Like many, I really wanted this game to be 'great'.
I didn't buy the game at launch, but mulled over buying it for a couple of weeks before grabbing it.
It had the wonderful 'The Elder Scrolls' games as it's predecessors, so despite luke-warm reviews and the fact that it was a flagship MMO for the company, I gave it a shot.
After reaching level 50, I thought the game was good...but I wasn't enthused, and I certainly wasn't enraptured as I was with Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim. What I did discover while I was playing, was a yearning to revisit these other games again - because ESO doesn't even seem like a distant relative.
I wasn't expecting this game to be like it's predecessors. I went in with an open mind, but found that although the sounds of the locales was spot on as usual, the music was very disappointing (and a trademark of previous titles). Apart from 3 or so signature tracks, I found the rest of the soundtrack sadly forgettable, uninspiring and very pedestrian. Most of the music didn't endear itself to the game at all.
Good pvp reviews was one of the reasons I picked the game up, but the only pvp consisted of one large 'battleground' not dissimilar to Alterac Valley - a battlegrounds people went to in WoW to get honour - but the real reward of pvp in WoW was small scale battles where people could test themselves against other players.
There is none of that here, and the one feature they have implemented will probably force you to lower your settings...but still have lag.
The Molag Bal fight sealed this game's doom for me...
I don't do raids and am quite happy just soloing around on my own as a rule, but in order for me to unlock veteran level content (a soloers candy store and something many, like me, would have looked forward to), ESO asks you to suffer multiple deaths (and I mean many!!!), only to spend 10 minutes running around in circles for an encounter that doesn't leave you feeling a sense of achievement....but a feeling of relief that would've been comical relief if you didn't just spend a huge chunk of your playing time trying to kill a 'boss' that was more suited to group content.
I found the fight incredibly frustrating, and the comical nature of the encounter, took away any feeling of achievement. A very unimaginative encounter.
Solo content should not require a player to die as much as he would on a raid boss.
Well, I've definitely focused on the negatives of the game, and I think that is because it's disappointing that The Elder Scrolls 'series' has taken a dive off their golden path...and all because MMO's have the potential to make a lot of $$$....
Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim will always be close to my heart and games I will play again and again.
It's a real shame that future single-player adventures into wonderfully crafted worlds may never grace our screens again, as the financial investment thrown into this game will sadly see it's creators trying to keep this game above water, when they previously had a product that soared above the seas...