I can't express well enough how much I hate it when a studio puts up a paywall for my bag space.

I think the endeavors were put in to get them around certain gaming/gambling laws in certain countries.

We need the adventures of swtor back. This time it will be the apprentice of the powerful Galacticchad

Technically the Coldharbour quest is, afaIk, the true start of the game which then sends you to Stros M'Kai. Something I want to mention is that this game is very rewarding if you take your time to do all the zone quests in chronological order. Old characters return for DLC zones and you will be given exclusive dialgoue options if you''ve completed the old quests in the base game. I absolutely love this as it feels incredibly rewarding to have an exclusive quest experience based on your previous adventuring. Reading the lore books in each zone is also great as that gives you more info about the world. My first ES game was Skyrim and I didn't know any lore and was overall confused, but I always wondered what was beyond the borders of Skyrim. Playing ESO made me fall in love with the franchise and gave me an in-depth look and appreciation for the lore. The base game and dlc zones do a great job of immersing you in the lore for the various races and the world, which is great IMO.

If you want a comprehensive, fair and honest review of any game, Mitch is your guy! Love your honesty, and how you thread humour into your analysis. This is a brilliant series, already curious to know which one is next. Also love that you put the time into playing the game, so many don't but feel they can comment after a couple of hours. Just love your channel, you are such a professional, and what really shines through is that you do this because you love producing quality material, rather than chasing the dollar. Awesome content, and you seem like an awesome guy!

The intro to this was amazing! I really love ESO (3000+ hours now) but have to agree the monetisation can be a bit much sometimes. Great video, and very fair review!

Elder Scrolls theme song never gets old

when it comes to difficulty, I wish there was something in between. something that is isn't ball-crushingly difficult like Veterans are, but something that still offers more of a challenge than normal dungeons and open world do

Dude, Im SO glad you used the saga anthem as your intro music!! I loved that so much hearing it.

Monetization like this ultimately means the size of the playerbase can only head downward.

God I need a friend like Mitch in my life lol. Thank you for making videos sir. Always brings a smile to my face when I need it most.

0:09 Bro i love your laugh xD i think your laugh in Exanima with the ladder over the head section is the reason i subscribed , the content is secondary lol

The fact that the game limits your bag space just to buy the sub for infinite space kills me

Having a hard time really getting into it as a MMO. Mostly been playing it like a single player game, but it did let me be a buff tiger man. I have always wanted to be a buff tiger man.

absolutly great video! Covering every aspect to the point, thanks!

probably the best eso review I have ever seen. Presented in a funny and informative way. love it. BTW I also need godslayer...

Love the way that you put all the elements together. As someone that has played TES games since Arena and ESO since launch, off and on ( I didn't really like the game pre-One Tamriel ) I appreciate that you've played the game. It erks me to no end to have someone come in and rate a game off of less than 20 hrs played. Monitization... I'm always of two minds about it. In all the years I've played I've bought exactly two, four packs of crates and both were pretty much for the same reason.. I needed the gems to get something I wanted, from the crown store. All but one of my *fancy* mounts was bought with Endeavors, or Gems from 'free' crates ( I can *not* watch a stream with the best of them), the other mount is an Apex from crates I won in a housing contest. Meaning, I can't / don't understand people saying that it's abusive, there is nothing in the Crown Store that is *NEEDED* to play the game at low or high levels. Buy the bright shiny mount or don't, your choice. Buy the Motif in the Crown Store or don't, most can be earned in game . To me the crappiest thing about the Crown Store is the way that things that CAN be earned in game doesn't have a tag saying that it can be earned IN GAME! So new players might not realize that that really cool motif IS earnable in game and spend IRL money on it... THAT I find shitty in the extreme. There is a lot more I could say.. but I won't.

I am waiting for Galactichad vs the Emperor saga :*

It should also be noted that the Guild traders (ESO answer to Auction House) is horrendous! If you want to sell anything you need to be in a guild that owns spots where people might actually buy your stuff and those guilds usually have quotas that mean you aren't going to be using this feature casually. And the fact the AH is basically split up across vendors spread all over the world, you'll be fine if you want to buy readily available crafting mats and the like but if you want something more specific you can end up travelling the length and breadth of Tamriel desperately trying to find someone selling the item that you would have found in minutes with a proper AH system.

Good to see your channel blowing up, it was inevitable;D

I'm someone with way too many hours in eso and i like watching these kind of videos to see if the creators did justice to the game. This is by far the best eso introduction video i've seen! If you're thinking about playing eso for the first time, this is the only video you need to watch.

