The Elder Scrolls: Online (PC, 2014)

Another MMO I really tried to like... but just couldn't.

Nostalgia Factor: Medium. I love the Elder Scrolls universe.
Difficulty: Very easy. Solo story content is laughably easy.

Quick disclaimer: I’m not an MMO fan. I try to be fair, but if you’re an MMO gamer, you’re better off skipping this review and just trying out ESO for yourself.

After giving Fallout 76 a shot, which I did garner some enjoyment from, I figured I’d give Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) a chance too. Bethesda’s mainline Elder Scrolls and Fallout games are my cup of tea – immersive story-driven RPG adventures with high quality quest lines that draw you in and won’t let you go. MMOs often lack important key ingredients like immersion and truly captivating story content.

The primary goal for MMO developers is to create as much content as possible, as quickly as possible, to keep players (or subscribers) playing for as long as possible. That’s the business model. Because of this, MMOs feel much less like a “proper RPG” and more like an endless low-to-mid quality content sandbox. Fostering social interaction with online friends is the priority. You simply need “something to do” in the game world. It doesn’t have to be interesting, or at least as interesting as a single-player narrative focused game.

As much as I love Tamriel and the Elder Scrolls world, as much as I earnestly tried to give ESO the old college try, I did not find my time in ESO to be even remotely interesting. The dull combat is the worst offender here. The brief excitement of equipping two daggers and unlocking the dual wield skill tree wears off almost immediately when you discover in the tutorial that every enemy is just an HP sponge that does almost no damage to you whatsoever. I lasted about seven hours in ESO, making it to level 12, and at no point did I ever drop below 75% of my total HP. I never used any healing items. The complete and utter lack of any challenge makes this one of the most boring solo RPG experiences ever. There is no sense of progress or advancement, because you are always way overpowered.

I enjoyed exploring some of the Warden class spells (including summoning a bear companion to follow you around), but spamming spells over and over against enemies that posed no challenge whatsoever became the dullest of chores. I never used the healing or shield spells, because I never needed them. Perhaps, as is the case with most MMOs, these spells may be needed in the more difficult end game content (dungeons, raids, veteran trials, etc). However, the end game doesn’t really open up until you hit level 50, which is an 80+ hour task for casual players. Can you handle 80 hours of dull questing to get to the “good stuff”?

I appreciate that ESO is a fully voiced MMO. This is quite a feat, and it’s worthy of accolade. Every quest-giving NPC is voice acted. Most of the voice acting is decent or better, though I did notice a few performances that were a bit off. The real issue is the monotonous quest design. There are a few interesting bits of story here and there, but the majority of the questing puts you in the classic fetch-quest doldrums. Go here, get this. Go there, get that. Around 70% of my time in ESO was spent running from location to location. This is not fun. Why do people play MMOs? There is absolutely no depth to these quests or characters. After seven hours in this game, I cannot name one memorable character, and I did not experience one memorable quest. There is no sense of the progress and discovery that you find in Skyrim.

On a positive note, the gorgeous 3D environments you get to traverse are a true strength of ESO. It’s wonderful to see a variety of locations in Tamriel. This is the only thing that kept me going for as long as I did. If all you are looking for in a game is “something to do” with your friends while exploring a well crafted 3D fantasy environment, maybe ESO is your ticket. For me, the 3D environment alone was not enough to hold my interest.

The soundtrack from Brad Derrick is solid. It doesn’t reach the heights of Soule’s work (Skyrim, Oblivion, Morrowind) or Zur’s work (Fallout 4), but there are a few nice tracks. Derrick has composed a lot of music for ESO. Much of this music is functional and serves its purpose but is not exceptional per se. Some of these tracks slip into what you might describe as “generic fantasy game music”. In spite of not capturing a particularly unique or memorable sound, the ESO soundtrack is still a strength of the game.

If you like the Elder Scrolls universe and are just looking for a casual MMO to play with friends, you may find a good fit with ESO. If you’re a single player gamer with the patience to sift through hundreds of hours of mediocre content to find some morsels of Elder Scrolls goodness, power to you. Otherwise, if you’re like me, go ahead and skip this one.