Game magazine review.

Uneed2Stop · November 2015

Amica wrote: »

So a few months back i was asked by a close friend to play and do a write up on the Elder Scrolls Online for his magazine. Something he gets me to do when the work load gets a bit swamped for his team. Some of you may or may not recognize the name Amica as the author for reviews in previous games like: Age Of Conan, War Hammer, Rift and Guild Wars 2.
Even if you don't know the name i still need your help as i'm caught between a rock and a hard place at the moment. I need both, sides of the story when it comes to the Elder Scrolls Online to make a fair and accurate write up. Put in your two cents ... likes and dislikes. What you agree with and disagree with.
Many thanks Amica....

"Draft"
Greetings fellow gamer's,
To play or Not to play Elder Scrolls Online.
I have been playing ESO for awhile now, and have even run through the latest DLC Orsinium that takes you into the world of the orcs. To date my emotions have been mixed with this game.
So much potential yet so much disappointment:
Not including the balance issues or deaths from random fall damage when players hit you during PVP.
The combat animation canceling that lets you fire off a plethora of ability's in seconds when using any standard macro.
Armour sets that are completely ridiculous both in looks and stats.
Game patches that create more bugs than fixes, for example. Player grey bar during combat, so ability's will not fire. The Inability to get through keep doors in pvp unless you go to the store and preview a costume and spin your character around.
Alternatively the dreaded pvp zergs *Shudders* we all saw it in GW2 and have our own gripes or positive comments on the matter. But something we can all agree on. Is the lag the servers go through during peek play times and Elder Scrolls Online is no exception and has been battling this issue for some time. At times namely the weekends when a beer and some pvp is a sure fire way to round off the week. It becomes so bad, that even with a good computer it's not worth playing and you find yourself out mowing the lawn. Or actually not making yourself scarce when the wife ropes you into some random task.
Lets talk the PVE content, now as most will know that is a dirty word to me "PVE". After games like "Unleash The Fury" Which was PVP only. I reluctantly do Pve content to get to the level cap or to obtain an item i require from dungeons etc. And it has to be a really really really really good item for me to go through the torture. But i found myself at first glance saying "you know what, this game might actually draw me into the Pve aspect for a change.... oh how wrong i was. The painfully repetitive delves that have you going left the entire time as if one leg is shorter than the other, got old after the first zone.
The story main story line was good and they did nail the build up to the final boss. But once again i was disappointed when simply strafing left or right for the whole fight saw you easily down the boss with little too no effort.
Then came the EPIC loot, after hours of game play your story came to a close... for a "BLUE" item (Since been changed to a equally useless purple item) that you vendor or broke down for resources to craft better gear. Yes Elder Scrolls Online is not the only MMO that has almost made us grown men and women cry with the end game loot items and im sure it will not be the last.
Zenimax, DO have one thing going for them. Amazing zone designers that really make the world look nice visually. Exploring is something that just happens naturally during your course of leveling. I often found myself having to back track after a "hey whats that down their and over their" Detour.
The dreaded Vet levels...
Once you do your first character you really never ever want to lvl a toon again. Each veteran level requires the almost complete completion of an entire zone to go up just one level in advancement. Which means more delves, Run left, grab the sky shard (3 sky shards to obtain a skill point to spend on ability advancement) Kill the boss and leave through the same door you came in. Yes repetitive is an understatement, But for your first character its not so bad if you have some tunes playing a fridge full of beer and or some friends to just pug along with.
Game patches:
Zenimax falls VERY short on fixes. Now i'm not too sure what is worst a company that just does not fix something that is broken or one that puts in a fix that comes with a multitude of new bugs and exploits. Zenimax to date has been my 20 years of gaming winner when it come too putting in a patch that makes class "A" under powered and Class "B" OP. meaning entire new builds that often destroy your play style just to remain competitive.
Final thoughts.
Its worth a shot to anyone that loves repetitive pve content or likes spending 180 days leveling a mount .... per character you have. yes every new character the mounts needs to be leveled again, meaning your small group will get half way across the map leaving you painfully trailing behind to the point fights are often over by the time you get to there location. But alas you can pay $150 to buy the mount upgrades in the store.
So for elder Scrolls Online i give Stars out of 5 for the game .... A dismal 1 star and that is just for the pretty zones.

