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Long Time Subscriber - Honest Opinion on the Game
Decimuss
Member UncommonPosts: 17
B2P was recently announced for the game, so let me spill the beans now and let people know what you can expect from the game, coming from someone who has been playing the game (and hoping for it to get better) since January 2014 beta:
Combat
Initially, I very much liked the action oriented combat in the game, even if it wasn't truly like the combat in other Elder Scrolls titles, such as Oblivion or Skyrim, where you had to aim with the weapon. Elder Scrolls Online has a soft aiming system, meaning you can hit in the general direction of the target, and your attack will usually register.
Regardless, I felt this was something fresh in the industry and rather well implemented.
One thing that was not well implemented was the weight of weapon attacks. You couldn't really feel how your hits connected with the enemy, and this was a big minus in my books.
Graphics
In my opinion, the graphics in ESO are on a very good level, and the artistic direction is very pleasing as well and feels Elder Scrollsy. The game also offers decent customization options for graphics & culling.
Performance
Performance in this game varies from good to horrible, depending on what you're doing. If you are simply questing or running around in the world, the performance should be fine (slightly worse in cities).
However, once you enter Cyrodiil, the game's PvP zone, or a Trial, the game's version of typical raids, be prepared to take big FPS hits.
PvE Content
Leveling experience in this game while very engaging & fun. Gone are the typical "kill 10 bandits" quests, replaced by quests each telling a story.
Each zone has one relatively easy group dungeon, that scales up to group leader's level. These take around 20 minutes to complete.
On the downside, the leveling experience was also extremely streamlined and "on the rails", having you go from zone to zone, providing little alternatives.
Zones are separated by loading screens, and each holds enemies within a certain range. There are no spots with higher level enemies where you're supposed to return later similar to past Elder Scrolls games such as Morrowind, or quests (apart from the last one in each zone's quest arc) sending you into another zone.
The biggest downside however is what happens after you reach the "max level" of 50.
Without spoiling too much, after a cheesy explanation you are basicly sent into the zones of the other two alliances to complete their quests (which are the exact same you'd do with an alt character in said faction)., where you once again linearly go through content.
This left me with a very sour taste in my mouth, and made me wonder whether they simply wanted to prolong the amount of content, or if they ran out of development time and couldn't create a sensible solution.
After completing the other two factions' quests, or after grinding mobs in the game's currently only "Adventure Zone" (a zone aimed for groups of 4 people), you have finally reached the end game of VR14.
At this point, you can either start doing the game's end-game content of Veteran Dungeons & Trials, finish up the remaining quests, or go do PvP.
Veteran Dungeons & Trials (12-man mini dungeons) I found interesting for the first few times I did them, but in the long run very grindy (due to the atrocious loot system in the game) & short, and not particularly challenging (except Dragonstar Arena & Sanctum Ophidia).
The game does not have raid content in the traditional sense, since all three Trials in game (Aetherian Archive, Hel Ra & Sanctum Ophidia) can all be completed in 15 minutes - one hour and run repeatedly for RNG loot.
PvP Content
PvP in Elder Scrolls Online is mostly focused in the province of Cyrodiil (which you may remember from Oblivion), with the three factions fighting over keeps (map objectives).
This might sound fun in paper, but I found it extremely repetitive, moving from the same one keep to another over & over, and fighting against same type of enemies all the time.
Character Progression
I'm not going to sugar coat this. Character Progression in ESO blows.
Sadly, Zenimax Online Studios went with the Skyrim model of simply having Health, Magicka & stamina, instead of having the traditional Elder Scrolls attributes that could've made leveling up and gearing up interesting .
There are no traditional attributes in Elder Scrolls Online.
It doesn't matter much what you do in game, your character will end up the same as everyone else.
Balance
The game has four classes, Nightblade, Templar, Dragonknight & Sorcerer, but in the end the core gameplay doesn't vary much between the classes. There are no special mechanics popular in other MMOs (Rage, Combo Points etc), every class uses Magicka for spells & stamina for blocking, dodge rolling and breaking "Crowd Control". There are also no cooldowns in the game, and you can slot only five skills on your action bar (there are two, you can get the other one at level 15).
If you were looking for a game where you can play a sneaky rogue, or a warrior in heavy armour or any type of character that is not a healer, you might be disappointed. Most of these archetypes are not supported by the game in terms of skills or mechanics, or require you to use other tropes, such as healing spells or damage shields, especially in PvP, which revolves around spamming those abilities.
