Is ESO Worth Playing in 2022?
Just because 2022 is halfway done doesn’t mean CoViD-19 will no longer be with us in 2023. And with so much time to be spent in perpetual isolation, that means gamers still won’t be going anywhere. Because of the extended lockdown period, we can expect the demand for new games to spike up next year. New games don’t really matter, however, because we recommend that you play something already available: Elder Scrolls Online. Read on to find out why we think ESO is worth playing in 2022.
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Is ESO Worth Playing in 2022? Yes, Because It’s Medieval Fun
The short, simple, and right answer is definitely yes, and we’ll be telling you all the reasons why. Let’s start with the most sensible one of them: because it’s an MMORPG. If RPGs and their MMO variants aren’t your thing, then you wouldn’t be reading this right now, so we know you’re the type that likes to spend hundreds, if not thousands of hours raising a persona in a high medieval fantasy, practicing your magic or swashbuckling, encountering mystical creatures like dragons, griffins, and unicorns, and saving the day and the world. All these things make ESO worth playing!
If you haven’t played any Elder Scrolls game before, then you’d be pleased to know that Tamriel is exactly that. And mind you, the game is no theme park where the choice of setting and the lore and aesthetics that come along with it are shallow. Rather, the franchise is almost thirty years old and has a mythos that’s almost as deep and rich as classic Dungeons and Dragons!
Because Of Its Epic Lore
Elder Scrolls Online is a rather great entry point into the lore, as it’s set a millennium before The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and eight centuries before The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, and IV: Oblivion. Hopefully, by starting Elder Scrolls Online, you’d also play the older games, especially III and IV, which you’ll discover to be really great games if you can get past the dated graphics and gameplay.
On the other hand, if you’ve been a long-time Elder Scrolls fan, you should definitely play this one, especially if you’re one of those lore geeks (which is a good thing). It’s one thing to just read the lore from some official source and wiki and imagine what Tamriel was like before the events Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim, and another to actually be in it. That’s why even though MMOs aren’t your thing, you should definitely play it for the story and world-building.
Plus, the Tamriel 1000 years ago keeps getting new expansions. Not only do they give you more content, but also more lore and story, and it doesn’t seem like the game is about to run out of expansion ideas. After all, with a rich lore like that, it shouldn’t be a surprise why we still get exciting additions to the game years after its release, making ESO worth playing even after all these years.
Also, speaking of other installments, the best time to play Elder Scrolls Online is now, as the next Elder Scrolls could be just around the corner. While the super-teaser trailer that only shows the Elder Scrolls VI title has become a running joke among gaming circles, it can’t be denied that there’s much hype for it. Plus, games take time to develop. When Bethesda showed something as little as that, it should be no surprise that they have already started some work on VI.
Because of Its Unique MMO Mechanics
Or perhaps you’re less concerned with the lore and just want the usual medieval fantasy MMO trappings. Of course, ESO has that too, and in spades as well. It even breaks Elder Scrolls tradition of either not having classes so you can grow the character however you want, or a class being more of a suggestion than a strict specialization. Instead, it goes along with classic MMO roles such as tank, DPS, and support.
There are 6 classes overall, and some more versatile than others, but never too radically different than what the class is intended to do. All builds, however, fall under any of the three roles. They probably wanted a character growth system that is close to how things have always been, but it’s just not feasible. If everyone can do everything, then roles would be arbitrary, or worse, unnecessary.
If you’re not too bothered about how ESO has a different approach to character growth or completely don’t mind it because you’re just after the MMO experience, then you should pick the game up.
ESO is Worth Playing Because of the New Microsoft-Bethesda Partnership
Last but definitely not least would be the fact that the future is bright for Bethesda. If you’ve been quarantining too hard and missed the news, here’s the lowdown: Bethesda, the company, which owns, runs, and develops all Elder Scrolls games including this one, has been bought by Microsoft. That means PC as a gaming platform and the current and next-gen Xboxes!
That, however, doesn’t mean exclusivity. Instead, a more likely scenario would be Bethesda titles being included in the Xbox Game Pass, as well as other ways to make their fans choose to play in Xbox or the PC. It’s not unlikely for ESO to have a similarly sweet deal with the Xbox Game Pass, so keep your eyes peeled!
Plus, with a megacorporation taking care of Bethesda, you can rest assured that the game will at the very least be consistently good, or get even better and better. By 2022, Elder Scrolls Online will already be seven years old. Nevertheless, it’s still one of the better MMOs out there, so you should definitely pick it up for the reasons we’ve mentioned. If those aren’t enough to convince you that ESO is worth playing in 2022, then maybe you should
This game is absolutely not worth playing. If the developers actually cared about the state of the game is in and put some effort into fixing all bugs, not just the ones occuring in the real-money-store, it could have been a good game. But seeing that there are a multitude of bugs reported, on the official forums alone, that have been around for ages and left unattended, it is clear that the studio doesn’t care about anything else but the bottomline.
Their customer service is abysmal, if you could even call it customer service. They keep referring you to it, but if you take the time (and time it will cost you) to actually report bugs and issues, you are sent in circles by their agents telling you to update drivers -> update windows -> disable addons -> update drivers -> … and so on. It will never, ever be the fault of the game itsself.
If you like PVP, this is unplayable because of the amount of lag and crashes that occur on primetime. So if you like large scale PVP against 2 people in the morning, you should be fine. Otherwise, don’t even bother.
If you like endgame PVE, the trials also have a habit of just randomly kicking out multiple people who are then fighting against a log in system to try and join the party again. Ive had times where I had to wait for more than 30 minutes, and as you can imagine, the Trial was done already.
Maybe the only player this game is suited for is the solo-player who likes to do some quests, without too many players in the party, because this system also has a nice quirk of you not being able to leave a party and as such makes you unable to join another one.
And you don’t have to take my word for it. Check the Steam reviews of the people with 1000+ hours played (like myself) who had always kept hoping for improvement because of what the game could have been. They will tell you the exact same thing. Over and over again.