Duuude i hate ESO reviews. All of them that ive watched just talk *** about the game and they dont make a clear mention of the MAGIC of the game. The wonderful aspects. All i hear is negative.

Phinix1 · November 2015

In the Tom Sawyerian spirit of getting other people to do your homework for free for which you subsequently get paid...

The downsides:

Game is a total grind. Pay to win XP pots on cash shop.
No real "end game" to speak of. No real character progression beyond grinding CP and now, grinding hundreds of items or millions of gold for gear.
New "catch up" mechanic makes it take LONGER to catch people already at cap.
Full of OCD grinder mindset twitch morons that will steal your nodes, mash in your face until you leave their fapping grounds, and generally go out of their way to make the "community" toxic and off-putting.
Zerg vs. Zerg PVP focus of the dev team.
Bugs like the guild bank not opening have mated with newer bugs and created a rabbit *** of new bugs I won't even bother to rehash here.

The upsides:

Pretty graphics.
Fun combat when abilities don't glitch, lock up, lag, or roll you back.
Cool music.
Cool voice acting.

Armitas · November 2015

The bugs in this game, so much broken, so very much broken. If any dev played VMA they would be ashamed of their game from how much lag, and broken animations there is. The response time is like 1 sec for anything. Break free from something?, that will be 1 sec, heal on your off bar? that will be 1 second. Dodge roll something? sorry you still get hit. Want to roll forward? sorry you get to roll backwards, cause targeting. Think your out of the way of melee? Nope it hits for 20meters now, cause we can't bother to put accurate checks in the game.

Phinix1 · November 2015

Also I get the distinct impression that the suits behind the game, not the artists or community team but the people dictating the direction and investment priorities, genuinely seem to HATE gamers (their customers) with a passion and look down on them as inferior, childish, and deserving of scorn, and this comes through in a cynical, condescending undertone that prevails across much of the content.

Amica · November 2015

Uneed2Stop wrote: »

Amica wrote: »

So a few months back i was asked by a close friend to play and do a write up on the Elder Scrolls Online for his magazine. Something he gets me to do when the work load gets a bit swamped for his team. Some of you may or may not recognize the name Amica as the author for reviews in previous games like: Age Of Conan, War Hammer, Rift and Guild Wars 2.
Even if you don't know the name i still need your help as i'm caught between a rock and a hard place at the moment. I need both, sides of the story when it comes to the Elder Scrolls Online to make a fair and accurate write up. Put in your two cents ... likes and dislikes. What you agree with and disagree with.
Many thanks Amica....

