The Elder Scrolls Online Reviews
Playing The Elder Scrolls with your friends may sound like fun, but after playing a bit, you might just end up wishing for the sweet release of Oblivion.
The Elder Scrolls Online combines the best of Elder Scrolls with the worst of the MMO genre.
How ironic is it that by making their storied franchise an online experience, Bethesda has somehow created a less immersive Elder Scrolls game? I used to feel like The One, now I'm just a customer.
Bethesda's big budget, massively multiplayer trip to Tamriel has some great ideas, but struggles with execution in places.
From story to scale, The Elder Scrolls Online does its single player predecessors justice while at some parts struggling to find its own identity.
As always, ZeniMax has provided quality work that never ceases to amaze. If you are thinking about getting into ESO, I would highly recommend it. No matter the platform, ESO works well and continues to bring wonderful stories to fans of all types.
The mini-dungeons are extremely repetitive, almost identical in their layout. What's worse, they're shared with other players, meaning that you often move through areas cleared by someone just ahead of you, to find the boss encounter vacant save for a dozen players standing around,
With better MMORPGs already out there and seemingly more great ones coming, The Elder Scrolls Online is using the name to appeal to its large fan base, and I have no doubt some will enjoy, but for the rest, this game is an vacillating anomaly in a packed market.
Elder Scrolls Online is, by the skin of its teeth and a lot of hard work from Zenimax, a success. Phew.
The Elder Scrolls Online is a solid, meaty title. It has hours of gameplay, satisfying character trees, and a wealth of online role playing experiences to churn through. It's safe and secure. It serves up the classic habitual MMORPG experience, albeit with a "Tamriel Twist". And for many gamers, this will be fine. But Bethesda have created an example - not an evolution - of the genre.
Zenimax and Bethesda have gotten their baby out of the first gate. Despite the flailing and wailing of some impossible to please souls about the downtime and what they were owed, everything has been handled cleverly and carefully.
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.
A few launch hiccups aside, the issues that are and will continue to dog Elder Scrolls Online are entirely down to perception. If your hope for a sixth Elder Scrolls was always for a sequel set across a hitherto unexplored region of Tamriel; a game in which you could be the focus and aspire to be the sole hero, developing exclusive and ancient powers along the way, then Elder Scrolls Online was never going to cut it. Likewise if you're the kind of veteran MMO gamer who has to hit the level cap as quickly as possible to forever grind raids to attain the best gear, TESO's slower pace and exhaustive content may well feel tiresome and laboured.
Under the surface, not enough has changed to the formula that separates The Elder Scrolls Online from existing free or established properties, and I would find it genuinely hard to recommend to anyone seeking an experience outside of a cosy, well presented, box.
An easy recommendation for any console-based RPG fan. Better with friends. The game introduces console players to the vast world of MMOs in an easy to grasp and approachable fashion with a ton to see and explore.
Elder Scrolls Online: Summerset is an exciting new chapter for the MMO. It offers an engaging narrative that kept this progression driven gamer distracted which is saying a lot. Although the expansion didn't offer a new class we were introduced to a pretty fun new skill tree and despite the grind to unlock it, it offers some great new approaches to combat. With a beautiful new zone, intriguing story and only a few minor grievances, I highly recommend picking up Summerset.
Whether or not The Elder Scrolls Online is for you depends on what you are looking for. It is not a conversion of the single player series that many might have hoped for. You can finally trot around Tamriel with your friends, slaying goblins and daedra, but the experience is hindered by uninspiring combat mechanics and far more restrictive exploration options resulting in a less immersive world.
So another lukewarm MMO, then. But occasionally heated up a bit by the rare confluence of scenery, music (the majority of which is excellent) and raw atmosphere that can transport you for a fleeting moment to the Tamriel we've grown to know and love.
Yes, plenty of compromises were made to create this hybrid of a traditional Elder Scrolls game and a traditional MMO. Those compromises will leave purists on both sides disappointed, but this is an ambitious and exciting epic that promises to only grow with time. It's a sandbox worth sharing, provided everyone is willing to play nicely with others and Bethesda keeps it clean.