The Elder Scrolls Online

1. Summary

Reviewers describe walking across most of Tamriel, a separate storyline in every zone and dialogue that is voiced almost throughout, and they like that the game can be played as a single-player Elder Scrolls game or with friends, partners and guilds. Story and quests come up most often in the positive reviews. Next come the freedom to play solo at any pace, the lore and exploration, side activities such as crafting, housing, collecting and the Tales of Tribute card game, and a build system that lets any class use any weapon and fill any role.

Money is the complaint negative reviews raise most: 827 of the 2,971 negative reviews bring up the subscription, the Crown Store, crates, paywalls or the pass, and positive reviews raise it too, usually as a caveat. The ESO Plus subscription is at the center of it, because players say its craft bag is what makes inventory bearable. On top of it they list a Crown Store with loot crates, chapters sold apart from DLC, and, from 2025 on, a seasonal content model and the Tamriel Tomes pass. Other complaints cover technical trouble on Steam (a second download through the game's own launcher, account linking, disconnects and crashes), combat that some call floaty, a confusing start for newcomers and an overworld so easy it bores players who want a challenge. About seven in ten reviews in this slice recommend the game, fewer than the 80% of Steam's lifetime English rating, and most of the slice was written from January 2025 on.

2. What keeps coming up

What players praise

Story, quests and full voice actingHigh

Players like that every zone, chapter and dungeon carries its own story, and voice acting gets praised by name: "I love the fact that every quest regardless of how insignificant it may seem is fully voice acted, that really adds to the immersion." One fan says some of the best Elder Scrolls stories are buried in the game, and a player learning French praises the full French voice track. A smaller group calls the quests generic fetch errands or the writing bland, and some long-time series fans feel the presentation is weaker than in the single-player games even when the voice work is good.

Playing solo at your own pace, or with friends and familyHigh

Solo players like that almost all story content can be finished without a group: "You can just play like a solo RPG and when you are ready to engage with others the multiplayer side adds a load more depth, excitement and challenge." Couples, parents and children, siblings and even a grandmother turn up as play partners, and older or casual players say the relaxed pace suits them. People who came for an MMO hold the same trait against it and describe a world full of strangers who never talk: "It's no longer an MMO; now, it's just a single-player game that happens to have other players that you randomly share kills with."

Exploring Tamriel and its loreHigh

The draw is seeing provinces the mainline games never covered alongside familiar ones: "ESO gives you the chance to explore Tamriel in a way the singleplayer titles never could." Even some negative reviews open by praising the world before turning to price or combat. Complaints about exploration say it turns into a checklist of skyshards and zone quests, that travel runs through wayshrines and boats instead of one open map, and that zones are locked behind DLC or ESO Plus.

Crafting, housing and side activitiesHigh

Crafters praise the system ("One of the best crafting system i have ever seen in an MMO"), a few housing fans call the decorating system the best in any MMO, and players describe whole play sessions spent fishing, collecting furniture or doing daily writs. Storage is the frustration attached to this praise: crafters say the hobby only works with the subscription's craft bag, and premium houses priced in real money draw criticism.

Visuals and musicMedium

Players call the zones beautiful, note that the game runs well on modest PCs and the Steam Deck, and single out the soundtrack. Others call the graphics dated, and what they mean is mostly animation: stiff running, plastic-looking character models and attack animations that look out of step with the hit.

Freedom to build any characterMedium

A mage in heavy armor with a greatsword is a normal choice here, and players like that any class can tank, heal or deal damage with weapons and armor open to everyone. The pushback comes from the endgame, where reviewers say the meta narrows choices, and from newcomers who find the system hard to read without a guide.

A friendly, helpful communityLow

One player writes that "9/10 times someone will help you with whatever you need." Guilds come up as the place reviewers find friends and groups. Fewer reviews call the community toxic, elitist or rude, and those mostly describe random dungeon groups and veteran content.

