I love the world of Elder Scrolls and have played all the single games, and was waiting in anticipation of the release of the online version. Having had the chance to play the beta over the 4 months before release I had a good idea of how the game was going to shape up before release date. Over the last few years I have played in the beta's of most major releases, and ESO had many issues that were persistent through all the betas. With today's partisan gaming market one must come to market with a pretty bug free game.
While the game plays well, it continues to be plagued by the many of the same issues that persisted through beta and now into release. Broken Quest lines, Fallen through the world, gold spamming and lack of many of the fundamental mechanics that many of today's modern MMO have. The game in my opinion could have held release for another month and would have benefited by an open beta that allowed players to go beyond the first zone or two. This game feels not quite ready to go at times, and reminds me very much of some of the early issues that plagued early MMO's such as the original Everquest.
While the game has some great merits like the story lines, a good crafting system (once you figure it out). It is weak in PvP, which is a major Zerg fest which personally I do not find this appealing as the size of the zone is huge and it takes 10 minutes just to get back into the battle. I prefer arena style pvp with smaller teams and timed events, mind you that is just me, many are very happy with the zerg style pvp.
The world is open, you are only limited to the mobs you encounter, but you can often take mobs on 3 - 4 levels above you i single pulls, public dungeons are plentiful, but bosses often feel overpowered when they are not being farmed by gold farmers which has crept in to the game very quickly.
Personally I gave the game a 7.0 but that would be an average, this game would be a 8 or more if it was not for the bugs that persist in the game. That really drags it down to a frustrating level for some. If you did not buy into the game early, my advice give it a few months then buy it and play. The game feels more like a beta then a clean solid release. If I was to predict what was going to happen to this game, I would say that the Hard Core players looking for a challenge will abandon the game quickly as this game is pretty casual. It will settle into a small core group and find a niche market like LOTRO, SWTOR, Conan etc...
Will this game dethrone the reigning champion of MMOs not at all. I think this game may have a good future if it can address the bugs and play mechanics that are frustrating players. But it may be a long time before it reaches the quality of even the smaller niche games. There is not much on the Horizon for this year in MMOs that I am tracking, so I will be sticking it out in ESO for a while just to see what happens.