would you reccomend ESO?

Waseem

Hello, I played ESO since 2015 with many ups and downs, and wonder if the current gameplay is worthwhile

Back the day I did not like the terrible performance of Cyrodiil as it was my favorite aspect of the game ( I like contested fights + large group battles)

Secondary is PvE content, is the game populated to play PvE at irregular times? e.g. 1-4 am

VaranisArano

Cyrodiil performance has not improved.

I can't advise on PC/NA night shifts since I'm asleep. If you're on a different platform, I suggest sharing that info.

Waseem

Pc Eu

VaranisArano wrote: »

Cyrodiil performance has not improved.

I can't advise on PC/NA night shifts since I'm asleep. If you're on a different platform, I suggest sharing that info.

LunaFlora

a lot of people sleep at 1-4 am so not super populated at that time.
the pc eu megaserver recently got its hardware upgraded though so the performance in cyrodiil should be better

KlauthWarthog

For PvP? No, I would not recommend ESO.

Narvuntien

I play at "nightshift" on PC NA because I live in Australia and play with 300 ping... and I would recommend it. I can still find people to do group events and world bosses in most zones. The major issue is that getting dungeons as a damage dealer is very difficult but it's not a problem as a tank.

Cryodil is lag fest, you just have to have low expectations about what you can actually control and play the bigger strategy to enjoy cyrodil.

Tandor

A lot of people will not recommend ESO for PvP, but it would be interesting if they were to confirm whether they are actively PvPing in ESO nonetheless !

In any event, it doesn't cost you anything to log into the game and see whether you enjoy it - I always think that's a better way of finding out than asking others for their views.

Destai

Overall, yes.

I've tried getting at least 10 friends into the game, and only 2 obliged. Every time I've recruited, successfully or otherwise, a friend to this game I give them the facts. For some friends, I recommended it, others I advised stay far away. Here's my reasons why I would or wouldn't recommend it.

Why I recommend it:
I know a few casual gamers who like something fun and approachable. The questing, the open world, the random adventures, that's all fun. My fiance and I make our own adventures, and we've turned it into one of our main activities when we stay in for a night. Another friend picked it up because he liked the combat, found the artstyle cool, and didn't mind spending money here or there on cosmetics.

Why I wouldn't recommend:
My main gaming crew is a group of guys from Montreal, and they have a unique perspective on monetization and company ethics. So naturally the existence of a cash shop and some of the more expensive items immediately puts them off. They also believe that an Elder Scrolls experience shouldn't be shared with so many people, so pretty much an immediate non-recommendation.

Another close friend of mine is an MMO Vet of like 25 year or something. His initial impressions of the combat were negative - it felt too busy and too floaty. He's really big into min-maxing and wouldn't support a game that has a history of wild changes and scarce development presence.

rpa

High Isle collection is rather good value for the sale price. And while there are flaws plenty, it is in playable state and has massive content which will not get totally invalidated with each expansion. If I knew a better viable MMO I'd play that instead but sadly I do not. I would not necessarily recommend getting into MMO genre these days but if one insist playing a MMO, yes I would recommend ESO. Get it from sale.

Tradewind

"would you reccomend ESO?" No.

The game is in a rather strange phase. Ideally, everyone should play the game in an enjoyable and fun way, always prepared for the challenges that exist in the game. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Here are a few examples:

• For new players, it can be very complicated to complete simple quests within dungeons (Lv.10). In order to do these quests, players have to beg for help. Otherwise, all the other players just want to finish the dungeon as quickly as possible. If you're lucky, they might let you do the quest.
• If you have difficulty with skill rotations, there are alternative ways to play. Unfortunately, other players will exclude you from more challenging activities just because you play differently from them.
• If you want to find active guilds to help you with more serious challenges, you have to use Discord or you won't be considered. Then you have to send a ton of screenshots to prove your abilities, your damage, etc. In the end, you will only be used as a "filler".
• Players will exclude you for various reasons, such as having lower or higher DPS than others, or not being able to execute skill rotations perfectly. It's unfortunate that players are quick to exclude others based solely on these factors, rather than taking the time to work together towards common goals. Finish content! This behavior goes against the spirit of the game and can create a negative experience for everyone involved. Instead, players should be encouraged to work together, communicate effectively, and support each other to achieve success and have fun in the game.
• You may be excluded and humiliated and the target of jokes solely because other players believe that your items are insufficient. While it should be reported, it is still true that it may happen cuz its happening at this point.

