Worth playing now?

alanthemagnanimous_ESO · September 2020

I've played all the big name modern MMOs, except for this one. I like the dark fantasy feel and nord themes, though the animations aren't so hot. What's good in this game and what sucks? Is it worth playing over the rest?

volkeswagon · September 2020

I've only played this MMO. Been playing everyday for 4 years so i guess it must be good. I like the khajiit race. I like the housing, trading, farming, socializing. The things I don't like are PVP, the combat mechanics are too complex, voice chat can be glitchy and the crown crates are too scammy

MyKillv2.0 · September 2020

The story telling is as good as it gets on the MMO market. Combat is different, you either will love it or hate it.

Infact, most of this game is like that. They try so hard to be “different” in the way they do things that most things they do you either love it or hate it.

FrancisCrawford · September 2020

alanthemagnanimous_ESO wrote: »

I've played all the big name modern MMOs, except for this one. I like the dark fantasy feel and nord themes, though the animations aren't so hot. What's good in this game and what sucks? Is it worth playing over the rest?

Great worldbuilding -- characters, voice acting, art, quests with plot twists, lore, etc.

Unfortunately, this year's new content, which seems to be what you're referencing, is regarded as uncharacteristically lame from the quest/characterization standpoint.

volkeswagon · September 2020

Greymoor does seem dull but maybe because the use of the word Grey in the name subconsciously made us think it's dull and grey.

idk · September 2020

alanthemagnanimous_ESO wrote: »

What's good in this game and what sucks? Is it worth playing over the rest?

To each of us the answer is rather personal. Myself, first and foremost I like the storytelling much better than games like WoW and FF14. It is also better than SWTORs original stories. Most MMORPGs cut corners when it comes to their storytelling and it shows.

Beyond that, I like the combat except for in Cyrodiil since lag has gotten worse there over the years. The raids are pretty good though my favorite raid is now several years old.

Nephthys · September 2020

I would not be here if I didn't think ESO was worth playing now... so yes it is worth it to me.

You will only get subjective answers to your question as everyone 's likes and dislikes are different. Personally, I have loved the Greymoor chapter, mainly because I love anything of a gothic nature.

You are always going to get the lovers and the haters, so why not try it out for yourself? Enjoy!

Ratzkifal · September 2020

The good thing about ESO is that it doesn't restrict you and your friends to playing only level specific content. All content is always appropriately leveled. A high level player and a low level player can fight the same boss and neither of them is carrying or being carried. (Although the individual player's skill and the number of unlocked abilities and passives does make for a bit of difference)

The bad thing about ESO is that you need to decide on what to do next yourself. Once you reach level50 it becomes increasingly difficult to figure out what "the next thing" is. I've seen many people who tried out ESO struggling with this much freedom. In other games you just do the thing with the number of your level on it. But ESO doesn't have these numbers so you basically have to find the thing you enjoy doing the most and just keep doing that. Set yourself some goals etc.
If you like the stories and the world, just keep questing. If you like housing, start looking into crafting your own furniture or earning money to fund your cabbage display addiction. If you like a challenge, join a guild to take on trials and work on improving your damage/healing/tanking. If you like to fight other players go into PvP and try to become Emperor. You like fashion? Then go see what dyes you want to unlock or which crafting motifs you want to farm/buy next.

ZaroktheImmortal · September 2020

It's the only MMO I really got into personally I love the questing like some MMOs most quests are just go here do this collect this kill that etc. With there seems to be a story with just about every quest and a lot of quests with morally grey choices. It's an MMO you play with others or just do solo content there's enough in the game you can just do by yourself if you choose.

Recapitated · September 2020

The game is poorly optimized and feels somewhat clunky. Balance and meta changes are consistently a headache, ZOS struggles to balance PVP without touching PVE and it often looks like they have no insight into the game they've built.

The grind for leveling your character and skill lines can go by quite fast — don't go too fast if you want to enjoy the solo questing experience because you'll cut through overland like butter. Some character improvement — I'm thinking of gaining access to the Psijic, Mage's Guild, and arguably PVP skill line — can be tedious.

For myself, I played without ESO+ or DLCs for a long time. So you can check out the game for cheap and you'll have a decent amount of challenging content. You can perform just fine in PVE without DLC gear.

rpa · September 2020

Performance is not good, quality of life is medieval, bugs do not get fixed, quality of expansions is bit debatable and monetization stinks but can be ignored. Gameplay adjustments are spastic and some changes feel like intentional attempt to annoy players.
Other than that its pretty good game when it works; if I knew a better available mmo I'd play it instead but looks like this is best we have currently.

