Originally posted by chilliz Is this review some joke? WTF have the guys at mmorpg been smoking that the rest of the net and players havnt? Bloody delusional.
It is a joke but not the way you are thinking.
What did GW2 do at launch to deserve 1.4 points higher at 9.3? What did SWTOR do to deserve .8 points higher at 8.7? What did FFXIV do to deserve .4 points higher at 8.4? What did DCUO do to deserve .1 points higher at 8.0? Hell even STO got a 7.4 at launch.
I'm not saying TESO doesn't deserve a 7.9 overall compared to every game on the market but it certainly isn't a worse game than GW2 is. The world is much much larger and more immersive than any of those games above and compared to it's peers it's score seems very much low to me. It should have least scored the same as SWTOR.
I wonder how all those games I listed above would score in todays market of pro F2P and anti AAA theme park?
WAAAAYYYYYY too much hate on this game. I think alot of people are showing their dissatisfaction because 1. it's a sub and 2. It's not Skyrim multiplayer. Personally I'd give this game a higher rating than what he gave based on the scores other MMOs got from this site. This game is better than SWTOR or GW2 for example and they both received higher scores.
The only real complaint I can see that has merit is group questing and even then it's not as bad as some people make it out to be. Could it be better HELL YES, but I've been playing with a friend as a tandem and we have had little to no issue at all. Sure we are forced to make sure we sync our quests so that we remain on the same instance but it's a minor inconvenience. Many people just are not being objective.
No, that's bullshit. I'm currently playing a subscription game and was not expecting Skyrim 2 as I'm not really a big fan of the Elder Scrolls franchise to begin with.
I was expecting a modern MMO that actually moved forward in design, not backwards... but well... that's not what I got. Worst $60 I've spent in some time. How they actually did questing more boring WoW, rifts more boring than Rift, dialogue more droll than... I don't know what. Well, that's all beyond me.
The game was started in 2007 and it shows. It was a project that lasted 7 years and now plays like a game that should have been released, can you guess, 7 years ago.
The game reeks of an unpleasant familiarity. I have nothing against theme parks. I'm playing FFXIV right now and enjoy it immensely, but games that cannot even pull off the modern theme park well? Why should I waste my time? This game was another "ME TOO" MMO in the same vein as Bioware trying to cash in on the genre. Fail.
And better than Guild Wars? Pahaha don't make me laugh.
WAAAAYYYYYY too much hate on this game. I think alot of people are showing their dissatisfaction because 1. it's a sub and 2. It's not Skyrim multiplayer. Personally I'd give this game a higher rating than what he gave based on the scores other MMOs got from this site. This game is better than SWTOR or GW2 for example and they both received higher scores.
The only real complaint I can see that has merit is group questing and even then it's not as bad as some people make it out to be. Could it be better HELL YES, but I've been playing with a friend as a tandem and we have had little to no issue at all. Sure we are forced to make sure we sync our quests so that we remain on the same instance but it's a minor inconvenience. Many people just are not being objective.
No, that's bullshit. I'm currently playing a subscription game and was not expecting Skyrim 2 as I'm not really a big fan of the Elder Scrolls franchise to begin with.
I was expecting a modern MMO that actually moved forward in design, not backwards... but well... that's not what I got. Worst $60 I've spent in some time. How they actually did questing more boring WoW, rifts more boring than Rift, dialogue more droll than... I don't know what. Well, that's all beyond me.
The game was started in 2007 and it shows. It was a project that lasted 7 years and now plays like a game that should have been released, can you guess, 7 years ago.
The game reeks of an unpleasant familiarity. I have nothing against theme parks. I'm playing FFXIV right now and enjoy it immensely, but games that cannot even pull off the modern theme park well? Why should I waste my time? This game was another "ME TOO" MMO in the same vein as Bioware trying to cash in on the genre. Fail.
And better than Guild Wars? Pahaha don't make me laugh.
Like most people who hate this game your post reeks of generalization with little in the way of specifics. I really like ESO's questing. I have never felt this engaged in questing in any MMO I have played and it's 100% because of how they did phasing. Being able to save Mage guild members in a dungeon than seeing them show up in the city to help me battle the forces of evil is cool. I have seen it done on small scale before in both EQ2 and WoW but never like this and it really gives a sense of impact to questing that no other MMO has.