There are really serious things happening within the game that Zenimax shouldn't allow at all. Unfortunately, that's just the way it is and things really are this way.

In summary, if you stick to the game's story and play with a few friends to kill monsters with just a few hits, the game is super fun. But if you want more serious challenges, the fun is over. You have to play the way other players want you to, rather than playing in a way that makes you happy.

PrimeSeptim

PC-EU here. Playing at night is the best! Sometimes I get every chest in a zone. Sometimes I'm up 11pm - 6am playing and there are always some people going about. Maybe not for any serious PvE or PvP but you do see people and even doing the group boss dailies. It's a lot deader though obviously, especially in the base game zones. In my experience, Cyrodiil is almost completely dead at this time except for maybe one side capturing all the keeps while the other side is sleeping lol but that's how it always goes.

SeaGtGruff

I would recommend it, but I can understand why some people might not like it. I think I first heard about it through UESP when it was just getting started, but I had zero interest in MMOs so I completely avoided and ignored it. It wasn't until a few years later that I heard about it again through UESP and decided to try it. I've never regretted that decision, and I still enjoy playing it every day on two servers.

ZOS_Suserial

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Amottica

For PvP this game is superior to any MMORPG I have played. For PvP Cyrodiil's performance is poor but I hope the work Zenimax is putting into improvements will pay off this year. I do not like the design of the objective-based PvP but that is a personal issue as I have other designs I prefer.

Overall I would recommend this game as it is a PvE focused game anyhow and it does that well.

phaneub17_ESO

Other than its one time purchase, yes. Base game is a lot of stuff to do without paying for extra.

WiseSky

I will recommend it.

but I would not play this game without a g13 gamepad and a g600 mouse with addons

markulrich1966

if you are willing to pay some extra real world money for the real cool stuff, yes. The bests mounts quickly can cost you 200-300 US$, as they are available using a kind of gambling system.

You can get simpler mounts for ingame currency, and if you don't want those with strong light and sound effects, it might be just fine.
I play since 4-5 years, and invested maybe 1000 Euro/US$so far, and this seems to be not so uncommon. Also houses you can build and decorate cost extra, some smaller to medium sized ones can be bought for ingame gold (some require achievements in addition), but most large one require real world currency in the 100 US$ range.

Another issue is the broken combat system. I had just googled for "repetitive-strain-injury-syndrome eso", as there are currently disputes in this forum, because a simple playstyle is made more difficult again in favour for a playstyle that requires many many button presses. For max damage, you don't simply fire a weapon, but need to "weave" in light attacks of your weapon into skills you fire in a very timed manner. It is required to train some "muscle memory" to master this playstyle, and I have seen several complains of players in ingame chat or social media that this lead to hurting hands and even visits to hospital.

Myself I refuse this playstyle, as I do not have the urge to be one of the "best", so can see it more relaxed. If you are similar, you actually might really enjoy the game, as the amount of quests is huge, and the landmass more than 10 times larger than the standalone game skyrim. Even with only the basegame without any DLC you can play for weeks to months.

So the final answer is not "yes" or "no", but: "it depends" on the points mentioned above.

Concerning population at off-time: on xbox, you may find players to find worldbosses on NA even at off-time (I play from europe so often have this situation), while the xbox EU server suffers from a low population in general, so it is plain dead at offtime. Afaik PC population is quite high, though.

AvalonRanger

If you're Elder Scrolls fan, then "Yes".
If you're MMO fan, then "No".
Personally, "Yes". Because, I'm Elder Scrolls fan.