TheRealDrRat · September 2020

I would say it's mid-tier compared to all the other RPG games out there and probably low-tier compared to other MMOs. Right now is probably not the best time to get started in playing this game, as you will end up spending a ton of real-life money for DLCs and other things in order to get things you want in-game and then the next few weeks the gear you thought you got isn't really even that anymore.

This game require a certain level of dedication, not SC level though. You need to be able to read and remember a lot of things and many guides are available online, but like I mentioned before its probably not the best time for someone to start playing since things are changing - making the game that much more complicated in terms of new player friendly.

On a good note and depending on whether you play console or PC, it has been released that the game will move onto next-gen consoles so, there's that. It goes to show that the developing company and publisher plan to put more money and time into the game in the near and distant future, but for an undetermined time length.

In terms of socializing in-game, I'd say its rather mediocre. There's a high amount of "toxicity" which is when more experienced players bash newer player about their skill level or experience (either bluntly or more passively). It's not necessarily always a negative thing, but it can get rather annoying when people want to show people they know the game. And it's not necessarily a personality thing it's more of a game-developed behavior; even I admit to doing it myself. Players are ruled around when starting out and once they get to a higher player base, they too re-enact the same behavior. Nonetheless, you will find a couple a regular/relaxed players who are not too interested in bragging.

Basically, the game is fun to play - I played for a 2-3 years and took a long break from the game and came back for a little over a year now, and the game is rather social, but then again not. ESO is a good game to hangout and play, but I would not say it's on the level of some other games out there. If I had to give the game a score, it'd be a 2.7 out of 5, I've had many enjoyable experiences in the game as well as time where I had no clue why I still played (which is never a good thing for an RPG).

Pauwer · September 2020

Totally it is. Myself i first ran all the quests on all factions and dlc at the time, dark brotherhood was the latest. I remember, 'cause all of a sudden the world was full of assassins. Then i think after a year or two i played my first group dungeon and from there on to trials and now all i do is pvp. I regret that i didn't discover pvp sooner, because it has been the best content in the game for me. I have had such a great time playing this game, i would recommend it to anyone.

First you want to start with the crafting and join the in game guilds, like mages guild and so. And go to the starting zone of your chosen faction to begin the main quest. And if you play like daily, i would buy eso+. I didn't for years at first which i then regreted after i did, it made life in game so much easier. Mainly due to the craft bag.

The performance is not that great especially in pvp, but when it works, it's gold. I hope Microsoft has faster hamsters, so we can see some improvement on performance in the future.

GalexPK · September 2020

Summerset needs more magic fantasy

SamanthaCarter · September 2020

ESO is just the best MMO ever

animcut weaving

JoKi · September 2020

Until they revert the Rapid Maneuver change I'd advise against starting new in ESO...the traveling speed without the buff is just gamebrakingly bad as it is...
I myself completely stopped playing all my chars that don't have the skill line high enough (or for some buggy reason still can use the skill anyway)

hakan · September 2020

Best ive played. Least grindiest mmo with easy leveling tbh if you just play the game, wander around and do all kinds of stuff, you level up pretty quick but making a lot of alts may get boring at some point.

i like pvp, overland, pve. Did and still doing those a lot. when i first started i wandered around alot and tried to make a character that feels good to me, you know the looks and set and what not. i was 160cp in no time and then after that basically there arent levels. it was a breeze kinda. but for my alts it gets boring BUT STILL its better than any other mmo.

PVP is great to me. I love combat, sets, skills. light/heavy attack, dodge, block, bash are also helps alot to enchance the combat, you arent just clicking a skill and wait for cooldown while your light/auto attacks hit for '1' damage *pukes* wish there werent this horrible performance issues.

Item/sets do not require some *** luck based enchanting and golding is mostly easy. jewelry kinda expensive but you will manage.

No armor/weapon restrictions. Equip what you want but that doesnt mean it will be good against hard content or other players. its up to you.

Pricing is good imo. Again im comparing it to others. Every june there is an expansion but besides that you can get all the content with ESO+ and it is very cheap for me on Steam LOL. i wish they didnt bind the cool looking mounts in crown crates that you cant even get with gems. Also some exotic mounts could have been in dlc/exp areas for more immersion e.g guar for morrowind.

Armors look good most of the time and there arent any trash skyrim skimpy mods. Designers keep it that way i hope but i wish they removed or reduced the amount of flaps. Also most pants are ugly AF. And some armors look like they sewn on to character which looks bad.