I do wish it went even farther and had more impact on your character progression but I see it as a step forward in immersive story telling in MMO's for sure and certainly not a repeat feature from 2007.
You may not like what they did and that's fine but don't spout out crap like "plays like a game that should have been released, can you guess, 7 years ago" because there is no truth to it at all.
I'm actually surprised to find I agree with most of the review. Especially about dark anchors. I can't tell you how many times during beta and feedback they need to be more dynamic. I also agree with several of the comments here about the copy and paste dungeons (as well as a lot of the main buildings in towns). That is very disappointing to me. I think the bugs are overdramatic from most forum goers as Im now level 33 and I have yet to not be able to complete any quest even though completing them in a few cases required logging in and out a few times or figuring out via google searches there were prerequisite quests that weren't clear based on what was showing on the map.
Exploration and the quality of the quests compared to most other themparks is top notch so I don't agree with anyone who writes that the questing is poor.B
Anyway, for me the game is a solid 8 and I expect that to improve over time, so I will be subscribing. I did change my subscription from month to month instead of 6 months, but that is because I want to see if they keep their word about 4-6 week updates. TOR didn't, GW2 didn't, lets see what they do.
I see Bill likes the public dungeons . To me these are the game breaker . They could be fun and challenging but very often they are full of people farming drops . I don't think for one minuet these are all bots . Its more down to a design choice . They totally ruin quest immersion for me and ruin the much of the game experience .
I think maybe there should be a choice for people to do them in solo or in a small group but until they change them and make them less public or offer such a choice I wont be subscribing . Its a shame I like much of what the game has to offer and if it hadn't been for them I would have stayed and leveled alts .
The only way I could give ESO "almost 8" on a scale is if I was getting paid or trying to maintain some kind of business with Zenimax.
I suppose the reality of maintaining a site like this is you have to keep the advertising revenue rolling in so when its a big company it doesn't pay to bite the hand that feeds you .
I agree with d0e1ow on the questing and storytelling. It's not a single player RPG, it's an MMO. We don't need to developers to write every event in the game world, to phase the game world, and to attempt to make us look like uber powerful heroes. It isn't necessary. Take a look at the RvR; we're members of a faction army. Not THE champion of the land. Just one of the more skilled warriors, one of the more knowledgeable mages. Developers really need to quit trying to make every player the star of the world when you have literally thousands of players in the same world. Have us cooperate. Aragorn didn't get stuff done alone. Luke Skywalker didn't. Robin Hood wasn't alone. Hell, even superheroes like Iron Man teamed up to take on threats.
I wanna feel like I'm my own character in a world with many others whom I can call companions or foes, with whom I can work with to take down hordes of monsters or opposing faction members. I couldn't care less if Queen Ayrenn thanks me personally; she's just an NPC. And NPCs will never make an MMO experience for me. That's why I let my subscription run out for ESO. A server on which many people play their own single player stories does not an MMO make.
You were way too generous. Tom's Hardware just released a review more in touch with reality. Perhaps you really enjoy this kind of game, but I think anyone looking for an honest MMO, even an honest theme park MMO, has to walk away feeling like their time was wasted.
Though I agree with some of his assessment, some of it is couched in assumptions and littered with his own preferences.
Example, these are the best quests I've ever experienced in a game with the possible exception of "The Secret World".
Are they perfect? No, but if you want a "touch with reality" then one is not going to expect anything to be perfect.
And then he drops this little bomb in his conclusion:
There are free-to-play games out right now with orders of magnitude better gameplay and more content: Dungeons & Dragons Online, Star Trek Online, and of course World of Warcraft. WildStar is another up-and-comer that looks immensely promising, with player housing and a refreshing sense of humor.
ugh
really? There are some nice things in Dungeons and Dragons online but I can't spend more than an hour in that game without hating myself. Star Trek online? Tried it for a week and never went back. World of Warcraft? I have a character that was started at launch and i can't get it beyond the early 30's. And oh I've tried. Wild Star has some nice things but I suspect I'll use it as a few month diversion (if that) before I go to bed and never look back. and I've played it.
With ESO I start and then several hours go by. I've actually had to limit my time each session so I don't get caught in the "damn, it's 2:30 am" syndrome.
So sure, his review has some valid points. The dungeons are bland and are "b's", they don't work for quests because you might never do anything but touch the end boss before it's felled in 2 seconds, The world can be beautiful but it doesn't have "places"; it's just a rolling bit of scenery. The polish could be WAAAAAYYYYY better.
