It’s been many years since its launch but Elder Scrolls Online is still one of the biggest and most popular MMORPGs available today.
In 2024, Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) will be celebrating its 10th anniversary. That’s a decade-long run. Let that sink in for a while.
Now, the question is, would you consider playing a game that old?
Well, if you ask any MMO player if Elder Scrolls Online is worth playing, the answer is simple, it’s a big YES!
ESO is in a much better state today with multiple expansions and updates over the years. If you’re itching to play a new MMO or looking to dive back into ESO, there has never been a better time to play ESO than right now.
Here’s why.
My First Impressions
I only bought the base game on PS4 at first. The base game now comes with the Tamriel expansion. From what I’ve read, the base game alone is more than enough to give you some 200+ hours of content.
So I booted up the game and right off the bat I was faced with an issue. The game only has servers in North America and Europe. Since I live in Asia, I knew this was going to be a problem.
I picked the European servers, made an account, and booted up the game. The good news is there was no lag or bad ping. I was able to play the game without any issues.
At the start, I was surprised to see so many new players. Or old players replaying with new characters. There were a lot of low-level characters running around.
I went along with the main tutorial-like campaign missions. And I was not impressed by the game at all.
The graphics felt a bit outdated. The environments looked too dense. As if the devs were trying to put so much stuff inside a small area. And to top it all off, I was bombarded with so much stuff with various tutorial messages and screens. It felt quite overwhelming.
But I kept playing the game and as I went along with the main storylines, I discovered the many great qualities of the game.
Switching To PC
Then I upgraded from the PS4 to the PC version of the game. I got the game with all of the expansions for a very cheap price and started a new playthrough in a new region.
First, I was amazed by the graphical improvements of the game. ESO looks much better on PC, especially with the DLAA setting that’s compatible with NVDIA graphics cards.
I also discovered the power of Add-Ons, which greatly improved my gameplay experience.
Since then, I’ve been playing ESO across all of the expansions and loved every minute of it.
The game is better when you focus on one or two aspects that you enjoy doing in MMOs. For me, it’s the quests and the grind for loot that kept me coming back to ESO.
Best Quests In An MMO
The quests in ESO are really impressive. The stories were captivating enough to make me keep coming back to the game the next day.
Not to mention that each and every main quest and side quest in the game are fully voiced. This makes the game perfect for solo players, like me.
There are actually tons upon tons of content in the game. And you need to really restrain yourself not to accept all the quests.
The trick is to ignore the bloat until you get a feel of the game.
So, at first, I ignored all the crafting and guilds and stuff. I know that sounds like bad advice but that was the only way to stay sane without giving into the FOMO.
And decided to focus on the main campaign and leveling up my character. That’s the fun part.
It’s Very Solo-Friendly
Leveling unlocks some cool rewards and it kept me going. Of course, the quests made leveling even more enjoyable as well.
The game is very solo-friendly. You can play almost everything in the game all by yourself.
There are many solo dungeons for you to explore and a practically endless collection of quests, regions, and activities to complete.
It’s One Of The Top MMOs Out There
It’s quite rare to see an online game thriving like this after many years. The game is still very much alive and blooming with so many new and old players.
According to Steam Charts, ESO is still very much alive on Steam with around 16-20K daily active players. This is not including the players on Xbox and PlayStation.
Ever since Bethesda was acquired by Microsoft and ESO was released on Game Pass, the game is now even bigger and more populated on Xbox as well.
New Content Coming Every Year
ESO is now bigger than ever with new expansions coming out every year. In 2023, the Necrom expansion was released with tons of new content, a brand new class, and lots of improvements to the base game.
The game is so big you could literally play the game for an entire year and still have content left to complete.
There are more expansions on the way every year and new events to participate in from time to time.
Usually, the game drops its price to ridiculous levels during sales and during expansion releases. You can grab the game with all of the expansions for cheap during these sales.
Optimized For Next-Gen
ESO received a massive next-gen console update with improved frame rates and graphics in 2021.
And it’s not just for consoles, the graphics were enhanced for PC as well. NVIDIA released a new update with DLAA for ESO, making the game even more stunning than it ever was.
If you’ve got a next-gen console, you’ll be able to experience faster load times and prettier graphics after the update.
In Conclusion
Overall, if you love RPGs and MMOs. And if you loved Skyrim, give ESO a try. It’s definitely worth it. This is one of the few games that I will never uninstall from my PC, even though it’s well over 100GBs.