Where players are split

ESO Plus: good value or a required feeHigh

Fans call the sub generous, since in their telling it unlocks most DLC zones, monthly crowns and the craft bag for one fee, and some played a long time before paying: "I spent at least 100 hours before I even touched the Subscription system". Critics say the base game's bags fill within minutes of looting and crafting, which makes the subscription mandatory in practice: "You cannot play this game without the premium plus membership for the craft bag. Otherwise 90% of the game is managing your inventory space." The craft bag is named in 199 reviews, by fans and critics alike, and positive reviews add the same caveat, as in "It is amazing, but unplayable without ESO Plus." Some returning players add that items stored in subscriber-only space became unreachable when their sub lapsed.

Group dungeons and trialsHigh

Supporters like quick queues, veteran and hard modes, and twelve-player trials that reward learning mechanics with friends. The complaints are that many dungeons and the best gear sets sit behind DLC, that random groups speed through bosses and skip the quest steps newer players need, and that the jump from easy overworld content to veteran content is steep.

PvP in Cyrodiil and battlegroundsHigh

Praise and criticism of PvP appear in almost the same number of reviews. Fans describe large siege battles as unmatched in the genre ("cyrodiil open world pvp was the most fun ive eve had in a mmo"). Critics describe lag in big fights, zerg tactics, balance shifts that wipe out builds, and a sense that PvP gets little attention: "pvp gets pretty much ignored and suffers every patch". PvP is mostly raised by veterans: players with 500 or more hours wrote about a third of all reviews but most of the ones that mention PvP.

How it compares to Skyrim and the single-player gamesMedium

Some fans warn new buyers to expect an MMO set in the Elder Scrolls world ("This game is NOT Skyrim but online.") and enjoy it on those terms. Others came for that and left disappointed: no looting every body, combat that feels weaker than Skyrim's, a theme-park quest structure, and advice to replay the single-player games with mods instead.

CombatMedium

Critics describe weightless hits and repetitive skill rotations: "Combat lacks impact and is therefore not satisfying" and "No hit feedback, wet-noodle animation and amateur-hour special effects." Light-attack weaving and animation canceling come up as a skill floor that confuses newcomers. Defenders say it opens up once a build comes together, and one calls it "One of the best combat systems in MMO history." A few returning players welcome the class reworks.

SubclassingLow

Supporters enjoy combining skill lines from different classes ("Subclassing saved this game imo."). Critics say it erased class identity and narrowed builds: "They ruined it with sub-classing, completely destroying class identity in the worst, most cookie-cutter-build way possible." Most reviews that mention it come from players with 500 or more hours, and the topic peaked in the reviews of October and November 2025. One later review credits class mastery options for making pure classes strong again.

What frustrates players

Stacked purchases: Crown Store, crates and DLC paywallsHigh

Beyond ESO Plus, players complain about the Crown Store, loot crates and content locked behind DLC, and they list the layers one after another: base game, chapters, DLC, crowns, crates and a subscription, with chapters, they note, not included in ESO Plus. Crates draw lines like "Don't waste any money on crown crates, 400 crowns to get one crate." Real-money prices for houses and convenience items come up too, along with complaints that features return as paid extras: "They remove free content only to bring it back later as paid." Several players add that they can't tell what each purchase includes, and a few say gifting crowns or DLC to a friend needed account approval that support would not give them.

Disconnects, lag and crashesMedium

Players describe being kicked to the login screen with error 307, waits of several minutes to get back in, and crashes to desktop after a few minutes that verifying files did not fix ("Game likes to crash every 6-10 mins."). Weekly maintenance, lag in large PvP fights and audio or launch problems on Apple Silicon Macs add to the list. A smaller group of players in Oceania, Asia and South America says the lack of local servers leaves them on very high ping: "love the game, but live in oce and can never recommend due to the latency".

A steep, confusing startMedium

Menus, currencies and skill systems arrive with little explanation ("Just dozens (hundreds?) of items categories, menus, skill paths and no real explanation of what is what."), quest markers send players back and forth, and nobody explains the DLC and story order: "the DLC structure is extremely confusing and I have no idea what does what." Several of these reviews are written as warnings to new players. A few reviewers say add-ons are close to mandatory to make the interface manageable.

