Who played the ESO beta this weekend?

[Uelle]

I played it non stop. Had a really great time playing it. I played the beta before too, and my character was STILL level 13. By that time my playtime was about 24 hours.

 

I don't know what happened, most of the time I was doing PVP (which is amazing btw, shame about the lag, but this weekend was named a stress test) and the other times I was exploring everywhere, gathering resources ( you don't need things like crew skills to gather resources, anyone can gather anything). The story is really fun too, the dialogue is like Skyrim, it's mostly short and simple so there's no spacebarring or loading cutscenes and stuff.

 

Like i said pvp is amazing, hundreds of players on screen at one time, huge sieges. The UI is simple too so you can look at the world more than your hot bar. Combat in that game is way more advanced than this game, it's all about perception, it's a soft lock system so you have to be facing the enemy to hit them and you have to move yourself, the game doesnt do it for you (like in this game)

 

I cant wait for ESO to come out, i'm going to play this game to pass the time, then I will quit after 2+ years

[Joesixxpack]

This was my first beta round and finished at level 6 I think. I haven't done any pvp yet but am looking forward to seeing it.

 

It reminds me very much of some old Bethesda RPGs I liked years ago. Stress-test weekend lag spikes aside, it was weird and disconcerting to be playing a beta with less bugs apparent and lag than TOR has this far past launch.

 

Character creation isn't a huge thing for me but I'm still impressed. You could spend a half hour just customizing ears and nose.

Edited March 3, 2014 by Joesixxpack

[Reno_Tarshil]

I played it non stop. Had a really great time playing it. I played the beta before too, and my character was STILL level 13. By that time my playtime was about 24 hours.

 

I don't know what happened, most of the time I was doing PVP (which is amazing btw, shame about the lag, but this weekend was named a stress test) and the other times I was exploring everywhere, gathering resources ( you don't need things like crew skills to gather resources, anyone can gather anything). The story is really fun too, the dialogue is like Skyrim, it's mostly short and simple so there's no spacebarring or loading cutscenes and stuff.

 

Like i said pvp is amazing, hundreds of players on screen at one time, huge sieges. The UI is simple too so you can look at the world more than your hot bar. Combat in that game is way more advanced than this game, it's all about perception, it's a soft lock system so you have to be facing the enemy to hit them and you have to move yourself, the game doesnt do it for you (like in this game)

 

I cant wait for ESO to come out, i'm going to play this game to pass the time, then I will quit after 2+ years

 

It's easy to see and play a new game and think it's better then other games after playing a game and getting old of it. The same will happen for ESO. People will think it's the best thing in the world then after 3 months turn on it and leave for the next thing.

[Technohic]

This was my first beta round and finished at level 6 I think. I haven't done any pvp yet but am looking forward to seeing it.

 

It reminds me very much of some old Bethesda RPGs I liked years ago. Stress-test weekend lag spikes aside, it was weird and disconcerting to be playing a beta with less bugs apparent and lag than TOR has this far past launch.

 

Character creation isn't a huge thing for me but I'm still impressed. You could spend a half hour just customizing ears and nose.

 

We'll have to find each other in there at some point. I am running with either Technohic or Techno-hic depending on how many different classes I am trying. Hoping for no wipe so I can do some more Cyrodiil next time.

[Billoneofmany]

It's easy to see and play a new game and think it's better then other games after playing a game and getting old of it. The same will happen for ESO. People will think it's the best thing in the world then after 3 months turn on it and leave for the next thing.

 

So what if you get tired of the game after 3 months. That is still 3 months of fun and money well spent. When I buy a game I don't ask myself if this is the one for me till death do we part. I bought and played GW2 for 2 weeks before I realized it wasn't for me. I don't hate GW2 because of that. I still had fun for those 2 weeks. As for ESO I will play it until I'm tired of it be it 2 weeks or 2 years.

[Uelle]

It's easy to see and play a new game and think it's better then other games after playing a game and getting old of it. The same will happen for ESO. People will think it's the best thing in the world then after 3 months turn on it and leave for the next thing.

 

You mean like what happened to this game except it was about 1-2 months after release?

[Joesixxpack]

We'll have to find each other in there at some point. I am running with either Technohic or Techno-hic depending on how many different classes I am trying. Hoping for no wipe so I can do some more Cyrodiil next time.

 

Hell yeah. I've only rolled 1 at this point but'll be checking out some others. BBQRibs, daggerfall.

[CarlosTrevisan]

I have played for about 3 hours before server got closed. I had a really good time.