But there is a game there and for an elder scrolls fan, one that isn't expecting Skyrim or Morrowind online (which is what I really do want), it can be fun.
And I love how people talk about the "hefty price tag". Now tha'ts the real joke.
The game is in line with any other p2p game that has been launched over the years. The "Imperial Edition" should not have been purchased if you are the type of person who is going to open your veins when you find out that you have buyer's remorse because you couldn't stay your hand at purchasing something without sufficient information.
So once again, as I've said countless times, "the players have done it to themselves". They purchase things such as these special editions without any real information and are incensed to learn that they didn't purchase what was created in their minds. These games are never going to be as good as we want them to be. We need to start either being more "realistic" with our expectations and just come to grips with games that aren't going to be what we want or just stop buying them.
The lesson is "dont' buy anything you don't know anything about if disappointment is going to push you off the edge.
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
Compared to other MMO review scores 7.9 is imho a bit low. On the other hand, considering the 4 part review in progress series, I thought it would score lower.
Game reviews.... Just can't make 'em right. Metacritic after 6 months gives perhaps a slightly more realistic pic? *shrugs*
If you are wondering whether to start playing this game... DON'T! It is not worth the money.
I really liked the game but right now it is severely broken. If I had to stop playing every time the game bugs (npc not appearing, boss spawns failing, quest progressions blocked etc) I would never play more than 10min a day.
The cheats, bots, and exploits ruins the game even further. Add to that impossible solo bosses and huge grouping issues. No thanks, I'm out.
Hell of a shame but this game needs to go back to development. As it is it will fail sooner rather than later.
It's a shame you didn't make it all the way through the story, I was rally disappointed with the last zone and last part of the main story, it was really lacking after building the whole story through the levels and then for it to fizzle out. There was meant to be a massive army in our way to our final goal, all it was, was 3 to 4, 3 man packs in the way. I had to treated this like a single player game as like I have said before, It just to frustrating playing it like an MMO, So yea his social score is a tad high I feel.
He makes his scores with an element of controversy, look at all the discussion it's generated.
I don't know if anybody has read about the lawsuit between Zenimax and Oculus Rift. Were they claim rights to the technology. Is funny how this occurs more than a month after Facebook buys the the company for 2 billion. This is rather suspicious behavior after not wanting to support John Carmack's endeavor into the technology. Only proves to me how much Zenimax is out of touch. And ESO just solidifies the lack of understanding of what an MMORPG really is.
Why should I pay for an online game that makes it hard for me to group with other players, why evenhave the word ONLINE in the title.
MMORPG, needs to step up the plate and call ES/O? what it really is. Is an RPG game where you pay monthly to play solo. It is SCAM and they know it.
I could give a ten rats ass about the so called features that they have in the new update. This a half assed made game.
If you are going to give a game review, it needs to include more than just the game.
Sounds a bit strange, but how else do you include something which is directly affecting gameplay for eu players?
There are multiple threads on the forum regarding getting the eu server moved. For those people (myself included) the review has another category - playability - and this score is low, if not zero.
As for this review's social scoring...well, I'd have to say it's one of the more anti-social mmo games I've ever played. Forced solo quests, phasing out of groups/friends, public dungeons where you can get the completion simply by being near rather than actually doing anything.
My guess is the majority of people do the entirety of their pve questing solo. There are group dungeons, but they hold so little rewards that it's easier to just go on with the next solo quest.
The scoring system if a bit off based. You're rating things based on a scale of 1-10, where 1 is terrible, 5 is average, and 10 is perfect. Yet you're giving scores in certain categories that are hardly believable. You gave polish a slightly above average score, I mean WTF?! You gave aesthetics a near perfect 9?! While I think the game looks good, it's no where near this generations graphics. I'm not going to tear down this review piece by piece, but wow, I need to stop reading these reviews. The scores are just worthless, even if the review itself has some merit.
This review just sounds biased, not heavily biased, but biased towards positive. I prefer neutrality in the review.
Let' just "pretent" that i stopped playing ESO because i was punished for grouping at every corner and my gaming team did not want to keep trying anymore. So they moved on. Let's further pretent my GF tried harder and forced me to go and level up with her... but she also gave up soon after for obvious reasons. So she moved on as well and so did i.
