I am in college and my assignment was RPG so picked ESO and spent lot of time typing this report so thought people here might enjoy it,
Elder Scrolls Online
I have spent almost 2,800 hours on the game and it is still amazing. I started around June 2019 when the Elsweyr chapter was released. The game difficulty ranges from what level and what you are doing. For example, enemies you encounter on quests or around the world are hard for a new player but are easy for a maxed-level player. There are also dungeons and trials where you play with a group which can be easy on a medium-level character though very easy on a max-level character. Then there are Vet modes of dungeons and trials which are very hard for max-level players.
I will start with classes of the game which are a total of 7. There is the Dragonknight who uses martial arts and fire magic, Nightblade who uses stealth and shadow magic, Necromancer who uses necromancy and soul magic, Sorcerer who uses lightning and daedric magic, Templar who uses holy magic, Warden who uses nature and ice magic, and finally the Arcanist who uses magic and spell tomes from Apocropha. The Races of the game are Bretons which are half-elf and half-human, Orc which are referred to as barbarian warriors, The Altmer who are tall green skin elves, Bosmer are shorter elves commonly that sometimes have horns, Khajiit known as the feline race, Redguards are dark-skinned humans that are warriors of the sand, Argonians are lizardfolk that mostly like in the marshes, Dunmer are ash skinned elves that can be proud or cruel though sometimes both, Nords are known as great warriors which a great resistance of the cold and also known to be tall, lastly the Imperials are well-educated race with an understanding of law and order.
There are also skills you can unlock for your character to help the theme or just fight-wise. You can join the Undaunted who are adventurers that love exploring delves or dungeons. Another one is the Fighters Guild which are focused on defeating any daedric or undead beings. If not into physical work then you can join the mages guild where you collect lore books to unlock special magic skills. Into assassination instead, then you can join the Dark Brotherhood and get missions for assassinations. Not into killing but stealing, there is the Thieves Guild instead where you steal items and do thieving quests. Lastly, there is the Psijic Order who have special time and healing abilities but also daily missions to capture any dangerous relics.
Leveling in the game is easy up to level 50 but gets harder to reach level 3600. Once you reach level 50 you stop getting skill points and attribute points though you get champion points now. Champion Points are used to unlock extra abilities that are for fighting or to help you with world interactions. Some skills are passive but for some, you have to slot the skill and can only have 4 slots per Celestial which there are 3 Celestials. The more you level up the more skills you can claim that makes the game easier and much more fun.
The game is full of quests from main ones to random quests you find by wandering the world. Though all quest rewards are pretty worthless since just armor/weapons with a special name for a random set, you can also get skill points and special mementos that trigger special animations like a necromancer's crown that summons the long-dead necromancer who made the crown or a book that summons the vision of Hermaeus Mora also known as the all-knowing daedric god. The writing for all the quests is really good and some quests have alternate routes that you can not change depending on the choice you made unless you make a new character. Besides quests, you can find notes and books all around the game which can contain extra lore of the game. The game takes place before all the previous elder scrolls games which I find pretty interesting. So the rewards besides the randomly named gear, rewards are pretty good in my opinion.
Stories can range from fighting wars to stopping evil forces threatening kingdoms. You can do any quest in any order though there is a nice guide to what to complete first so you can better understand the main quests without trying to piece them together. The main quests are longer than quests you randomly find in delves or daily missions and have fantastic cutscenes. You can also take your time doing the quest to better immerse yourself into the story or play it at another time if you get bored or want to do it later. The stories are very rich in information and lore about the past and present. One thing I do hate is that you can't take your time doing a dungeon quest if your doing it with random people and not friends because most of the time they will rush you or leave you behind making you choose to speed run the quest or try to do it some other time when you can get a group of people that will take their time.
What I love about this game compared to the other elder scroll games is that you can interact or do more Daedric-themed objectives. In short, there are Aedra who are the good gods, and Daedric gods who most are evil but few are good and some are in between. My favorites are Hermaeus Mora who is the Daedric God of Forbidden Knowledge and you can tell he is based on H.P Lovecraft's work from his design and background. Like all Daedric Gods, they have their own realm which Hermaeus mora's is apocrypha that is composed of structures of books and pools of black ink. Another is Sheogorath the Daedric God of Madness who was Jyggalag the Daedric god of Order in the past but other Daedric Gods feared him because of his power so they cursed him into a form that was the opposite of what he believed in which was a madman that brings chaos and insanity instead of what he believed in. Sheogorath reminds me of the world of Alice in Wonderland but in a more mature way since he can also be gruesome. Shegorath's realm is the Shivering Isles that harbor many Daedra but also beautiful things like Flowers and butterflies. Last is Nocturnal who is the Daedric god of shadows and is affiliated with crows. She helps her followers use the shadows to gain riches as long they respect her. Nocturnal's realm is the Evergloam which is a dark forest filled with crows and shadowy creatures.