Im a fan of the series, so im used to the gameplay.

I do agree with you about combat. Its much more action oriented, another game that ive recently played that has similar combat (similar, not equal) was TERA, but that game armor and anime looks doesnt get appeal.

I do agree about the action bar attention. When im playing with my Jugg in SWTOR i get my self looking to the action bar waiting for cooldowns and skills pup up, i know many of you guys will say "learn to play and you wont need to look to action bar" but in ESO even dont learning to play i can play looking at screen and not to my skill bar. And by having just some skills to use you can focusing in simpler gameplay, im having much fun with that. Not sure what can be said and what cant, but the UI customization of ESO its very good, but the mouse/keyboard customization its limeted in comparison to SWTOR, especialy for me that im used to bind keys like crazy on my mouse.

The game has its bugs, and some animations arent perfect, but its a beta, we supose to point them to Devs, so i wont complaing about that.

I cant wait to tests the PvP, looks awesome.

So in general im realy enjoying the game, ill need to test a bit more, but im almost sure ill ended buying it. And i hope that its never get free to play, not that free to play games arent good, but P2P games in general (in general!) have more content and are have less "grab bags" and "cartel markets" only items (not that i hate Cartel Market, not the case, i usualy buy a lot of stuff here on SWTOR, on The Secret World, what i dislike its gamble bags, those are unfair in my opinion).

[Callaron]

I haven't been playing much during the recent betas, but it's mostly because I don't want to invest a ton of time in something that's going to get wiped in a month anyway.

My first beta weekend I played that game like a fiend, and I saw enough things that I really liked to convince me into investing in the Imperial Edition.

 

So now I'm just biding my time until the game goes live.

Currently the plan is to play it alongside SWTOR (rather than my original plan to completely jump ship to ESO), but a lot of it will depend on the updates coming to TOR (which do sound good, now that we're out of the information deadzone that lasted for quite a few months).

Edited March 3, 2014 by Callaron

[Jeweledleah]

I'm still trying to decide if I'm going to buy it.

I had fun in Beta. a lot of fun. but...

 

1. i have no plans of quitting TOR. I'm having fun here, both leveling and playing at max. and my guild is awesome enough that even if I get bored of everything else, I'll still be raiding with them, they are just that much fun.

2. it IS an investment. I'm pretty sure I'll enjoying it longer than I did GW2 (which I don't blame either, I did have fun with the time I did play it, at least as much as I would with comparably costing single player game). but it IS subscription only. and that's where I start doubting. I don't know if I can handle 2 subscription MMO's.

3. as much as I had fun, another friend mentioned how group unfriendly it is because of all the phasing and I agree with her assessment. you cannot even be observer in your friend's quest. you won't see their npc's. reminded me a lot of the changes to questing in WoW, the very changes that made leveling less fun for me in that game as well.

 

so there's this game that's tons of fun to solo, but doesn't seem to be group friendly when it comes to general questing, for all the smoothness of combat, doesn't really let me rebind abilities in a way that would make it more comfortable to me (which makes PVE still doable, but takes pvp out of the question, I don't think I could be particularly effective when the only thing I can do without pausing is basic attack and dodging), will not be my main MMO and still costs $15 a month.

 

I have few more weeks to decide if I'm going to splurge on a pre order. right now I'm leaning stronger towards "probably not" if the game was buy to play like guild wars 2. I'd be all over it though.

Edited March 3, 2014 by Jeweledleah

[Grendel_Prime]

I love ESO quite a bit and have already cancelled my recurring sub here so I can play it (I only do two subs at a time and my wife still plays LOTRO). I have nothing against SW: TOR, it was a lot of fun since beta and launch. Currently and looking at the projected road map there's simply no content coming out for this game that appeals to me. So I'll play something new for a while, maybe a year maybe less maybe more. When the time comes to reactivate my SW: TOR account then I'll do so and I'm sure there will be more content that is up my alley.

[SlightlySychotic]

Have to say, after all the bad I've heard about ESO I've actually been surprised at how good it is. The combat system works well; I had heard beforehand that it was clunky and to me it moved fairly smoothly once I got the hang of blocking and interrupts. The overall presentation is also quite nice. The narrative clips along at a decent pace and the game actually confronts you with the consequences of your actions.

