not solve the issues;
    -content past lev 50 (so called veteran-level) is extremely repetitive, basicaly a giant grind;

    Summarising:
    Total lack of polish due to numerous bugs, some really poor design issued (guilds/AH/veteran 'content', or lack thereof), this game at its current stage should not even be released - but rather tested for bugs properly...which seems to never have happened in spite of numerous open betas etc.
    Very dissapointing, especially considering the potential of ES franchise. If I could get my money back - Id take it and leave this title alone.    … Expand
  15. Nomum
    Apr 9, 2014
    2
    Hey all. I am so disappointed with this game so I made an account just to write this review.

    I've played this game for a week. I really want to like it but every time I play it I want to quit. I like Elder Scrolls, and I like the idea of an mmorpg, but the way they mixed it it does not work. As usual you are this guy that will save the world, a chosen one, but there are hundreds    Hey all. I am so disappointed with this game so I made an account just to write this review.

    I've played this game for a week. I really want to like it but every time I play it I want to quit. I like Elder Scrolls, and I like the idea of an mmorpg, but the way they mixed it it does not work.

    As usual you are this guy that will save the world, a chosen one, but there are hundreds other chosen ones running around doing exactly the same quests as you. This makes any attempt at immersion fail. As the story is concerned you are the lone hero everything revolves around you. The game does not introduce other players into the story in any way. Other players are just messing with your game. There is no game world or story logic explaining other players around you. Your best bet is to pretend you're alone.

    Skill system and character development – completely uninspiring. When you look through the skills it's just blend. Nothing to look forward too. There is no builds that you can look at and say 'wow that sounds really cool' everything is 'meh'.

    PvP is an entirely different map that could have been an independent game. There is no thrill of encountering a real life enemy in a 'normal' game.

    PvE is for the most part not needed. There are some dungeons/bosses that require it but its not really that fun. I hope it will get better though, it is the only justification to continue playing for me.

    The game is rather expensive without even having a trial. Don't buy it.    … Expand
  16. blur
    Apr 11, 2014
    2
    A truly awful game that takes the "big name" and fanbase of the Elder Scrolls, then proceeds to take a massive dump on it from the start by allowing pre-order customers to create any race of character in any faction, thus making the factions meaningless and not adhering to Elder Scrolls lore. Oh, and then there's the whole, pre-order to become an Imperial character thing. You might beA truly awful game that takes the "big name" and fanbase of the Elder Scrolls, then proceeds to take a massive dump on it from the start by allowing pre-order customers to create any race of character in any faction, thus making the factions meaningless and not adhering to Elder Scrolls lore. Oh, and then there's the whole, pre-order to become an Imperial character thing. You might be thinking these are microtransactions as part of a free to play game... yet you'd be wrong! Although the game is trying to wring money out of its players, left and right, it also wants a $15/mo fee, even though monthly MMO fees went the way of the dodo about five years ago. Boring, brown and dull, ESO is a total bore. Ironically, it might be made a little more palatable by being a free to play hybrid sort of game -- similar to what SWTOR became after it tanked -- but we'll have to just wait and see. One thing's for certain, however, if a massive IP like Star Wars could fail so spectacularly with SWTOR, there's every chance you will see ESO as one of 2014s statistics as well. Avoid, avoid, avoid, unless it's being offered for free.… Expand
  17. Stardog2537
    Apr 11, 2014
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I am writing this review based upon my impressions of the game shortly before launch as I was a Beta participant. Having said that, some of the content I've rated/discussed here may have been changed. My disappointment was such that I created an account here just for the purpose of writing this review. Sorry for the wall of text in advance.

    The writing is horrible. The AI is awful. If I were to make a Twitch stream it would be a comedy, and not only because of my dumb mistakes. I can tell that they responded to feedback I gave on previous beta weekend events, but I can also say that the game is actually less impressive now than it was when I first tested it. I’m not sure how that’s even possible. The player choices are all inconsequential. The NPC motives are foggy at best. HEAVY SPOILERS AHEAD (all from the first 6 levels of play).

    Reasons I Hated This Game:

    Reason 1: Here, you stranger, I am a commander in this army and I can’t make a decision to save my life about some undead peeps wandering about of late. You look as good as any other passing stranger, why not come and tell me how to do my job. Thank you very much. Which commander am I? Take your pick, because apparently there is no shortage of officers here who cannot make a decision without asking for help and advice from any wanderer who happens by.