Perfectly delivered yet again sir! Absolutely love your videos

As someone who has around 10k hours in ESO, I want to add my thoughts: (2014-2016 were hard years don't judge me 😅) When the game launched, it was a mandatory subscription. Once it went Buy to Play, I kept paying for the sub until I stopped playing actively in 2019. Numerous other MMO's demand a subscription, so I just bit the bullet and looked at it that way. The crafting bag is definitely the scummiest part about the game. If you can deal with paying like $15 a month, you have access to everything in the game (with the exception of the most recent expansion I believe?) plus monthly crowns and other rewards. I am not sticking up for the monetization, I'm just saying that in my opinion the best way to fully enjoy the game is to just pay the monthly sub. Although 90% of my time was spent in cyrodiil, I did all endgame content (that was available until 2019 at least) including the vet dungeons and 12 man trials. All the PvE content is super fun, easy or challenging (and REALLY BEAUTIFUL). You could honestly spend thousands of hours just questing. And it totally has that bethesda "vibe" where you can just run in any direction and find random crazy stuff happening or solving mysteries for npc's in the wilderness. The combat was what kept me around that long as well. I'm 32 and been gaming since I was 7, and some of my best gaming memories ever were made in cyrodiil pvp with my guildies. I've played other mmo's but ESO is the one that kept me around. Yes, the monetization is pretty atrocious, but again, I think the best way to enjoy the game is just pay that sub the same way you would if you played FFXIV, because the amount of content available is insane, and the community is made up of some of the nicest people I've met online, who I'm still friends with to this day!

I’m also a British guy and an avid ESO enjoyer, predominantly pvp but I play on the PC NA server. This piece of content you’ve made is excellent and is very true.

this is a fantastic review, coming from a veteran endgame player of eso. you've done your research and covered and reviewed things many people don't know about.

this game is one of the most greed-filled i've played. i had a 6-month subscription for eso plus, then cancelled it when i was finished playing. they then charged me again, and when i proved to the steam support that i already cancelled it, they refunded me. i was then banned completely from the game, and every support ticket has the same thing copy pasted saying i need to revert the refund or they won't unban me. even after proof they still copy paste the exact same thing, the greed is crazy

this was an amazingly done dive! all i would've included is the comprehensive housing and outfit system.

My biggest gripe with eso is that they have the best pvp by far in an mmo but its so neglected - if they improved performance in cyrodill and balanced the classes a little more (nerf night blades essentially) it would be unreal! 😮

Great video! I've played this game for around 9.5k hours. I love it to pieces, and I think your points about it are pretty fair. I wish it would take more of a Warframe style approach to monetization, and not lock so much content away behind paywalls. The game would do just as well in sales if they did, as they'd bring in enough people who might actually stick around longer and pay for subscriptions or cosmetics. The open world stuff being easy doesn't bother me too much, as there's just so much of it and so much focus on story that having overwhelmingly difficult overland mobs would just be annoying. With the scaling, there's a weird inverse thing going on where you kind of feel more powerful with time, but the moment you hit CP 160, you're suddenly getting destroyed by everything because you're no longer being scaled and don't have the benefit of max level gear yet. Its a strange experience for sure.

Great video man! Hope you do some more SWTOR content soon; it was so much damn fun!

The only reason this game is not my main MMO is the combat. I fucking hate swinging wet noodles.

Finally get a chance to watch it 😂😂. Let's go!!!!! Cracking video again man!!!

The "how many lights" joke was so good I had to rewind twice.

Relatively new player here (Only just got my first 50, CP 56 currently) and around 100 hours total play time. It took me a LONG time to get used to the combat and I hated it at first. But once I got to my first DLC dungeon and had to get SWEATY to perform and not die.... I had one of those It's Always Sunny Frank meme moments... I get it now. It clicked for me, and now I LOVE it.

And again a very good video. Keep up the great work :)

To explain why all the portals after the tutorial were locked off, it's not actually all down to not buying expansions. For a first time character you're locked to just your alliance's starting zone, to put you on a more direct starting path. Any future characters will have at least 4 portals enabled with just the base game: all 3 alliance starting zones and Vvardenfell (which is part of the game's first chapter that they added to the base game).