Oh wait, no need to pretent that, this is what happened. I am one of the few really social MMO gamer out there. I absolutly DO NOT play solo, like at all. And if a MULTIPLAYER game punishes me for that, i don't see a reason to give it a 8 / 10 for social stuff.
The issue here is that the category is "social". Not "grouping".
Grouping can be social. Grouping can also "not" be social. I've been in groups where NO ONE SAID A THING EVER, NOT ONE THING!
As I said in another post, one has to look at the game world and its systems and look at where the game allows one to be social. Certainly grouping should be there. It's a system that allows one to be social.
There are games where You take a quest, run, kill x of y, run back and rinse and repeat. Sure one can be outgoing and social but the games dont' do much as far as adding outlets for social activity. I can play LOTRO for hours and never really need to help anyone, certainy most trading is done with the Auction House so not a lot of interaction there.
Now, ESO's quests are good (my opinion) but they suck as far as allowing social interaction. One can be in a group but if one is to play the game as it is intended one might listen to them. I've had to turn off Team Speak because it interferes with the quests. So yeah, ESO's quests dampen social behavior
Where it IS social is allowing for players to explore and by doing that you will meet players, players who need help and might want additional help. You will then quest and the quests will dampen conversation but in my time playing this game I've grouped a lot and had conversations with people in so many places. certainly more than the last year of lotro. Easily more than The Secret World.
Waiting for spawns, helping everywhere I can when people need it, taking down the mini bosses and then hanging around, talking to people while waiting and then helping them to take down those same bosses, trading with people, obviously pvp.
That's "social".
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
Too much time is spent running around doing pointless quest. No community whatsoever.
This game will be f2p very shortly. Too much is lacking from this game. No viable way to level except the boring quest. No grouping. No socializing.
Very fun?? Not even close. Its fun for about 40 hours.
So 49 $ for a new released game (solo game) is expensive? There are games you play 9 hours story mode and they are over, where you pay 69$, thats expensive. Even though even 40 hours for 49$ is even over the average gametime of games in that price region.
I paid ~$70 for mine, because I bought the Imperial Edition. Now, $70 for the content released with the box is a fair deal, however, because it's a subscription based game and due to how long it takes to level in the game, plus my forced casual play and Zenimax's multiple per week downtimes, I won't complete the content in the box for 5-6 months. So instead of it being $70 for the content in the box, the game is now nearing $200 JUST to get through the content offered with the box. With the low amount of polish this game has, that's no where near worth it.
meh, Honest review, I would have still given it at least an 8. I think storyline gets a 9-10 and is the most strong characteristic of ESO, second I would give graphics 9-10 for an MMO "RPG" they are the best out at the moment.
As far as combat and polish, definatly the lowest factors of the game. But I would say longevity is defintly going to be right around 9-10 if they keep at the polish in this game.
This game could have gotten a 9-10 easy if it wasn't for the bugs, exploits and slow customer support. I'll leave it at that. After they fix all these things in game and make it perfectly polished we are going to see that 9-10 game.
The metatcritic score may be a 72 but the metacritic user score is a 62. That's probably closer to how I feel the game is but maybe a little high...
AESTHETICS – 8
INNOVATION - 6
POLISH - 5
LONGEVITY - 5
SOCIAL - 5
VALUE - 6
Once the game goes F2P or B2P, I'd knock the Value score up a point or two. I'm not even bring the bug aspect in for my personal review or the game would be considerably lower. There were a couple of attempts at innovation but IMO they didn't truly succeed. And in a couple of those cases (guild store over a traditional AH, console/portability, current UI over a "standard" MMO UI, etc) the innovation actually hurt the game.
If you'd asked me two weeks ago I would have agreed with this review... then I was reminded what was lacking when I got the opportunity to play both wildstar and archeage. Not to mention I bought the d3 epansion and suddenly I found myself not logging into ESO and instead playing those games. I'd still put it in the 7s but low 7s. Until now I've never played just the first free month on a new MMO. I left planning on coming back when I've less on my plate or need a change in flavor.
It's a good game but I found the disguised quest hubs and copy pasta galore a bad taste in my mouth. I'd rather play a mmo that allows you to diverge from the expected path or at least smooths that path enough that when you encounter a good storyline comes it's a treat not a chore. Too much of a good thing can devalue the overall package. I like to play my MMOs along with an audio book, play music, or while I watch a show. Heck I found it hard to be in vent with guildies as they were more distracting than a pleasant diversion as you had to listen to each and every npc talk if you didn't just want to miss out on a lot of the game. I'm not sure that full voice acting is really all that great in these games. Seems like an expensive waste of resources when we've become so used to actually being social while online. This game is a mmo with a bad habit of making sure you play by yourself.