Vulkunne

Waseem wrote: »

Hello, I played ESO since 2015 with many ups and downs, and wonder if the current gameplay is worthwhile

Back the day I did not like the terrible performance of Cyrodiil as it was my favorite aspect of the game ( I like contested fights + large group battles)

Secondary is PvE content, is the game populated to play PvE at irregular times? e.g. 1-4 am

Absolutely.

While there is always room to improve, I think by and large ESO has been a good thing and still has much to offer.

Elsonso

Tandor wrote: »

A lot of people will not recommend ESO for PvP, but it would be interesting if they were to confirm whether they are actively PvPing in ESO nonetheless !

I do not recommend ESO to anyone who is looking for a PVP game.
My only reason for being in Cyrodiil is for PVE purposes, and I don't do duels or battlegrounds.

As for PVE, yes, I see no problem with buying the base game for $7-10 and playing through the base game content. That will be hours and hours of stuff. I tell them not to worry about ESO Plus, Crowns, Chapter, or DLC content until they are sure they want to stick around. If they don't like it, all they invested was a little money and time.

Ratzkifal

No, not anymore. Hasn't been like that in more than two years. All the things that I used to recommend ESO for are still there, but there has been a worrying downward trend that made me realize that I shouldn't unquestioningly spend money on content that's never of the quality that we used to have. And if I can't justify to myself getting new updates, then why would I recommend it to anyone else?
Big rant about every aspect of the game putting a hair in my soup (spoilered for your convenience):

• Do you like PvP? ESO has poor performance in Cyrodiil. Also you need to live with overpowered classes/sets/abilities for three months at least because biweekly balance changes are too much for the developers.
• Do you like raiding? ESO has poor performance in raids too (or so I've been told). Also, have fun relearning your class and grinding new BiS gear every 3 months or so! There is also only one new raid per year. Don't look up how many raids other games get in that time!
• Do you like dungeons? ESO has great dungeons but you only get 4 2 per year that you need to pay extra for.
• Do you like stories? ESO has a couple of good stories but there are a lot of games with better stories you could be playing instead. Your choices also don't matter - Lyris and Sai are just fine!
• Do you like roleplaying? You are one of the very few left! Everyone else has completely abandoned roleplaying out in the open because people keep throwing mudballs or otherwise interrupt roleplay. Good thing there are houses for that, which have completely killed the growth of roleplay communities beyond recovery. You don't need ESO to write your own Elder Scrolls fan fiction, so why get ESO at all?
• Do you like lore? ZOS does not care about the lore enough to give Bosmer back their stealth. We have mammals in Morrowind now. Peoples who have been at each others throat for millenia put aside their differences for no good reason just because that is the wholesome thing to do. "You can't build houses from poetry", except you literally can, just ask the Bosmer. Remember all the cool descriptions of other places in the lore? Yeah, those places usually take after the most boring and uninspired interpretation of what that could look like. You've always dreamt of going to city X? There is a 50% chance that city is a raid or a public dungeon! Ever heard of Sword Singing? How about we let one NPC rediscover it as part of one big joke about him not being able to get his sword up until he finds love, even though there have been plenty of other sword masters who tried in vain to rediscover the technique, some of which likely found love as well. There are some gems still, but you need to dig deep and take a lot of copium to ignore the things that aren't.
• Do you like housing? How about spending more money than you spent on the entire game again, just to get an unfurnished version of a house, with a usually very limiting 350 furnishing limit unless you pay extra every month to up that to 700. The coolest furniture is also bought separately from the store again, because you clearly haven't paid enough yet.
• Do you like crafting? In this game crafting is only good to earn you some money. Crafted gear cannot keep up with gear that isn't crafted and fashion works outside of the crafting system through the plenty of outfit styles and paid costumes that are available now. Noncrafters are also buying the crafting motifs away from you just to never use them for anything but the outfit system.
• Do you like fashion? There are plenty of paid or crown crate exclusive items that dye poorly! Most of your activity will consist of playing the economy to get rich as there is no way for you to realistically farm all the motifs in the game yourself.
• Do you like the economy game? ESO has got you covered! Rampant inflation makes it "very beginner friendly" to enter the market as the prices of everything just keep climbing and climbing. But don't worry, you can always sell crowns for gold. Just don't get scammed and remember to fill all 30 slots of your trading guild otherwise you will be kicked.
• Do you like friends? In ESO you can watch all your friends quit the game and never log back in, making you question why you are even playing the game anymore.
• Do you like gambling? ESO has these crown crates that you can gamble your life savings on. There is no pity system, you still get dublicates and the amount of gems you get back from the stuff you don't want is very sad. You can also spend 3 months grinding away endeavors just to still be short of that radiant apex mount before it leaves the shop. Just play any other gacha game instead.
• Do you like card games? Why not try a card game that the developers spent more time developing than this one feature that you need the High Isle upgrade for? Hearthstone is pretty good still I've heard. There is also Legends of Runeterra. Those games are free, so why spent money on ESO for that?