While the game claims to have the "holy trinity" of DPS, Tank & Healer, in PvP you are supposed to fulfill all three roles at the same time (because there is no real downside for doing that) in order to be competitive, which might make life difficult if you wanted to play a purely DPS oriented character.
In PvE, this is much more balanced however.
Crowd Control in this game is not really utilized for its traditional role in RPGs, but it is more of a "drain stamina" skill, since CC can be broken repeatedly as long as you have stamina.
Verdict: 5½/10
Tries hard too hard to be Skyrim Online, instead of Elder Scrolls Online. In the end, a fairly bland and dumbed down MMO. Wouldn't recommend.
- Decent combat system.
- Good graphics.
- Average performance (varies from good to horrible).
- Interesting (if somewhat on the rails) 1-50 leveling experience, but the rest is forgettable & grindy.
- No real end game content to keep people around, frustrating RNG loot system and uninteresting itemization.
- Repetitive PvP, made worse by balance issues & lack of diversity.
- Horrible Character Progression system.
Comments
I am having trouble understanding why someone who would not recommend a game to others has been playing the game steadily since beta. I always have trouble giving credence to a 1st time poster giving the "honest low down" of a game. Maybe this is your honest opinion, maybe it is a dummy account.
My experience differs greatly from yours and apparently from the latest polls I am not alone. It is not perfect by any stretch, but it is a solid AAA MMO that has been and is being improved. It is the first MMO in a while where I took a break and found myself missing it. I could only stay away for a couple of weeks before realizing there is very little out there better and nothing I would rather play at this moment.
-Atziluth-
- Never underestimate the predictability of stupidity.
I play P2P MMOs only, and for this reason have not many options for what to play.
This means I will usually have to stick around, no matter how I feel about the quality.
I hope this answers your question.
I wish you pleasant times in Tamriel, and hope you don't run across the same issues I did.
Where are you going now?? Take me with you!
I played ESO from the beginning as well, but am very fearful of what F2P will do to it. You can find my official forum posts on the subject @mamericus. Playing P2P only as policy sounds like a great idea! What's your next stop?
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
This is a 'why i don't like a game anymore' thread, OP is basically demonstrating that it was fun enough for him to play for months while paying a sub during the earliest period of the game with the biggest issues, but now its free to play, he wouldn't recommend it - that makes perfect sense..
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
Yeah. He has been playing the game for, what he claims, a year, yet feels that it is only worth a 5.5/10. Something does not add up.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
"It doesn't matter much what you do in game, your character will end up the same as everyone else."
That's not really true. There are so many different builds/weapons that unless someone is playing a flavor of the month build you can have very different classes from one to another.
After completing the other two factions' quests, or after grinding mobs in the game's currently only "Adventure Zone" (a zone aimed for groups of 4 people), you have finally reached the end game of VR14.
At this point, you can either start doing the game's end-game content of Veteran Dungeons & Trials, finish up the remaining quests, or go do PvP.
Isn't that every mmo?Even in the older mmo's you would be grinding/killing mobs to either sell their bits or get drops to sell.
Sadly, Zenimax Online Studios went with the Skyrim model of simply having Health, Magicka & stamina, instead of having the traditional Elder Scrolls attributes that could've made leveling up and gearing up interesting .
Again, not really true. You can still level up different weapons, heavy, light and medium armor, etc.
As long as you are agressive with getting your skill points you can level up quite a few things. Not everything but I consider that a plus. Even though I'm a reasonably hardcore Elder Scrolls player I never liked the "you can be master at everything" tack.
Being able to master everything on one character always felt a bit lame and didn't feel like one's choices to build your character really mattered. "huh, one handed weapon or two handed? Meh, let's do both!
While the game claims to have the "holy trinity" of DPS, Tank & Healer, in PvP you are supposed to fulfill all three roles at the same time (because there is no real downside for doing that) in order to be competitive, which might make life difficult if you wanted to play a purely DPS oriented character.
Except that is what the elder scrolls games allowed, players to master everything. I could have the best healing, best magic and best fighting skills.
If anything, it's a bit harder in ESO to do that because of their classes.
I do agree with pvp, and would have preferred a castle siege system more like Lineage 2 where once you won a castle it was yours to rule the land until the next time you were sieges. I hate flipping castles as it then becomes a treadmill.