Totally subjective on my part. I know many who don't want to read ever. I can understand why but that's my take. It could just be the way it never let you off the string or some such but I found myself skipping cutscenes far too often here. At least I wasn't forced to listen to my character talk like in SWTOR. Loved the crafting emphasis and enjoyed the overall ability to play your class as you want... still, why not let us change classes on the fly? I think FFXIV and archeage just spoiled me. *shrugs*
You can't please everyone with a game. I played a few mmos and when I came by this game, it just turned me the wrong way. I didn't have fun, I only played for only an hour or so, but if I don't like the game by then I doubt I will after 20+ hours.
Read reviews if you must and some watch videos and if it looks interesting enough to try then buy it.
7.9? Really? The game is far from being a 7.9, damn they were to lazy to add underwater swimming and exploration. ::sigh:: This game is average at best and once again you guys score this game way beyond what it actually deserves. Just as you have done with any and all AAA titles - and none of them deserved the scores they got either. You are totally misleading players into thinking this game is better than average and a good game. It is littered with bugs(still), it has major issues with PvE and you gave it a score of 8 despite the fact that the game destroys group play. You can't even go back and help a player that is lower than you do a quest. One of the biggest complaints in the game is the social aspect and you gave it an 8. 9 for aesthetics - seriously? It is just cut and pasted most everywhere you look...like Aion was, and the view distance is for crap. The animations are pure - well, just bad. This deserves a 9?
I can go on...but why bother...typical bloated score from MMORPG.com. The best this game would get from me is a 5.5 at most - and just like all the other mediocre, generic themeparks since WoW I give this game less than a year and it'll be a ghost town, slipping into the abyss of poorly made games.
Comments
It is a joke but not the way you are thinking.
What did GW2 do at launch to deserve 1.4 points higher at 9.3? What did SWTOR do to deserve .8 points higher at 8.7? What did FFXIV do to deserve .4 points higher at 8.4? What did DCUO do to deserve .1 points higher at 8.0? Hell even STO got a 7.4 at launch.
I'm not saying TESO doesn't deserve a 7.9 overall compared to every game on the market but it certainly isn't a worse game than GW2 is. The world is much much larger and more immersive than any of those games above and compared to it's peers it's score seems very much low to me. It should have least scored the same as SWTOR.
I wonder how all those games I listed above would score in todays market of pro F2P and anti AAA theme park?
No, that's bullshit. I'm currently playing a subscription game and was not expecting Skyrim 2 as I'm not really a big fan of the Elder Scrolls franchise to begin with.
I was expecting a modern MMO that actually moved forward in design, not backwards... but well... that's not what I got. Worst $60 I've spent in some time. How they actually did questing more boring WoW, rifts more boring than Rift, dialogue more droll than... I don't know what. Well, that's all beyond me.
The game was started in 2007 and it shows. It was a project that lasted 7 years and now plays like a game that should have been released, can you guess, 7 years ago.
The game reeks of an unpleasant familiarity. I have nothing against theme parks. I'm playing FFXIV right now and enjoy it immensely, but games that cannot even pull off the modern theme park well? Why should I waste my time? This game was another "ME TOO" MMO in the same vein as Bioware trying to cash in on the genre. Fail.
And better than Guild Wars? Pahaha don't make me laugh.
Like most people who hate this game your post reeks of generalization with little in the way of specifics. I really like ESO's questing. I have never felt this engaged in questing in any MMO I have played and it's 100% because of how they did phasing. Being able to save Mage guild members in a dungeon than seeing them show up in the city to help me battle the forces of evil is cool. I have seen it done on small scale before in both EQ2 and WoW but never like this and it really gives a sense of impact to questing that no other MMO has.
I do wish it went even farther and had more impact on your character progression but I see it as a step forward in immersive story telling in MMO's for sure and certainly not a repeat feature from 2007.
You may not like what they did and that's fine but don't spout out crap like "plays like a game that should have been released, can you guess, 7 years ago" because there is no truth to it at all.