"Draft"
Greetings fellow gamer's,
To play or Not to play Elder Scrolls Online.
I have been playing ESO for awhile now, and have even run through the latest DLC Orsinium that takes you into the world of the orcs. To date my emotions have been mixed with this game.
So much potential yet so much disappointment:
Not including the balance issues or deaths from random fall damage when players hit you during PVP.
The combat animation canceling that lets you fire off a plethora of ability's in seconds when using any standard macro.
Armour sets that are completely ridiculous both in looks and stats.
Game patches that create more bugs than fixes, for example. Player grey bar during combat, so ability's will not fire. The Inability to get through keep doors in pvp unless you go to the store and preview a costume and spin your character around.
Alternatively the dreaded pvp zergs *Shudders* we all saw it in GW2 and have our own gripes or positive comments on the matter. But something we can all agree on. Is the lag the servers go through during peek play times and Elder Scrolls Online is no exception and has been battling this issue for some time. At times namely the weekends when a beer and some pvp is a sure fire way to round off the week. It becomes so bad, that even with a good computer it's not worth playing and you find yourself out mowing the lawn. Or actually not making yourself scarce when the wife ropes you into some random task.
Lets talk the PVE content, now as most will know that is a dirty word to me "PVE". After games like "Unleash The Fury" Which was PVP only. I reluctantly do Pve content to get to the level cap or to obtain an item i require from dungeons etc. And it has to be a really really really really good item for me to go through the torture. But i found myself at first glance saying "you know what, this game might actually draw me into the Pve aspect for a change.... oh how wrong i was. The painfully repetitive delves that have you going left the entire time as if one leg is shorter than the other, got old after the first zone.
The story main story line was good and they did nail the build up to the final boss. But once again i was disappointed when simply strafing left or right for the whole fight saw you easily down the boss with little too no effort.
Then came the EPIC loot, after hours of game play your story came to a close... for a "BLUE" item (Since been changed to a equally useless purple item) that you vendor or broke down for resources to craft better gear. Yes Elder Scrolls Online is not the only MMO that has almost made us grown men and women cry with the end game loot items and im sure it will not be the last.
Zenimax, DO have one thing going for them. Amazing zone designers that really make the world look nice visually. Exploring is something that just happens naturally during your course of leveling. I often found myself having to back track after a "hey whats that down their and over their" Detour.
The dreaded Vet levels...
Once you do your first character you really never ever want to lvl a toon again. Each veteran level requires the almost complete completion of an entire zone to go up just one level in advancement. Which means more delves, Run left, grab the sky shard (3 sky shards to obtain a skill point to spend on ability advancement) Kill the boss and leave through the same door you came in. Yes repetitive is an understatement, But for your first character its not so bad if you have some tunes playing a fridge full of beer and or some friends to just pug along with.
Game patches:
Zenimax falls VERY short on fixes. Now i'm not too sure what is worst a company that just does not fix something that is broken or one that puts in a fix that comes with a multitude of new bugs and exploits. Zenimax to date has been my 20 years of gaming winner when it come too putting in a patch that makes class "A" under powered and Class "B" OP. meaning entire new builds that often destroy your play style just to remain competitive.
Final thoughts.
Its worth a shot to anyone that loves repetitive pve content or likes spending 180 days leveling a mount .... per character you have. yes every new character the mounts needs to be leveled again, meaning your small group will get half way across the map leaving you painfully trailing behind to the point fights are often over by the time you get to there location. But alas you can pay $150 to buy the mount upgrades in the store.
So for elder Scrolls Online i give Stars out of 5 for the game .... A dismal 1 star and that is just for the pretty zones.

Duuude i hate ESO reviews. All of them that ive watched just talk *** about the game and they dont make a clear mention of the MAGIC of the game. The wonderful aspects. All i hear is negative.

Enlighten me.

Amica · November 2015

Reply to a question asked directly to zos in an interview.

"It’s true that bugs are an issue in the game — as they are with many an MMO —
“As you can see, we’re hard at work addressing them and will keep rolling out fixes. The important thing for you, the community, to know is that we’re looking at ALL the feedback (from critics and from players), we’re addressing any shortcomings, and we’ll continue to do so. This game will get better and better every week.”

That was two years ago...

It does not count if for every 5 fixes 20 more bugs are included.

Can zenimax recover?
Yes if they fix the bugs and remove the band-aids put in place, and fix the game.

As a final note: There is to much pressure from investors in the MMORPG world. This makes for a very one sided approach to game development. Keep the money rolling in at all costs. Customer satisfaction gets put on the back burner. Add more content regardless if its ready or not, to keep the quarterly figures up.
If only MMORPG developers took the other approach. The figures would come naturally keeping the investors happy. Because the player base would be in a better state of bliss.

