When I first played this game, it was in the early beta stages. I continued following the game until it hit its release date, and ended up not getting the game... because it totally sucked! It had poor graphics, clunky gameplay, and wasn't worth the money asked for it.

That was then.

I picked it up again later, to have another go at it after hearing the people at Bethesda slapped the people at Zenimax on the wrist for doing a poor job, and stepping in to really fix things, and... they delivered.
As poor as it was at first release, it became very -- Dropping outdated DX9 for DX11 was an absolute must.

What it became is a full-featured, full-bodied fantasy MMORPG, with many, many avenues to explore and as many ways to play the game. Don't expect to get bored with grinding; quests and story missions will progress you as fast as, if not faster than, grinding your fingers off with boring repeatable missions. You want to play solo? go right ahead -- you'll have a good and full experience. You like to go on raids? That's possible too. You want to team up with some friends and go dungeon diving? It's there. PvP? You bet (not my thing, though).

Unfortunately as the years progressed, the game started sliding back again with more focus on constantly making things easier, killing challenge for the "normal" game and with level proliferations (aka "One Tamriel") PvE has become and outright cakewalk. Fine if you want to just play for the story but even as a casual gamer-with-a-job I end up skipping through a lot of it because there is no challenge.
PvP has become a "let's throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks", especially "Battlegrounds". An ever-growing, never ending array of reskinned models being sold at a premium, the ever-hated loot boxes with crap chances, and the token "compensation" for people to get access to lootbox items at mafia exchange rates are just a slap in the face. The economy is also seeing massive inflation which makes it harder and harder for casual players to be able to use guild stores to buy items they want or need.

Then introduce the over-hyped "high isle" -- a AAA price for a chapter (expansion) that has mediocre storytelling, poor voice acting, a card game that nobody asked for, and of course even more lootboxes... I pre-purchased it, and regret now that I did after seeing what all it entails.

Then there's the increasing level of abrasive zone chat that doesn't seem to be moderated, players being terrible, and guilds with ridiculous requirements to join, and yeah, one can see that the IDGAF mentality of the current dev team has rubbed off on the player base.

I'm still giving this a recommendation right now at the end of the summer in 2022, but Bethesda/Zenimax really need to address the issues there are with the game and restore balance. If they keep redefining how combat works and making band-aid fixes for underlying scope issues, then it'll become something I can no longer endorse with a subscription. I'd hate to see that happen but really, the greed has to stop.

So, still recommended at the moment, but be wary of sinking too much money into it. Get packs when they are on sale. Decide early on if you want to go for a subscription or if you want to buy content packs instead. Both have their advantages and disadvantages.

When I first played this game, it was in the early beta stages. I continued following the game until it hit its release date, and ended up not getting the game... because it totally sucked! It had poor graphics, clunky gameplay, and wasn't worth the money asked for it. That was then. I picked it up again later, to have another go at it after hearing the people at Bethesda slapped the people at Zenimax on the wrist for doing a poor job, and stepping in to really fix things, and... they delivered. As poor as it was at first release, it became very -- Dropping outdated DX9 for DX11 was an absolute must. What it became is a full-featured, full-bodied fantasy MMORPG, with many, many avenues to explore and as many ways to play the game. Don't expect to get bored with grinding; quests and story missions will progress you as fast as, if not faster than, grinding your fingers off with boring repeatable missions. You want to play solo? go right ahead -- you'll have a good and full experience. You like to go on raids? That's possible too. You want to team up with some friends and go dungeon diving? It's there. PvP? You bet (not my thing, though). Unfortunately as the years progressed, the game started sliding back again with more focus on constantly making things easier, killing challenge for the "normal" game and with level proliferations (aka "One Tamriel") PvE has become and outright cakewalk. Fine if you want to just play for the story but even as a casual gamer-with-a-job I end up skipping through a lot of it because there is no challenge. PvP has become a "let's throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks", especially "Battlegrounds". An ever-growing, never ending array of reskinned models being sold at a premium, the ever-hated loot boxes with crap chances, and the token "compensation" for people to get access to lootbox items at mafia exchange rates are just a slap in the face. The economy is also seeing massive inflation which makes it harder and harder for casual players to be able to use guild stores to buy items they want or need. Then introduce the over-hyped "high isle" -- a AAA price for a chapter (expansion) that has mediocre storytelling, poor voice acting, a card game that nobody asked for, and of course even more lootboxes... I pre-purchased it, and regret now that I did after seeing what all it entails. Then there's the increasing level of abrasive zone chat that doesn't seem to be moderated, players being terrible, and guilds with ridiculous requirements to join, and yeah, one can see that the IDGAF mentality of the current dev team has rubbed off on the player base. I'm still giving this a recommendation right now at the end of the summer in 2022, but Bethesda/Zenimax really need to address the issues there are with the game and restore balance. If they keep redefining how combat works and making band-aid fixes for underlying scope issues, then it'll become something I can no longer endorse with a subscription. I'd hate to see that happen but really, the greed has to stop. So, still recommended at the moment, but be wary of sinking too much money into it. Get packs when they are on sale. Decide early on if you want to go for a subscription or if you want to buy content packs instead. Both have their advantages and disadvantages.