    Reason 2: Hey, you’re new here. Before you set one foot inside this city of mine, I need to know if you’ll follow me and begin your next quest. Now choose. What? Oh those objective markers we’re passing on the way to my oh-so-important goal? Just ignore them until it’s too late to do anything about them, or you can stop following me to check them out and get lost on the way. Oh, and when we get there, I’ll tell you to wait outside while in reality I want you to follow me inside. And once inside, some silly noble is going to ask you to kill some of his ancestors and rob their tomb. And then you’ll be asked again if you want to follow the next guy in the quest as he leads the way past other things you might like to investigate on your way to your next quest marker. But don’t worry, we’re not trying to force you into a linear play style or anything.

    Reason 3: Look, you’re dead and I’m not. But don’t worry, I’m eventually going to sacrifice my own freedom so you can get out of this awful place, even though we’ve just met. Oh, and don’t worry about me when we get to those spear traps. I’ll be sure to go and stand right on top of them even though we will both watch them pop up and down repeatedly beforehand. They won’t kill me anyway because apparently nothing can here. Just watch.

    Reason 4: Look, you’ve been unconscious for a bit because you apparently had some accident before turning up on our island, but you obviously can handle jobs that my entire company couldn’t take care of, so why don’t you run around like an errand boy and personal goon for a few days because nobody else around here is clearly as capable as you, Mr. Washed-Up-On-The-Shore-and-Laid-Up-In-Bed-Until-5-Minutes-Ago…

    Reason 5: Yay! You’re our hero! You saved the fort, Mr. Stranger! Apparently killing 5 or 6 weak and uninspiring mobs was a job that nobody else in the entire fort could handle, so thank you for saving us all! Yay!

    Reason 6: Hey, you! Yeah, you! Get this… even though you’re this awesome amazing nobody who can save everybody, if you want to do some dirty work for money, go steal me a bottle of liquor from some guy because clearly anyone interested in the art of acquisitions must also have nothing better to do than take unimportant nothings from unimportant nobodies for shiftless losers who are too lazy to go and steal it themselves.

    Reason 7: Hello Mr. Mysterious-Sounding-Nickname, I know that flashbacks are horrible methods of sharing boring exposition in all sorts of fiction, so I’m not going to give you a flashback to clue you… I’m going to force you to wander through one of MY flashbacks instead. Why? Because boring exposition is so much more fun when you’re beat about the head and shoulders with it and forced to endure it to completion. Because even though you have no clue who these people are and why they are here, I want you to care about them. NOW CARE, DARN YOU, CARE!!!!    … Expand
  18. spainion
    Apr 16, 2014
    2
    Absolute Trash.

    Not written with Creation Engine.

    They used Hero Engine, which is some crappy mmo builder engine. I got a free licence during the beta of hero engine. Its basically a childs play toy. Smart developers wouldn't use it to create anything of quality. Like any engine made to create 'shells' it has serious limitations.
  19. enut_butter
    Apr 16, 2014
    2
    Just really disappointing in literally every way.

    Combat is wonky, the game feels barren, the bow animations are SO bad that I cringed every time I used one, and the most serious offense this game commits, it doesn't even remotely feel like an Elder Scrolls game. I didn't buy this game thinking it was gonna be Skyrim 2.0 or anything like that, but I assumed there would be SOME    Just really disappointing in literally every way.

    Combat is wonky, the game feels barren, the bow animations are SO bad that I cringed every time I used one, and the most serious offense this game commits, it doesn't even remotely feel like an Elder Scrolls game.

    I didn't buy this game thinking it was gonna be Skyrim 2.0 or anything like that, but I assumed there would be SOME feeling of an Elder Scrolls game. Well, there is NONE. This feels like any other mediocre MMO I've played over the last 10 years.