I'm actually surprised to find I agree with most of the review. Especially about dark anchors. I can't tell you how many times during beta and feedback they need to be more dynamic. I also agree with several of the comments here about the copy and paste dungeons (as well as a lot of the main buildings in towns). That is very disappointing to me. I think the bugs are overdramatic from most forum goers as Im now level 33 and I have yet to not be able to complete any quest even though completing them in a few cases required logging in and out a few times or figuring out via google searches there were prerequisite quests that weren't clear based on what was showing on the map.
Exploration and the quality of the quests compared to most other themparks is top notch so I don't agree with anyone who writes that the questing is poor.B
Anyway, for me the game is a solid 8 and I expect that to improve over time, so I will be subscribing. I did change my subscription from month to month instead of 6 months, but that is because I want to see if they keep their word about 4-6 week updates. TOR didn't, GW2 didn't, lets see what they do.
There Is Always Hope!
I see Bill likes the public dungeons . To me these are the game breaker . They could be fun and challenging but very often they are full of people farming drops . I don't think for one minuet these are all bots . Its more down to a design choice . They totally ruin quest immersion for me and ruin the much of the game experience .
I think maybe there should be a choice for people to do them in solo or in a small group but until they change them and make them less public or offer such a choice I wont be subscribing . Its a shame I like much of what the game has to offer and if it hadn't been for them I would have stayed and leveled alts .
I suppose the reality of maintaining a site like this is you have to keep the advertising revenue rolling in so when its a big company it doesn't pay to bite the hand that feeds you .
I wanna feel like I'm my own character in a world with many others whom I can call companions or foes, with whom I can work with to take down hordes of monsters or opposing faction members. I couldn't care less if Queen Ayrenn thanks me personally; she's just an NPC. And NPCs will never make an MMO experience for me. That's why I let my subscription run out for ESO. A server on which many people play their own single player stories does not an MMO make.
Though I agree with some of his assessment, some of it is couched in assumptions and littered with his own preferences.
Example, these are the best quests I've ever experienced in a game with the possible exception of "The Secret World".
Are they perfect? No, but if you want a "touch with reality" then one is not going to expect anything to be perfect.
And then he drops this little bomb in his conclusion:
There are free-to-play games out right now with orders of magnitude better gameplay and more content: Dungeons & Dragons Online, Star Trek Online, and of course World of Warcraft. WildStar is another up-and-comer that looks immensely promising, with player housing and a refreshing sense of humor.
ugh
really? There are some nice things in Dungeons and Dragons online but I can't spend more than an hour in that game without hating myself. Star Trek online? Tried it for a week and never went back. World of Warcraft? I have a character that was started at launch and i can't get it beyond the early 30's. And oh I've tried. Wild Star has some nice things but I suspect I'll use it as a few month diversion (if that) before I go to bed and never look back. and I've played it.
With ESO I start and then several hours go by. I've actually had to limit my time each session so I don't get caught in the "damn, it's 2:30 am" syndrome.
So sure, his review has some valid points. The dungeons are bland and are "b's", they don't work for quests because you might never do anything but touch the end boss before it's felled in 2 seconds, The world can be beautiful but it doesn't have "places"; it's just a rolling bit of scenery. The polish could be WAAAAAYYYYY better.
But there is a game there and for an elder scrolls fan, one that isn't expecting Skyrim or Morrowind online (which is what I really do want), it can be fun.
And I love how people talk about the "hefty price tag". Now tha'ts the real joke.
The game is in line with any other p2p game that has been launched over the years. The "Imperial Edition" should not have been purchased if you are the type of person who is going to open your veins when you find out that you have buyer's remorse because you couldn't stay your hand at purchasing something without sufficient information.
So once again, as I've said countless times, "the players have done it to themselves". They purchase things such as these special editions without any real information and are incensed to learn that they didn't purchase what was created in their minds. These games are never going to be as good as we want them to be. We need to start either being more "realistic" with our expectations and just come to grips with games that aren't going to be what we want or just stop buying them.
The lesson is "dont' buy anything you don't know anything about if disappointment is going to push you off the edge.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Compared to other MMO review scores 7.9 is imho a bit low. On the other hand, considering the 4 part review in progress series, I thought it would score lower.
Game reviews.... Just can't make 'em right. Metacritic after 6 months gives perhaps a slightly more realistic pic? *shrugs*
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Youtube newb:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC96N3cxBuqKTPV2BQNlzGUw
If you are wondering whether to start playing this game... DON'T! It is not worth the money.
