Firstly, ELDER SCROLLS ONLINE (2014) is a great game, so fun, so much to do, absolutely beautiful landscape and cities, great characters and backstories, excellent music, vast amounts of questing, so much lore and great storytelling. It's a Fantasy MMORPG game (but can definitely be played Solo). Aside from quests and main stories, there are dungeons galore, delves, events, world bosses, game achievements, DLC, etc. Tons of stuff to collect as well.
I've been playing Elder Scrolls Online for quite some time now and I must start out by saying it might be easy to pre-judge the game in the beginning, especially when you might feel initially compelled to compare it to ES V: Skrim. Being a fan of ES V: Skyrim (as well as ES Oblivion, Morrowind etc.) and solo gaming in general, I felt torn, reluctant to play this. I really didn't want to hate it but certainly wasn't expecting to love it...
For Skyrim fans out there, I'm know it's easy to want to compare the gameplay, graphics, design etc. I remember being very annoyed at the differences initially and hesitant to play on, but I got over myself and really ended up enjoying this game. It has sooooo much to offer. Quests, Adventure, Exploration. There's so much to do, so much going on. Also, if you want to play solo you absolutely can (that was one of the aspects which I misunderstood in the beginning). I hate online games that make it impossible to play solo, and force social interactions at every turn. While that can be fun in certain times, sometimes you want the freedom to play your game as you choose and not automatically pushed into teams, guilds, clans etc. Sometimes you just want to escape people and reality and the drama that comes with. Many of us introverts play games! I digress.
My only annoyance is all the in-game purchase options that seem to infect so many games these days. I wish there were better ways to earn more Crowns (game currency for bonus content). I feel like that tends to detract from a solid game and always tends to feel profiteering and greedy, but it's not overy forced down your throat here and you can certainly play without buying stuff. You will probably want the main DLC to unlock new countries and questlines, but the other stuff (skins, costumes, pets etc.) is not necessary, but secondary and not much of a complaint. You can still win items and things like costumes and pets by finishing quests and participating in events etc. Some are gifted on holiday seasons. That's been cool.
Overall, this turned out to be a really great game. Great mechanics, fun gameplay, beautiful world design. It really has a bit of everything for everyone. Hard to understand someone hating it, in my opinion. It's definitely one of the better Fantasy MMORPG's out there and a great solo Fantasy RPG as well.
STORY: 9/10
GAMEPLAY: 10/10
GRAPHICS: 10/10
ART DESIGN: 10/10
MUSIC: 10/10
OVERALL RATING: 10.