jtm1018

I dont enjoy it enough to recommend it.

Wuduwasa13

Mixed feelings.

When they do things well, they do them bloody well. Equally, when things are poorly managed, they’re astonishingly poor.

It’s frustrating to see so much potential wasted.

Cyrodil pvp is tremendous fun & has masses of potential not just to draw players in, but for new in game content & crown store items etc. but the performance is dreadful. Likewise, bugs in trials that haven’t been fixed in years also put a blotch on the record.

I’d love to be able to flatly recommend it, but with the existing state I’d have to caveat my suggestion with a sizeable list of disclaimers and warnings.

spartaxoxo

It depends on the person. Easygoing casual players, this game is fantastic. People who can only have fun if a game is challenging or who enjoy pvp? Not so much

old_scopie1945

I love ESO, even with all it's faults. I have and still will recommend ESO to all gamers that I come across. 😉👍

Amphithoe

I wholeheartedly recommend ESO to all my friends who love TES games.

Aztrias

TechMaybeHic

Would really depend on the person.

Elder Scrolls fan? Probably don't have to. The ones I know either already play it, or snub it because too many people ruin their immersion. Either way, they are aware

Social and caaual plyers that just like a lot of content? Sure. If you are laid back and just about hanging out with people doing stuff, or even just solo through a bunch of story; there's a lot to do.

Large scale PvP guy? There are few options and all very flawed. ESO is no exception, but I have dealt with it for many years and have had a lot of fun with the right group of people. But your patience will be tested.

Someone who would be concerned with quality and improvement? Save yourself the trouble. They've been doing several different years of performance fixes. 1 made things worse. Another was not supposed to improve anything but does only for a few months, then back to garbage again. The rest have been promised for the year, shown no evidence anything was actually done, then more promises if only you stick around another year. Only so many times you can fall for that

Jaimeh

Waseem wrote: »

Hello, I played ESO since 2015 with many ups and downs, and wonder if the current gameplay is worthwhile

Back the day I did not like the terrible performance of Cyrodiil as it was my favorite aspect of the game ( I like contested fights + large group battles)

Secondary is PvE content, is the game populated to play PvE at irregular times? e.g. 1-4 am

On PCEU you might have to search a bit to find organized groups for PvE content at those times, but I've seen guilds advertize late runs, so they definitely exist. On PCNA people play from all over so PvE is populated more or less throughout the day/night, though if you want to join organized raids at those times again you might want to find a specific oceanic guild for eg. Cyro performance is still bad, esp during big battles, that hasn't changed much. But I do think the current gameplay is worthwhile, there's also been massive QoL additions since then, so if you already own the game it would definitely be worth checking out again.

nemesrichard

I spent last 6 months trying out all of the recommended mmos avaiable currently. I chose eso with a reason.

Deter1UK

I would recommend ESO wholehearedly.

especially if:

You'd like a mixture of solo RPG and Light MMO

You'd like to follow the story rather than chase levels

You're not in a hurry. ESO seems to me to be designed for long term play rather than a short term adrenalin fix.