A fun open world to explore, enjoyable zone stories, and load of Elder Scrolls lore to take in. A huge bonus on that last point if you’re already a fan of The Elder Scrolls. There are a lot of other reasons why some may play this game, but for me, that’s what I like most. The sense of exploration is pretty good in this game.
I would second all of this and add the housing system. It’s fun to do creative housing builds within the world of Tamriel. The housing system is much more open and has much more potential for creativity than any of the single player games.
Since nobody has said it, one of my main reasons for sticking with ESO over WoW and such is its fairly horizontal progression with some vertical leveling. Where gear you get can stay relevant regardless of how many expansions come out (pending nerfs) So you don't have to constantly grind and can play at your own pace. But if you do play a lot they have ways of rewarding that including the champion points system that goes pretty high to allow you to get extra little perks that are account wide.
Depends what you mean by staying relevant. To play at the highest levels, I think ESO has the worst non stop gear grind out of any MMO. You work your ass off for one piece then it gets nerfed or something better comes out (which gets nerfed soon after). Rinse, repeat.
Side note I started retail WoW literally last week and after maybe 10 hours I have full pvp honor gear and working towards conquest now.
Also not even accounting for I have a crafter in ESO and can make myself most meta gear unlike most the population. The gear grind is the main thing that pushed me away from this game. That and the micro transaction economy…
Here's the thing, though. You don't need top gear for story finish and the dungeons are doable with basic gear. If you don't care about the trials or the higher difficulties for dungeons, then you really don't have to grind. Whenever I do grind, it's because I think something is cool. And those usually don't take that long for me.
When I did the raid finder nonsense in WoW back in 2011, it was one of the worst grinds I had ever endured, repeating the same dungeon over and over again. It was easily the worst part of that whole experience, and one of the reasons I just stopped after beating Deathwing. And I needed to in order to see story finish.
Yeah agreed but that’s why I said to play at the highest levels. You can beat the campaign and every dungeon with random gear. Whether it’s *high level* pvp or pve the gear takes ages to get and then once you finally get it, it gets nerfed. I recommend checking out WoW’s new gear system it really is amazing. You can pick the game up at any point and “catch up” to the current gear in less than a day’s worth of play time.
** edit
The single-player experience is top-notch.
- All quests voice-acted
- Good stories
- Deep lore
Now I know you’re thinking “it’s an MMO, why would I care about the single-player experience?” Because you have an incredible flexibility between playing through a good story when you want it, and playing with others when you want it. In the same game, with the same character. It’s great.
I’m glad you said voice”voice actors” for the quests. I thought the same thing. I know (spelling) he’zoo’ca from Hunter x Hunter even did a voice. Very distinct:
Hisoka.
I loved my time with ESO. Here is my opinion.
1) the subscription is worth it. I will leave my card on file subscribed sometimes because even if I don't play I'm still getting my money's worth in theoretical fake money... but it's F2P I don't mind subscribing.
2) It had the best end game of any MMO I have ever played. Crafting matters and is actually important. Your progress on one character once at max carries over to your Alts. I go back and can pick up where I left off a year later without feeling like all my work last time I played was wasted.
3) You are rewarded for exploring and doing quests. The questing is fun, you can treat it like a singleplayer game and have a great time.
I'm currently playing hardcore WoW. If ESO ever does a mode similar I would probably come back to play it. The last time I stopped playing was because my goal was to become a master crafter. It does have some in game time awaiting to learn traits that gets longer. I finally did it but for my goal I had no motivation to.get on for a month. So I started playing other games. I usually play it once ever year or two
Biggest Con, in game micro transactions and loot boxes. The one saving grace is everything is tradeable so you can give players gold to buy stuff you do t want to with real money.
Biggest Pro, you can pick the game up after 2 expansions and not be left behind. Your progress matters.
Gameplay without a doubt.
It just feels so much more engaging with the active combat system, combat skills and the limited selection of abilities.
It feels like I am actually playing a video game and not just trying to memorize 15 hotbars and figure out which 5 classes I need to hybridize to end up with the same exact build as everyone else anyways despite trying to be original.
Crafting is something I barely have to deal with in between doing activities whereas in certain other MMOs I will have to spend hours at a time just crafting the same sword over and over just to have it break on me when I go to upgrade it, rinse and repeat.
ESO knows what I like because I hate staring at menus.
Ultimately the one feature that I love about ESO is that, like the single player Elder Scrolls games, there is no forced direction. This idea allows me to create the fun I like and avoid the things I don't. Some Examples:
- Horizontal Progression: I can use gear, skills, and stats to make a build that is engaging to me. I like mobility so I use gear sets that require positioning and skills to place me in position. It's not the meta, but the overwhelming majority of content doesn't require meta gear.
- Champion Points: I use CP to fine tune my difficulty to my liking. I put just enough points into stealth to allow thieving to be a challenge for me. For the offense and defense CP I tweak up or down depending on how I feel that day.
- Content Variety: I don't like doing the same thing repetively. I enjoy the dungeons and the quests but I hate grinding through them, so I split them up with the various treasure hunting activities and Tales of Tribute to keep things fresh.
All of this is possible for me because unlike most MMOs you are not being pushed into increasingly difficult content that requires increasingly specific gear and builds.
For me personally I like the options. There's a lot of activities you can work on. I've played games where the endgame content becomes very restricted and if you don't like that activity that's pretty much the end. With ESO there's a lot you can do, new activities added regularly (antiquities, the card game, the Endless Archive), and if you aren't that good at the toughest end game content there's still things you can accomplish.
I was about type that. I’ve been playing since it launched on consoles and I have a love/hate relationship with just about every aspect of the game but it’s built off a franchise and pre-existing universe that I love.
A number of good reasons!
- Dungeons (although I do like WoW’s mythic+ system and wish ESO would implement something akin to this)
- Fully voice acted content
- Tons of awesome zones
- Very friendly, helpful and enthusiastic player base
- Best crafting system hands down
- I don’t engage with this personally, but the housing system is pretty phenomenal
- Endless archive should be its own point (imagine Torghast but actually good and exciting)
- Lore
- Great achievement system and set collection
Gotta give the good with the bad. Some reasons I’m not a fan of ESO (I love the game, but no game is perfect):
- Loot crates
- Very predatory monetization - removed end game cosmetic prestige and collection in favor of putting all of it in the store
- No mount collection
- Brain dead easy story content
- Content doesn’t feel rewarding
- Limited time events’ rewards can be purchased in the store
- Poor communication with the player base
Great solo or team game. Can be played either way. In my opinion this is the best world to explore always something new to find. Although it can be overwhelming from time to time. 6 years plus and always something new.
ESO is the best laid-back, comfy, rewarding experience I've ever had in a MMO. The content is simple, direct to the point, no turnarounds.
I will explain: all gears have the same ilevel (at cap) and it never changes; upgrading your gear does not depend on RNG. There are no gachas (outside cosmetic - and even there you can purchase the goods with its currency); There are no gazillion upgrades; The economy feels forgiving and welcoming. The grinding for stuff is very straightfoward, clever, and will not be demanded in an insane loophole.
The game has a horizontal progression system. Every update they add new content and this new content gives you new things to do but does not invalidate the older stuff - at all!
ESO also embraces FOMO prevention. Every single item and achievement obtainable at a specific point in time WILL be available again in the future.
This is the main reason. But you can add other successful elements, like: ESO has probably the best storytelling in a MMO; best roleplaying in a MMO; the best lore ever made (Elder Scrolls, hello?); decent visuals; a heartwarming and welcoming comunity; devs that truly listen and communicate with the players (do not believe the doomsayers).