I really liked the game but right now it is severely broken. If I had to stop playing every time the game bugs (npc not appearing, boss spawns failing, quest progressions blocked etc) I would never play more than 10min a day.
The cheats, bots, and exploits ruins the game even further. Add to that impossible solo bosses and huge grouping issues. No thanks, I'm out.
Hell of a shame but this game needs to go back to development. As it is it will fail sooner rather than later.
It's a shame you didn't make it all the way through the story, I was rally disappointed with the last zone and last part of the main story, it was really lacking after building the whole story through the levels and then for it to fizzle out. There was meant to be a massive army in our way to our final goal, all it was, was 3 to 4, 3 man packs in the way. I had to treated this like a single player game as like I have said before, It just to frustrating playing it like an MMO, So yea his social score is a tad high I feel.
He makes his scores with an element of controversy, look at all the discussion it's generated.
I'm waiting for the announcement of F2P.
I don't know if anybody has read about the lawsuit between Zenimax and Oculus Rift. Were they claim rights to the technology. Is funny how this occurs more than a month after Facebook buys the the company for 2 billion. This is rather suspicious behavior after not wanting to support John Carmack's endeavor into the technology. Only proves to me how much Zenimax is out of touch. And ESO just solidifies the lack of understanding of what an MMORPG really is.
Why should I pay for an online game that makes it hard for me to group with other players, why evenhave the word ONLINE in the title.
MMORPG, needs to step up the plate and call ES/O? what it really is. Is an RPG game where you pay monthly to play solo. It is SCAM and they know it.
I could give a ten rats ass about the so called features that they have in the new update. This a half assed made game.
If you are going to give a game review, it needs to include more than just the game.
Sounds a bit strange, but how else do you include something which is directly affecting gameplay for eu players?
There are multiple threads on the forum regarding getting the eu server moved. For those people (myself included) the review has another category - playability - and this score is low, if not zero.
As for this review's social scoring...well, I'd have to say it's one of the more anti-social mmo games I've ever played. Forced solo quests, phasing out of groups/friends, public dungeons where you can get the completion simply by being near rather than actually doing anything.
My guess is the majority of people do the entirety of their pve questing solo. There are group dungeons, but they hold so little rewards that it's easier to just go on with the next solo quest.
Social score = 3
The scoring system if a bit off based. You're rating things based on a scale of 1-10, where 1 is terrible, 5 is average, and 10 is perfect. Yet you're giving scores in certain categories that are hardly believable. You gave polish a slightly above average score, I mean WTF?! You gave aesthetics a near perfect 9?! While I think the game looks good, it's no where near this generations graphics. I'm not going to tear down this review piece by piece, but wow, I need to stop reading these reviews. The scores are just worthless, even if the review itself has some merit.
This review just sounds biased, not heavily biased, but biased towards positive. I prefer neutrality in the review.
The issue here is that the category is "social". Not "grouping".
Grouping can be social. Grouping can also "not" be social. I've been in groups where NO ONE SAID A THING EVER, NOT ONE THING!
As I said in another post, one has to look at the game world and its systems and look at where the game allows one to be social. Certainly grouping should be there. It's a system that allows one to be social.
There are games where You take a quest, run, kill x of y, run back and rinse and repeat. Sure one can be outgoing and social but the games dont' do much as far as adding outlets for social activity. I can play LOTRO for hours and never really need to help anyone, certainy most trading is done with the Auction House so not a lot of interaction there.
Now, ESO's quests are good (my opinion) but they suck as far as allowing social interaction. One can be in a group but if one is to play the game as it is intended one might listen to them. I've had to turn off Team Speak because it interferes with the quests. So yeah, ESO's quests dampen social behavior
Where it IS social is allowing for players to explore and by doing that you will meet players, players who need help and might want additional help. You will then quest and the quests will dampen conversation but in my time playing this game I've grouped a lot and had conversations with people in so many places. certainly more than the last year of lotro. Easily more than The Secret World.
Waiting for spawns, helping everywhere I can when people need it, taking down the mini bosses and then hanging around, talking to people while waiting and then helping them to take down those same bosses, trading with people, obviously pvp.
That's "social".