My personal input on the game, is and never was meant to be a reflection as a whole.
I would however, like to thank the small hand full in this thread that gave good feed back. I have taken into account many of the thoughts and replies. People like phinix1, mrderikk, Pirate3, Tanakkiobi, Cuyler, Denmoria good feed back from you all.
Agreed i am no journalist, but it is why i get asked to do it. I critique games based on my play style alone. I do have a vet 14 DK that i did do all the content till the v16 increase hit. So my write up will have some pve input, but not a lot i admit. IC .... now that will be more of a personal rage :-) as it was an almost complete failure IMO.
BTW to the person who said i most likely gave GW2 10/10 ... far from it. I did however give top marks to the painted look they went with. It was fresh and beautifully done, "MMORPG meets Renoir"

Fat-Larry-Makes-All · November 2015

"if only MMORPG developers took the other approach. The figures would come naturally keeping the investors happy. Because the player base would be in a better state of bliss."

Ok it was all kinda funny but now you're acting a fool. Maybe you can convince your own friends but I'm not buying your views of the gaming industry at all.

You know nothing about what it takes to create and maintain a huge digital enviroment like ESO, is there ANY game in history on ESO's scale that didn't have similar issues here and there? Or how about how hard it is for ZOS to offer 4 classes with distinct playstyles BUT that can all arrive at the same result..?

You think it's all so easy because you don't appreciate how dificult it is to create a proper MMO.

I stuck up for you earlier but I see now that you didn't need that. Even a thread full of negative replies isn't enough to slow down your misguided over-confidence.

Epona222 · November 2015

Are you seriously asking other people to write your review for you?

Digiman · November 2015

Amica wrote: »

So a few months back i was asked by a close friend to play and do a write up on the Elder Scrolls Online for his magazine. Something he gets me to do when the work load gets a bit swamped for his team. Some of you may or may not recognize the name Amica as the author for reviews in previous games like: Age Of Conan, War Hammer, Rift and Guild Wars 2.
Even if you don't know the name i still need your help as i'm caught between a rock and a hard place at the moment. I need both, sides of the story when it comes to the Elder Scrolls Online to make a fair and accurate write up. Put in your two cents ... likes and dislikes. What you agree with and disagree with.
Many thanks Amica....