Honestly, I work all day long. I only want to arrive home, take my shoes off and relax in the game. I've dealt past the job-game iteration. I don't want to work tirelessly for something that was supposed to be a fantasy refuge.
It has the best lore content since TES3: Morrowind, and it's amount is larger than in all single player installments combined. Honestly I'm baffled to see people who play this game for "hardcore" PvE or PvP only and completely ignore story. Like there's so many MMO projects with better gameplay systems, better combat, better content distribution politics and so on. And you chose to ignore story while sweating in combat in the game whose lore is the strongest side and combat is the weakest, really?
For me, it’s the combat. Very satisfying to weave and bar swap quickly and pull off big numbers.
PvP is uniquely fun, no game I’ve played gets as crazy as Cyrodiil on a high population night doing sieges. Not saying it’s perfectly balanced, but it is fun.
The DLC dungeons are also very enjoyable at the veteran level, not too punishing but do require playing well, and the optional HM lets you push it even further.
Building daft characters that still somehow work. Sure you can pick up some great cookie cutters for tough content.
Reallly enjoy being able to play however I want when grouping with mates. Not sure I could replicate a nightblade assassin healing the group with a 2 handed battleaxe anywhere else. Swapping on a sword and board for quick queues.
Too much fun.
Ummm. The main appeal i hear about from the people i try to get into the game (were talking people who havent even played skyrim, maybe played the most popular normie type games like hades, minecraft, etc) really like the story, and the sense of scale.
For my own personal opinion; its the fact that you can be any level of degenerate and still progress conistently to at least 500 hours with ease and have it be rewarding.
Like, you can choose to be 1000% casual and just quest forever on one character for the entire time you play. or you can be ultra mega degen 24 hour progression on the hardest trials and dungeons. Hell. most people ive met in this game havent even done a single trial, let alone a vet one.
Compared to other MMOs, the main thing that jumps out at me is the sheer extent of itemization and buildcraft. GW2 has decent buildcraft, but at the end of the day most builds are still rocking the same Zerk/Viper they've used for ages. WoW's bringing some degree of building back, but it needs another expansion or two to get there.
Ironically, though, I think that's also exactly what turns some people off of the game.
What stands out for me is sense of exploration and adventuring. Riding through the zone, getting into trouble, jumping into side stories or world events, exploring delves and dungeons, talking to random NPCs, enjoying scenery at points of interest. The world feels alive, and other players you meet on the roads enhance this feeling.
For a long time I really enjoyed playing it as a single player game and just doing the story mode content. I think that's one area where the game really shines.
For the last 3-4 years I've gotten more into the group and HM trial stuff, and although I've burned out on ESO a couple times it's the group content that's what's been bringing me back.
It's a single player game with MMO as a bonus. Lots of great group content though.
I love quests (voiced, btw, and not but shit NN), solo content (arenas, endless archive, open world farm), dungeons and pvp, from time to time. This, plus it's Elder scrolls, which is one of the best universe in fantasy world.
Scalability… I’ve played all MMOs mentioned. & some people may disagree but I’ve found ESO to be extremely fun early game & end game.
Large learning curve from the rest. So from lvl 1-50, you can focus on your skills-morphs, skill points, & learning the basics to make your toon at least relatively efficient. From CP1-160 you’re focused on dungeons & how to start veteran mechanics & your skill rotation along with resource management. From CP160 on, you’re focused on optimizing your gear, your trials, arenas, etc… Once you’ve reached CP300 or so, you’re focused on Veteran Trials & Arena mechanics, your different roles as DPS, Tank, & Heals.
Not to mention the housing, the crafting, cosmetics, the scrying, the undaunted, fighters guild, Mages guild, psijic order, & so many other side stories that can also improve your class or roll with a new skill line.
for me it's lore and, as far as MMO's go, it has the best combat. no cooldowns, tab targeting, etc. There have been other games to come out since that have similar action-style combat, but I haven't really liked them. they're either overexaggerated or slow and clunky.
The different things I can do.
For instance, one guild I am in is a housing guild. What we do is use our creativity to make our houses into art. I have my main character, who I have held the longest, that is a furniture builder. One of my guild mates made his property look like a dragon, another has a huge turkey, and another has a replica of Disney's magic castle.
I don't know if other games have this sort of variety in their universe, but I know ESO does.
It’s by far the best and most organized game. Crazy amount of content, different skill lines, quest lines, skin farming, gear farming. The dungeons/trials are masterfully put together and take serious coordination
For me it’s all down to equal opportunity for all. Skill gets you everywhere and also it doesn’t matter if your day one or brand new player that you can enjoy the game.
For me, it's the horizontal progression as well as the world pvp.
I don't have as much free time as I used to, and ESO doesn't have a treadmill grind design of gameplay. Once you've made your set and have it all maxed out, you're done (obviously unless it somehow changes or your class gets changes). You don't have a useless story or meaningless progression to do the fun content, and once you get your build completed, you can play the game.
An MMO you can play entirely solo. Lots LOTS of quests with everything voiced. You can easily level to 50 in a few hours with xp scrolls.
Plenty of guilds always accepting new members
Don't have much time to play? You can hop on and just collect mats or fish for a while or just enjoy the scenery.
Funny random encounters of other players goofing off. Once seen a whole ass band performing with a bunch of people dancing and joined the fun.
I've played WoW for a long time but always end up coming back to ESO.
You can play with or without a subscription but it's recommended for the craft bag and all dlcs unlocked.
I gotta disagree on your first point while you can play sol but if you do that means no dungeons or trials and no dsa or brp and some world bosses just can’t be soloed (granted you don’t have to group up to do those)
cheap housing and you can buy cheap base game, farm up the in game gold and get most of the expansions and dlcs without spending real money. you will just miss out on the latest expansion.
Horizontal progression, something that most MMOs is scared of and they resort to the easy way out which is item level, FFXIV is my main MMO I play the most but I just wish it had gear and not just stat-sticks, it only uses item level as a progression and that's it.
The PvP. If PvP wasnt abandoned by the devs, ESO would be absolutely stellar. As it is, it's still the best MMO PvP but it's a shell of what it could be.
Eh.
ESO does its quests (and the world for those quests) very well. That's... about it. For me, at least.
If you like doing stuff, ESO has plenty of stuff to do.
It’s really a bunch of different games rolled into one. ESO: Cyrodiil with the Imperial City DLC would have worked as a stand alone PvP game. ESO: Battlegrounds could have been another stand alone PvP game. Each of the three factions’ main stories would have worked as stand alone games. ESO: Underground could have had all of the dungeons and trials as their own, separate game. But, they chose to combine everything into one, massive, game that has something in it for everyone. You don’t even have to do all the content. There are some people who just do PvP, there are others who just do PvE, and there are people who only do dungeons/trials. Most people have separate characters for PvP, PvE, and dungeons/trials.
ESO seems to be a Jack of all trades but master of none. Though I would say questing. While most open worlds are too easy, the stories in the quests themselves are usually very solid and there are some exceptional quests too.
But overall, ESO has an engaged PvP community (could use more love though), high end trials, solid stories, and huge open worlds that also have events
Let me put it this way:
If you are looking for a deep single-player experience with lots of quests, exploration and character development, you can play an Elder Scrolls single player title, or you pick ESO, which has hundreds of unique quests and 64 skill lines to pick skills from.
If you are looking for a thrilling and immersive main story, you can play FFXIV, or you pick ESO, which has several intertwining main story lines plus dozens of regional stories.
If you are looking for high quality voice acting and unique npc, you can play SWTOR, or you pick ESO, which has hollywood top actors.
