My Review of Elder Scrolls Online

Mordenkaiser

Hello,

So I figured I'd write my review, a few weeks out first a little background on me.
I Pre-purchased the CE and have been playing a Dragon Knight - Vampire - Dark Elf - Blacksmith in the Ebon Heart pact. I am Vetern Rank 1

Graphics 9/10
First off, the game is beautiful, the only reason it falls short is because once you hit 40+ level, all your armor skins are the same, the exception is the new motifs, but thats all.

Comfort 4/10
My wife recently started to play the game, as someone who has no played Elder scrolls and has played WoW she found the game very hard to grow accustomed to. I also find the game is sorely lacking in instruction, There are many functions in the game that players are not adequately introduced to such as how to leave a guild.

Game-play 8/10
The game plays actiony like Skyrim, it does that alright, again the only shortcoming with regards to game-play is sometimes the game doesn't seem to respond, or it feels like the game suddenly has lag spikes and that your UI is not responding quickly enough. Why no subtitles when you have forced RP scenarios?

Stability 4/10
We've had a fair bit of downtime at this point, a lot can be excused that the game is new and so some work would be expected, I notice players often drop out of the game and it seems like events are "breaking" and not to mention loading issues they've been trying to fix.

Bugs 2/10
This is my big sticking point, A lot of quests seem to have issues with instancing and quests triggers becoming non-functional, archers stuck running at leisurely pace and unable to run. Unable to release. Players have found work arounds, but they shouldn't have too. I won't spoil it for players, but safe to say as your quests get past your factions zone you'll see that it seems like the early broken quests were fairly few.

Overall 5/10
The Good
The game looks nice, the assets that are in the game are very nice looking, the gameplay mechanics are very cool and the character design feels involved enough to be of interest.
The Bad
Broken Quests, People exploiting to Veteran Ranks during headstart (I'm curious how much playtime to get to Veteran 7 would be required) Game seems to be a beta, there are a lot of functions that seem to have not been accurately tested.

I debate paying after the free-month is up or just cancelling and waiting till it feels more worth while. I think this game is a victim of the problem with doing the weekend beta events. My theory is that people seen the PVP quest as a fast track to high levels, which gave them a edge in competition (PVP) and so they used that leveling vehicle because it was efficient, but that meant a lot of the higher level quest content was not properly put to the test, and the servers clearly had issues with the volume of players.

Sorry for the wall of text.

saki

Nice review, it really feels like playing extended beta but apart of that game is beatifull. To bad that is so much exploits in game. Ruining experience.

jamesharv2005ub17_ESO

Ya this is not a guide. Also must be your first mmo.

Mordenkaiser

It actually also says "For Veteran players to Share their experiences" and since we do not have a general discussion forum I figured this was the most logical place to post.

jamesharv2005ub17_ESO

Mordenkaiser wrote: »

It actually also says "For Veteran players to Share their experiences" and since we do not have a general discussion forum I figured this was the most logical place to post.

You were wrong. This is not a guide it is a review. I dont know exactly where it goes but def not here.

Stautmeister

Disagree with

Comfort 4/10
My wife recently started to play the game, as someone who has no played Elder scrolls and has played WoW she found the game very hard to grow accustomed to. I also find the game is sorely lacking in instruction, There are many functions in the game that players are not adequately introduced to such as how to leave a guild.

When you wife first played wow, was everything obvious? like that you had to type /gquit?
I played Wow intensively and i had no issues whatsoever with the switch.
Personally i would point out the lack of search function in guild shop and the abysmal banking system as lack of comforts. Not actions that can easily be solved through just asking it.
Sayin its hard to swim because you know how to walk is not something bad.
Learn to swim. Then if you dont like swimming for x reasons those are arguments.

If you keep your tutorial active they help out with a lot of things.

7/10
Bugwise, while sometimes annoying i only wasnt able to finish 2 quests. They fixed those now.

7/10

Gampleay id rate a 9.
There is so much to do and all of it is fun!
From the pressure you feel when opening chest up to the bossfights and how awesome skills feel.
Personally id rate it an 8/10 when i started playing and a 9/10 now.
Being able to play all questzones and theoretically being able to become a master crafter is just an amazing perk.

grim567

I give this game a 75/100 its broken, the graphics are worse than skyrim just look at the textures! It's unbalanced, and it brakes some lore!
P.S. the only reason it looks good is all the effects.

Mordenkaiser

kstauthamerb16_ESO wrote: »

When you wife first played wow, was everything obvious? like that you had to type /gquit?
I played Wow intensively and i had no issues whatsoever with the switch.
Personally i would point out the lack of search function in guild shop and the abysmal banking system as lack of comforts. Not actions that can easily be solved through just asking it.
Sayin its hard to swim because you know how to walk is not something bad.
Learn to swim. Then if you dont like swimming for x reasons those are arguments.

If you keep your tutorial active they help out with a lot of things.

7/10
Bugwise, while sometimes annoying i only wasnt able to finish 2 quests. They fixed those now.

7/10

Gampleay id rate a 9.
There is so much to do and all of it is fun!
From the pressure you feel when opening chest up to the bossfights and how awesome skills feel.
Personally id rate it an 8/10 when i started playing and a 9/10 now.
Being able to play all questzones and theoretically being able to become a master crafter is just an amazing perk.