 

I have to say I'm most impressed with . . . I guess I'd call it the overall tech and design advancement. NPCs in the world are phased: they only appear to the players who are involved in that part of the quest. Early on I visited a village that would eventually be attacked by an opposing faction; I fought enemies right where there had been vendors and townsfolk a few minutes prior. Even better, they've done away with the ownership of kills; anyone who gets a hit on an enemy gets full credit for killing that enemy. It's actually something that takes a second to get used to -- there's a bit of indignation every time someone jumps into one of your fights or reticence to help people already fighting because you don't want to steal their kill -- but once you get over it you realize just how egalitarian and progressive the system is. It's a boon when you stumble on a quest NPC that needs to be killed to progress and you no longer have to wait in line while everyone in front of you gets their kill. It's something I wish MMOs had picked up years ago.

 

I will say that, for the first time, I've actually truly seen wide-scale PvP done well. Most developers tend to adopt a laissez faire strategy -- just make a big battlefield, add a few goals, and just let players murder each other -- and it tends to give rise to two major issues: faction imbalance and time-to-action delays. ESO has, at the very least, managed to offset the first one by having multiple "campaigns" or instanced worlds: even if you faction is the smallest it's not too hard to find a battlefield where the three factions are equivalently balanced. The second they don't mitigate spectacularly well -- they have forward bases so you can spawn closer to the battlefield but it seems like they burn out quickly (either they can't take much damage or they only allow so many people to spawn) -- but even then once you figure out how the transport network works you're never more than two or three minutes away from a big battle.

Even better, it does a very good job of making you feel like you're contributing. A few games I've played in the past make it feel like you have to pay your dues as a grunt before you can actually do something that can be labeled helpful. However, just being near a battle usually gives you enough resources to be able to buy siege weapons -- not to mention the almost ludicrously easy to finish bounty missions (I must have completed ten of them in the five or so hours of PvP I played). Hell, one of the first thing PvP teaches you is how to use siege weapons.

To be fair, however, I still prefer instanced PvP. It's more goal oriented; even when I'm involved in a scrum I feel like I'm contributing something. In OW PvP, in the middle of a battle I often feel like I'm waiting around to do something out of fear that I'll be insta-gibbed by twenty players on the other side. The side with the greater numbers still has a bit of an advantage; at the end of the day, in my campaign the faction with the largest population had almost as many points as the other two factions combined. Still, ESO still probably has the best version of OW PvP I can imagine; it's just that I feel like there's more tactical depth to be had in something like Huttball, Novare Coast, or Ancient Hypergates.

 

I did have a few other issues:

That UI, ech. This is my biggest concern, the thing that I hope gets fixed before release and am desperately afraid will not. It's just not user-friendly at all and needs a good deal of tweaks. The biggest omission is the lack of a mini-map; very easy to get turned around and not realize where you're going, even with the compass at the top of the map.

There's a very slow leveling arch. I played almost all weekend and I didn't hit level ten until about 5 PM on Sunday. Perhaps SWTOR has spoiled me, but it needs to be said that you can't do PvP or queue up for dungeons until you reach that point; for SWTOR it's, what, three or four hours to reach that point? To be fair, it never seemed I was short of quests to do but that's an awful long time to wait for the game to open up what are essentially it's MMO features.

There's a lack of wardrobe customization. My first character was a giant nord in black and red face and bodypaint named Brokgar the Nude . . . and I very quickly realized that it would all be covered up in armor. Some might say that I've been spoiled by SWTOR again, but in this case it's justified; being able to control how your character looks is just a good thing. Hopefully they add in the options to toggle certain pieces of armor (perhaps even a full appearance editor) but I doubt it will be added before launch.

 

Again, I ended up enjoying ESO overall. I won't be buying the game, mind you; I'm still very much committed to SWTOR and ESO didn't offer enough variety that I felt like I needed to forsake my friends and characters and start up fresh and new. Still, if SWTOR didn't exist ESO would be a game I'd very much be interested in.

[Technohic]

Have to say, after all the bad I've heard about ESO I've actually been surprised at how good it is. The combat system works well; I had heard beforehand that it was clunky and to me it moved fairly smoothly once I got the hang of blocking and interrupts. The overall presentation is also quite nice. The narrative clips along at a decent pace and the game actually confronts you with the consequences of your actions.