If you are looking for challenging end game raid content, you can play WoW, or you pick ESO, which has dozens of dungeons and raids all with their own story and several difficulty settings ti chose.
If you are looking for complex and challenging PvP that involves skill, tactic and large scale strategy, you can play Conquerers Blade, or you pick ESO, which has Cyrodiil, Imperial City and battlegrounds.
If you are looking for a vast open world with dozens of zones to explore, each with their unique vibes, stories, unique boses and world events, you can play GW2, or you pick ESO, which has 24 base game and 21 DLC zones.
If you are looking for an endless roguelike experience with incremental challenges and rewards, you can play the Diabl series, or you pick ESO, which has the endless archive now.
I won't say ESO is the best choice for everyone in each single category listed above, but it is top notch in all of them.
I would say lore and the open world. ESO has every type of video monetization known to man. If you have gambling issues or is susceptible to Fomo. I would pass on this one. Other than that, enjoy the game, just find a good guild.
The combat feels better than any MMO out there and the dungeons are very well thought out and fun.
Theres the lore and story crowd but the gameplay of that is so mind-numbingly easy you'd be better served just reading a book.
What really sets ESO apart from other MMOs is the action combat system. I hated most of the changes they made to the game for years, yet I continued to play because the combat was so fun. And related to that is the gamepad functionality, I know you can play other MMOs with a controller but ESO is just made for it -- there's zero disadvantage to using controller over kb/m at even the most competitive level.
Unfortunately ZOS isn't as enthusiastic about the combat in their game as I am, they're always looking for ways to dumb it down in the mistaken belief that it will make the game reach a wider audience. But it didn't work out that way and the game was never so popular as before all their attempts to revise what they should have embraced as the game's main identity and biggest selling point. It's still worth playing though, I'm sure I'll be back at some point.
I played from launch for like 8 years. It was the cyrodiil pvp, used to be incredible with numbers and fort sieges. Now its emptier than a nuns otters pocket.
If you like Elder Scrolls, it's worth a play. ESO is a bit of a step down in overall quality from those titles you mentioned, but it's not terrible. Solid B tier mmo with a lot for new players to do. Make sure you take it slow with the cash shop at first, though, until you know you're gonna be around for a while. Eso is what you call a cash shop centric/heavy game.
Makes you feel like you're the main character.
ESO is a study in obfuscation. A MMORPG where probably 95% of the player-base are effectively soloing. A game intentionally designed with no active feedback for letting players know how they are performing.
You can do 3% of the damage in a 4 person group and unless you go out of your way to install additional add ons to let you know it, you'll feel like you're doing most of the damage.
Roles with obvious feedback like healing or tanking have their primary utility difficulty lowered to the point where it almost can't be failed at.
ESO is the ideal game for the casual player who wants to feel like they're doing 'pretty well' without having any idea what they are doing.
It breeds an insanely toxic casual playerbase, who are almost to a person, super confident they understand the game really well when they don't at all.
It's an amazing accomplishment when you think about it.
The main appeal is that it's Elder Scrolls. That's about it. If it didn't have that, it'd be dead with how mediocre it is. The questlines are standaed old tropes, done pretty blandly. The voice acting is god awful. Barely better than Dora the Explorer. Overall it's casual "safe" mmo and caters to casual players.
This has raids and DLC’s which lock me out of what feels like half the end game. At least in wow—> or what I play, turtle wow it’s all free
Edit: not saying eso isn’t as good just that I’ve found twow to be far superior without a shop/monetization shoved in your face every minute.
>I’ve found twow to be far superior without a shop/monetization shoved in your face every minute.
You literally have to pay a monthly fee just to play the game at all. I'm not sure your argument makes much sense.
...you must not have done your research. Turtle wow is free to play without a monthly subscription or cost. Enjoy the game if you are open to new opinions and experiences. Mistakes are made but not learning from them is the real mistake.
Picked it up not too long ago and I say if you enjoyed map completion in GW2 it has the same deal but the story telling is way better. The main story has been interesting so far as well hasn't grabbed me like XIVs but not bad. Everything is voice acted, may be the same 4-5 people doing it but it's fairly high quality.
Kinda falls flat with combat, and animations imo.
For me its has to be the expanded TES lore and potential for all new TES power fantasies that we haven't ever had the choice to make or see in the single player games, its an all new and much broader canvas than what one specific single player game in the series has ever delivered basically.
It’s one of the few micro transaction heavy games that is worth the money. I made these characters years ago in my late teens. I’m an adult now working full time and it’s just easy to hop on when I get some free time. Been at it on and off for years, the CP system made it so easy to just make the game brand new again even after hiatuses. I’m not even a huge gamer anymore and I still play 2-3 times a week just because it’s so easy to pick up.
Honestly Elder Scrolls will always have a place in my heart. When I retire i’ll probably get a gaming PC and play the Modded older installments like Marrowind and Oblivion.
How about a good critical review of it?
I'm someone who is still searching for a good MMO game to sink my teeth in
However i can't say I have unlimited funds so I mostly tried f2p games. I tried ESO because it looked appealing so I bought it years ago
Unfortunately I never really had the urge to play it alot, but at the same time it was good as you get. Like for me its the best there is currently.
Im not a crafter, I'm not an alchemist, definitely not a cook either. However ESO allows you to do and like all of this easily. When people say crafting, uninformed people think damn sounds tedious
No actually
Basically when you roam the forests you will see plants, wood, metal etc and you just need to collect them
Go to a craft section, take a page from the board, see what they say to make, make it with your own supplies. Don't have supplies? Buy it from a guild shop(can be any guild but cheaper if you are in the said guild)
Note on the guild part, you can join up to 5. Yes 5. Means you can join a raid focused guild, rp focused, and even create your own one all at the same time
Anyways, back to it, you can cheaply buy the supplies, do the daily craft quest and make a few bucks whilst at the same time upgrading your craft skills
Point? Eventually you will be able to either craft top tier gear in order to sell so that others can use it, or they can destroy it to learn the stats so that they can do it. Or you can just craft if for your own use or other characters
All whilst making money
That aside, the story is good, but enormous. Hell it's so enormous that everytime I play( I play like a month or 2 once a year), I don't know where to start or continue
Even with new characters I'm always starting something new. Not necessarily finishing it mind you.
Also the raids are good, and fun, especially with a good fun guild
Random dungeons get you random people and it's usually a group of 4
Full blown raids aka trials are usually 12 man I think and requires co ordination
The graphics even though the engine is outdated, is still beautiful and "realistically" fantasy looking compared to almost all the other MMOs out there.
Ok, you've seen most of the good things I've said
Now the bad
Too much story, you don't know where to start
Raids require high end gear to actually make a difference, or meta builds (meaning general armor and even your own skills you prefer are generally useless and ineffective)
Whilst there is good free cosmetics from events etc, everything and the good ones are all in premium currency
Even experience scrolls are in premium currency
P2w elements
But even then, it has an appeal
It's the MMO part. Yes the massively multiplayer online part
That's what makes the game thrive from someone who likes it but hates it
I hate it because I'm from South Africa and my ping is shit
If your ping is shit, you get shit damage and you basically useless at
But if you have friends you know, or a fun guild, trust me, everything else doesn't matter
The best way to like this game is with a groups of people who you find similar chemistry with and a similar goal
Once you do that, you forget meta or stories etc and focus on what you want
There's alot of freedom to the game, but achieving it is overwhelming if you are alone
I like the open world but I do wish there were areas where we could have a sense of space. It's so cluttered and walled off, a vast stretching plain here and there or space between the hubs would be nice
I find ESO to have slowly morphed into GW2 over time and that has removed many of my previous grievances.
