Ok the objetive of this post is to give you guys my impressions on this game as an amateur reviewer, an Elder Scrolls fan and a mmorpg enthusiast. First of all, I'm not from an english speaking country so you may find some gramatical or spelling mistakes in this post. It's not that I'm stupid, I'm just learning english as a second language. Now, I won't be trashing on this game just because. I think, overall, this is a decent game, and that ZoS put great effort on it. The problem, IMHO, is precisely that, as many other reviewers put it: It's so painfully average! It just doesn't live up to the standards of an Elder Scrolls game -it's waaay far from them- or to the standards of a MMORPG of this era.

Whenever I enter the game, It makes me feel I want to go play Skyrim again -and I completed it 3 times already!-. Why would I play this game when Skyrim is everything ESO is but WAY MUCH better and interesting in every sense?

I think the main problem this game has is it's complete lack of immersion. Immersion is what makes you feel that you're in your character's boots, experiencing the adventure yourself. The kind of feeling you get when you play any other Elder Scrolls game. It is just not here. And it has nothing do with it being a mmoprg or an offline game -so many other mmorpgs achieved it-. Immersion is when you feel exited for exploring a cave because you don't know what you'll find there. I know EXACTLY what I'm going to find in EVERY SINGLE cave here: a skyshard, a vulnerable-to-CC-boss and a quest consisting in just talking to a guy outside the cave to get the reward. I also know exactly what to expect from chests and from bosses drop. Really, what's the point of exploring then? It's all so.. predictable, and linear, and easy. This game itself feels so linear and guided. It's like you are following a script all the time, just doing what you are supposed to do, which is the same everyone else does, in the same order... That's so anti-Elder Scrolls, which is a saga that became what it is precisely for the freedom it grants you. Not knowing certain things is actually fun. Taking risks is fun. Having something to lose is fun. There is no freedom here, no danger, no feeling of adventure, no meaningful choises, rather than "who to kill?" between 3 characters I couldn't care less about. Really, make me choose between killing Razum-Dar or Cadwell, that's a hard one actually.

ESO doesn't even feel like a multiplayer game, other than Cyrodiil, which is AWESOME, and dungeons, which are ok, but they are just maps that you can't even share with people from other alliances (can someone explain me WHY is it that I can't do dungeons with my guildies from other alliances EVEN IF the dungeon itself is in THEIR alliance??). The world itself doesn't feel like a real multiplayer game!! Group questing, which is one of the main aspects of any mmorpg, is so painful here, even in maps created for that purpose, like Craglorn. You will start doing a quest with a group, just for one of the members to log out for X reason. And then, guess what? You can't finish the quest, becuase if anyone else enters the party to take his place, he has to start the quest all over again to get to where the rest of the party is at. Quests objectives do not share in a group and that SUCKS. This is clear when most of the people will not even want to do it, but rather go to farm annomalies or burial sites, which is a **** chore!! Come on!! And it's a pity because the quests in Craglorn are actually good. Same with going into different instances for making different choises while group questing, why does the game even allow that to happen?? Can't the choise be put to a vote?? Or make the leader decide?? Haven't the developers thought that if I group up with someone is because I WANT TO PLAY WITH THAT PERSON??

But hey, not everything is bad in this game, there are some good things as well. The graphics are great for an mmorpg and the music is amazing, even if it wasn't composed by Jeremy Soule. The soundtracks are beautiful and I think it's the only aspect of this game that really resembles an Elder Scrolls game. Also, the NPC voice overs and how well executed and acted the are. Really, I don't know how many other MMOPGS you guys played, but this is not a normal thing in the genre. Most games will just make the NPCs display a silent piece of text, or just have the voice over some specific part of the dialogue. Here, in ESO, NPCs are fully and brilliantly voice acted, from the first word to the last, and that IS HUGE.

The combat system is ok... it is definitely an improvement over the classic mmorpg targeting system although it is still a targeting system in disguise, but more skill oriented, with the blocks and dodges (which should cost much less stamina btw). It is still not a 'tracers and hitboxes' based combat system, like in Age of Chivalry or the offline Elder Scrolls, but I don't know if that can be implemented in a mmorpg with the technology we currently have. I, overall, liked it though. What I didn't like, I must say, is the dullness of the skills.

The skills in this game are so damned average. Sure, there are lots of them -which is great!-, but they all have quiet similar effects, there are not awesome or high skill capped skills for you to master. There are almost no casting spells, not even in the sorc class which is supposed to be based on this kind of spells. Who wouldn't like to channel for like 7 seconds to unleash an epic huge lightning storm or blizzard at enemies? Also, mobility skills. The nightblade, which is supposed to be all about mobility, only has 1 mobility skill: teleport strike, which is just a regular targeted gap closer. No jumps or leaps or things to dodge or to trick your opponents like false images of you.. It would also be nice to see some sinergies between weapon and class skills, like if certain class skill do a different effect acording to which weapon type you have equiped. All that kind of stuff, that WAS done on mmropgs before, feels like missing here.

Now, Cyrodiil is great, it is the best this game has to offer hands down. The problem is that it is the only thing this game has to offer!! Also, why is the PvP limited to just a war map? Why no dueling system? Why no structured PvP? Those are basic mmorpg features that should be implemented in every single mmorpg. Now, for those who don't know the concepts, I'm not talking about an open pvp world, which is devatable because you may like it or not. I'm talking about things that are not debatable, because their existance has no drawbacks for anyone. Dueling only occurs if you accept to duel and structured PvP is a separated map from the world for small balanced skirmishes of teams of the same size with players having exactly the same level and choosing from standard equipment -skill is all that matters in sPvP-. As I said, there are no drawbacks for these features: if you don't like them, you don't use them and people who do can't bother you. They are simply missing here.

As I said, this is an ok game, IMO, but that in no way satisfies an experimented gamer, that knows what other things are out there, for more than a couple of months. My review was from that point of view, I completely understand if you are a casual player and don't agree with many things. I still would like to know what do you think about the things I said. Oh, and to answer the question the title question, why did I stopped playing ESO? Because why would I?

[Moderator Note: Edited thread title per our rules on Goodbye/Quitting threads]