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We need to talk about ESO mobile - a stadia review
Jim_Pipp
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I haven’t seen enough reviews for ESO on stadia, specifically, playing it on a mobile phone. Eso mobile is not for everyone, but I believe a huge number of new and existing players are unaware of something wonderfully different, so this is my P.S.A based on playing stadia alongside PC version for the last few weeks.
What is it?
Eso on Google stadia isn’t a new game, it is the full PC game played by streaming, so there is no downloading or updating, and you will be playing alongside PC players, and if you link your current PC account your progress on either platform comes with you, so you can use either Stadia or PC interchangeably.
Stadia runs on lots of devices, including smartphones, and on a smartphone something unexpected happens to ESO – it feels like a mobile game, but the best mobile game ever. Eso is beautiful, a massive continent full of fully voiced mysteries, with deep character building and many crafting systems – on a mobile phone this depth blows my mind.
With my expectations of mobile games overwhelmed by ESO on stadia, I've found myself doing something I haven’t for years, I got really interested and excited about overland questing. You may think I’m “moving the goalposts” by judging ESO Stadia by the standards of mobile games, but it is fair, playing on mobile makes it feel like a different game. The best thing about ESO on stadia is how it makes a game I’ve spent thousands of hours playing feel new again.
It’s not for everyone.
Let’s address the obvious downsides unique to playing ESO mobile. You absolutely have to have good internet, otherwise your game will stutter or crash. I’ve had a mostly perfect time playing through my mobile connection, except where I’m too far from a signal tower.
This isn’t for end-game. Although I can parse almost the same dps on mobile as on pc, I find myself reacting more slowly, and missing some of the subtle combat cues, so I won’t try vet PVE, although I did normal maelstrom arena with no problem. As for PVP... I did alright dueling, but even in battlegrounds I found it hard to track everything, and I don’t plan to go to cyrodil. You might prefer different content on PC from stadia; I expected to casually fish, gather resources or go shopping, but for me stadia shines at making familiar overland content feel new – seeing a dragon attack genuinely gave me anxiety!
No mods. This will impact players differently, but I hadn’t realised how much I rely on mods.
You have to buy the game AGAIN. Almost a deal breaker for me at first, but... I got a £10 stadia voucher after my free trial, so the base game only cost me £5, and my account has everything unlocked so I don’t need to rebuy anything there. Mobile games are typically free but have painful monetisation, so I prefer buying the stadia version outright.
It uses a gamepad. You can play with your phones touchscreen, but I found it clumsy. My cheap, old bluetooth gamepad worked first time. I play with gamepad even on PC, so for me this felt exactly the same, except now I was playing in bed, the hammock, on the toilet.... I’m going to get a stadia chromecast so I can mirror my phone screen to any digital TV, and play eso whenever I travel for work.
Why aren’t we talking about ESO mobile more?
Despite it’s limitations, ESO is a strong contender for the best MMO available on mobile, with the potential to draw in a host of new gamers who play exclusively on the most popular gaming platform – mobile phones. Maybe we won’t see those new players in end-game trials, but as a community we should welcome all new players. Let’s not look-down on ESO mobile, it’s a valid way to play most of the game, and I find myself enjoying overland PVE in a way I don’t when playing on PC. For me Stadia compliments my PC experience.
I don’t know where to leave an overwhelmingly possitive review for ESO stadia? How to get the word out? Both stadia and, to a lesser extent, ESO are widely remembered for being terrible at launch, but as both have improved they combine for an experience that is the cutting edge of mobile gaming.
P.s. ZoS, if you are reading this, please make the PTS server available on stadia – the long, regular server updates put me off testing. As stadia doesn’t need updates it is a perfect tool for letting players jump in and test small things – more detailed testing will always be better on a gaming PC, but the convenience of Stadia will make the PTS more accessible, which is good for absolutely everyone.
What is it?
Eso on Google stadia isn’t a new game, it is the full PC game played by streaming, so there is no downloading or updating, and you will be playing alongside PC players, and if you link your current PC account your progress on either platform comes with you, so you can use either Stadia or PC interchangeably.
Stadia runs on lots of devices, including smartphones, and on a smartphone something unexpected happens to ESO – it feels like a mobile game, but the best mobile game ever. Eso is beautiful, a massive continent full of fully voiced mysteries, with deep character building and many crafting systems – on a mobile phone this depth blows my mind.
With my expectations of mobile games overwhelmed by ESO on stadia, I've found myself doing something I haven’t for years, I got really interested and excited about overland questing. You may think I’m “moving the goalposts” by judging ESO Stadia by the standards of mobile games, but it is fair, playing on mobile makes it feel like a different game. The best thing about ESO on stadia is how it makes a game I’ve spent thousands of hours playing feel new again.
It’s not for everyone.
Let’s address the obvious downsides unique to playing ESO mobile. You absolutely have to have good internet, otherwise your game will stutter or crash. I’ve had a mostly perfect time playing through my mobile connection, except where I’m too far from a signal tower.
This isn’t for end-game. Although I can parse almost the same dps on mobile as on pc, I find myself reacting more slowly, and missing some of the subtle combat cues, so I won’t try vet PVE, although I did normal maelstrom arena with no problem. As for PVP... I did alright dueling, but even in battlegrounds I found it hard to track everything, and I don’t plan to go to cyrodil. You might prefer different content on PC from stadia; I expected to casually fish, gather resources or go shopping, but for me stadia shines at making familiar overland content feel new – seeing a dragon attack genuinely gave me anxiety!
