Positive feedback!

tzaeru · September 2020

Hi,

So, when I get deeper into a game new to me, I've a small habit of creating these positive feedback threads where I comment on the stuff I think is particularly awesome about the game. Much of the feedback that most games get tends to be criticism, so I just want to chip in with something positive once in a while. Game developers, I reckon, are also human and humans need that positive feedback to keep motivated! And without motivation, the game devs wouldn't slave away through those 60 hour crunch weeks!

Here are some of the things I think The Elder Scrolls Online gets particularly right:

The holy trinity and class based gameplay - Personally I've not been a fan of games trying to fully get rid of the holy trinity of tank-dps-healer. On the other hand, I find that games that go too heavy into the holy trinity and class based gameplay tend to be a bit boring in the end. It's especially bad if e.g. a tank can't properly solo because they're only geared up for taking damage, not give it out.

I think ESO strikes a good balance here. Dedicated tanks and healers are needed for the hardest content, but they can easily respec for more damage for content where as much tanking/healing is not required. Both tanking and healing are also moderately challenging to do really well with. You need a lot of awareness in both roles and you need to not only know the mechanics and anticipate what the NPCs do, but you also need to learn to read your team. I really enjoy playing as a healer in ESO, even though I've typically found the role to just plain boring. Well done there!
Voice acting. Everything is voice acted - I think this is a really nice addition. While some of the voice acting isn't necessarily all that memorable, in general the level of the voice acting is still much better than what there was in e.g. Skyrim (and obviously better than in Oblivion).
VFX and graphics. The game has clearly had its graphics updated several times over throughout its lifespan and that shows. For its age, the game keeps up really well in this department. I really enjoy the visual design and atmosphere in various dungeons. In places, the use of lighting effects and e.g. light beams is outright artistic. Good job, VFX guys!
Dungeon design. I rather like the fact that the dungeons have a roughly similar length and similar amount of bosses. All dungeons seem to be visited fairly often due to the daily dungeon system and the monster set rewards. Most of the dungeons feel neither too short nor too long. The balance is well found out.
Music. The rearranged Morrowind pieces - so good! Whoever is the primary composer you guys use, his work is spot on.
One Tamriel. I think it's a great thing that players can access all overland content at any time, any level. The problem I've often had particularly when playing with friends is that players aren't on the same power level and it makes little sense to do content together. In ESO, you can always find content that is doable, fun and rewarding for almost any group. That's awesome!
Lore. Just so much of it. I like that.
Quest design. This game has hands down the best quests I've seen in any MMORPG, no contest. Firstly, there's absolutely none of that "Can you go gather my weeds for me from my backyard?", "Could you kill the rats plaguing our basement?" type of awfulness. Secondly many of the quests seem to link to other quests or form more complex quest chains, which makes the quests feel more meaningful. So it's not just "go to A, do B", but it's a story, over which you go to A, do B, and the B links to the next quest. Thirdly, some of the quests and dungeon lore have a real emotional impact. I genuinely felt sad when doing The Memory Stone quest, or when I happened on the dead couple and their plan to escape in the Nightshade cave of the Bloodroot Forge.
Good mod support. The fact that many things have an actual API provided for them is just super sweet. I've a dozen or so addons already running with a month in the game and it's great to have such a versatile selection of plugins available for a MMO. Awesome stuff.

That's what I got in mind for now, others are more than welcome to chip in the things they find ESO does particularly well.

I'll be adding more to this thread when something particular strikes my eye. Good work devs, keep the flag high!