 

I have to say I'm most impressed with . . . I guess I'd call it the overall tech and design advancement. NPCs in the world are phased: they only appear to the players who are involved in that part of the quest. Early on I visited a village that would eventually be attacked by an opposing faction; I fought enemies right where there had been vendors and townsfolk a few minutes prior. Even better, they've done away with the ownership of kills; anyone who gets a hit on an enemy gets full credit for killing that enemy. It's actually something that takes a second to get used to -- there's a bit of indignation every time someone jumps into one of your fights or reticence to help people already fighting because you don't want to steal their kill -- but once you get over it you realize just how egalitarian and progressive the system is. It's a boon when you stumble on a quest NPC that needs to be killed to progress and you no longer have to wait in line while everyone in front of you gets their kill. It's something I wish MMOs had picked up years ago.

 

I will say that, for the first time, I've actually truly seen wide-scale PvP done well. Most developers tend to adopt a laissez faire strategy -- just make a big battlefield, add a few goals, and just let players murder each other -- and it tends to give rise to two major issues: faction imbalance and time-to-action delays. ESO has, at the very least, managed to offset the first one by having multiple "campaigns" or instanced worlds: even if you faction is the smallest it's not too hard to find a battlefield where the three factions are equivalently balanced. The second they don't mitigate spectacularly well -- they have forward bases so you can spawn closer to the battlefield but it seems like they burn out quickly (either they can't take much damage or they only allow so many people to spawn) -- but even then once you figure out how the transport network works you're never more than two or three minutes away from a big battle.

Even better, it does a very good job of making you feel like you're contributing. A few games I've played in the past make it feel like you have to pay your dues as a grunt before you can actually do something that can be labeled helpful. However, just being near a battle usually gives you enough resources to be able to buy siege weapons -- not to mention the almost ludicrously easy to finish bounty missions (I must have completed ten of them in the five or so hours of PvP I played). Hell, one of the first thing PvP teaches you is how to use siege weapons.

To be fair, however, I still prefer instanced PvP. It's more goal oriented; even when I'm involved in a scrum I feel like I'm contributing something. In OW PvP, in the middle of a battle I often feel like I'm waiting around to do something out of fear that I'll be insta-gibbed by twenty players on the other side. The side with the greater numbers still has a bit of an advantage; at the end of the day, in my campaign the faction with the largest population had almost as many points as the other two factions combined. Still, ESO still probably has the best version of OW PvP I can imagine; it's just that I feel like there's more tactical depth to be had in something like Huttball, Novare Coast, or Ancient Hypergates.

 

I did have a few other issues:

That UI, ech. This is my biggest concern, the thing that I hope gets fixed before release and am desperately afraid will not. It's just not user-friendly at all and needs a good deal of tweaks. The biggest omission is the lack of a mini-map; very easy to get turned around and not realize where you're going, even with the compass at the top of the map.

There's a very slow leveling arch. I played almost all weekend and I didn't hit level ten until about 5 PM on Sunday. Perhaps SWTOR has spoiled me, but it needs to be said that you can't do PvP or queue up for dungeons until you reach that point; for SWTOR it's, what, three or four hours to reach that point? To be fair, it never seemed I was short of quests to do but that's an awful long time to wait for the game to open up what are essentially it's MMO features.

There's a lack of wardrobe customization. My first character was a giant nord in black and red face and bodypaint named Brokgar the Nude . . . and I very quickly realized that it would all be covered up in armor. Some might say that I've been spoiled by SWTOR again, but in this case it's justified; being able to control how your character looks is just a good thing. Hopefully they add in the options to toggle certain pieces of armor (perhaps even a full appearance editor) but I doubt it will be added before launch.

 

Again, I ended up enjoying ESO overall. I won't be buying the game, mind you; I'm still very much committed to SWTOR and ESO didn't offer enough variety that I felt like I needed to forsake my friends and characters and start up fresh and new. Still, if SWTOR didn't exist ESO would be a game I'd very much be interested in.

 

Look for plugins. There are some really nice add-ons for the UI to customize it how you please.

[archifikoss]

LONG post of beta impressions incoming!

 

I finally got my grubby paws on the beta, and now that I've played I don't understand why the game gets so much hate. OK sure it has issues but all in all it's a lot of fun. It's the first time in a while that I've gotten so immersed in a game world.

 

Character creation was very solid, but I couldn't create "myself" unfortunately (which I often do for male characters).

 

I have mixed feelings about the graphics .The characters and animations feel rather dated. This gave me an impression of lower than expected production values. Still the beauty of the game world makes up for the characters - it is absolutely gorgeous. My most outstanding "wow this is just breathtaking" moment was in the end of my time in the beta, standing on that statue on Companion's point (name?) in the Nord starter island at in-game sunset. It was actually majestic.

 

I never bother much with sound but nothing stood out in a bad way for me here. Music was pretty nice too.