No mods. This will impact players differently, but I hadn’t realised how much I rely on mods.
You have to buy the game AGAIN. Almost a deal breaker for me at first, but... I got a £10 stadia voucher after my free trial, so the base game only cost me £5, and my account has everything unlocked so I don’t need to rebuy anything there. Mobile games are typically free but have painful monetisation, so I prefer buying the stadia version outright.
It uses a gamepad. You can play with your phones touchscreen, but I found it clumsy. My cheap, old bluetooth gamepad worked first time. I play with gamepad even on PC, so for me this felt exactly the same, except now I was playing in bed, the hammock, on the toilet.... I’m going to get a stadia chromecast so I can mirror my phone screen to any digital TV, and play eso whenever I travel for work.
Why aren’t we talking about ESO mobile more?
Despite it’s limitations, ESO is a strong contender for the best MMO available on mobile, with the potential to draw in a host of new gamers who play exclusively on the most popular gaming platform – mobile phones. Maybe we won’t see those new players in end-game trials, but as a community we should welcome all new players. Let’s not look-down on ESO mobile, it’s a valid way to play most of the game, and I find myself enjoying overland PVE in a way I don’t when playing on PC. For me Stadia compliments my PC experience.
I don’t know where to leave an overwhelmingly possitive review for ESO stadia? How to get the word out? Both stadia and, to a lesser extent, ESO are widely remembered for being terrible at launch, but as both have improved they combine for an experience that is the cutting edge of mobile gaming.
P.s. ZoS, if you are reading this, please make the PTS server available on stadia – the long, regular server updates put me off testing. As stadia doesn’t need updates it is a perfect tool for letting players jump in and test small things – more detailed testing will always be better on a gaming PC, but the convenience of Stadia will make the PTS more accessible, which is good for absolutely everyone.
#1 tip (Re)check your graphics settings periodically - especially resolution.
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ectoplasmicninja✭✭✭✭✭
✭Thank you for taking the time to do this. I bought an account for my fiance and have been thinking that Stadia would be a more feasible way for him to play with his busy schedule but haven't been able to test it myself at all as the service isn't available in my country.
You don't have to pay a subscription to play, correct? Just buy the base game again on the platform, log in with your existing account info, and you're good to go?PC NA, CP2200+. Character creation is the true endgame.2 -
RodneyRegis✭✭✭✭✭Can you play ESO on Stadia desktop with ropey graphics card? Like a bog standard laptop?0 -
Jim_Pipp✭✭✭✭✭
✭ectoplasmicninja wrote: »You don't have to pay a subscription to play, correct? Just buy the base game again on the platform, log in with your existing account info, and you're good to go?
Stadia has a free (no subscription) service, which caps the graphics, but that isn't going to be an issue on mobile.
I spent £5 on the base game, at that is all it will ever cost me.#1 tip (Re)check your graphics settings periodically - especially resolution.0 -
Jim_Pipp✭✭✭✭✭
✭RodneyRegis wrote: »Can you play ESO on Stadia desktop with ropey graphics card? Like a bog standard laptop?
Yep. It works straight out of google chrome web browser. If you have a good enough internet connection the quality of your hardware is irrelevant.
It loads faster than my gaming pc, so if I just want to do something quick (feed the horses, or claim a daily reward) I will go in through stadia even though I'm at my pc.#1 tip (Re)check your graphics settings periodically - especially resolution.0 -
ectoplasmicninja✭✭✭✭✭
✭Awesome, it definitely sounds like this might be the way to go. I know this will differ from phone to phone, but how draining is it on your battery?PC NA, CP2200+. Character creation is the true endgame.0 -
Langdon64✭✭✭✭I love Stadia. I can play on my phone before I go to sleep at night and knock out crafting, riding training, banking, dolmens, or anything else. So when I log in to play on my large t.v., all the chores are done and I can just quest and have fun. It's fluid, loads fast, and the quality is great.1 -
runa_gate✭✭✭✭I'd get it in a heartbeart if Dolgubon's Lazy Writ add on functionality worked on Stadia.1 -
Jim_Pipp✭✭✭✭✭
✭Does it come with Greymoor? Only if you've already unlocked Greymoor on your PC account.
Battery life? honestly never thought about it, which makes me think it's good. On reflection it is better than using reddit or playing touchscreen mobile games, presumably because the gamepad input is less demanding than the touchscreen.
On hot days my phone can overheat (whatever I'm doing), so I'd been impressed that ESO stadia didn't cause any problems, but that is probably because it is streaming the content without having to do client side calculations.#1 tip (Re)check your graphics settings periodically - especially resolution.0 -
MudcrabAttack✭✭✭✭✭I tried it on mobile stadia and it looks really awesome and has a surreal feeling, like your phone is suddenly an advanced device from the future with a ton of computing horse power.
I haven't really tried it for much beyond running between guild keyosks while on vacation, but it seems reasonably responsive
Also you don't have to mirror to Chromecast if you have a Stadia controller, it just works from Chromecast. My 11 year old picked up the controls fast.Edited by MudcrabAttack on August 24, 2020 2:26PM1 -
Gundug✭✭✭✭✭So if you are playing on your phone with a Bluetooth controller, do you have to set the phone up on some sort of stand, or does the controller have some means of holding your phone?0