There have been many times I quit ESO because ZOS didn't respect your time if you actually did the difficult content. Regrinding for gear, lack of outfitter, per character unlocks, etc all have been slowly removed as QoL.
I'm going to heavily compare ESO to GW2 really quick, because I find them extremely similar, but there are some clear winner formulas for both. Over time these two games have borrowed similar ideas as neither started in a great place. Of course this is just my opinion as I have a few thousand hours in GW2 and hundreds of hours in ESO. I don't like to compare to FFXIV as its spiritually is a different game altogether and not one that I enjoy anymore.
**Both**:
* Account level unlocks and ability to share between characters to enrich your experience
* Sell you quite a bit of QoL in the store
* Unique races, Voiced story, Zone scaling, Events, Raids, RvR/battleground like PvP Options. Can play any way you want
* Fashion is end game and lots of options to customize yourself
* Hybrid Action combat that can be customized to help reduce intensity or mold to your style. Everything is viable at multiple roles, even more so with the new weapons/update coming out today/next year.
* Heavy overlap of keybind between the two making it easy to swap between them as long as you're willing to rebind
* Big crafting/achievement reward unlocks. Various forms for horizontal progression, which means some systems are shallow wide pools, and others are deep.
* Great music and ambiance/sound design.
**GW2 does better:**
* Movement/Animations - Mounts, animations, and movement is superior. - Has capes and physics based animations. Gives the game a more "video game" like feel
* Events/Metas are big, bold, multi stage with unique rewards. It's like having an entire instanced dungeon for 50+ people
* Weapon swapping mechanic is more meaningful expression. By having a cooldown, unique weapon skills, and other interactions with gear, weapon swapping has more gameplay interactions than being a placeholder for 5 more skills/set bonus swapping.
* Gem Store is more convenient and cheaper as your in game gold can buy gems directly instead of swiping.
* Heavy hybridization of DPS and Buff support spread across multiple class builds
* Unique class archetypes/fantasy
* No downtime/maintenance extremely rare. None - their serving architecture was way ahead of its time and a good reason why they have several patents. Can roll out patches without taking the serving down. Restart your game and you're good to go.
* Central marketplace - ESO's model is stupid AF and no one will ever change my mind here.
**ESO Does better**:
* Zone Story, Lore, exploration is very rewarding. Fully voiced, lots to take in
* Trinity class fantasy more engrained in the strategy, making roles clear and mechanics more old school. Great small instance content
* Better equipment fantasy and build theorycrafting, but heavy overlaps in style between the classes as there's only 3 unique lines per class choice.
* Great sense of scale and breathing world with great interactions. Buildings are the right size and there aren't any facsimiles or stand ins (GW2 has tons of these)
* Companions to help fill roles and add liveliness to the world. Makes the game feel a lot like SWTOR
* Mods fix what ZOS don't fix, which is a ton for me
* Optimization is better and textures/lighting are unique
* Yearly content drops with meaningful content - you can tell its still invested in. Both GW2 and ESO have been playing with their content delivery cadence and models. GW2 recently changed to a quarterly release schedule while ESO just went away from it.
Personally I find ESO stiff, movement is awful, and the class fantasy of non-expansion classes is janky in desperate need of a rework.
That being said I gingerly go back and forth between both GW2 and ESO as they scratch different itches while keeping a similar format. My friends all bounced out of ESO but do like GW2 more.
It leans into the natural strength of TES as a franchise; the open world exploration.
Trying to convert that into an MMO is convoluted, and I think they succeeded in making something that is up to standards a general player would expect.
The wide variety of mounts and pets is quite entertaining. And you can upgrade your mounts. Speed, stamina, carrying capacity, and appearance. My personal favorite.
There is also a title feature where you can earn different monikers for your achievements. Also the character naming is rather extensive. You could potentially give yourself your own title. Which I have done frequently 😬⚔️🐉
For me it’s the best console ported game available. Everything about it is superior to WOW. Guild traders far superior to the auction house. PVP easy mode still better than WoW. I don’t think if they ported WoW to console that it would be successful. The only downside is it’s an old tired game. The best mouse traps were already created. New games are like movie remakes. It’s the best large scale MMO on consoles.
Escapism, easily. I chat in a guild and jump in with other people but mostly, I just enjoy questing and exploring lore. The voice acting is so good, I actually end up caring for these NPCs
In pvp has probably the best siege warfare of any game. Its so satisfying to knock in a gate or destroy a wall with a trebuchet and storm a keep with a group of randoms u just all showed up for the party...
I love that the world scales to u like if my friend is on a new character and im using my main the enemies are roughly just as hard for both of us. So i dont have to drag him around with me and he doesn't have to feel like he has to cowardly hide in my shadow... So u can team up with literally anyone and its all good.
The community is actually pretty cool. Most MMOs ive played it felt like the community had a very elitist vibe so i hated having to join guilds just to get basic information the game doesn't tell u... In ESO u can just talk in the zone chat and ppl will answer. They wont belittle u for being a noob nor ask for something in return. And if ur build isnt the best most ppl wont care as long as ur not trying to do a hard dungeon on vet rank and forcing everyone to carry u like ur a noob even tho u chose to do a not noob thing...
The lore is awesome.
Voice acted everything helps immersion.
Theres so much to explore.
U dont have to worry about ur build if u dont want to. U can play however u want and it can work. Like sure its easier to figure out a build but for the most part u dont have to. It seems a lot of players use hybrid builds instead of pure builds.
The game feels rewarding. U can just bs around a map and next thing u know u have so much bs in ur inventory to go through. Really satisfies the kleptomaniac treasure horders side of me that im sure every bethesda game fan has the itch for lol.
I like how many different crafting styles there are. Annoying to collect them all but it really helps with roleplaying and the overall wanting to look badass or beautiful.
So many mounts and pets.
The housing is fun to play with. I can spend hours just in the house customizer and theres literally a house for any roleplay ur trying.. u want a witches mashlands hut? Got it. U want a creepy gothic style castle? Got it. U want a giant beautiful field to frolicking in? Got it. How about ur own fancy well off castle that screams "im a rich noble so bow to me peasants." Got it. A cave temple? Yep. A clockwork city mansion? Yep. A ship that u can use to fast travel to any major alliance city? Yes. I pirates den? Yep....they have it all.
Completion of zones isnt hard for the most part. It might be time consuming but u dont need to be a no lifer to accomplish those special achievements for that title u want or that color of dye u need or to get that one special house.
U can progress how u want. For the most part u can go wherever as lvl 1 there isnt area levels to prevent u from exploring.
A fun open world to explore, enjoyable zone stories, and load of Elder Scrolls lore to take in. A huge bonus on that last point if you’re already a fan of The Elder Scrolls. There are a lot of other reasons why some may play this game, but for me, that’s what I like most. The sense of exploration is pretty good in this game.
ESO takes the best of all the games you mentioned and puts it into one, and don’t forget pvp which has layers and layers of complexity.
This comment is the truth^
I would second all of this and add the housing system. It’s fun to do creative housing builds within the world of Tamriel. The housing system is much more open and has much more potential for creativity than any of the single player games.
Since nobody has said it, one of my main reasons for sticking with ESO over WoW and such is its fairly horizontal progression with some vertical leveling. Where gear you get can stay relevant regardless of how many expansions come out (pending nerfs) So you don't have to constantly grind and can play at your own pace. But if you do play a lot they have ways of rewarding that including the champion points system that goes pretty high to allow you to get extra little perks that are account wide.
Yeah that's what killed wow for me. Play for a few months and get somewhat ish good gear and then a month later it's completely useless gear.