Also questing is the best compared to others. At least they dont give you the rarest mob to slaughter everytime and you wait with 20 players for them to spawn only to not get that item. wow was so trash at this. Voicing and characters coming around with you helps a lot. But overland is soo easy wish there was an option to get a hard/veteran versions for them. or mechanically challenged versions, i dunno...

the ambience, the feel of most of the zones are great. love to walk around and look at stuff. though some of them are too small and you cant climb, even in skyrim style, the mountains and stuff. Makes it sometimes bad to explore around.

On the other hand game performance mostly horrible. YEARS OLD BUGS doesnt get fixed. Class balance is bad, they do weird stuff that doesnt really make sense to most of us and they feel like aimlessly change nerf stuff. I fear they nerf too much of everything and we will stay with barebones skills/sets. Time will tell but...

i have to tell EVERY YEAR IT GETS WORSE! yeah thats true..

West93 · September 2020

This is not a dark fantasy game.

Every chapter has a different setting, just because you see a greymoor log in screen it doesn't make the game dark fantasy, greymoor is like 0.5% of game.

Every zone is scaled, older zones are still used in game for dungeons/trials, it is not like WoW where in new expansion old expansion gets dusted and left behind.

Play for 1 month and get a feel for combat mechanics and you will see for yourself if game is for you.

I do enjoy open world pvp and fast paced combat (block,dodge,sprint,manage resources) to me it's much more enjoyable than WoW cooldown system and pvp arena.

paulychan · September 2020

Totally worth it, for free. I would suggest utilizing the free play, then pay the monthly fee if you are digging it before spending any real amount of money. You will have access to a lot of the game, enough to check it out. I started in the Morrowind expansion. I dug it. Good story, pretty good graphics and arpg style combat. I was hooked. Fast forward a few years and the devs have made so many seemingly thoughtless changes that the in game friends I made all left. PvP is too laggy to play, which is a shame because it's super fun. End game trials are buggy, mechanics are buggy, load screens are sooooo long, game desynch abounds, blue screen errors, kicked to black screen often. Worth checking out. Your decision to stay might be made for you. The changes coming are game changing. Not in good ways that actually fix anything I listed as an issue. Just changes and more changes. Be ready to scrap your top tier gear, tomorrow it my be straight trash. Be ready to shelf your favorite toon. Next weeks it will also prolly be straight trash

Tandor · September 2020

JoKi wrote: »

Until they revert the Rapid Maneuver change I'd advise against starting new in ESO...the traveling speed without the buff is just gamebrakingly bad as it is...
I myself completely stopped playing all my chars that don't have the skill line high enough (or for some buggy reason still can use the skill anyway)

I find that totally irrelevant to a new player, and pretty irrelevant to most players unless they're focused purely on Cyrodiil. There's simply no way that a change in one utility skill is justification for holding off from playing the game.

FrancisCrawford · September 2020

JoKi wrote: »

Until they revert the Rapid Maneuver change I'd advise against starting new in ESO...the traveling speed without the buff is just gamebrakingly bad as it is...
I myself completely stopped playing all my chars that don't have the skill line high enough (or for some buggy reason still can use the skill anyway)

Good point. Except -- maybe it's not so bad for somebody playing the game the very first time, and looking around at the landsape and its inhabitants as they go?

E.g., the OP should start with the Daggerfall Covenant story plus the original Main Quest, because:
-- Most people should.
-- They serve as kinds of prequels to other vampire content.

I doubt that slow travel is all that irritating for that content in Stros M'Kai, Glenumbra, Stormhaven (important quests) or Rivenspire. It's probably more of a pain, admittedly, in Betnikh (fairly optional content), Alik'r Desert, Bangorkai, or Coldharbour.

Synnastix · September 2020

There’s lots to do in the game - if you need a time waster then you can find things to do here. I mostly solo but like the opportunity to run around with other people in the elder scrolls world. I agree with the other post that said if you’re looking for dark fantasy, do the main quest then these zones:

Glenumbra
Rivenspire
Bangkorai
Skyrim

By the time you get through those you’ll know if you like it or not.

The_Old_Goat · September 2020

I'm genuinely curious why you have eso forum stars if you haven't played this game at all yet.

Cryptical · September 2020

The_Old_Goat wrote: »

I'm genuinely curious why you have eso forum stars if you haven't played this game at all yet.

His profile says he joined 7 years ago, but apparently disappeared immediately.

There’s something about the wording of the post, especially way he phrased the title “worth playing now”, that seems similar to all those people who moan and complain and dump on the game over any tiny thing.