 

UI was nice for a Skyrim fan like me. No usual MMO clutter, you can actually focus on the game rather than the menus. Big plus for me. And the lack of a minimap makes it all the more immersive, the compass is enough for me.

 

Questing was fun. The quests could be considered pretty good RPG fare and are a cut above usual MMO crap. Our characters are silent (ES style) but all the NPCs are voiced have at least a sentence to say (important for immersion). Questing is comparable to SWTOR, with SWTOR getting points for PC voice acting and choice and ESO getting points for a more direct and less cinematic feel.

 

The class and leveling system are interesting. It seems to offer a lot of freedom in creating interesting builds. I prefer this to the usual WoW approach. And the more action-oriented combat style could actually make the holy trinity enjoyable for once. However...

 

Combat again left me with mixed feelings. I like the concept and find it much closer to my taste than the usual hard targeting hotbar MMO stuff (which I dislike for a number of reasons), but its execution is questionable. I love that we have to aim at our enemies, I love the active blocking and dodging and I actually like the no cooldown approach. BUT: It feels a bit clunky and rather weightless, and at times unresponsive. This would be less of an annoyance in a WoW style game but here with the simpler, more straightforward combat plus the need to actually look at your screen more than your UI it is a problem. Also, bows and staff combat feels even less weighted than melee. I believe they are adding collision for PvE so that should help somewhat.

 

Exploration is probably the most fun aspect of the game. Going off the beaten path you can find side quests, skyshards, chests, or simply interesting little nooks and crannies in the world. The beauty of the gameworld only adds to the joy of exploring. I found that the fun way to play this game (at least the little I progressed in the beta) was not following the quest lines religiously but just wandering off in its general direction and doing whatever you may come across.

 

I did not try PvP, but I liked the little I saw of the crafting - it actually looks interesting.

 

My main problem with the game is that it seems to be undecided on what it actually is - an MMO or an Elder Scrolls RPG. It doesn't feel too much like an ES game, and it doesn't feel much like an MMO either. It is neither bland nor uninspired, but there is a certain lack of flair and distinctiveness to it.

 

In closing, I'd like to say that I had fun and enjoyed this, it is much more to my liking than traditional MMOs and believe it's definitely worth the purchase, however I'm not convinced it's worth a subscription (for the record I don't like subs, and the only reason I resubbed here was as a token of appreciation for GSF). This day and age I don't consider any game to be worth 15 euro a month though so that's just me.

Edited March 3, 2014 by archifikoss

[Obreck]

Played it and enjoyed it. But I had already been won over in previous betas.

 

Used this stress test to test out another character build, glad I did since I learned more than a few shortcomings in my plans.

 

Hopefully next Beta will be up to date though. I'll be glad to see this buggy, months old build they keep using for stress tests get the boot.

[Technohic]

Played it and enjoyed it. But I had already been won over in previous betas.

 

Used this stress test to test out another character build, glad I did since I learned more than a few shortcomings in my plans.

 

Hopefully next Beta will be up to date though. I'll be glad to see this buggy, months old build they keep using for stress tests get the boot.

 

Yeah. I want to see the improved combat and collision detection. Also have been working on builds and have been playing with a guild, working on teamwork, and just have some adjustments maybe to contribute to that.

 

Its a blast when there are 7 of you and you pick a fight setting up ambushes, for it then to take 20 of them to finally take you out. I was only level 10 and there is a bolster, but you are not on par with someone at 50 let along 50++, but teamwork can trump all.

[CarlosTrevisan]

Another question: they make these beta tests often? Because i could only play for a few hours, and now the servers are offline.

[Callaron]

Have to say, after all the bad I've heard about ESO I've actually been surprised at how good it is. The combat system works well; I had heard beforehand that it was clunky and to me it moved fairly smoothly once I got the hang of blocking and interrupts. The overall presentation is also quite nice. The narrative clips along at a decent pace and the game actually confronts you with the consequences of your actions.

 

Which is not that different from SWTOR to be honest.

If you go to some sites like MMORPG.com you'll find rabid hordes that tell you that there is no worse game than the TORtanic and you should avoid it at all costs.

Yet a lot of people enjoy it when they decide to give it a try anyway rather than listening to a bunch of loudmouths.

Always make up your own mind about whether something's worth it or not.

Edited March 4, 2014 by Callaron

[OddballEasyEight]

I played it all weekend.

I wasn't sucked into it like I was with Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim.

It was more of an "I can take it or leave it" experience.

