danno8 wrote: »

There is virtually no frightening challenge in ESO that you can wander into accidentally and become overwhelmed. Either it it faceroll overland content (including public dungeons), or you will need a group.
...
There is no danger.

You can, and there is - if you are new to the game. Yes, once you know what you're doing, it's easy. But for new players, quest and delve bosses can very well be overwhelming. (Also, this has little impact on how detailed and personal your story through ESO's quests is.)
As for rewards, you could say that ESO is following Oblivion's example. ;D That game was full of very questionable design decisions.

Once again, you cant compare a mmo to a single player game fairly. That's due to mod support, lack of internet need and the fact that mmos are more group oriented and predictable.
Imo as someone who's been obses6eith ES since game 1, eso is more ALIVE if your going against an unloaded ES game. It also has the better combat. It does lack the classless feature but that's due to being a mmo. Single player es games have a more random spawn and is less predictable thus making it feel more "real" compared to eso and it's set spawns, least to those who are new to mmos.

how you can even compare those "two".

Strongest point of Skyrim is exploration and immersion. Skyrim map is so superior comapred to ESOs that i don't even know where to start explaining xD Skyrim has one of best level design ever. While map doesnt look photorealistic it s so appealing that you may easly get lost exploring it for hours. ESO is really shallow in this aspect. I don't want to be too hard on this, cause it got better in DLCs, but ESOlooks like another generic (though polished) MMO. + this super annoying, lazy and uncreative way of making maps 'bigger' by adding random rock wall or cliff, just so you must take detour to get shard/book. FUUUUUU!!111 xD.

I'm susrprised that so many people were able to finish all zone quests in ESO. For me it was just too boring. Although I understand that if you are nerd for TES lore (and you don't really care that much about gaming experinece) you may find ESO better because it is large.

+ Skyrim has more immersive music.

Same is for cities. Cities in ESO are pretty and there are some npc added (bit like plants). I really don't care about them (like most players i think). We got memes about Nazeem, random Skyrim NPC, and we didnt get any about ESOs. Go figure why.

OFC Skyrim has it flaws (ie repetitive dungeons), but it still has way more depth and is far more immpersive. Great example mentioned by someone earlier is blackreach. In Skyrim entering it for the first time, after going tru tight corridors of caves, was authentic WOW moment. And after few hours, when you got out, you felt that you'd experienced real adventure. In ESO it is another cool, glowy place to visit. For me it is like comparing tour to Rome vs postcard with generic photos of Rome's attractions...

Quests are harder to evaluate. There were some cool quests and some generic and repetive quests in Skyrim. But if you remind yourself that you do quests while exploring map, and ESO map is usually just OK'eish, then Skyrim wins again.

Combat is tricky part. In Skyrim you feel danger when encountering enemies, tho at late levels you are in god mode... Also 'lemme pause and eat 40 cheese wheels' combat design is truly bad xD So combat is much more fluid in ESO. Unfortunately devs destroyed any reason to like it with one tamriel change. Overland is so boring now, that you must be truly nerd about it, to make killing mobs anyhow interesting (srsly, what is your secret guys? do you smoke a lot while playing overland?).

tl;dr playing TES is like watching immersive movie or reading a book, while ESO is like visiting shopping mall.

/script JumpToHouse("@Paramedicus")

The single player games are more 'densely populated', as it were. I don't mean that literally as much as metaphorically: in Oblivion, every house, every hamlet, every shrine in the wilderness had its own bits of lore and secrets to them. In ESO, there are little bits and easter eggs here and there, but the main idea is that each point of interest marked on your map has a quest to go along with it. There's just much less to be surprised or shocked by.

The single player quests, too, had more meat to them. In Oblivion and Skyrim, the quest is about how you use your creativity to complete the objective (a good example is Oblivion's 'Whodunit?' quest). By contrast, ESO quests are about telling a story. Once you get a decent idea of what you're doing, it takes zero skill to work your way through any questline in the game. This includes chapter-ending boss fights and clashes with Daedric princes. While this may be disappointing, it does come with the added advantage that it allows the developers to invest much more in epic set pieces and visually pleasing locales and fights. The Southern Elsweyr DLC is a prime example of this. Compare this to the 'epic' civil war battles in vanilla Skyrim with half a dozen fighters on each side, and ESO emerges as a clear winner here. The writing itself is usually also good by TES standards. I mean, the plots are all fairly straightforward, but with recurring characters and tons of dialogue, there's a lot to enjoy.

The actual challenge in the game can be found in endgame PVE and PVP content. I personally think this content is, for the most part, very good, although wonky server performance can really dim the mood at times.

In the end, single player TES provides a richer, more immersive single player gaming experience, but ESO still has tons of content that can be solo'd, and with the added production value, the huge scope of the game, and the advantage of being able to play with friends, I have to say that I've played and enjoyed ESO more than any of the single player games at this point.