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My ESO take
Stiles223
Member UncommonPosts: 35
This is my first testing weekend and I'm a Level 9 Templar.
So far it is fairly fun but I get the feeling "I've done this before".
I took a break because two quests are bugged with numerous people waiting for the trigger to appear but there is nothing to interact with to create a spawn. Bugged is fine by the way. It is beta. I'll try the quests again tomorrow, they may be fixed.
Pros so far:
-No lag or hitching. Very impressed!!
-Load screens / transitions are fairly fast.
-Real nice character design options.
-Morphing skills is interesting.
-Good voiceovers.
-Not cartoony (subjective, I know).
-I like the level progression and levels within levels with your skills.
-Aside from the usual trolls found in any game the players seemed to be very nice and helpful in zone chat.
Cons so far:
-Quest hubs. (yawn)
-Quest tracker. (yawn)
-Quest tracker glitchy, inaccurate (sometimes wildly so) arrows. Some quests track as being in two or more places especially if they cross a city zone.
-Multiple bugged quests (which I am sure will be dealt with long before retail).
-Combat lacks impact. When you hit something or are being hit there isn't a feeling of "contact".
-I like the non cartoony look but all of the darker shades that they use (Ebonheart at least) blend in to each other. Gives it a mucky look and it just seems to blend together from one area to the next.
-Max settings with AA enabled there are still too many jaggies for my liking, especially on the character models. I have not tried forcing higher levels of AA on my video card yet. I have only used the in game options.
-Movement is a bit funky. Sometimes I click on something and my character will turn 90 degrees or do a 180. It does this by design (I think) when you look at your map or hit the "C" button. Feels awkward, might just need time to get used to it. Sometimes I have to click multiple times on doors or objects for it to register.
-Would be nice to see how much damage I am dealing and how much I am being dealt.
Now this might seem like a DOOM post but it is going how I expected it to...so far anyway. I didn't enter having great expectations in terms of PvE and my expectations were met. It wasn't terrible by any means, it was just "meh". All of the PvE gameplay videos looked ho hum to me. That was until I saw some of the PvP videos which looked like a completely different level. This is the part of the game that will make it or break it for me. I eagerly await trying it tomorrow!!
I will also say that having played for 8 or 9 hours on a beta client does NOT make me some kind of expert. I'm a newb and this entire list is subject to change within the next 48 hours or less :P
What do you folks like or don't like?
Comments
pretty spot on how i feel so far.
would also like to add the graphics really arnt all that, and the characters look rather bleh. i run it on ultra easy and i have to say for being 2014 i expected better graphic wise. but graphics dont make games good just wanted to point it out.
the animations seem weird to me also, i cant really put my finger on it but when in combat it doesnt really feel like im hitting anything im just swinging away at air and if their life goes down then cool. and i know this isnt a big deal but the jumping looks really stupid lol.
i could only stomach the quest to around level 7ish for today ( so far the quest really are terrible just the same old crap we have all done a million times), going to try and hit 10 tomorrow and see how the pvp is. and the pvp better blow me away to get me to spend any money on this game.
and to anybody who cares....
Im not trying to hate on the game i know alot of people will like it and thats great, just trying to give it a honest fair shot from my point of view and dont take my word for it try it yourself before you make up your mind.
This pretty much sums up my feelings as well. After playing GW2, the lack of lag in ESO is pretty refreshing. Even when around a number of players, I never got even the smallest amount of lag.
Combat lacks impact is the biggest complaint that I share with you. It's like their animation guy forgot to design a "Just got hit by massive hammer" state or "just got chopped by an axe" state. Unless you use an explicit knock back, it is like your attacks aren't doing anything to the enemies until you actually kill them. I am pretty sure that a person shot by an arrow doesn't even keep an arrow in them. Hopefully they get this worked out because it is a major issue for me. My overall rating of the game would go up from 7.0 to 8.5 if they fix that one thing. Combat should not feel like swinging into the wind.
"You are all going to poop yourselves." BillMurphy
"Laugh and the world laughs with you. Weep and you weep alone."
Well, that was a pain getting to level 10 with the bugged quests but I finally got there and did some PvP!
I'll start with what I liked:
-Very minimal lag (but frequent disconnects).
-Reminded me of Dark Age of Camelot, which is a good thing.
-Draw distances are good.
-Death is handled well. No insta spawn back to the fight. You have a good hike ahead of you. Play smart.
-I found controlling siege weapons to be fun (I have only tried the trebuchet and catapult)
-I like that you can pack up your own siege weapons and reposition.
-As a healer I was wondering if I would have a hard time getting credit for kills. I did not. I felt like I got my "just rewards".
-Extra stamina while in the PvP zone is very nice for getting around.
What I didn't like:
-Jerky and sometimes non-existant animations in combat. Game breaking to me and is my number 1 issue in both PvP and PvP. I see frequent moonwalking especially in PvP. Just kills it for me.
-Nothing distinguishing the 3 sides except for health bar colours. Your race, gear and anything else will be meaningless unless up close and personal and not in a zerg fight.
-Trying to focus one enemy in a zerg is near impossible.
-Zerg or nothing. I see potential for strategy but the players aren't trying to be skillful. It is zerg vs zerg vs zerg for now until players learn the game.
-I'm hammering the enemies below the keep with a catapult. Or am I? No damage notification. At medium to max distance there is nothing to distinguish friend from foe unless you are in a group with a ^ symbol. Even then, could be another friendly group. Even firing at enemy siege at close'ish range (which is easier to see the health bar) is odd. When my hits land, the health bar of the enemy siege never moved. Either the damage calculations are delayed or my siege was shooting blanks.
So I guess I'll end my mini review here. I have to ask myself the following question:
Is it worth 60 bucks? 60 bucks is a lot for a MMO game, especially with all the recent bombs out there. 60 is a gamble. The sub fee is par for the course and I am fine with that. I prefer subs to piecemeal F2P games.
I will try the next open beta event and see what they improve on. There is bound to be improvements.
If it stays as it is right now then I will not be giving them my money.
I'm hopeful for the next test!!!
I forgot one important (to me) thing!!! I want a minimap!!! One that complements the traditional black bar. I spent too much time looking at maps. Would be nice to have the bar/minimap combo or an option to use either one or the other.