"Draft"
Greetings fellow gamer's,
To play or Not to play Elder Scrolls Online.
I have been playing ESO for awhile now, and have even run through the latest DLC Orsinium that takes you into the world of the orcs. To date my emotions have been mixed with this game.
So much potential yet so much disappointment:
Not including the balance issues or deaths from random fall damage when players hit you during PVP.
The combat animation canceling that lets you fire off a plethora of ability's in seconds when using any standard macro.
Armour sets that are completely ridiculous both in looks and stats.
Game patches that create more bugs than fixes, for example. Player grey bar during combat, so ability's will not fire. The Inability to get through keep doors in pvp unless you go to the store and preview a costume and spin your character around.
Alternatively the dreaded pvp zergs *Shudders* we all saw it in GW2 and have our own gripes or positive comments on the matter. But something we can all agree on. Is the lag the servers go through during peek play times and Elder Scrolls Online is no exception and has been battling this issue for some time. At times namely the weekends when a beer and some pvp is a sure fire way to round off the week. It becomes so bad, that even with a good computer it's not worth playing and you find yourself out mowing the lawn. Or actually not making yourself scarce when the wife ropes you into some random task.
Lets talk the PVE content, now as most will know that is a dirty word to me "PVE". After games like "Unleash The Fury" Which was PVP only. I reluctantly do Pve content to get to the level cap or to obtain an item i require from dungeons etc. And it has to be a really really really really good item for me to go through the torture. But i found myself at first glance saying "you know what, this game might actually draw me into the Pve aspect for a change.... oh how wrong i was. The painfully repetitive delves that have you going left the entire time as if one leg is shorter than the other, got old after the first zone.
The story main story line was good and they did nail the build up to the final boss. But once again i was disappointed when simply strafing left or right for the whole fight saw you easily down the boss with little too no effort.
Then came the EPIC loot, after hours of game play your story came to a close... for a "BLUE" item (Since been changed to a equally useless purple item) that you vendor or broke down for resources to craft better gear. Yes Elder Scrolls Online is not the only MMO that has almost made us grown men and women cry with the end game loot items and im sure it will not be the last.
Zenimax, DO have one thing going for them. Amazing zone designers that really make the world look nice visually. Exploring is something that just happens naturally during your course of leveling. I often found myself having to back track after a "hey whats that down their and over their" Detour.
The dreaded Vet levels...
Once you do your first character you really never ever want to lvl a toon again. Each veteran level requires the almost complete completion of an entire zone to go up just one level in advancement. Which means more delves, Run left, grab the sky shard (3 sky shards to obtain a skill point to spend on ability advancement) Kill the boss and leave through the same door you came in. Yes repetitive is an understatement, But for your first character its not so bad if you have some tunes playing a fridge full of beer and or some friends to just pug along with.
Game patches:
Zenimax falls VERY short on fixes. Now i'm not too sure what is worst a company that just does not fix something that is broken or one that puts in a fix that comes with a multitude of new bugs and exploits. Zenimax to date has been my 20 years of gaming winner when it come too putting in a patch that makes class "A" under powered and Class "B" OP. meaning entire new builds that often destroy your play style just to remain competitive.
Final thoughts.
Its worth a shot to anyone that loves repetitive pve content or likes spending 180 days leveling a mount .... per character you have. yes every new character the mounts needs to be leveled again, meaning your small group will get half way across the map leaving you painfully trailing behind to the point fights are often over by the time you get to there location. But alas you can pay $150 to buy the mount upgrades in the store.
So for elder Scrolls Online i give Stars out of 5 for the game .... A dismal 1 star and that is just for the pretty zones.

I hate reviewers like you. Writers who think putting in snarky comments to make themselves seem like intellectual philosophical aristocrats.

While I agree with the animation canceling, lag and obvious lazy behavior of the developers attitude when it comes to fixing bugs. I disagree with you on PvE, have played other MMO's I can tell you that the PvE in here is actually far from dull, giving you a huge variety of options to complete them and the vary in quite a huge spectrum. Which tells me your bias against PvE has made you say such negatively incorrect things or that you never really played PvE in this game. The closest this PvE experence comes to is SWTOR, though there story telling is just far superior.

Infact my only gripe about PvE is when the characters have more to say in group dungeons or delves. I would typically like to learn everything, but groups in PvE wouldn't put up the patience for such time wasting immersion, so instead I am forced to follow after them.

Quite frankly it's a terrible design choice. That should really be overhauled in group content.

The other is my disdain in the developers thinking ahead when designing content. Craglorn requires 4 players to get through which would be impossible when new content gets put through, 2 players at most seemed more balanced for challenging experience and time required to form a group.

I thought ZoS got over this gimmick but in Imperial City they did the same mistake WoW did and made required gear for a certain boss, while also punishing players who used said mechanic the gear was required to take down the boss with in PvP.

Finally you outright lied about mounts, they are in the collection for all characters even the new ones you make. You also don't have to spend a cent or are required to level up your mounts to a certain level.

Your a terrible untrustworthy reviewer.

Amica · November 2015

Fat-Larry-Makes-All wrote: »

Even a thread full of negative replies isn't enough to slow down your misguided over-confidence.

No, no its not lol. It has been the best blood boiling post in weeks.

baratron · November 2015

MrDerrikk wrote: »

ESO is a very different MMO from pretty much all others, in that it is coming from a series of highly popular and successful Single Player games that are all about the story, the exploration and the PvE. This means that whilst it is still technically an MMO it is mostly comprised of casual players who want Skyrim with friends. This went down really badly at the original launch - where I stopped playing straight out of Beta - because it was leaning too much in the direction of group play for the soloists, and too much in the direction of solo/PvE/PvP for the hardcore MMO players.