Honestly a very fair video :) I love eso for the story , combat is ok if a tad repetitive , and if you buy expansions and keep the sub running (like wow for example) you'll eventually have enough crowns to buy all the dlc's OR the mounts / houses etc from the cash shop (unlike wow) so I personally don't really have a problem with it. Anyway enjoyed the video , and I wonder how the ffxiv video will go (nice little hint at the end xD )

Just wow , i really trying to convince myself that with so many top free to play MMo's , to buy elder scroll but now thx to you i'll not do such an stupid mistake , their monetisation method is just crazy !! I never even heard any MMo that combime all metods together !!

Bro you're Khajiit voice is on fucking point!

I Stopped playing ESO about 5-6 years ago, i was Quite Addicted to it. Fun video, but i don't need This time Vampire in my life again XD

two billion in revenue is crazy, I'd love to see it really upgraded

Bravo Mitch! You pretty much captured how I feel about the game. The biggest pain point to me is the laughable difficulty in open world and questing content.

A veteran mode for the Main Story has been asked by players for years - ZOS doesn't seem to have any interest in adding it. They’re focus on just adding content primarily aimed to casuals and adding to the cash shop. You made a mistake though, they dropped adding two separate zones a year. Now it’s just one big zone a year added by the Chapter. Edit: could be another sign of this game is basically on maintenance mode.

Really good video Man, Love it ! I also play ESO really on and off, and well forgot that i have ESO+ so just checked the Crowns i got dusting in the bank and its like 20k :D Woops :D again Thanks for the Great video Mitch :)

Brilliant as always! There are those rare people that I could just listen to or have a good conversation(should I know them🤪) for hours. Your sense of humor, mixed with deep thoughts and appreciation, all came through perfectly. Well done!

Great video and painful as well since I share a lot of your frustration with the monetization.

My huge gripe with this MMO are the cool weapon sets (flashy, glowing effects) are all in the crown store. There's no sense of achievement other than slaving hours away for Endeavours to buy some from the store 😭 The one rare event where ZOS gave this a little effort was with the Opal weapon sets associated with the Undaunted event.

I played Many MMO, Lineage 2 for 12 years, STO for 8 years, SWTOR for 5 years, WOW just until I get to level 20 so I can get a freebie for Hearthstone then I deleted WOW. and many more but so Far Elder Scrolls is the only one I still play.

Love your videos 😂 also wow i never knew animation canceling in the combat system, that's something really Japanese arcade fighting game does, gotta try this game!

Even if I have played most games in this series so far, the videos are so funny its a must to watch! 😅

I have over 1000 hours in ESO, I love the game but my primary #1 issue is that the game has 2 difficulty modes: Extremely easy, or extremely hard. They definitely need more scaling in-between those 2 difficulties. Look at World Of Warcraft for example, ALOT more options in terms of going normal, heroic, mythic, mythic+ etc. Also as you mentioned the open world content definitely needs to be at least slightly more difficult, it's laughably easy right now and very off putting tbh.

A great video! You missed one part of the monetization system: the intentional inconveniences. Things like becoming a vampire or leveling up mounts are intentionally made much, MUCH harder than they need to be, pushing players even more toward the cash shop. I've been playing ESO for two years and definitely thinking of trying something else for the points you mentioned.

i had played it for a bit but theinv space and payment stuff chased me away, went back to skyrim and made a khajeet named ya'yeet

I think there's a difference between hardcore challenge modes, like ESO's veteran mode, and natural difficulty in games. Challenging modes are called challenges for a reason. Difficulty is a huge part of that, but there's another layer of mastery that these modes also demand from a player, which is why they're usually played by experienced players. If someone new to the game doesn't like ESO because it's too easy, challenge modes do nothing for them because they're new. If the game isn't any fun to learn to play at all because it's too easy, the whole point of adding challenges for experienced players is kinda moot.

I've played on and off since beta, fought through pvp, trials, arenas, and a number of the dungeon trifectas. This is a truly fair review.

FYI the tutorial is designed so that you can get a full suit of light, medium, and heavy armor, as well as all the weapon types, along with all the associated skills lines for weapons and armor. Skipping that and leaving empty slots means you're not leveling up those other skill lines.

I Just waited for this for so long - and i was Not dissapointed. Thanks for delivering this awesome vid!!

In my old guild the Founder met her husband through it. This Spanish boy joine done day and they hit it off really well. They never spoke to us again, Wherever they are now I hope they found there happiness. We miss you Vixen and Meit.

This game would be so much better with an over world that is not completely brain dead easy.

On a subject of DLCs and ESO+ - as of now, considering the bundles and collection edition of the game, getting all DLCs in the game is actually cheaper than whole year of ESO+. Just to put "insane amount of money" into perspective :)

Loving this series Mitch!