Now granted, I would have been happier if they made "Morrowind Online" or even Skyrim online but I think some of your comparisons are off.
The greatest downside to ESO is the world and the constant questing. But some of your other points I just see as different, not better or worse.
I'll also add:
There are no special mechanics popular in other MMOs (Rage, Combo Points etc), every class uses Magicka for spells & stamina for blocking, dodge rolling and breaking "Crowd Control". There are also no cooldowns in the game, and you can slot only five skills on your action bar (there are two, you can get the other one at level 15).
I find this paragraph a bit suspect? it almost makes me think you are predominantly a wow player. Nothing wrong with that but my time in Lord of the Rings online and Lineage 2 also had me predominantly using magicka for spells or some such equivlant for skills such as Lord of the rings online"
Tera has the same system of some pool of points you can use to power your abilities.
No cooldowns? of course not, you have to make a decision whether to use your power (magicka/stamina) or not. Do you meter your abilities out or do you blast everything you have? I recently saw a video where the player commented that his enemy used all his abilities and had nothing left to bring. Obviously a bad decision on that player's part.
I find the limited two skill bars a plus.
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 found the review constructive but I agree with the comments made by Sovrath.
I have been playing through alts of various class builds and personally they all feel different. So far my favorites are a tank build that can switch to a primary healer role and my sneaky rogue that can double as ranged AOE. I prefer more singular archetype builds like EQ and DAOC offered but I have been enjoying the ESO iterations. Even though a caster in heavy armor is not all that practical, its still an option, and I enjoy the flexibility.
As a crafter fan, I haven't found crafting as immersive as a game like EQ2, but the sheer variety and locations you find to craft custom sets has kept me interested.
The story and voice acting is just so good its often like watching movie shorts. I love how NPC's will run out to find you or praise your efforts. Using the Persuade or Intimidate skill will change the course of a quest and you are often given a choice of outcomes that are played out right before you. I have heard that SWTOR offers a similar experience and I expect that to be my next game, if only for the story.
On the flip side, ESO still has a few technical hurdles.
If you plan to play with a partner make sure they quest with you literally side by side. I came out a different exit from one quest and had to abandon it when I could not get an NPC to appear for me.
Also, when I press a key I expect a response. When I die for lack of a response it gets frustrating. This has only been happening recently and I expect they are way overdue for server maintenance.
Apart from a few issues, as an older casual gamer I have really been enjoying the game. Its not a terribly hard game but it does offer some challenges for me and I enjoy the fact that I die a few times a day despite my best efforts.
Del Cabon
A US Army ('Just Cause') Vet and MMORPG Native formerly of Trinsic, Norath and Dereth. Currently playing LOTRO.
I played the beta and I couldn't stand how terrible the combat was...particularly bow users. Perhaps all those hiccups have been ironed out by now....but man was it terrible. Hitboxes all over the place, misses that should be hits, hits that should be misses. I would also crash a lot.
I realize it was a beta, but the problems were so glaring and awful that I thought to myself "there's no way this will be fixed by launch".
On the flip side, I really enjoyed the PvE quests, to a point. I got really tired of being the only person doing anything. It became a serious solo grind after a while, with no end in sight. Perhaps I just didn't make it far enough on those rails to see it, but I never did a dungeon of any kind either...solo-dolo the whole way.
The group mechanics were also largely broken, and there was no reason to be anything but one of the classes, and no reason to use anything but a staff.
If ALL of these things have changed I would give it a second chance. But my idea of a good mmo does not involve solo crashing instances with unbalanced class/weapon mechanics and terrible combat via awful hitboxes.
As usual, a spot on post Sovrath.
Thanks Man for your review. I keep looking at this game wondering is it worth it? I will pass for now. Seems to me more and more that if you give games (MMO) a couple of years to get there act together they are better than playing them at the beginning. I hope this is the case with this game.. We will see?
Really Solid review.
I bought guild wars 2 when it came out played it. Hated it.. just started playing it again and really enjoy it. Who would of thought.
http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view6/2207524/saving-private-ryan-helmet-o.gif
weird review... but ok... lol. I played beta, left after 3 months, came back a little over a month ago and have found that I wish I had never left. I am having a blast questing and doing dungeons, I like that peepz help a lot because I am not a very good player. The new dailies are fun and the profession, crafting dailies have actually taught me how to do the crafting... I was a dummy trying to figure out enchanting and alchemy (they are hard, kinda, well not really now, but I was scared of them for a while).