    Would not recommend, and really wish I could get a refund. This is a $200 million dollar abortion.    … Expand
  20. PorkChop
    Apr 22, 2014
    2
    This game was a huge disappointment. There are much better games out there to play. MMO's are dead anyone who wants to play a mmo play wow or rift both have lost there appeal to me.
  21. Redmaw69
    Apr 24, 2014
    2
    dull as bricks, pay / pre order to win... could be worse but not by much..............................................................................
  22. 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
  23. AntonioDG
    May 10, 2014
    2
    The Elder Scrolls Online; a game I truly hoped would break new ground in the massively multiplayer online role playing game genre. A genre that already has enough bland and generic games to suck up your time, if you wish to do so. A game I and countless others could only hope would be Skyrim in an MMO environment. All of us were quite disappointed with the sack of not so special orThe Elder Scrolls Online; a game I truly hoped would break new ground in the massively multiplayer online role playing game genre. A genre that already has enough bland and generic games to suck up your time, if you wish to do so. A game I and countless others could only hope would be Skyrim in an MMO environment. All of us were quite disappointed with the sack of not so special or groundbreaking brown potato's that was given to us, called The Elder Scrolls Online.

    Having played the game for roughly a month, I was still waiting for the game to be fun. Instead it simply felt average or plain. The quests were not very engaging, combat system was a bit different but still left you longing for more, drops were not scaled at all, repair bills were extremely high considering how much gold the enemies dropped (1-2 gold for bosses), and much more. Attempting to do dungeons was one of the first gripes I had; most dungeons you enter and you will have a straight walk to the boss, because someone has already come in and wiped all the mobs (trash or not) out for you (how nice). Once you get to the boss you assume, I'll be able to take this guy, it's a single player quest, surely they wouldn't make this guy Superman in a world where no kryptonite existed, they did. Now you're stuck at the boss waiting for another player to come through and end up at the end and assist.

    Remember how in Skyrim if you killed an enemy, basically you could take everything off him; armor, pants, gloves, helmet, sword, bow, dagger, potion, crafting supplies, and even more than 1-2 gold. Well, here you might get 1 gold and a mushroom. Even in the level ranges of 30+ mobs (even bosses) would only drop 1-2 gold at max. My repair bills at that point were over 300 gold, that wasn't even with level appropriate armor. The quests were where you made your money, but seriously, 1 - 2 per mob from level 1 - 30+, you have got to be kidding.

    Though I will praise the game with it's crafting system. I honestly found myself more interested in crafting than actually leveling or questing. The crafting was fun, though I thought the models you were given were quite bland.

    Exploring the map was, quite useless. There are a few quests throughout the map, off the beaten path, but it felt like you were guided to this additional quest. Clearing each map took quite some time, I spend 8-16 hours clearing numerous maps, some took more as I had to walk all over the place. And travel is not fun, a good horse costs an ungodly amount of money, or you can shill out $20 for a starter horse and be able to play as an Imperial class. The horse is quite slow and you can only upgrade the horse every 20 hours. Upgrading the horse felt... useless and drawn out. It was nice to summon a horse, but I didn't feel like I completed any quests quicker because of it.

    Questing was fun, if you don't mind the mindless kill 10 parrots and bring me red feathers or go talk to Potato and give him this letter from Raddish, or investigate the mines as something spooky is happening (oooooOOOOOOooooH). It was fun, if the quests would work half the time. Every other quest I encountered I had to log out of the game and back in to try to finish it. If that didn't fix it, I would have to restart the quest over. Now starting the quest over meant starting the QUEST LINE ALL OVER AGAIN. So, you thought you wasted your time getting to this point the 1st time? Do it again a second time and hope the quests initiates for you. I would have easily over looked this, but seriously, it was every other quest.

    These "Mega-Servers" were complete garbage as well. Now I am sure they have a massive data center with all these servers getting pounded on by Tom, Dick, and Harry trying to slay David the Gnome. With all the crashes, lag spikes, and immediate shutdowns, it makes you wonder what in the world they are doing. I can overlook a few technical difficulties, but when this is coupled with quests that do not work, a game I am waiting for to get fun, plus nothing really scaling, and monsters I found at level 1,5,10,15,20 re-named and scaled for level 30, you are pushing your luck on a game.

    All in all, if you feel like paying Filet Mignon prices for this Wal-Mart cut of meat game , this is your game! It's bland, so bland that it hurts. It's boring, you wait for the fun to happen and fool yourself to think its coming in the next level or two to keep you going. With the title of Elder Scrolls we were promised a great game. Instead they took that title, wiped their butt with it, slapped it on this excuse for an MMO, and fed it to us at Ruth Chris.    … Expand
  24. Dagi
    May 22, 2014
    2
    One more theme park game. Bugged and bad graphics annoyed me so much I ended to level 15 and had to delete the game. I can cant understand these 10 score givers. Even you are a fan you can clearly see its not worthy to pay. I think this game is free to play end of this year and closed down after few desperate expansions. Honestly It gets 2 points from me only as it had so nice cinematic.
  25. Patches13
    Mar 27, 2015
    2
    Do NOT be fooled by this game and it's false advertising!