A fair question I appreciate your feedback, another point of view is always welcome. to drill down on the comfort level thing I'd first state that she just typed /help to learn to use /gquit. My followup would be have you played any Elder scrolls games before this one? I think this really hindered her enjoyment (she hasn't so using E and such was not so great for her, its more a Bethesda interface issue) I think the elder-scrolls hotbar system (q) was a bit annoying. I recall even during head start people asking how to extract ingots from ore because while it told you what to do, people however had no idea what many of the ui elements did. Fortunately there are add-ons to offset many issues. In her case I know not having a combat log really bothered her, not so much a matter of wanting her hand held, but rather wanting information that she could use to think of a solution as to why mob x totally destroyed her.

Also I do have to ask how far along in your quest zones are you? I can think of atleast 10 quests that required work arounds to finish (Brothers of Strife for example) I'm curious if its a faction thing, what faction are you playing, My experiences are as a Ebonheart pact, though I expect if you've gotten to the later zones in game you may see more of the quest issues (hint, naked players jumping to their deaths)

I think we pretty much see eye to eye on the gameplay for the most part.

ZiRM

Why is this in Player Guides?

Mordenkaiser

NiRN wrote: »

Why is this in Player Guides?

A good question, the answer is because this section seems the best for it, "For Veteran players to Share their experiences" and since we do not have a general discussion forum I figured this was the most logical place to post.

Stautmeister

Mordenkaiser wrote: »

kstauthamerb16_ESO wrote: »

When you wife first played wow, was everything obvious? like that you had to type /gquit?
I played Wow intensively and i had no issues whatsoever with the switch.
Personally i would point out the lack of search function in guild shop and the abysmal banking system as lack of comforts. Not actions that can easily be solved through just asking it.
Sayin its hard to swim because you know how to walk is not something bad.
Learn to swim. Then if you dont like swimming for x reasons those are arguments.

If you keep your tutorial active they help out with a lot of things.

7/10
Bugwise, while sometimes annoying i only wasnt able to finish 2 quests. They fixed those now.

7/10

Gampleay id rate a 9.
There is so much to do and all of it is fun!
From the pressure you feel when opening chest up to the bossfights and how awesome skills feel.
Personally id rate it an 8/10 when i started playing and a 9/10 now.
Being able to play all questzones and theoretically being able to become a master crafter is just an amazing perk.

A fair question I appreciate your feedback, another point of view is always welcome. to drill down on the comfort level thing I'd first state that she just typed /help to learn to use /gquit. My followup would be have you played any Elder scrolls games before this one? I think this really hindered her enjoyment (she hasn't so using E and such was not so great for her, its more a Bethesda interface issue) I think the elder-scrolls hotbar system (q) was a bit annoying. I recall even during head start people asking how to extract ingots from ore because while it told you what to do, people however had no idea what many of the ui elements did. Fortunately there are add-ons to offset many issues. In her case I know not having a combat log really bothered her, not so much a matter of wanting her hand held, but rather wanting information that she could use to think of a solution as to why mob x totally destroyed her.

Also I do have to ask how far along in your quest zones are you? I can think of atleast 10 quests that required work arounds to finish (Brothers of Strife for example) I'm curious if its a faction thing, what faction are you playing, My experiences are as a Ebonheart pact, though I expect if you've gotten to the later zones in game you may see more of the quest issues (hint, naked players jumping to their deaths)

I think we pretty much see eye to eye on the gameplay for the most part.

I indeed have experience with TESO but also a lot of other games that tend to use e as the activation button. But i can see this taking some getting used to
And indeed the hotbar for pots etc can be less obvious when you start. I guess its pure experience and preferance on that point

Combatlog wise i actually enjoy not having any meters or whatever, it lets me play by instinct having to react to visual and audio ques. It makes me feel like im playing an Rpg more than a simulater (end game wow was all about numbers numbers numbers)

I guess the difference in our view on comfort lies in expectancy rather than actual facts
Seriously though, the banking system is killing me. leveling provisioning and enchanting is not something i would advise anybody.. Any other combination is doable.. but those 2 and the amount of mats...

Mordenkaiser

I totally agree that level of comfort may vary, I used her as a example because her prior game experience has been Tenchu (ps2) and Kingdom Hearts (ps2) and WoW (pc)

Alurria

Nice of you to share your experience but really have to say a fair few here would never make it in a MUD. Long live GS III!

dagnome

A good review will focus on the strengths and weakness of a game, not have 2 sentences of the good and two paragraphs of the bad.

Mordenkaiser

first off I agree, many people would not make it in a MUD these days, myself I used to code and help run a POL server, so I usually figure my way around quirks of a game pretty fast.

dagnome wrote: »

A good review will focus on the strengths and weakness of a game, not have 2 sentences of the good and two paragraphs of the bad.

I agree, thats why I tried to present both sides of the picture, a good review as I'm sure you'll agree has to take the good with the bad as well and should put in a effort to explain more complex concepts, rather then simply saying "its buggy" none the less I hope it helps inform people.

driosketch

While your effort is appreciated, this forum is composed of the game's player base. It's the last place where a review format is helpful since the vast majority of those who read it already have firsthand experience with the game and have formed their own opinions.