Elder Scrolls PC reviews

At the moment, (after a weekend of play) I'm treating it as a single player game, and bits of Morrowind are fantastic – I'm really enjoying the world exploration, and the crafting isn't bad (although my nightblade has moved to heavy armour because I can't get enough leather by whacking deer and other defenseless woodland creatures, but can get loads of iron). Enchanting takes a bit of getting used to, but I think I like that too. The character development is pretty interesting, although I keep getting to level 7 or 8 and wondering what a different class/race/style would be like. But then, I had that problem with Skyrim too.

Inventory is limited to 60 types of thing (max stack of 100), so if you collect all the things, you can run out of space pretty quickly. The lockpicking minigame is quite interesting, especially when you know there are other players sitting next to you waiting for you to fail so they can have a go.

The zone chat uses your ACCOUNT name, not your character name, so if you should pick an account name that you're happy to be public.

Note of warning: you can't use your free month subscription unless you activate a subscription with a credit card, a paypal account, or a time card. There are tales of people being billed the first month using a credit card. I used a paypal account instead. I am still getting billed in Euros, but I don't know if that's a consequence of Paypal.

In summary, it's eating my spare time at the moment, and I think I'm enjoying it more than Guildwars 2, but I haven't got round to trying the PVP yet, and I'm not sure it will hold my attention more than a couple of months.

Good gameplay and such with some interesting features.. As my first character I am a blacksmithing, tank, dragonknight, chef. It's been good thus far, the tanking is pretty tough.. Especially for a start with the mage getting mad cause you only attracted 4 out of 5 enemies xD The issues with this game I haven't found with the game play though, the installation itself took a long time with many patches I expected to be fixed with beta tests.. I had to install as much patches as I did for the actual game. If that wasn't enough I had problems with crashing, I had to do many things to stop it only to have the same problem a further 3 times. My pc is algood with 12 gb memory and decent i7 processing, can be difficult dealing with this all cutting into my subscription time rather unfairly. All in all it's a pretty good MMO; it just doesn't have the feel of an Elder Scrolls game though. TES has more in the story department and decent side quests that lead to unique treasures and such; especially that gem Morrowind! But TES Online doesn't seem to offer the same sensation of finding hidden or quirky items that had been offered in previous Elder Scrolls. I would still recommend this game, I do really enjoy the gameplay (though it's tough single player). I would just add that you may need to be patient for the first few days to try work the kinks out and such. 4/5 due to the atrocious installation/pat­ch/crash experience and kinda lacking feel of the amazing Elder Scrolls series. Still good game though!!

Be warned: Retail version installer deletes EVERYTHING in the folder you install to. I installed to c:\games (rather than the default location), because that's where all my games are installed. The installer automatically deleted EVERYTHING from c:\games prior to installing. i.e. Wiped all my games. No confirmation, just gone. Thanks.

It's still a good game though.

This game certainly draws on elements from it's predeccessers e.g Skyrim, Morrowind, Oblivion etc. But by far it's main selling points would have to be the crafting system, the many lands of Nirn which are for the first time ever, yours to freely explore, the HD graphics that you would expect from a next-gen console game and a variety of ways to make your character unique.

Firstly, the crafting system, this system encompasses Wood working (making shields, bows and staffs), smithing (making metal weapons and armour) and clothing (making light armour and medium armour). Whenever you craft something you require a few things; the material you will craft with e.g steel, the racial style you will use (yes, for the first time in the Elder Scrolls games there is multiple styles which affect how your armour looks), and if you wish a trait e.g sturdy, sharpened, divine etc. Also in ESO you aren't restricted to a certain armour type or weapon due to your class you can use what you want when you want.

Secondly, everything you see you are free to explore. In ESO there are a few familiar places that Elder Scrolls fans will recognise like Morrowind, Skyrim, Cyrrodil etc. But there are also some places which are now accessible that before were merely reccounted in books, spread across different games or were part of dlc's. But no longer they are now all in one game, The Elder Scrolls Online.

Thirdly, the graphics that are used in ESO are out of this world (although there are sometime certain glitches to do with armour, weaponary the environment etc.). You can see the level of detail that has been put into this game from the way your robes sway in the wind to how arrows realisticly wobble and curve as they fly through the air.

Finally, identity. Every character in ESO is unique and special, you might be the same class or race as somebody else but believe me you's are not the same at all. Throughout the game there are so many ways that you can personalize your character; what abilities you use, if you're human…, your role in a group e.g healer, tank etc., and what your playstyle is.

NOTE: The Elder Scrolls Online game comes with 30 days of game time but requires a subscription to be activated via credit card, paypal account or a game time card before it can be redeemed. I strongly recommend paying your game time through the use of time cards as it is safer than using your credit card. But that is merely my personal preference as I am cautious about using a credit card online. Game time cards for ESO can be purchased seperately or with the Elder Scrolls Online game here on the Mighty Ape website.

Its still early days and there are some things that could be improved. The combat system can be a little laggy and clunky (which can make for some frustrating battles) Its hard to get gold at least early on which makes the pay to win special edition more of a kick in the nuts, (you will be very quickly wishing you had paid extra and got the pack with the mount and rings of mara etc) as it will take awhile to save up to get a decent mount. Other than that the game is fun and gives you that skyrim feels with the bonus of having other players with you. Good story and fun open world to explore but be warned you can get stuck in places if you enjoy rock climbing and jumping off things as much as I do. Successfully taking up a lot of my spare time currently.

So I looked at ESO before it came out, I got into the beta and enjoyed it for the most part. It's not a bad game, and it plays well too. It doesn't quite capture the Elder Scrolls experience, but it's about as good as an MMO could do.

Some of the issues are really just the main story is awful, it feels like it's being pushed on you way too early in the game. It felt like it should be introduced halfway to max level or later. You loot items from every container, food, herbs, random junk. You just take it without any threat of committing a crime like in the single player games, even if theft was trivial in them anyway. The professions are about the same as in Skyrim, and the skill point system is similar to Skyrim's perk system too. No real problem with either of those, other than that I heard lower stamina makes you stronger in PvP since anti-CC abilities work on percentage rather than a fixed number. They probably tried to balance it so it was fair for spell casters but instead ended up limiting the options for stamina users.

Business model. This is a pretty big one, a lot of people dislike the monthly subscription. I don't understand why, it means the devs have a constant income stream and continue to provide support and updates on a regular basis. It also means no/fewer micro-transactions and that means no/less pay to win. Free to play isn't as good as it sounds, nothing is free without some catch. However, they did drag in some bad morals anyway. People who pre-ordered the game were given the ability to pick any race and faction combination, anyone buying the game after release will not have this option. There was even an ‘Imperial Edition’ that unlocked the Imperials as a playable race. These kind of ‘bonuses’ works against gamers by encouraging publishers to sell content that was never intended to be part of the game to begin with. In my opinion you can't do this kind of business in a subscription game, expansions, sure, but I'm pretty sure the Imperials were released at launch.

Summery: Pretty average game overall, not bad, not amazing. The best multiplayer Elder Scrolls experience at the moment, unless the Skyrim mod is working properly. The subscription model is definitely a positive since it means there will be more support for the game. However the selling of a Race and the pre-order bonuses definitely put it on the list of games I cannot buy with clear conscience, but that's just my opinion.

Try it if you want something a bit different to the usual MMO. It's nothing amazing, but it's not the standard target + hotkey based MMO like World of Warcraft. Questing is a little different as well. Maybe you like it, maybe you don't.