    CONS: 1. Puritan armor design that gets more prudish the higher lvl you are (worse armor I've seen in a MMO) 2. Unbalanced classes with the Sorc class being totally forgotten about 3. Frequent game crashes for a lot of players 4. Frequent FPS lockups and stutters for a lot of players 5. Race choice makes a significant impact    Do NOT be fooled by this game and it's false advertising!

    CONS:
    1. Puritan armor design that gets more prudish the higher lvl you are (worse armor I've seen in a MMO)
    2. Unbalanced classes with the Sorc class being totally forgotten about
    3. Frequent game crashes for a lot of players
    4. Frequent FPS lockups and stutters for a lot of players
    5. Race choice makes a significant impact on ability
    6. No real endgame content with little benefit from doing any of it
    PROs:
    1. Fully voiced (when the sound doesn't cut out)
    2. Active combat
    3. Ton's of quests (mostly standard go kill X or go fetch X)
    4. 3 faction's with interweaving story    … Expand
  26. DrunkenPirate
    Jun 6, 2014
    2
    Graphics, balance, classes, PVP, PVE are terrible. TES lore is just being raped. Lots of bugs, ugly world etc. Avoid it at all costs, its not worth the price they are asking for it. Better go play another horrible WoW expansion, you may get more fun than this piece of whatever.
  27. TheFredinator
    Jan 13, 2015
    2
    Nothing hurts more then how disappointment feels. The Elder Scrolls Online was going to be the hit MMO that everyone was going to be playing! Instead we got a game that was poorly made and abandoned after launch. In the beginning you are told that "You are the chosen one" and that its up to "Only you" to save the world. Then you see a bunch of other chosen ones run through the same portal.Nothing hurts more then how disappointment feels. The Elder Scrolls Online was going to be the hit MMO that everyone was going to be playing! Instead we got a game that was poorly made and abandoned after launch. In the beginning you are told that "You are the chosen one" and that its up to "Only you" to save the world. Then you see a bunch of other chosen ones run through the same portal. I got so bored with this game. I played it for a few weeks and just got so bored. The combat is really different then what you would expect. Its a game that Bethesda said "Hey! You know what would be cool? Oblivion and WoW put together!" Yeah that would be cool except that's nothing close to what it is. I'm really sorry because I tried so hard to like it. Really I did. And wouldn't you know it? There is still no word on the console version.

    Elder Scrolls Online gets a 2/10    … Expand
  28. lion8797
    Jul 13, 2014
    2
    The Game lacks in the Open World feel, and basically if you want to feel like a badass, try not to get beat down by the super impressive mudcrabs. Please tell the programmers and developers to stop posting 10's on the site. Its ok to vote for your horse but lets be honest ok, you are like the Mom with the my kids #1 sign.
  29. randomname420
    Jun 16, 2015
    2
    To be fair, I've only put a couple hours into this game, so it's hard to give it a thorough review. That said, there's a reason I've only put a couple hours into this game. It's not up to the standards of any current generation platform. It feels dated, even by last generation standards.

    In general, RPGs are my favorite genre of game. So far, I haven't been able to get past the horrible    To be fair, I've only put a couple hours into this game, so it's hard to give it a thorough review. That said, there's a reason I've only put a couple hours into this game. It's not up to the standards of any current generation platform. It feels dated, even by last generation standards.

    In general, RPGs are my favorite genre of game. So far, I haven't been able to get past the horrible graphics and terrible game play. That might have something to do with the fact I've been playing Destiny (which has its own flaws) so much for the past few months. To go from Destiny to Elder Scrolls, it feels like I broke out my old PS2.

    I'll try to give it another chance considering the game wasn't cheap. But after that, I expect it'll be on ebay sooner rather than later.    … Expand
  30. Holy187
    Oct 15, 2014
    2
    one of the worst games i´ve ever played. the game is so boring, wasted money. and then u have to give them ur bank details or u cant play. thats not normal. shame on bethesda
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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.
    Read full review
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