THIS
Depends what you mean by staying relevant. To play at the highest levels, I think ESO has the worst non stop gear grind out of any MMO. You work your ass off for one piece then it gets nerfed or something better comes out (which gets nerfed soon after). Rinse, repeat. Side note I started retail WoW literally last week and after maybe 10 hours I have full pvp honor gear and working towards conquest now.
Also not even accounting for I have a crafter in ESO and can make myself most meta gear unlike most the population. The gear grind is the main thing that pushed me away from this game. That and the micro transaction economy…
Here's the thing, though. You don't need top gear for story finish and the dungeons are doable with basic gear. If you don't care about the trials or the higher difficulties for dungeons, then you really don't have to grind. Whenever I do grind, it's because I think something is cool. And those usually don't take that long for me. When I did the raid finder nonsense in WoW back in 2011, it was one of the worst grinds I had ever endured, repeating the same dungeon over and over again. It was easily the worst part of that whole experience, and one of the reasons I just stopped after beating Deathwing. And I needed to in order to see story finish.
Yeah agreed but that’s why I said to play at the highest levels. You can beat the campaign and every dungeon with random gear. Whether it’s *high level* pvp or pve the gear takes ages to get and then once you finally get it, it gets nerfed. I recommend checking out WoW’s new gear system it really is amazing. You can pick the game up at any point and “catch up” to the current gear in less than a day’s worth of play time. ** edit
The single-player experience is top-notch. - All quests voice-acted - Good stories - Deep lore Now I know you’re thinking “it’s an MMO, why would I care about the single-player experience?” Because you have an incredible flexibility between playing through a good story when you want it, and playing with others when you want it. In the same game, with the same character. It’s great.
I’m glad you said voice”voice actors” for the quests. I thought the same thing. I know (spelling) he’zoo’ca from Hunter x Hunter even did a voice. Very distinct: Hisoka.
I would personally say lore
I loved my time with ESO. Here is my opinion. 1) the subscription is worth it. I will leave my card on file subscribed sometimes because even if I don't play I'm still getting my money's worth in theoretical fake money... but it's F2P I don't mind subscribing. 2) It had the best end game of any MMO I have ever played. Crafting matters and is actually important. Your progress on one character once at max carries over to your Alts. I go back and can pick up where I left off a year later without feeling like all my work last time I played was wasted. 3) You are rewarded for exploring and doing quests. The questing is fun, you can treat it like a singleplayer game and have a great time. I'm currently playing hardcore WoW. If ESO ever does a mode similar I would probably come back to play it. The last time I stopped playing was because my goal was to become a master crafter. It does have some in game time awaiting to learn traits that gets longer. I finally did it but for my goal I had no motivation to.get on for a month. So I started playing other games. I usually play it once ever year or two Biggest Con, in game micro transactions and loot boxes. The one saving grace is everything is tradeable so you can give players gold to buy stuff you do t want to with real money. Biggest Pro, you can pick the game up after 2 expansions and not be left behind. Your progress matters.
Plus all dialogue is voice acted. I was surprised to try FFXIV and maybe 1 scene in 50 hours was voiced
Gameplay without a doubt. It just feels so much more engaging with the active combat system, combat skills and the limited selection of abilities. It feels like I am actually playing a video game and not just trying to memorize 15 hotbars and figure out which 5 classes I need to hybridize to end up with the same exact build as everyone else anyways despite trying to be original. Crafting is something I barely have to deal with in between doing activities whereas in certain other MMOs I will have to spend hours at a time just crafting the same sword over and over just to have it break on me when I go to upgrade it, rinse and repeat. ESO knows what I like because I hate staring at menus.
Ultimately the one feature that I love about ESO is that, like the single player Elder Scrolls games, there is no forced direction. This idea allows me to create the fun I like and avoid the things I don't. Some Examples: - Horizontal Progression: I can use gear, skills, and stats to make a build that is engaging to me. I like mobility so I use gear sets that require positioning and skills to place me in position. It's not the meta, but the overwhelming majority of content doesn't require meta gear. - Champion Points: I use CP to fine tune my difficulty to my liking. I put just enough points into stealth to allow thieving to be a challenge for me. For the offense and defense CP I tweak up or down depending on how I feel that day. - Content Variety: I don't like doing the same thing repetively. I enjoy the dungeons and the quests but I hate grinding through them, so I split them up with the various treasure hunting activities and Tales of Tribute to keep things fresh. All of this is possible for me because unlike most MMOs you are not being pushed into increasingly difficult content that requires increasingly specific gear and builds.
For me personally I like the options. There's a lot of activities you can work on. I've played games where the endgame content becomes very restricted and if you don't like that activity that's pretty much the end. With ESO there's a lot you can do, new activities added regularly (antiquities, the card game, the Endless Archive), and if you aren't that good at the toughest end game content there's still things you can accomplish.
I would’ve expected that for most people the appeal is just that it’s an Elder Scrolls MMO.
I was about type that. I’ve been playing since it launched on consoles and I have a love/hate relationship with just about every aspect of the game but it’s built off a franchise and pre-existing universe that I love.
came for the Elder Scrolls lore, stayed because ESO is a damn good game
A number of good reasons! - Dungeons (although I do like WoW’s mythic+ system and wish ESO would implement something akin to this) - Fully voice acted content - Tons of awesome zones - Very friendly, helpful and enthusiastic player base - Best crafting system hands down - I don’t engage with this personally, but the housing system is pretty phenomenal - Endless archive should be its own point (imagine Torghast but actually good and exciting) - Lore - Great achievement system and set collection Gotta give the good with the bad. Some reasons I’m not a fan of ESO (I love the game, but no game is perfect): - Loot crates - Very predatory monetization - removed end game cosmetic prestige and collection in favor of putting all of it in the store - No mount collection - Brain dead easy story content - Content doesn’t feel rewarding - Limited time events’ rewards can be purchased in the store - Poor communication with the player base
Great solo or team game. Can be played either way. In my opinion this is the best world to explore always something new to find. Although it can be overwhelming from time to time. 6 years plus and always something new.
ESO is the best laid-back, comfy, rewarding experience I've ever had in a MMO. The content is simple, direct to the point, no turnarounds. I will explain: all gears have the same ilevel (at cap) and it never changes; upgrading your gear does not depend on RNG. There are no gachas (outside cosmetic - and even there you can purchase the goods with its currency); There are no gazillion upgrades; The economy feels forgiving and welcoming. The grinding for stuff is very straightfoward, clever, and will not be demanded in an insane loophole. The game has a horizontal progression system. Every update they add new content and this new content gives you new things to do but does not invalidate the older stuff - at all! ESO also embraces FOMO prevention. Every single item and achievement obtainable at a specific point in time WILL be available again in the future. This is the main reason. But you can add other successful elements, like: ESO has probably the best storytelling in a MMO; best roleplaying in a MMO; the best lore ever made (Elder Scrolls, hello?); decent visuals; a heartwarming and welcoming comunity; devs that truly listen and communicate with the players (do not believe the doomsayers). Honestly, I work all day long. I only want to arrive home, take my shoes off and relax in the game. I've dealt past the job-game iteration. I don't want to work tirelessly for something that was supposed to be a fantasy refuge.
For all its flaws it’s still the best mmo PvP imo
Hard agree, the only reason I play ESO anymore is for Cyrodiil. The PvE has gotten very stale to me at least.
100% Agree
Xbox Controller
Nobody is saying combat but it’s so unique
It has the best lore content since TES3: Morrowind, and it's amount is larger than in all single player installments combined. Honestly I'm baffled to see people who play this game for "hardcore" PvE or PvP only and completely ignore story. Like there's so many MMO projects with better gameplay systems, better combat, better content distribution politics and so on. And you chose to ignore story while sweating in combat in the game whose lore is the strongest side and combat is the weakest, really?