The camera can either be first person or 3rd person but 3rd person is more recommended since first person is shorter than your character and also you have to look for area damage when fighting enemies. The game's theme is a fantasy world full of magic, mystery, and war between good and evil. There is no true game over since you either respawn at the nearest wayshrine or can spawn on the spot if you have a filled soul gem on hand. There is a passage of time but mostly just intended for immersion and the ability to find a werewolf or vampire and have them bite you to become either creature.
The choice is yours when picking your adventure since anything can be done at your pace except in-game events that have an end date. There are many weapons for melee users like swords and daggers. For magic users, there are only 5 staves that the player can use. There are daily missions you can do to get a container that has random loot, which can hold something very valuable that can be sold for lots of gold. Gold can be used for NPC stores or preferably Guild Merchants that have better prices and better items farmed by other players. Gold can be also used to trade to another player for crown items which cost real money but this is only recommended with a person you trust or a trusted seller in your guild and this method is perfectly fine with the Terms and Services of the game. You can also customize your character's armor and weapons using outfit station to keep your armor/weapon stats but change the style/color.
The Animations of the game are fantastic though the best part is that each class has unique visuals to properly match the class skills. An example is that Arcanists use the color green due to the power being driven from Hermaeus Mora's realm while Necromancers use a mix of blue teal for necromancy to represent soul magic and reanimation. Some Class skills also have types of damage to fit the playstyle Sorcerer's Crystal Blast can be Crystal Fragment which is the same or be changed into Crystal Weapon which encases your weapon in black soul gems. There are now making customizable animations for the player to use to replace certain ones for example the normal recall is blue but you can get a green one from the crown store to replace it.
The game is also compatible with addons which are only available on PC that is easy to use. Helps with the Ui interface, finding out guild gold prices for items, tracking stuff down, and much more. There are also reshaders you can use to make the video game look better than on its own though requires testing to make sure it fits your taste. The Graphics are pretty good even though some are outdated and won't get updated. Graphics have a bit of a feature that textures look blurred out until inspecting, then the textures are properly shown. There is a way to disable this but a high-end PC is recommended since it may cause FPS drops and lag. Gear sets in the game have unique effects when wearing a complete set like summoning a rune that does damage or throwing daggers automatically, but my favorite are Monster helm sets. They are a 2 piece set of Helmet and Shoulders the Helmet can only be obtained in Vet Dungeons while you get shoulders from coffers bought from the undaunted which keys that you earn from daily dungeon quests though you get 2 if you do Vet hard mode on the required dungeon.
Each area in the game is always visually appealing to the high fantasy theme from Summerset to the Medieval theme of High Isle. All the locations have the perfect music to match the theme and mood of said location. Even the battle music is very expressive and intense when you fight. If you like the music then might be possible to buy a music box for your ingame home which will play said music. The sounds can blend pretty well with the music if you're not in battle but once you're fighting the sounds of firing spells and slashing of weapons are good. I mostly love the arcanist spell sounds because of the eerie/eldritch mood it gives off which is the main point since the class is connected to Hermaeus Mora. If you pay attention you can see references to real-life things like architecture or references to fictional writings.
The Game Company releases a new chapter every year which is hyped a lot due to expanding the lore and events that take place in the Elder Scrolls world. There are no TV commercials I have seen but they show ads on youtube and advertise it on the Steam Store page. If you preorder the chapter you get special rewards that can not get until the next year. There are no cheat codes and if someone hacks/cheats, they are banned. The developers also allow people on PC to use the Public Test Server which is used to test out features before releasing them on the live servers and will adjust changes based on player feedback.
In conclusion, I say ESO is a perfect RPG and MMO. RPG games are recognized for immersion and how they draw you into its world and make you feel like you are actually inside the game but also feel like your actions have a real impact. The level system, quests, and world-building are very important for a game to become an RPG.