 

I didn't try PvP at all, and my highest level character was lvl 7 (since I wanted to try out all three dominions).

 

But I did get off the immediate starter areas.

 

It kinda has the old neverwinter nights feel to it (not to be confused with neverwinter online).

Yes, you get your quests from static characters that have very poor voice acting most of the time and it's basically just "skip, skip, skip" when it comes to the dialogue, since none of it matters anyway.

You can't make any choices or even get the illusion of choice. It's basically just a "here's the quest, go do it and get back".

And the NPC's are extremely static when interacting with them in dialogue.

 

The combat was ok, it kinda felt like skyrim light with some tacked on special abilities.

 

Overall I wasn't terribly impressed, but I've preordered it anyway because I want to explore tamriel a bit more (which I'll be able to do in the month of "free" game time I get when buying the game).

But I won't be playing it any more until it goes F2P.

And trust me, it will. I don't see many people paying for this on a monthly basis when there is stiff competition out there and the game doesn't really stand out as much as many had hoped.

 

As for gathering materials, yeah, everyone can gather everything but almost all the areas I went to were gouged pretty fast by people who had higher skill in gathering (or whatever) so that the materials (like iron) glowed, making it much easier for them to find them. (had plenty of incidents where I finally spotted some iron from far away and somebody just gallopped past me on a horse to get to it before me).

 

TL;DR I've preordered but I won't play more than the free month and then I'll wait until it goes F2P.

 

EDIT: I have to say tho, that I miss the many instanced areas from SW:TOR. Plenty of times I was on some "important quest that only you can finish" surrounded by like 10-15 others doing the same important quest.

And it got me wondering why they even asked me in the first place.

A bit more instancing would have been nice.

And the phasing was both good and bad. It was good in the occations where a village got attacked at the end of a quest chain for example, but it was bad when the NPC you need to talk to had moved and there were still tons of people standing in a circle around where it was the first time... Kinda snaps you out of the immersion.

Edited March 4, 2014 by OddballEasyEight

[Technohic]

Another question: they make these beta tests often? Because i could only play for a few hours, and now the servers are offline.

 

They have, and from their tweet at the close of this last one, it is not the last. Also, now that you have gotten in, it has been part that you will have access to the next one without needing another key.

[Icebergy]

I did, and man was it a horrible game.

[Uelle]

I did, and man was it a horrible game.

 

nice bait!

[archifikoss]

nice bait!

I'm pretty sure that the very hardcore fans of WoW-style MMOs will dislike TESO. And I have the feeling that many diehard ES fans will be disappointed. I was personally very pleasantly surprised by it, and lots of the people in the beta seemed to be enjoying it. I'm sure that short-term it will be very successful, but in the long term... I'm not so sure, it will depend on the end game (something I personally don't care about but it's understandably critical to most hardcore MMOers).

[Ruddertail]

I'm pretty sure that the very hardcore fans of WoW-style MMOs will dislike TESO. And I have the feeling that many diehard ES fans will be disappointed. I was personally very pleasantly surprised by it, and lots of the people in the beta seemed to be enjoying it. I'm sure that short-term it will be very successful, but in the long term... I'm not so sure, it will depend on the end game (something I personally don't care about but it's understandably critical to most hardcore MMOers).

 

I am big TES fan, and I greatly enjoy MMORPGs that try something different (like The Secret World).

 

TESO disappointed me on both counts. It felt as if they took Skyrim, picked out all the worst parts of it, and made a new game out of those.

[archifikoss]

I am big TES fan, and I greatly enjoy MMORPGs that try something different (like The Secret World).

 

TESO disappointed me on both counts. It felt as if they took Skyrim, picked out all the worst parts of it, and made a new game out of those.

 

For me the main problem of this otherwise rather fun and immersive game is that it doesn't feel that much like Skyrim, and also doesn't feel much like an MMO. I wrote this in my impressions on the previous page. It's as if the game is confused about what it wants to be. It does take the best of both worlds but in a somewhat undercooked way. As I said I don't find it sloppy or bland, but it lacks flair and distinctiveness - it could be any fantasy world, it just happens to be in Tamriel.

 

We did play a rather old build though I believe. Some of my gripes may have been addressed (e.g. they apparently added collision to PvE). The starter islands are now avoidable, and many people say that the game opens up and improves a great deal after the starter isles. So maybe my above complaint is only applicable for the specific content I played. I don't know how far you got, but if you did not leave the beginning areas either maybe you'll be happier later, I just don't know.

 

We'll eventually find out I guess