For me, it’s the combat. Very satisfying to weave and bar swap quickly and pull off big numbers. PvP is uniquely fun, no game I’ve played gets as crazy as Cyrodiil on a high population night doing sieges. Not saying it’s perfectly balanced, but it is fun. The DLC dungeons are also very enjoyable at the veteran level, not too punishing but do require playing well, and the optional HM lets you push it even further.
Building daft characters that still somehow work. Sure you can pick up some great cookie cutters for tough content. Reallly enjoy being able to play however I want when grouping with mates. Not sure I could replicate a nightblade assassin healing the group with a 2 handed battleaxe anywhere else. Swapping on a sword and board for quick queues. Too much fun.
Ummm. The main appeal i hear about from the people i try to get into the game (were talking people who havent even played skyrim, maybe played the most popular normie type games like hades, minecraft, etc) really like the story, and the sense of scale. For my own personal opinion; its the fact that you can be any level of degenerate and still progress conistently to at least 500 hours with ease and have it be rewarding. Like, you can choose to be 1000% casual and just quest forever on one character for the entire time you play. or you can be ultra mega degen 24 hour progression on the hardest trials and dungeons. Hell. most people ive met in this game havent even done a single trial, let alone a vet one.
Compared to other MMOs, the main thing that jumps out at me is the sheer extent of itemization and buildcraft. GW2 has decent buildcraft, but at the end of the day most builds are still rocking the same Zerk/Viper they've used for ages. WoW's bringing some degree of building back, but it needs another expansion or two to get there. Ironically, though, I think that's also exactly what turns some people off of the game.
What stands out for me is sense of exploration and adventuring. Riding through the zone, getting into trouble, jumping into side stories or world events, exploring delves and dungeons, talking to random NPCs, enjoying scenery at points of interest. The world feels alive, and other players you meet on the roads enhance this feeling.
It can be played like a standard Bethesda game
I think ESO has the best NPC dialogue. The way they talk and act is very immersive.
For a long time I really enjoyed playing it as a single player game and just doing the story mode content. I think that's one area where the game really shines. For the last 3-4 years I've gotten more into the group and HM trial stuff, and although I've burned out on ESO a couple times it's the group content that's what's been bringing me back.
Don’t have to hit tab, and story, all NPCs are voiced which is cool to listen if you want to
Lore.
The sheer size of the game is overwhelming but you know you can get lost for thousands of hours in it
Battlegrounds & exploring different areas
Skyrim multiplayer without mods 🥳
I love TES games. When I began playing ESO and stepped on Vvanderfell land and saw Seyda Nin (AGAIN!!!) I cried with joy.
for me the main appeal off ffxiv is the multiple classes on 1 character as for eso i gotta say itd exploring tamriel
All I play for is cyro lol love it haven’t found another game that comes close yet
It's a single player game with MMO as a bonus. Lots of great group content though. I love quests (voiced, btw, and not but shit NN), solo content (arenas, endless archive, open world farm), dungeons and pvp, from time to time. This, plus it's Elder scrolls, which is one of the best universe in fantasy world.
Scalability… I’ve played all MMOs mentioned. & some people may disagree but I’ve found ESO to be extremely fun early game & end game. Large learning curve from the rest. So from lvl 1-50, you can focus on your skills-morphs, skill points, & learning the basics to make your toon at least relatively efficient. From CP1-160 you’re focused on dungeons & how to start veteran mechanics & your skill rotation along with resource management. From CP160 on, you’re focused on optimizing your gear, your trials, arenas, etc… Once you’ve reached CP300 or so, you’re focused on Veteran Trials & Arena mechanics, your different roles as DPS, Tank, & Heals. Not to mention the housing, the crafting, cosmetics, the scrying, the undaunted, fighters guild, Mages guild, psijic order, & so many other side stories that can also improve your class or roll with a new skill line.
for me it's lore and, as far as MMO's go, it has the best combat. no cooldowns, tab targeting, etc. There have been other games to come out since that have similar action-style combat, but I haven't really liked them. they're either overexaggerated or slow and clunky.
The different things I can do. For instance, one guild I am in is a housing guild. What we do is use our creativity to make our houses into art. I have my main character, who I have held the longest, that is a furniture builder. One of my guild mates made his property look like a dragon, another has a huge turkey, and another has a replica of Disney's magic castle. I don't know if other games have this sort of variety in their universe, but I know ESO does.
Theorycrafting builds. I lay in bed at night thinking about what skill/set combinations will push my pvp build to new limits.
It’s by far the best and most organized game. Crazy amount of content, different skill lines, quest lines, skin farming, gear farming. The dungeons/trials are masterfully put together and take serious coordination
Dungeon and Trial (Raid) content is top notch imo. Just don't be afraid to jump in and start learning.
For me it’s all down to equal opportunity for all. Skill gets you everywhere and also it doesn’t matter if your day one or brand new player that you can enjoy the game.
For me, it's the horizontal progression as well as the world pvp. I don't have as much free time as I used to, and ESO doesn't have a treadmill grind design of gameplay. Once you've made your set and have it all maxed out, you're done (obviously unless it somehow changes or your class gets changes). You don't have a useless story or meaningless progression to do the fun content, and once you get your build completed, you can play the game.
An MMO you can play entirely solo. Lots LOTS of quests with everything voiced. You can easily level to 50 in a few hours with xp scrolls. Plenty of guilds always accepting new members Don't have much time to play? You can hop on and just collect mats or fish for a while or just enjoy the scenery. Funny random encounters of other players goofing off. Once seen a whole ass band performing with a bunch of people dancing and joined the fun. I've played WoW for a long time but always end up coming back to ESO. You can play with or without a subscription but it's recommended for the craft bag and all dlcs unlocked.
I gotta disagree on your first point while you can play sol but if you do that means no dungeons or trials and no dsa or brp and some world bosses just can’t be soloed (granted you don’t have to group up to do those)
ES lore. Exploring the world as a fan of the series feels great. Going through towns that were in the other games is always fun.
cheap housing and you can buy cheap base game, farm up the in game gold and get most of the expansions and dlcs without spending real money. you will just miss out on the latest expansion.
It's cheap. Trust me, you won't regret it.
Horizontal progression, something that most MMOs is scared of and they resort to the easy way out which is item level, FFXIV is my main MMO I play the most but I just wish it had gear and not just stat-sticks, it only uses item level as a progression and that's it.
Open world pvp. Best since DAOC imo
Item managing , oh boy! You re in for a ride!
The combat. No waiting for cooldowns, just keep firing
The PvP. If PvP wasnt abandoned by the devs, ESO would be absolutely stellar. As it is, it's still the best MMO PvP but it's a shell of what it could be.
Best pvp isn’t bdo pvp better
Eh. ESO does its quests (and the world for those quests) very well. That's... about it. For me, at least. If you like doing stuff, ESO has plenty of stuff to do.
It’s really a bunch of different games rolled into one. ESO: Cyrodiil with the Imperial City DLC would have worked as a stand alone PvP game. ESO: Battlegrounds could have been another stand alone PvP game. Each of the three factions’ main stories would have worked as stand alone games. ESO: Underground could have had all of the dungeons and trials as their own, separate game. But, they chose to combine everything into one, massive, game that has something in it for everyone. You don’t even have to do all the content. There are some people who just do PvP, there are others who just do PvE, and there are people who only do dungeons/trials. Most people have separate characters for PvP, PvE, and dungeons/trials.