Only reason i quit playing was the end game. It was a struggle staying meta every patch since they nerfed and changed things every patch. I never felt like i made any progress because of this. The gameplay was amazing thought and one of the main reasons i kept playing.

A fully comprehensive vid as always. ESO looks like it could be fun, but the issues it does have would drive me nuts before long.

I do agree with the cash shop having questionable items such as, Crown potions/repair kits/food/Soul gems and they should atleast add a disclaimer to those items like. This item or similar item is obtainable through in game vendors. I do disagree with eso+ being not pro consumer. (The only thing not pro consumer is keeping the craftbag behind to that subscription) You get access to all dlc dungeons and zones for 17 bucks for a month and you get the crowns needed to buy 1 of the dlc which you get play as much as you want for the whole month instead of having to pay before playing it. I've been playing this game for 9 years I do not have an active eso+ subscription, but I do get one every time a new dlc dungeon set comes out so I can buy it and stock up the craft bag.

Oh may goodness the monetization bit is so spot on! I absolutely adore this game and have spent over 9k hours on it both from my time on the console and PC combined but man does it like to try to keep on taking! I felt the weight of losing well over $400 when I shifted to PC as I have to regrind and build back what I lost. I will not be spending actual money this time and am opting to use a crown dealer to get crown items if I am desperate. Great video as always my friend loved the clever editing and very wholesome ending 😄🍻

the starting area is locked for a new charachter if you make a new one all the portals in halls are open where you can choose where you want to go

The monetisation of this game is absolutely vile.... and people actually defend it! So wild.

As much as I wanted to get into this game, the constant paywalls just didn't allow me to. The moment you start having fun you're bound to hit one.

I tried this game a few years ago and didn't even make it an hour before I quit. I don't even know what I did that could have caused it, but while I was doing a quest in town there was this high level NPC that ran up and one shot me. It then ran all the way over to where I respawned and proceeded to spawn camp me for the next 5 minutes before I just logged off and uninstalled.

Oblivion is a fun memory my daughter told me of today. When she was little she played it at first like Barbie dress up. She would wander her character around to the stores and chat with them like she would two dolls "talking" to each other. When she wanted a cool outfit if it was from a scary dungeon she'd ask me to get it, so I'd suit her toon up (she used drawers and closets all over the world to hold things) and plunder the place to get the item. Eventually as she grew she'd adventure herself and of course she'd attack guards and race them out of the town. She's tempted to join me in ESO but between her University studies and intern work her plate is full.

In regard of monetization: In general, I would recommend getting the latest expansion (which includes the previous ones) and ESO plus. In theory when you get to the point where you have played through all the DLC and crafted everything you wanted, you can turn off ESO Plus and keep playing. If you play a lot, you might get to this point in ~2-3 months. But in the end, it's likely that you'll want to keep ESO Plus running as long as you're actively playing. Even more theoretically, you can also start by just buying the latest expansion (or much cheaper, just get the one before). But then you won't have access to the DLCs (or you'll have to buy them piece by piece, which is an incredible waste of money compared to ESO Plus) and you'll constantly run out of inventory & bank space, which imho does only make this an option if you decide to never try any craftingskills and use an Inventory Cleanup addon and mule characters.

have you tried Elite Dangerous? not sure if theres a video material in that

As someone who only recently got into MMOs in the past three years or so I’ve been playing ESO without a subscription for months. I finally caved so I could try out the DLCs but before that I didn’t have much issue with monetization but I think that’s vastly because I tend to ignore the store and just focus on completing quests because I’m used to playing (casually) solo rpgs and just play ESO like one. I don’t think I’ve ever focused much on crafting or professions etc. or fancy gear. Mostly because it all seems a bit overwhelming.So I didn’t mind the base game. But I understand my experience is not most people’s. Especially for people who are far more familiar with MMOs.

What I particularly despise about the Clown Store are the noob traps like respec scrolls, pots and food - things you can easily get in game. ESO+ is indeed pretty much mandatory, if you want the full experience. The video went into the inventory problem at length already, but access to all DLCs is also a massive factor, especially for advanced players. The base game is usually pretty cheap nowadays, sometimes even free. That is already a lot of game and you can get a good first impression of the systems. My recommendation is: See it as a subscription game, use the Crowns that come with the subscription wisely, i.e. for assistants first and then for other things you really want and can not get in game. Older content usually stays relevant for a long time and many groups are running older raids regularly, so you don't really have to pay for the new chapter each year. However, you might feel a bit left out, if you don't have all the cool new toys, so that is another expense you might want to budget for. ESO is not a cheap game, but the costs are predictable, if you can keep your hands out of the cosmetics cookie jar of the Crown Store.