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
I paid ~$70 for mine, because I bought the Imperial Edition. Now, $70 for the content released with the box is a fair deal, however, because it's a subscription based game and due to how long it takes to level in the game, plus my forced casual play and Zenimax's multiple per week downtimes, I won't complete the content in the box for 5-6 months. So instead of it being $70 for the content in the box, the game is now nearing $200 JUST to get through the content offered with the box. With the low amount of polish this game has, that's no where near worth it.
meh, Honest review, I would have still given it at least an 8. I think storyline gets a 9-10 and is the most strong characteristic of ESO, second I would give graphics 9-10 for an MMO "RPG" they are the best out at the moment.
As far as combat and polish, definatly the lowest factors of the game. But I would say longevity is defintly going to be right around 9-10 if they keep at the polish in this game.
This game could have gotten a 9-10 easy if it wasn't for the bugs, exploits and slow customer support. I'll leave it at that. After they fix all these things in game and make it perfectly polished we are going to see that 9-10 game.
Higher than I expected
In it's current state I would give it a high six. Five for those who don't have Imperial Edition.
Ryoshi1 as Rikimaru
The metatcritic score may be a 72 but the metacritic user score is a 62. That's probably closer to how I feel the game is but maybe a little high...
AESTHETICS – 8
INNOVATION - 6
POLISH - 5
LONGEVITY - 5
SOCIAL - 5
VALUE - 6
Once the game goes F2P or B2P, I'd knock the Value score up a point or two. I'm not even bring the bug aspect in for my personal review or the game would be considerably lower. There were a couple of attempts at innovation but IMO they didn't truly succeed. And in a couple of those cases (guild store over a traditional AH, console/portability, current UI over a "standard" MMO UI, etc) the innovation actually hurt the game.
If you'd asked me two weeks ago I would have agreed with this review... then I was reminded what was lacking when I got the opportunity to play both wildstar and archeage. Not to mention I bought the d3 epansion and suddenly I found myself not logging into ESO and instead playing those games. I'd still put it in the 7s but low 7s. Until now I've never played just the first free month on a new MMO. I left planning on coming back when I've less on my plate or need a change in flavor.
It's a good game but I found the disguised quest hubs and copy pasta galore a bad taste in my mouth. I'd rather play a mmo that allows you to diverge from the expected path or at least smooths that path enough that when you encounter a good storyline comes it's a treat not a chore. Too much of a good thing can devalue the overall package. I like to play my MMOs along with an audio book, play music, or while I watch a show. Heck I found it hard to be in vent with guildies as they were more distracting than a pleasant diversion as you had to listen to each and every npc talk if you didn't just want to miss out on a lot of the game. I'm not sure that full voice acting is really all that great in these games. Seems like an expensive waste of resources when we've become so used to actually being social while online. This game is a mmo with a bad habit of making sure you play by yourself.
Totally subjective on my part. I know many who don't want to read ever. I can understand why but that's my take. It could just be the way it never let you off the string or some such but I found myself skipping cutscenes far too often here. At least I wasn't forced to listen to my character talk like in SWTOR. Loved the crafting emphasis and enjoyed the overall ability to play your class as you want... still, why not let us change classes on the fly? I think FFXIV and archeage just spoiled me. *shrugs*
You can't please everyone with a game. I played a few mmos and when I came by this game, it just turned me the wrong way. I didn't have fun, I only played for only an hour or so, but if I don't like the game by then I doubt I will after 20+ hours.
Read reviews if you must and some watch videos and if it looks interesting enough to try then buy it.
If your not having fun your doing it wrong.
"Everything is mine and your woman too"
7.9? Really? The game is far from being a 7.9, damn they were to lazy to add underwater swimming and exploration. ::sigh:: This game is average at best and once again you guys score this game way beyond what it actually deserves. Just as you have done with any and all AAA titles - and none of them deserved the scores they got either. You are totally misleading players into thinking this game is better than average and a good game. It is littered with bugs(still), it has major issues with PvE and you gave it a score of 8 despite the fact that the game destroys group play. You can't even go back and help a player that is lower than you do a quest. One of the biggest complaints in the game is the social aspect and you gave it an 8. 9 for aesthetics - seriously? It is just cut and pasted most everywhere you look...like Aion was, and the view distance is for crap. The animations are pure - well, just bad. This deserves a 9?
I can go on...but why bother...typical bloated score from MMORPG.com. The best this game would get from me is a 5.5 at most - and just like all the other mediocre, generic themeparks since WoW I give this game less than a year and it'll be a ghost town, slipping into the abyss of poorly made games.