Help me pick between ESO and DarkSouls2

Hello gamers!

I want to buy a new game to play but I'm at a crossroads between Elder Scrolls Online and DarkSouls 2

DS2 is coming out in 2 days and I absolutely loved DarkSouls: Prepare to Die Edition so I know for sure I'll like DS2.

But I also played the Elderscrolls series since Morrowind, and after seeing the review, it looks worthy enough for me to sink some serious time.

Please share your experience with these games and help me buy the right one!

Sometimes i wonder if people who come on forums and ask these questions even have a idea what the games are other than its name.

But first ESO is a mmorpg , and you have to pay each month to be able to play, so have you considered that? Second DS2 is a "single player" game and have about 10+ hours of gameplay. So dont think ESO is a new SKyrim/Morrowind because its not.

But if you really need to decided between the two, remember that ESO is a mmorpg.

ESO is "Elder Scrolls flavored" but it's still an MMO at its core and as a result it plays a lot like one so don't expect to be able to do things like steal everything that's not nailed down or attack random NPCs in town just to see what would happen.

Dark Souls 2 is a full on sequel to DS1 with it's single and multiplayer intact. Based on that, you have to decide which kind of game you'd rather play.

-Byshop

Sometimes I wonder if people even read anything in the post before writing a comment and treating everyone like a kid.

I'm sorry but I do know what these games are but I only got time for 1 and don't wanna to blow my wallet.

Just asking the community on their personal experience with these games not a description of the game itself.

I hope it's okay with you since your opinion must matter so much to everyone with the way you talk.

But they are two different games, one is a mmorpg and the other is a "singleplayer" game.

And blow your wallet? well, then its a clear case of buying DS then isent it, since ESO is not F2P and you need to buy the game and dish out a monthly fee.

And its fine asking the gamespot forum for their tips. but its hard to come with a tip when you are asking about 2 so different game genres, and also use terms like "Not enough time" and "blow my wallet" because both clearly leads to Dark Souls 2 since its again a SP game with a one time fee.

From what I've played of Elder Scrolls Online I can say that the game feels very shallow and underwhelming, Skyrim Light if you will. There is no real endgame and groups are capped at laughable 4-man instances. I loved all TES games but I'd pass on this one.

Dark Souls 2 is a good game but the change of director is very apparent; subtle environmental storytelling and seamless world design is gone, and with it a bit of heart. However, those elements can be considered irrelevant if you're getting it for raw gameplay, which is now better than ever. Highly recommend it.

To Jacanuk's point, though, if "blowing your wallet" is a concern then you should really bear in mind that DS2 costs $50 and you can play it as much as you want, but ESO costs $60 for the first month and another $15 for each month you want to play if after that. It's an MMO, so it'll have more in common with WoW than Skyrim in terms of what kind of game it is even though it's set in the Elder Scrolls universe.

-Byshop

DS2 man, its got 100+ hours of gameplay with no monthly cost

ESO is subscription based. That kills it for me right there

@SovietsUnited: From what I've played of Elder Scrolls Online I can say that the game feels very shallow and underwhelming, Skyrim Light if you will. There is no real endgame and groups are capped at laughable 4-man instances. I loved all TES games but I'd pass on this one.

To be fair, the game has waaaay more content than any modern MMO. There are three campaigns, each with entirely separate questlines and regions. The only overlap is guild quests and the main story, which is a fraction of the content. There are near 100 quests in the first zone of each campaign alone, unique to that campaign. You've got 5 unique zones in each campaign, plus a shared sixth zone in Coldharbour. Then you get the first 10 veteran levels, which are about doing those other 2 campaigns in what amounts to a hard mode setting. After that, you get adventure zones which are 12 man zones designed as smaller versions of these campaign zones filled with various quests, challenges and their own dungeons.

I don't think they intended people getting to vet rank 10 before they released the first adventure zone, craglorn, at the end of the month. On some level I can understand that because it's mindblowing how much shit there is to do in this game when you consider the modern formula is max level in a week for even casual players. You had to be an exploiter or a marathon gamer to get there as quick as some of these guys did...i'm still at vet rank 3, but then I try to hear all the story and find all the quests and such.

And you can say ESO's combat is shallow, but only if you're not comparing it to the rock-em sock-em robots style of combat in regular TES, where you're just waving your sword around at the guy in front of you that's waving his sword back at you. ESO has all the basic combat mechanics of TES, plus interrupts and knockdowns and a skillbar. So you have the basic mechanics of a TES game and then some + an MMO hotbar. That means more combat options in play at any one time than a typical TES game. The real problem is there's quite a bit of lag leading to skill failures and slowed response time. When it's running smooth, it's quite fun, though. Easily the most enjoyable MMO combat in quite some time, though it takes quite a few levels to hit its stride because of how far apart unlocks are spaced. The first 10 levels can be downright boring at times because of this pace, and has at times discouraged my usual tendency to roll multiple characters.

Questing is deeper in ESO as well. Just not up for debate. The fact that you can influence how quests proceed...that you can actually roleplay in your roleplaying game. That's new to TES. It's still an MMO. Not gonna change anyone's mind about MMO's. But it's pretty well executed.

If you liked the original Dark Souls, Dark Souls II is a safe bet.