It’s been many years since the initial 2014 release of Elder Scrolls Online, or ESO. But even today, this MMORPG is one of the most popular games out there.
I started playing ESO a couple of years ago on PS4. I loved it so much that I bought the game on PC as well.
ESO is super cheap on Steam. I grabbed the game with all of its expansion at a very low price. And I’ve been leveling up my first character very slowly. I’m enjoying the process this time.
During this second run of ESO, I learned to appreciate the game even more. And managed to put some of my game knowledge to good use.
If you’re thinking about playing ESO or want to know if ESO is worth playing right now, you’ve come to the right place. In this quick guide, I’ll give you a few reasons why you should be playing the game.
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 is 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The graphics felt a bit outdated.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, It Gets Better
As with playing any other MMO, you need to read some Wikis and watch a few YouTube guides to really get into this game. And that’s exactly what I did.
Once I learned the basics of the game, I enjoyed the game a whole lot more.
Thankfully, the server location didn’t affect my gameplay that much. There were times when it took so long for the textures to load (this was on PS4). That’s usually at places where many players gather around. Overall, it didn’t affect questing.
Best Quests In An MMO
The quests in ESO are really impressive. I started off at Tamriel and the main campaign as well as the side quests there were quite entertaining. 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. 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. And 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 20-30K daily active players.
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 2021, Blackwood expansion was released with tons of new content and improvements to the 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 so you can expect a new content drop this year as well. Usually, the game drops its price to ridiculous levels during sales and during expansion releases.
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 worth it. The base game is usually on sale for around $10 on PlayStation and for less than $5 on Steam. Grab it. You won’t regret it!