Thoughts/opinions on Elder Scrolls game series in general

[King of Worms]

I might give it another go, Ive tried TESO quite a long time ago, possibly at the alpha stage and few times after that.
I used to enjoy MMORPGs, so why not .)

[Lokkrin Zhataros]

This reminds me that I've been wanting to get back into ESO and haven't taken the chance yet. Daggerfall Unity alpha releasing a few months ago has got me happily distracted and consumed with Daggefall. Five months ago I bought a new/upgraded computer setup and have had to reinstall all the games I want to play, didn't get around to ESO. Honestly though, I like ESO. It's a pretty good MMO. It's got that TES vibe but not the greatest stories and lore. It's a little disappointing in that regard. For gameplay though it can be a lot of fun. Played probably 300 or so hours and I have soloed a fair portion of it. I only play the MMO part when friends are available to play with. I liked the gameplay of the Morrowind expansion and I hear Elsweyr is decent but haven't given it a try, I'm a little late to the party there. Will definitely be getting back into ESO early next year.

[Ommamar]

I might give it another go, Ive tried TESO quite a long time ago, possibly at the alpha stage and few times after that.
I used to enjoy MMORPGs, so why not .)

If that is what you are basing the opinion of you really should give it another try it has improved greatly since release. Elsewyr was cool just to see the area of Khajit expanded on. I felt the necormancer class was just a rehash of the Warden class so I couldn't get into it, of course I only played it to level 20 so probably not a valid critique as the classes can change dramatically at certain points or if built a certain way. The chase the dragon around as a huge zerg could be fun but it had gotten to the point similar to dark anchors where everyone knew the route so they would just wait then as soon as the dragon landed it was dead.

[Seferoth]

Anyone else here ever played The Elder Scrolls Travels: Shadowkey? I had N-Gage and Shadowkey(which i regret that i sold), great game actually, problem with that game was god awful controls. Still, it had it's own charm.

[Lokkrin Zhataros]

Just reinstalled ESO on my computer and am exited to get back into the game. Probably will just play it off and on for a few months in between my Daggerfall playing.

Shadowkey? Holy crap it's been a long time! Had access to the game from a friend who had an N-Gage back in the day. Didn't play much of the game, maybe 6 hours and my friend moved away so never had a chance to play it since. I hear it's impossible to emulate so I have to get an N-Gage from eBay or somewhere for some ridiculous price along with the game just to play a game I may not enjoy.

From what I remember, it felt like a combination of Arena, Daggerfall and Morrowind all in one game and the controls were crap. Like you said, it did have a unique charm about it. Anyone else have an experience with Shadowkey they would like to share?

[Seferoth]

Only TES games that i have not played are Battlespire,Redguard and some of the mobile games. Battlespire is something that interest me a bit, i should try it in the future. Oblivion Mobile was actually pretty good for mobile game back then. I am still salty that Oblivion PSP port was canceled.

[Lokkrin Zhataros]

Battlespire is fun, in my opinion. I play it on occasion. You can talk to Scamps (among many other monsters) and they are hilarious. There are monsters/enemies seen in this game that you don't get to see in any other game. You get to see the Soul Cairn before Skyrim f-ed it all up.

I gave up on Redguard after a few hours since the controls are crap. It's best experienced through a let's play on YouTube. It has the best storyline and writing of all Elder Scrolls games.

[TheYellowDart]

TES has had an interesting arc - it feels like with every installment it moves further away from being a traditional RPG and closer to being more of a fantasy life simulator, so my appreciation of later games waxes and wanes based on how open I am to that sort of thing. I can't think of any RPG series that has seen so much change, both over the course of the series and between installments. Each one feels like a completely different sort of game, with Arena being a straight-up traditional RPG with only minor life-sim elements thrown in, while Skyrim is more of a fantasy life sim with minor RPG elements thrown in.

I also think this is why you'll find such a diversity of opinions on which TES game is "best:" because the series is so unlike what most people have ever experienced before in a video game, often their point of entry to the series ends up establishing their taste and codifying what a TES game "should" be, and as a result for many their favourite TES game tends to be the first one they've played - anything older is too inaccessible, and anything more recent is too dumbed down.

