Are ESO's new chapters worth its cost?

Alinhbo_Tyaka

No

No I don't think Gold Road is worth the price. The more I hear about Gold Road the better I feel about not buying it early and deciding to wait for it to become a DLC next year.

DreamyLu

Maybe If...

INFO: I had voted maybe as I answered this thread before I had the expansion. I can't change it. But now my opinion is that it's logic price and acceptable. See explanation below.

My opinion is biased, as I can't avoid the comparison to my main game, in which an "expansion pack" means a brand new world, with about 3 to 5 new zones at once and adds in all main categories (story, armors, weapons, mounts, treasure hunts, jumping puzzle, races, challenges, strike missions, raids, .....), plus always a brand new add to content (like for example a new activity, or a new class, or whatever "big")... The scope list would be too long.

So, first time in ESO that I heard about an expansion pack, I was expecting something equivalent and the gap was abyssal, so the shock was ... huh... big! In term of costs, if I compare the ratio content/price, ESO is very expensive.

However! I believe it's important to remember that ESO isn't comparable to other MMORPGs. It's a different type of game. For me, if Myst Online (MMORPG that derived from Myst world) would still exist, it would be more comparable to ESO, because they have more or less the same background. In Myst online too, at the time it was running, expansions were minimal, less than what we get in ESO.

So all in all, I would say that what we get in ESO is inline with the game, with a rather logic pricing.

Yamenstein

No

I think majority of players who have voted no have already explained why it’s the case.

This new chapter is very lacking in content and not worth the cost as some of the older chapters.

Once again ZoS taking advantage of the player base that they thank for their success. Creative design and direction is slowly destroying this game. I can’t help but feel like they are shifting focus to new games and now it’s just a matter of making as much money as possible from ESO players.

Are we going to see an increase in chapter costs next ?

Chapter content is generally a rinse and repeat. No lasting impact at all. Everything contained to a year. No Q3 content this year our ESO sub is now worth less. You’re paying for fixes for Q3 right? I’m expecting big things if it’s meant to replace the standard Q3 zone. Scribing, a great vision but so much farming and RNG that it’s inaccessible. Will ink be available on the crown store to make up for the lack of drops? Non tradeable ones I hope. Introduction of skill styles - but they all have such minimal changes it makes you question - this is just another system that stinks of future monetisation. All of this is just a pinch of things I find frustrating from the developers and from this game.

Quelindor

This game needs a new method to design its levels.
First, the Dolmen mechanic, which hasn't changed in 10 years, needs to be completely abandoned and something new needs to be implemented in this game. If you were to remove this Dolmen mechanic that came with every Chapter so far and only the original Dolmen from the main game remained, nothing would change in this game. Such unnecessary content.

The game needs to completely change the main story concept. It takes about 3-4 hours to finish a whole questline. You can consume a whole year of development in 3-4 hours. The fact that the stories no longer have any interesting aspects and are not epic is a separate issue, but it is much worse that they are too easy and can be consumed quickly.
They need to blend the main story with the new pve content that comes with Chapters. Trials or Dungeons need to be made a little more challenging. I understand that this game is a casual game and it is desired that content such as the story can be completed by everyone. But this is ultimately a game and a game means trying to overcome a certain challenge. It is not fun to just throw one-shots at everything that comes my way. I think the time I felt this most deeply was when I was facing Mehrunes Dagon's giant body. Even though that final battle scene was incredibly impressive and epic, it was also a disappointment. Because it wasn't 1/10th as impressive as it seemed. At least add some mechanics to those final bosses. Or make the final boss of each Chapter a Dungeon Boss. Completing a non-veteran dungeon is something anyone who plays this game can do anyway.

The game was generally based on repetition, but now it's starting to get stale. There's almost nothing separating the two chapters from each other. The stories are starting to get dull. And I can definitely say that if there wasn't a chapter called Gold Road and it continued the same way, nothing would have changed in my ESO life. I don't even get excited when I hear that a Chapter is coming out anymore.

It seems like they're just adding new Chapters to this game so that people won't say that development has been stopped.

