What's your opinion on Elder Scrolls Online?

[Falci]

So, ESO's base game was recently given away for free over on the Epic Game Store and I've finally started playing it. And I've been enjoying it very much, despite my general disinterest in MMOs and online multiplayer games overall. I'm a little over 25 hours in right now, and playing a bunch regularly.

I've seen this game described by someone online as an Elder Scrolls themed Amusement Park, and I can see where the comparison comes from. It's a huge single player game brought down by the need for MMO trappings, like trying to milk you for money with inconvenient designs and having players all around constantly, and enemies, even bosses instantly respawning because some other player in the same quest came by.

One can also see how a lot of classic Elder Scrolls systems e quirks got adapted to the game's framework, sometimes with quirky results.

Yet, I'm having a lot of fun with it and got curious to see what was the general opinion here. I've seen a couple of older threads mention it, but nothing very recent.

[karata]

Hard to say I just started to play it

[Seferoth]

Meh.

[Falci]

Meh.

I can understand the feeling.

I'm 620+ hours in, bought the "complete" package over on Steam (you can use the same ESO account on both platforms) and discovered that there's a lot of content that doesn't come with the package, interacted with a few players, and it was all positive, but, still, my opion remains the same from the very start of this thread.

I will add that they have a tendency to run seasonal events pretty frequently, which is starting to feel a bit exausting.

[WolverineTheWhite]

When I tried it, the game felt less alive than any other installation of TES, EVER. Static NPC's that never move, a boring and non-alive feeling world, no sense of wonder and exploration just grind grind grind, and unimaginative spell types and classes. I actually hated it, this was a few years ago but I will literally never install it again because of how bad it was at that time in comparison to Morrowind, Oblivion and skyrim. To me, installing the multiplayer mods and getting Skyrim to work with even 1 other friend felt so much better than Elderscrolls online ever could.

One example:

NPC'S in skyrim have a life and a routine, specially with some mods, they react to rain, sometimes you have to literally wait for them to come back to their shop because they are out in the world living, moving, doing things... whereas with ESO every NPC you need to talk to is basically a static, non-moving sprite.

I could not uninstall fast enough.

[BlazeGuardianR]

If I’m being honest, I’m not satisfied, and it seems like I’m not the only one feeling this way

[SirDetSilent]

I wasn't into MMOs either, but ESO hooked me too. The Elder Scrolls vibe is strong, even with the MMO stuff. Exploring the huge world is a blast, even if the respawning can be a pain.

[Falci]

So much time later, I still agree with everyone in this thread. XD

I'm still playing a lot. Had a few months ago where I sorta stopped playing, just logging for the daily login junk thingy, because I got really burned out from the excess of events.

I recently got the latest expansion for the event, and I'm already starting to feel a bit burned out again.

I'll probably stop cold turkey when I finish doing the expansion maps, and the third main campaign from the base game.

Again, I like the Elder Scrolls stuff, but the MMO trappings bring it down soooo much.