Now that's not a hard and fast rule and there are plenty of exceptions to it. I'm one myself - I entered the series with Morrowind but my favourite is Daggerfall - but it seems to generally hold true overall, and I think it's a testament to the uniqueness of TES as a video game series.

[DaveCastle]

I was surprised to find TES Online to be a lot of fun. Bought it this Christmas for like two peanuts and I've put in a good ~120 hours since then (benefits of being stricken down with flu all the way throughout the holidays, I guess).

• I love the freedom you get in character building;

• There are barely any "bring me 20 bear asses" type quests (well, there are a few, but those are also somewhat disguised behind writing);

• There are actually more than two voice actors for each race, that's a huge plus; there are also a few memorable characters that have grown on me like the Morag Tong lady who keeps cropping up all over the place.

• Enemies won't just stand still and reduce your numbers while you race to reduce theirs, they're mobile and have AOE attacks you can actively avoid which makes fights feel less like cutting down aggressive trees;

• Questing and exploration are actually rewarded with skill points and sky shards (effectively skill points);

• Areas and dungeons are different enough to keep me interested in exploring;

• The community has been the most welcoming towards newcomers I've seen in an online game by far, although that's of course anecdotal experience.

• I think the art direction is great.

Speaking of art, someone mentioned earlier they liked Oblivion's pasty-faced plastic character designs - I'm not sure what drugs they're using, but I wanna try some of it too. Bear in mind I'm talking about art direction, not the datedness of the graphics. Just compare the Argonians' depiction in the two games:

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Some random aspects your mileage may vary on:
Mobs are scaled up to your level wherever you go and so is loot, but it feels much less stupid than in, say, Oblivion - no bandits wearing glass armour will try to rob you for a couple gold pieces and it keeps all questing areas somewhat challenging. You don't really get the feeling from NPCs that you've evolved into some kind of a Chosen One demigod anyway, you're just a competent dude who keeps butting into other people's problems. During the main quest, a certain supporting character even lampshades that you may want to seek out others who have the same issue as you and join forces, meaning other people have run afoul to the future King of Worms and now share your "affliction". You're not fooled into thinking that it's "all about you" in this momurpuger.
I could do with more variety in regards to dialogue options, especially since you can make some important choices during certain quests, but at pretty much all other times it's 1. Advance plot, 2. Leave conversation. The contrast can be a bit jarring.
I actually like the fact that I can solo like 90% of the content because in MMOs I generally prefer crafting and selling stuff to other people and getting rich to actually socialising and playing with them.
Race-based factions feel really arbitrary and wonkily written to me, but I'll file it under "executive meddling forced them to shoehorn in a PVP system into their momurpuger"; thankfully there's no world pvp and you can interact with all players regardless of their race outside battlegrounds which I don't give a toss about anyway.

Now that's not a hard and fast rule and there are plenty of exceptions to it. I'm one myself - I entered the series with Morrowind but my favourite is Daggerfall - but it seems to generally hold true overall, and I think it's a testament to the uniqueness of TES as a video game series.

For me, it was the other way around. I first played Daggerfall when it came out but the bugginess and the obtuseness of its own mechanics wore me down eventually whilst I appreciated how revolutionary it was even then. (I enjoy it loads more now with mods, QOL features like the smaller dungeons and less bugginess.) Still, I preferred Morrowind back in the day because it didn't need to be procedurally generated to feel big and diverse, and the lore and the main quest were actually really interesting, unlike in the later two games.

[L57]

Mobs are scaled up to your level wherever you go and so is loot, but it feels much less stupid than in, say, Oblivion - no bandits wearing glass armour will try to rob you for a couple gold pieces and it keeps all questing areas somewhat challenging.

Sometimes this makes me wonder can Oblivion be considered a really good, well-crafted role playing game objectively?

I mean, isn't it totally broken? As far as I remember, you virtually have no incentive to become stronger, because of that stupid leveling system. Besides minimum level requirements for daedra quests, there is no any point to raise your level. You simply can beat a game being 1st level and it was the EASIEST strategy to beat this game, at least for newcomers. WTF? It's hard to remember a game where character leveling puts player at a disadvantage Maybe I'm wrong, but this is how I remembered TES IV.