From quotes such as this:

Amica wrote: »

Once you do your first character you really never ever want to lvl a toon again.

it makes me think that you have never enjoyed any of the fantasy single-player RPG's that have come out that, like the ES series, actually encourage you to go back and replay the entire questing content through with a different build.

This.

Frankly, I don't even know why someone who only likes PvP would play ESO. I'm sure that there are other games with much richer PvP experiences. The joy of the Elder Scrolls universe is its Lore, which you only discover by questing and reading books throughout the zones. Without that, this could be any fantasy game with magic and swords .

I hope your friend is going to get someone who enjoys the PvE side of MMOs to give an alternative view.

Arreyanne · November 2015

Dettne wrote: »

This review is spot on. Nice work

I would agree

This is the longest leveling grind in current AAA MMO's even Tera shortened the amount of time it takes to get to Cap

I bet one could start a new character in WoW at lvl1 and get to 100 whatever the cap is there now before someone got to VR16 in this game

Every spot that people could grind to increase XP earned per hours has been nerfed by the wonderful Dev's at Zos

And as far as animation cancelling, this game will end up like DCUO where the devs make every new encounter based on the ability of the customer to animation cancel through the entire thing. Not a bad thing if you like animation cancelling. But for those that wont or cant learn the skill the new content would be almost impossible to complete.

Ive always felt if they wanted everyone to animation cancel why'd they'd put the animations in in the first place. Zos should just remove all animations and make the playing field even for those of us that can do it and those that cant

Delgent · November 2015

Arreyanne wrote: »

Dettne wrote: »

This review is spot on. Nice work

And as far as animation cancelling, this game will end up like DCUO where the devs make every new encounter based on the ability of the customer to animation cancel through the entire thing. Not a bad thing if you like animation cancelling. But for those that wont or cant learn the skill the new content would be almost impossible to complete.

Ive always felt if they wanted everyone to animation cancel why'd they'd put the animations in in the first place. Zos should just remove all animations and make the playing field even for those of us that can do it and those that cant

I'm one of those "older" gamers (turning a half a century old this month) who, up until about a month ago, resisted learning animation cancelling because it didn't feel like it was in the spirit of what the devs intended. After reading from different sources that the devs have actually embraced it, I decided it was time for this old dog to learn a new trick.

I found some videos and guides and, in less time than I expected, was able to become relatively proficient at animation cancelling. I was also able to teach this to my similarly aged, though also young at heart, bride who picked it up quicker than I did. So off we went to put our new skill to use.

As we started tearing through same and above our level content, we both had the same feeling...all of the sudden, we were getting bored. Content that was previously a challenge to us, suddenly became surprisingly easy. It was fun at first, but after a few days, became less so. The easy answer is, so don't animation cancel, but it's hard to not do since my muscle memory during combat has now been trained fairly well to do it out of habit.

The end result, we've found we play less and less now since the challenge, and to an extent a part of the combat immersion, isn't there now. I just wish we had learned to do this before our 6 month sub auto-renewed.

I still love ESO, but right now am having a hard time playing much because of it. I don't have an answer for it, it's just the way it is in this house. Sad as it may be, I find Minecraft combat to be more challenging now that I am proficient at animation cancelling in ESO.

Travel Well,
Del

Thalmor-Nordmaster · November 2015

Amica

That has got to be the most biased,inaccurate and outdated collection of abused literary tripe in the history of gaming reviews.

You are bringing great discredit to Zenimax by submitting that atrocity that you call a draft.

Do your friend a favor and tell him the dog ate your final draft.Then send him a professionally written and unbiased review. If you list a con, list a pro. Balance in all things.

I hope to never read anything written by you ever again.

That would include your reply to this post.

P.S please delete your characters upon leaving Tamriel. This will free up electrons and help reduce server load. And no we do not want your stuff.