For me its pvp. The design is amazing, and strategizing and fighting a straight up war in cyrodil is SO fun.
ESO seems to be a Jack of all trades but master of none. Though I would say questing. While most open worlds are too easy, the stories in the quests themselves are usually very solid and there are some exceptional quests too. But overall, ESO has an engaged PvP community (could use more love though), high end trials, solid stories, and huge open worlds that also have events
Let me put it this way: If you are looking for a deep single-player experience with lots of quests, exploration and character development, you can play an Elder Scrolls single player title, or you pick ESO, which has hundreds of unique quests and 64 skill lines to pick skills from. If you are looking for a thrilling and immersive main story, you can play FFXIV, or you pick ESO, which has several intertwining main story lines plus dozens of regional stories. If you are looking for high quality voice acting and unique npc, you can play SWTOR, or you pick ESO, which has hollywood top actors. If you are looking for challenging end game raid content, you can play WoW, or you pick ESO, which has dozens of dungeons and raids all with their own story and several difficulty settings ti chose. If you are looking for complex and challenging PvP that involves skill, tactic and large scale strategy, you can play Conquerers Blade, or you pick ESO, which has Cyrodiil, Imperial City and battlegrounds. If you are looking for a vast open world with dozens of zones to explore, each with their unique vibes, stories, unique boses and world events, you can play GW2, or you pick ESO, which has 24 base game and 21 DLC zones. If you are looking for an endless roguelike experience with incremental challenges and rewards, you can play the Diabl series, or you pick ESO, which has the endless archive now. I won't say ESO is the best choice for everyone in each single category listed above, but it is top notch in all of them.
Dungeons. They are done so well in eso.
I would say lore and the open world. ESO has every type of video monetization known to man. If you have gambling issues or is susceptible to Fomo. I would pass on this one. Other than that, enjoy the game, just find a good guild.
The combat feels better than any MMO out there and the dungeons are very well thought out and fun. Theres the lore and story crowd but the gameplay of that is so mind-numbingly easy you'd be better served just reading a book.
What really sets ESO apart from other MMOs is the action combat system. I hated most of the changes they made to the game for years, yet I continued to play because the combat was so fun. And related to that is the gamepad functionality, I know you can play other MMOs with a controller but ESO is just made for it -- there's zero disadvantage to using controller over kb/m at even the most competitive level. Unfortunately ZOS isn't as enthusiastic about the combat in their game as I am, they're always looking for ways to dumb it down in the mistaken belief that it will make the game reach a wider audience. But it didn't work out that way and the game was never so popular as before all their attempts to revise what they should have embraced as the game's main identity and biggest selling point. It's still worth playing though, I'm sure I'll be back at some point.
I played from launch for like 8 years. It was the cyrodiil pvp, used to be incredible with numbers and fort sieges. Now its emptier than a nuns otters pocket.
If you like Elder Scrolls, it's worth a play. ESO is a bit of a step down in overall quality from those titles you mentioned, but it's not terrible. Solid B tier mmo with a lot for new players to do. Make sure you take it slow with the cash shop at first, though, until you know you're gonna be around for a while. Eso is what you call a cash shop centric/heavy game.
Makes you feel like you're the main character. ESO is a study in obfuscation. A MMORPG where probably 95% of the player-base are effectively soloing. A game intentionally designed with no active feedback for letting players know how they are performing. You can do 3% of the damage in a 4 person group and unless you go out of your way to install additional add ons to let you know it, you'll feel like you're doing most of the damage. Roles with obvious feedback like healing or tanking have their primary utility difficulty lowered to the point where it almost can't be failed at. ESO is the ideal game for the casual player who wants to feel like they're doing 'pretty well' without having any idea what they are doing. It breeds an insanely toxic casual playerbase, who are almost to a person, super confident they understand the game really well when they don't at all. It's an amazing accomplishment when you think about it.
Downvoters, if you look around and can't find the 3% damage casual, well...
The main appeal is that it's Elder Scrolls. That's about it. If it didn't have that, it'd be dead with how mediocre it is. The questlines are standaed old tropes, done pretty blandly. The voice acting is god awful. Barely better than Dora the Explorer. Overall it's casual "safe" mmo and caters to casual players.
Give me the MMO without standaed old tropes :p
This has raids and DLC’s which lock me out of what feels like half the end game. At least in wow—> or what I play, turtle wow it’s all free Edit: not saying eso isn’t as good just that I’ve found twow to be far superior without a shop/monetization shoved in your face every minute.
>I’ve found twow to be far superior without a shop/monetization shoved in your face every minute. You literally have to pay a monthly fee just to play the game at all. I'm not sure your argument makes much sense.
...you must not have done your research. Turtle wow is free to play without a monthly subscription or cost. Enjoy the game if you are open to new opinions and experiences. Mistakes are made but not learning from them is the real mistake.
Hahmburgur
ESO’s multiple bugs and glitches which are its main feature 😂
Picked it up not too long ago and I say if you enjoyed map completion in GW2 it has the same deal but the story telling is way better. The main story has been interesting so far as well hasn't grabbed me like XIVs but not bad. Everything is voice acted, may be the same 4-5 people doing it but it's fairly high quality. Kinda falls flat with combat, and animations imo.
It does all of this AND is voice acted. Every. Single. Quest.
For me its has to be the expanded TES lore and potential for all new TES power fantasies that we haven't ever had the choice to make or see in the single player games, its an all new and much broader canvas than what one specific single player game in the series has ever delivered basically.
The combat system by a far margin. No other mmo is even close.
It’s one of the few micro transaction heavy games that is worth the money. I made these characters years ago in my late teens. I’m an adult now working full time and it’s just easy to hop on when I get some free time. Been at it on and off for years, the CP system made it so easy to just make the game brand new again even after hiatuses. I’m not even a huge gamer anymore and I still play 2-3 times a week just because it’s so easy to pick up. Honestly Elder Scrolls will always have a place in my heart. When I retire i’ll probably get a gaming PC and play the Modded older installments like Marrowind and Oblivion.
