The Elder Scrolls Online
Top Critic Average
Critics Recommend
Critic Reviews for The Elder Scrolls Online
A few well-designed systems struggle to overcome lifeless presentation. Capable, but ultimately hard to recommend.
It's tempting to write off subscription MMOs completely, but there are some signs of life in the sector: Final Fantasy 14 is doing quite well, and the forthcoming WildStar is in the final stages of a persuasive charm offensive with the MMO community. But there are only fleeting signs of life in The Elder Scrolls Online itself - and few of them have anything to do with The Elder Scrolls. Maybe this grand project sounded like a good idea in 2007, but now it feels like a leftover obligation: a game no-one really asked for, and a flawed premise from the start.
The Elder Scrolls Online immerses you in its intricate quests and fantasy landscapes, only to undercut its strengths at every turn.
Whether or not The Elder Scrolls Online is for you will depend entirely on what you're looking for out of it. If you want a true Elder Scrolls experience, with all the freedom, exploration, and immersion that comes with it, you're likely to be disappointed.
Elder Scrolls Online is a good, fun game overall, but it's a better MMO than it is an Elder Scrolls game.
Where The Elder Scrolls Online fails is when it doesn't break enough from the traditional MMO formula, which is the same mistake other massively multiplayer games keep making, but the only places I've felt that weakness so far are in the monster behavior and quest systems. If the endgame and player-versus-player content I haven't gotten to yet also stick too close to typical MMO formulas, then it's going to be difficult for Bethesda to justify the cost of a subscription for The Elder Scrolls Online unless additional, fresh, and substantial story material is regularly added to the game for high-level players, maybe even on a monthly basis.
Industry Coverage
The Elder Scrolls Online Considered Adding A Permadeath Battlegrounds Mode
"We thought abut doing one life, and we found that it's a cool idea, but with our combat, one life could be really, really difficult."
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The Elder Scrolls Online Lead PvP Designer Wants To Iron Out Cyrodiil Lag
"I want to really go back there and see what we can streamline".
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The Elder Scrolls Online Narrative Director Responds To Non-Binary Companion Backlash
To those who claim Tanlorin doesn't fit into the world of The Elder Scrolls, narrative director Bill Slavicsek says, "They're wrong."
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The Elder Scrolls Online Is Aware Of Battlegrounds Queue Issue, Fix In The Works
"When that came up, we were like, 'Okay, well, we gotta fix that as soon as we possibly can.'"
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