A decent MMO, with acceptable if somewhat floaty/not very punchy combat, some well-written quests that respect the lore (it is nice that both ZoS and Bethesda work together on the lore), OK classes that allow some customization (there are builds for all types of armor and weapons), decent dungeons and a pretty interesting world to explore.

My biggest problem with the game is the aggressive monetization, as the game tries to nickle and dime you at every ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ opportunity (the monthly sub, although optional feels mandatory, the crafting bags is essential, otherwise you'll get flooded with crafting materials, and you'll run out of bag space easily, also you lose access to the bag and the materials stored in it as soon as the sub expires, even smaller DLC are pretty expensive, but at least you get them for free if you pay the monthly sub, still you lose access to them if not subbed or if you don't buy them separately with Crowns, you can pay for bag and bank space, you can pay to train your mount faster, you can pay to buy skill points, you gotta pay for better/bigger houses, for additional char slots, for name changes, for race changes or to edit your character's appearance, the game's chock-full of lootboxes, you gotta pay for more loadouts if you wanna try more skill/armor/weapon combinations, and you don't wanna respec every 5 minutes, you can speed up researching gear traits, as it can take up to 30 real days for a single trait, and you have limited slots for these researches, and the list goes on) and I don't feel like dumping a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of money for the sake 'convenience', when the game was designed in such a way that most of these optional purchases feel mandatory, for a better experience.

Also, the PvP leaves much to be desired, as it feels like complete garbage most of the time, with randoms unwilling to complete the objectives (just going for most kills, running around getting themselves killed), classes feeling unbalanced and if you don't get at least second place in the leaderboards, you get ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and you feel like you've just wasted 10–15 mins (Zenimax could really do something to make the experience less ♥♥♥♥). Even during PvP events you barely get enough players in queues to play a match in the battlegrounds, and most of the time the matches just close down as there are not enough players joining (but you still have to wait about 5 mins before the match closes, wasting even more time).

Another new addition to the game is the Golden Pursuits, which are time-limited activities that have cosmetic rewards tied to them. Initially, it seemed like a good update to the game, as the first set of activities was very straightforward and easy to complete. But from what I’ve seen, most of the new challenges tend to be more time consuming and more restrictive (doing trials, pariticipating in PvP and open-world PvP like Cyrodiil/The Imperial City, leveling alts) and most of the time the rewards just aren’t good enough to incentive players to participate in activities they don’t care about. ZoS seems content with wasting your time and forcing you into activities you might not care about (I know I don’t give two ♥♥♥♥♥ about PvP as after getting lvl 50, PvP is a complete mess and it’s unbalanced, only favoring a couple of builds that are almost unkillable). I think the simplest solution would be adding more activity variety and allowing players to choose whatever they like and still be rewarded, but I’m pretty sure ZoS just live in their own bubble as I haven’t seen them respond to any criticism.

Despite these drawbacks, I'll continue to casually play the game from time to time, as there's fun to be had, especially with friends, but I can't really wholeheartedly recommend this MMO.

A decent MMO, with acceptable if somewhat floaty/not very punchy combat, some well-written quests that respect the lore (it is nice that both ZoS and Bethesda work together on the lore), OK classes that allow some customization (there are builds for all types of armor and weapons), decent dungeons and a pretty interesting world to explore. My biggest problem with the game is the aggressive monetization, as the game tries to nickle and dime you at every ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ opportunity (the monthly sub, although optional feels mandatory, the crafting bags is essential, otherwise you'll get flooded with crafting materials, and you'll run out of bag space easily, also you lose access to the bag and the materials stored in it as soon as the sub expires, even smaller DLC are pretty expensive, but at least you get them for free if you pay the monthly sub, still you lose access to them if not subbed or if you don't buy them separately with Crowns, you can pay for bag and bank space, you can pay to train your mount faster, you can pay to buy skill points, you gotta pay for better/bigger houses, for additional char slots, for name changes, for race changes or to edit your character's appearance, the game's chock-full of lootboxes, you gotta pay for more loadouts if you wanna try more skill/armor/weapon combinations, and you don't wanna respec every 5 minutes, you can speed up researching gear traits, as it can take up to 30 real days for a single trait, and you have limited slots for these researches, and the list goes on) and I don't feel like dumping a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of money for the sake 'convenience', when the game was designed in such a way that most of these optional purchases feel mandatory, for a better experience. Also, the PvP leaves much to be desired, as it feels like complete garbage most of the time, with randoms unwilling to complete the objectives (just going for most kills, running around getting themselves killed), classes feeling unbalanced and if you don't get at least second place in the leaderboards, you get ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and you feel like you've just wasted 10–15 mins (Zenimax could really do something to make the experience less ♥♥♥♥). Even during PvP events you barely get enough players in queues to play a match in the battlegrounds, and most of the time the matches just close down as there are not enough players joining (but you still have to wait about 5 mins before the match closes, wasting even more time). Another new addition to the game is the Golden Pursuits, which are time-limited activities that have cosmetic rewards tied to them. Initially, it seemed like a good update to the game, as the first set of activities was very straightforward and easy to complete. But from what I’ve seen, most of the new challenges tend to be more time consuming and more restrictive (doing trials, pariticipating in PvP and open-world PvP like Cyrodiil/The Imperial City, leveling alts) and most of the time the rewards just aren’t good enough to incentive players to participate in activities they don’t care about. ZoS seems content with wasting your time and forcing you into activities you might not care about (I know I don’t give two shits about PvP as after getting lvl 50, PvP is a complete mess and it’s unbalanced, only favoring a couple of builds that are almost unkillable). I think the simplest solution would be adding more activity variety and allowing players to choose whatever they like and still be rewarded, but I’m pretty sure ZoS just live in their own bubble as I haven’t seen them respond to any criticism. Despite these drawbacks, I'll continue to casually play the game from time to time, as there's fun to be had, especially with friends, but I can't really wholeheartedly recommend this MMO.