So the answer is: Not anymore.

edward_frigidhands

Yes

Gold Road is.

Skjoldur

Maybe If...

I bought them all so far, but they are kinda hit and miss in different areas.

A card game is a nice addition, but it's a very bad main feature for an expansion. -- And I'm not sure scribing will be much better until the expand it, because for some classes / weapons it's not really that interesting.

Then there are the zones themselves: They are all pretty nice looking, but there are huge differences in feel. Blackwood and Summerset were pretty boring for me, for example, while I loved Elsewyr and the new Zone.

Always depends on what you like, though I think that I'm not alone in saying that the value of the expansions has gone down noticeably over time.

xclassgaming

Yes

always eso is the best mmo on the market by far.

HazierBlue

No

It's June 2024 and a certain popular game is releasing a DLC, reportedly adding over 30 hrs of gameplay, 8 new weapon types, overhauled combat and much more. All for the same cost of a new ESO expansion. So the answer is clearly No.

Araneae6537

Yes

In general, yes, otherwise the subs should cost more or be mandatory. I don’t think the cost of maintaining the game is trivial, much less creating new content. High Isle, I could have waited until it became part of ESO+, but the event rewards are usually worth getting the chapter by then at least, but High Isle was a let down there too. The rest of the years have been worth buying the chapter though, especially for how much enjoyment I get from the game, I’d say it’s a great deal.

Elsonso

No

I stand by what I said a year ago.

Definitely not before actually interacting with it on PTS.

Gold Road suffers from a lot of problems. Bugs are a constant reminder. It is glitchy. There are times when I can't interact with targets, both out of range and just being highly picky about positioning. I have seen VO messed up on multiple occasions, both with the VO just not being there, or the NPC mouth no longer moves. There are also strange delays where the VO does not start right away. The bugs started as soon as I got into the zone, so that was not a good sign.

I am also seeing story problems. Conflicts that should not be there. It feels like they forgot certain parts of their own story, or maybe teams were not properly communicating, or maybe something didn't quite make it all the way to me, the player. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ There are things that demand "suspension of disbelief", since there is a place where a story is founded on one thing, but another story doesn't heed it. I am sure I will see a lot more of this, as I have not even finished the main quest line.

The zone construction, however, seems to be very well done. I mean, it is an ESO zone with Elder Scrolls place names, as normal, but it is well constructed and looks great. I do wish they would improve their tech so that cities did not need to be separate spaces.

Is it worth buying? Sure, and that time will be later this year when it is 50% off. By then, they should have a few of the bugs fixed.

Pixiepumpkin

No

Not even remotely. The gameplay offerings for the money spent is a terrible value compared to many other games on the market.

endorphinsplox

No

The truth is, this game's chapter DLC's do not give you all of the things you are buying them for. If you bought Gold Road, here's a list of additional purchases you'd need to make in order to utilize all of the features of the new chapter:

Summerset
Morrowind
Deadlands
Greymoor
Murkmire
Orsinium
Elsweyr
Clockwork City
High Isle
Necrom

I may have missed some but those are what I can tell so far. To the game's credit, you can just pay for ESO+ and get access to those DLCs, but of course that comes with a time limit and again, additional purchase in order to play the expansion you just bought to its fullest. The Scribing questline literally REQUIRES you to visit other DLC zones in order to complete it. That is messed up. Its also not the first time they did this. Back when Greymoor came out, you could not actually get the Mythic items that the expansion was largely sold on without owning additional DLCs or subscribing to ESO+. For whatever reason, Summerset's Psijic questline, much like Scribing, requires you to travel all over Tamriel for completion, but unlike Scribing, only sends you to base game areas meaning you can use everything Summerset comes with, with no additional money spent. In any other game this would cause huge backlash.

Circuitous

Yes

endorphinsplox wrote: »

The Scribing questline literally REQUIRES you to visit other DLC zones in order to complete it. That is messed up.

The interior zones the Scribing questline sends you to are enabled even for people who don't have the respective DLCs, actually! So you don't need any extra purchases to complete that questline.