I have an electricity sorcerer now and I am having a blast with that. I die a lot, but I look SO cool with all the electricity going everywhere! SHOCKING!!!
Right now I think TESO is the best mmo out there and it has really got me going. I had a blast on ArcheAge but they SO broke that game and it was SO good. They have got to stop the cheaters, hackers, bots, and land stealers! They have WAY too many gold spammers, but they fixed it for a week... I kinda started missing the gold spammers, but they came back and I rage quit! lol... quit over that new area and land hack grabs and bots.
oh well, sorry to ramble... TESO RULEZ!
Sz
)
Yeah. He has been playing the game for, what he claims, a year, yet feels that it is only worth a 5.5/10. Something does not add up.
It does have a bad smell to it.Epic Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAigCvelkhQ&list=PLo9FRw1AkDuQLEz7Gvvaz3ideB2NpFtT1
https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos?&sort=-downloads&page=1
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you playing an MMORPG?"
I have been playing since beta and boy have I complained constantly of the official forums.
I complain because I am having so much fun and yet I could be having more. I could be having enough fun to actually quit sleeping and eating (although truthfully I get very little sleep).
I play a sorc. Everyone who first meets me asks, "Don't sorcs stink?". To which I answer, "They sure do stink, but they are so much fun".
And so I will continue to fork over dough for this game. There are so, so many things in this game that get in the way of "winning". But I don't have to win to have fun. I have to have fun to have fun.
Funny thing is, if the original poster had only played for a couple weeks, others would rush to criticize him for not playing enough or experiencing the whole game. A real catch 22 for posting here.
However, the message I got from reading the review was that the game has some fun elements and leveling is enjoyable, but the game is somewhat shallow at top end and becomes repetitive in gameplay.
For me this review offers great information. I have had more than enough of quest based level grinds that end in shallow gameplay. No matter how fun the quest stories are. It is like having a great cross country ride site seeing only to find out the vacation destination is nothing more than a gift shop.
A point could be made that there is no need to make a post like the OP. It is an attention seeking post? Drama? Payback against the game/devs? It is like people who have to tell everyone they are leaving the party.
Epic Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAigCvelkhQ&list=PLo9FRw1AkDuQLEz7Gvvaz3ideB2NpFtT1
https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos?&sort=-downloads&page=1
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you playing an MMORPG?"
I think the combat is better than most games and they done a great job on it. I also don't understand giving the game 5.5/10.
When in beta and the start of live i gave the game 1/10 but only because of all the bots.
After they cleaned that up the over all game I give 8/10 and only because the LFG tool was broken and still is.
It is a great game and different from W0W which is exactly what people wanted.
The only other thing I totally hate about the devs is they have thrown all of us that helped bug the game and put up with all the bots under the bus and not really giving us anything for it.
ESO is a love hate game and right now I love it again.
Star Citizen – The Extinction Level Event
4/13/15 > ELE has been updated look for 16-04-13.
http://www.dereksmart.org/2016/04/star-citizen-the-ele/
Enjoy and know the truth always comes to light!
It takes some people longer than others to realize a game was really a shallow shell of the game i hoped for.Also MANY and i mean like almost ALL players play for a simple goal to say they got max level and finished the quests.
I don't need long to determine a game's potential,the first day tells me all i need to know.Also i don't care if i spent money or already put in 2 weeks,if i see a game declining in content ideas,i will just leave,however MOST cannot do that,they feel the urge to at least get max level.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
I'm not going to write a lengthy review of my own, but I disagree with the OP.
This is currently one of most immersive MMO's out there. There is an amazing amount of PvE content that I can complete without having to roll an alt. (some think this is a down side that I can do all PvE content on one character, but I don't.) The storytelling and quests, exploration, all done with great care and quality and in my opinion there isn't anything better out there in looks, feel, or player progression.
I would give it an 8.5 out of 10, particularly in light of the changes with patch 1.6 (basically ESO 2.0) which should launch this coming Monday.
Considering the OP has played for almost a year, I just find it funny that he would give the game this kind of score. Sounds more like burnout.
DelCabon you are still alive!!! I was a member of Starshadow way back in Vanilla Wow! I was totally shocked when I seen your avatar. It was the same one you used on the SS forums.
Perhaps, but it could also just be an honest review of someones playing experience.