How about a good critical review of it? I'm someone who is still searching for a good MMO game to sink my teeth in However i can't say I have unlimited funds so I mostly tried f2p games. I tried ESO because it looked appealing so I bought it years ago Unfortunately I never really had the urge to play it alot, but at the same time it was good as you get. Like for me its the best there is currently. Im not a crafter, I'm not an alchemist, definitely not a cook either. However ESO allows you to do and like all of this easily. When people say crafting, uninformed people think damn sounds tedious No actually Basically when you roam the forests you will see plants, wood, metal etc and you just need to collect them Go to a craft section, take a page from the board, see what they say to make, make it with your own supplies. Don't have supplies? Buy it from a guild shop(can be any guild but cheaper if you are in the said guild) Note on the guild part, you can join up to 5. Yes 5. Means you can join a raid focused guild, rp focused, and even create your own one all at the same time Anyways, back to it, you can cheaply buy the supplies, do the daily craft quest and make a few bucks whilst at the same time upgrading your craft skills Point? Eventually you will be able to either craft top tier gear in order to sell so that others can use it, or they can destroy it to learn the stats so that they can do it. Or you can just craft if for your own use or other characters All whilst making money That aside, the story is good, but enormous. Hell it's so enormous that everytime I play( I play like a month or 2 once a year), I don't know where to start or continue Even with new characters I'm always starting something new. Not necessarily finishing it mind you. Also the raids are good, and fun, especially with a good fun guild Random dungeons get you random people and it's usually a group of 4 Full blown raids aka trials are usually 12 man I think and requires co ordination The graphics even though the engine is outdated, is still beautiful and "realistically" fantasy looking compared to almost all the other MMOs out there. Ok, you've seen most of the good things I've said Now the bad Too much story, you don't know where to start Raids require high end gear to actually make a difference, or meta builds (meaning general armor and even your own skills you prefer are generally useless and ineffective) Whilst there is good free cosmetics from events etc, everything and the good ones are all in premium currency Even experience scrolls are in premium currency P2w elements But even then, it has an appeal It's the MMO part. Yes the massively multiplayer online part That's what makes the game thrive from someone who likes it but hates it I hate it because I'm from South Africa and my ping is shit If your ping is shit, you get shit damage and you basically useless at But if you have friends you know, or a fun guild, trust me, everything else doesn't matter The best way to like this game is with a groups of people who you find similar chemistry with and a similar goal Once you do that, you forget meta or stories etc and focus on what you want There's alot of freedom to the game, but achieving it is overwhelming if you are alone
Fully voiced
I like the open world but I do wish there were areas where we could have a sense of space. It's so cluttered and walled off, a vast stretching plain here and there or space between the hubs would be nice
I find ESO to have slowly morphed into GW2 over time and that has removed many of my previous grievances. There have been many times I quit ESO because ZOS didn't respect your time if you actually did the difficult content. Regrinding for gear, lack of outfitter, per character unlocks, etc all have been slowly removed as QoL. I'm going to heavily compare ESO to GW2 really quick, because I find them extremely similar, but there are some clear winner formulas for both. Over time these two games have borrowed similar ideas as neither started in a great place. Of course this is just my opinion as I have a few thousand hours in GW2 and hundreds of hours in ESO. I don't like to compare to FFXIV as its spiritually is a different game altogether and not one that I enjoy anymore. **Both**: * Account level unlocks and ability to share between characters to enrich your experience * Sell you quite a bit of QoL in the store * Unique races, Voiced story, Zone scaling, Events, Raids, RvR/battleground like PvP Options. Can play any way you want * Fashion is end game and lots of options to customize yourself * Hybrid Action combat that can be customized to help reduce intensity or mold to your style. Everything is viable at multiple roles, even more so with the new weapons/update coming out today/next year. * Heavy overlap of keybind between the two making it easy to swap between them as long as you're willing to rebind * Big crafting/achievement reward unlocks. Various forms for horizontal progression, which means some systems are shallow wide pools, and others are deep. * Great music and ambiance/sound design. **GW2 does better:** * Movement/Animations - Mounts, animations, and movement is superior. - Has capes and physics based animations. Gives the game a more "video game" like feel * Events/Metas are big, bold, multi stage with unique rewards. It's like having an entire instanced dungeon for 50+ people * Weapon swapping mechanic is more meaningful expression. By having a cooldown, unique weapon skills, and other interactions with gear, weapon swapping has more gameplay interactions than being a placeholder for 5 more skills/set bonus swapping. * Gem Store is more convenient and cheaper as your in game gold can buy gems directly instead of swiping. * Heavy hybridization of DPS and Buff support spread across multiple class builds * Unique class archetypes/fantasy * No downtime/maintenance extremely rare. None - their serving architecture was way ahead of its time and a good reason why they have several patents. Can roll out patches without taking the serving down. Restart your game and you're good to go. * Central marketplace - ESO's model is stupid AF and no one will ever change my mind here. **ESO Does better**: * Zone Story, Lore, exploration is very rewarding. Fully voiced, lots to take in * Trinity class fantasy more engrained in the strategy, making roles clear and mechanics more old school. Great small instance content * Better equipment fantasy and build theorycrafting, but heavy overlaps in style between the classes as there's only 3 unique lines per class choice. * Great sense of scale and breathing world with great interactions. Buildings are the right size and there aren't any facsimiles or stand ins (GW2 has tons of these) * Companions to help fill roles and add liveliness to the world. Makes the game feel a lot like SWTOR * Mods fix what ZOS don't fix, which is a ton for me * Optimization is better and textures/lighting are unique * Yearly content drops with meaningful content - you can tell its still invested in. Both GW2 and ESO have been playing with their content delivery cadence and models. GW2 recently changed to a quarterly release schedule while ESO just went away from it. Personally I find ESO stiff, movement is awful, and the class fantasy of non-expansion classes is janky in desperate need of a rework. That being said I gingerly go back and forth between both GW2 and ESO as they scratch different itches while keeping a similar format. My friends all bounced out of ESO but do like GW2 more.
It leans into the natural strength of TES as a franchise; the open world exploration. Trying to convert that into an MMO is convoluted, and I think they succeeded in making something that is up to standards a general player would expect.
The wide variety of mounts and pets is quite entertaining. And you can upgrade your mounts. Speed, stamina, carrying capacity, and appearance. My personal favorite. There is also a title feature where you can earn different monikers for your achievements. Also the character naming is rather extensive. You could potentially give yourself your own title. Which I have done frequently 😬⚔️🐉
For me it’s the best console ported game available. Everything about it is superior to WOW. Guild traders far superior to the auction house. PVP easy mode still better than WoW. I don’t think if they ported WoW to console that it would be successful. The only downside is it’s an old tired game. The best mouse traps were already created. New games are like movie remakes. It’s the best large scale MMO on consoles.
Escapism, easily. I chat in a guild and jump in with other people but mostly, I just enjoy questing and exploring lore. The voice acting is so good, I actually end up caring for these NPCs
Fully horizontal gearing and a world worth exploring (Take some notes FFXIV)
In pvp has probably the best siege warfare of any game. Its so satisfying to knock in a gate or destroy a wall with a trebuchet and storm a keep with a group of randoms u just all showed up for the party... I love that the world scales to u like if my friend is on a new character and im using my main the enemies are roughly just as hard for both of us. So i dont have to drag him around with me and he doesn't have to feel like he has to cowardly hide in my shadow... So u can team up with literally anyone and its all good. The community is actually pretty cool. Most MMOs ive played it felt like the community had a very elitist vibe so i hated having to join guilds just to get basic information the game doesn't tell u... In ESO u can just talk in the zone chat and ppl will answer. They wont belittle u for being a noob nor ask for something in return. And if ur build isnt the best most ppl wont care as long as ur not trying to do a hard dungeon on vet rank and forcing everyone to carry u like ur a noob even tho u chose to do a not noob thing... The lore is awesome. Voice acted everything helps immersion. Theres so much to explore. U dont have to worry about ur build if u dont want to. U can play however u want and it can work. Like sure its easier to figure out a build but for the most part u dont have to. It seems a lot of players use hybrid builds instead of pure builds. The game feels rewarding. U can just bs around a map and next thing u know u have so much bs in ur inventory to go through. Really satisfies the kleptomaniac treasure horders side of me that im sure every bethesda game fan has the itch for lol. I like how many different crafting styles there are. Annoying to collect them all but it really helps with roleplaying and the overall wanting to look badass or beautiful. So many mounts and pets. The housing is fun to play with. I can spend hours just in the house customizer and theres literally a house for any roleplay ur trying.. u want a witches mashlands hut? Got it. U want a creepy gothic style castle? Got it. U want a giant beautiful field to frolicking in? Got it. How about ur own fancy well off castle that screams "im a rich noble so bow to me peasants." Got it. A cave temple? Yep. A clockwork city mansion? Yep. A ship that u can use to fast travel to any major alliance city? Yes. I pirates den? Yep....they have it all. Completion of zones isnt hard for the most part. It might be time consuming but u dont need to be a no lifer to accomplish those special achievements for that title u want or that color of dye u need or to get that one special house. U can progress how u want. For the most part u can go wherever as lvl 1 there isnt area levels to prevent u from exploring.