ESO BETA Final Thoughts.

[Contrabardus]

ESO Beta is over. Much better than last beta due to considerably less lag, but the build was actually buggier. Nothing game breaking, but it's obviously not the final build either.

At any rate, it's awesome. Looking forward to launch and all that. PvP has kept my interest surprisingly well.

Went Dragon Knight in beta because it seemed like a good base class to get used to how things worked. I was right about that, but now that I'm familiar I'm going Nightblade in my next build.

Anyway, epic screenshots from the end of the world gathering. Everything is wiped and there are no more betas before launch. Have to start from scratch.

I'm the guy in the black shorts with the bow on his back in case you're wondering.

I should have thought to take more, but it didn't occur to me until the final moments.

Seriously fun game. Two more weeks before early access for preorders. I've already got my copy of course.

I've played enough I have a good idea about the game and I'd call it a happy medium between Elder Scrolls and Guild Wars 2. More like Morrowind than Skyrim as far as Elder Scrolls goes.

I made lvl 22 by over the past few betas and managed to play through all the available content, you couldn't finish the game because it was a beta and quest lines were capped after a certain amount of progress. I enjoyed it, players were pretty helpful, competition wasn't hard to deal with as PvP was kept in a specific area, and the plot moved along nicely without grinding. You can grind, but for the most part you'll want to be repeating dungeon quests or using daily quests taken from postings on in game boards for that.

I was never wanting for something to do and never had to run around killing whatever I ran across for xp for several hours. In fact, it was sometimes better to avoid mobs due to the questing and xp structure. You can grind old school style if you want as you do get a small amount of xp from killing things, but you really don't ever need to do so.

Crafting was fairly robust as well. I only really focused on alchemy, but I did a bit of everything and I could see that I'll be getting into the system in depth once the game launches. I liked what I saw in that regard and it wasn't overly complex or too simple. I liked it more than FF XIV's crafting system.

If you're into Elder Scrolls games or MMOs I recommend checking it out. It's very action oriented. You do have a hot bar with moves, but it controls more like an Elder Scrolls game. I would say it differs in that it's often best to play in 3rd person mode. 1st person will work in the main quest line if that's your preference, but in PvP you need to be using 3rd person and be aware of what's going on around you. Otherwise you'll die much faster.

It has a monthly subscription fee, so check out other reviews and watch some videos online if you're not sure about it.

It's epic, I had lots of fun with the beta and I've played enough of it that I think I can say it's a good game. MMO wise it's a little generic, and more action oriented than you might be used to. Still worth a look though. It's also a bit watered down from something like Skyrim, but the changes are easy to understand and make sense due to the MMO environment. Things like the fact that you can't pick up everything that isn't nailed down, NPCs can't be killed, and things like that.

Plus, because I participated in the Beta, I get a free monkey! ^_^

So, what did everyone else who played the Beta think?

 

[smarteyeball]

Damn, I didn't get an email so I missed it. Oh well, only a few weeks to go.