20:55 Not the most confidence inspiring name when starting a trial :D That "oh God" after seeing the role... LOL

Some things to mention: Armor Sets, Skills, guilds, wayshrines, outfit system, emotes, mementos, assistants and companions... and that ESO plus gives you access to chapters. Granted this game is far too massive to fit in a small video

24:50 I don't think I deserve respect for being poor but thank you, it does make me feel a smidge better

I feel like this past week of making endeavors for the current theme (stealing) be worth a lot more is at least a step in the right direction since some of them were 100 endeavors a piece. They need to do this more than occasionally though lol.

I just started eso a few days ago the paywall for bag space is a pain but its really not so bad when you buy the base game for 5-15 bucks and try 1 month of eso + it gives you everything to try out :) also the community really is nice and im still not used to it 😅

I played when it first came out. Did they change the intro to the game?

8:48 - 9:28 This part had me in tears. 😂 Comedy gold.

I've ESO back in 2014-2016 and enjoyed my time with the game back in the day. I've also tried to get back into the game a lot of time throughout the years but everytime I log back in, i'm overwhelmed with the new systems they have in the game that it turns me off from trying to play it. Maybe one day i'll try to play the game again but for now, maybe not.

The two things that made me quit ESO were bag management and the animation cancellation optimisations not really working with an antipodean 200 ping. I know it's still quite popular, but I think it's relatively underrated. Fun video as always, mate.

Ahh the questing having a date with an old man in a cave 100 times (with a loading screen making you think your downloading the game again)

The craft bag makes it mandatory to pay for eso plus as a endgame player if you even want to stay casual. You’d think by now they would’ve decided to get rid of it

Yes ! The guards who clearly mistook their job describe for courting ! "I know I am amazing and all, but please pay your bounty, so then we can maybe go on a dinner." My dunmer woman just laughed at that nord and run away. And then there were scaredy guards literally crying "Oh gods no !!! I don't want to die !!!!" while chasing me. And ofc the most nicest redguard guard in Evermore, which made me even feel guilty after I chose to flee.

Love the combat/questing/ and exploration. I would play this offline if i could. Not a big fan of their monetization

Yeesh that monetization... Makes me want to go buy an outfit or something in gw2 just to reward them for not being quite THAT greedy (not that they're perfect, but definitely the best I've experienced on the monetization front)

The Monetization is why I left. The Monetization is why I wont come back. Loot Boxes are CANCER.

The monetization bit cannot be more true, in the two weeks I've been trying wow I have felt more rewarded and appreciated as a player than my 10 years of playing eso just based off of that by itself.

Hey Mitch, this series is really good. You should make more of it. It's pretty close to evergreen content and has a high chance of being reacted to by the big funnel channels (asmon and them) Keep going, my dude. This is really great stuff!

Imp city pvp is where its at, as well as dueling in capital cities

I won't come back until some kind of vetern open world mode is added. Questing is one of the strongest features of this game so I'm confused why it hasn't been added yet

They should put some of those lights in ESO houses. Notoriously dark ;)

The thing is, you don't need to buy every DLC. Not every DLC offers the gear or experience every player wants. So you can use plus to buy the DLC you want/like/need, ignore the ones you don't, and cancel/resub when new content comes out for it. You don't have to pay concurrently and 100% all of the DLC. It's honestly one of the more friendly systems if you aren't mindless about it

The monetization was the one thing that kept me away from the game, nothing quite like paying for a game, starting a quest line, getting partially through it only to hit a pay wall for content lol. And it was fucking everywhere. Nah Im good. Havnt gone back since

I am completely new to the game and to mmorpg in general because I play on Playstation. What I am trying to do is to play the game as a "singleplayer". Doing missions and trying to understand things but I don't want to play pvp. The thing that I have also noticed is that everything on the Store is way to expensive. I thought Fortnite or Call of Duty were expensive on skins but this game is something else.

Your narration is tops.

I bought the collector's edition of this game at release. It was blatantly obvious this game was created from the ground up with a free-to-play store in mind. You could see it how everything worked out, with the upgrade materials, to the way you fed your pet, that this game was going to get a store at some point. I quit shortly after maxing out my first character and never went back

Love ESO, but hate there are no oceania servers. I had to give up because the lag for me playing from NZ was too bad for endgame content.