Getting in on Steam: double download, launcher and account linkingMedium

Reviewers describe a full Steam download followed by a second large download through the game's own launcher ("120GB steam download, and a 100GB launcher download."), then accounts that will not link, confirmation emails that never arrive, and launcher errors. Several players say the launcher time counted against Steam's two-hour refund window before they had played.

The seasonal model and the Tamriel Tomes passMedium

Critics read the move from yearly chapters to seasons as less content for the same money, with a pass sold apart from ESO Plus: "The introduction of a battle pass system is a terrible decision for the future of the game." Most reviews that mention it come from players with 500 or more hours, and the topic peaked in the reviews of April 2026. Some later reviews like the result, such as the returning player who wrote "I recently came back to this game to see if the tome stuff is worth it. It is."

Overworld content that is too easyMedium

Players describe enemies that cannot threaten them ("I died once and that was from fall damage."), and some say it breaks immersion: "There is no immersion for me because there is no challenge." Others say level scaling makes progress feel pointless. The few reviews that mention the overland difficulty option added in a later update mostly welcome it: "Being able to change overland difficulty is SUCH a nice change."

Customer support, bans and account recoveryLow

Players describe tickets answered with scripts or not at all ("Support is careless, ignores you and loops you around the same questions"), lost or locked accounts after years away, bans they say came without explanation, and purchases that never arrived. About half of the reviews that raise it come from players with 500 or more hours.

3. The player conversation

Short reviews ("gg", "great fun", "awesome game") make up much of the slice, and the arguments about money, combat and the game's direction happen in the long ones. A recurring type of long negative review comes from fans with thousands of hours who describe a love-hate relationship, praise the world in their first paragraph and then list what drove them away. Long positive reviews often read as advice: buy the base game on sale, play solo or join a guild, and subscribe only if the game holds you.

Newcomers and veterans complain about different things. Players with under two hours wrote only a small slice of the reviews but a much larger share of the double-download and launcher complaints, and close to half of their negative reviews are about getting the game installed, logged in or stable. Players with 500 or more hours wrote about a third of the reviews but most of those about subclassing, the seasonal model and PvP, and about half of those about support or bans. Their complaints are balance changes, monetization added over time and PvP neglect.

Month by month, the positive share stayed between 66% and 84%. It was highest in January 2025 and dipped to 66% and 67% in September and October 2025, recovered to 73% to 77% from December 2025 through March 2026, and fell to 67% in April 2026, when talk of seasons and the Tamriel Tomes pass peaked. It dropped to 66% again in July 2026 and returned to 72% to 74% in August and September 2026. Some of the reviews written or updated in 2026 credit changes such as the class reworks, the overland difficulty option and free respecs for bringing them back, while others say the seasonal model made them leave.

4. What the developers could do

1. Give every player a basic craft bag or material bank. Fans and critics of the subscription alike name the craft bag as the reason it feels required, and one long-time player suggests a material bank with withdrawal limits for non-subscribers.
2. Deliver the Steam version in one download and make account linking reliable. Close to half of the negative reviews from players with under two hours are about getting the game running, and they describe a second 100GB launcher download, failed account links and lost refund windows.
3. Cut and explain the paid layers. Complaints about the Crown Store, crates and DLC paywalls run through the negative reviews, and players say they cannot tell what ESO Plus, chapters, DLC and the seasonal pass each include.
4. Fix disconnects and crashes, and add servers for Oceania, Asia and South America. Reviewers report disconnects, error 307 kicks, crashes and lag, and players outside North America and Europe say their ping rules out PvP and group content.
5. Explain the game's systems and the story order to newcomers. Reviewers who call the start overwhelming cite unexplained menus, currencies, skill lines and a DLC structure they cannot follow.
6. Keep improving how combat feels. Combat complaints focus on missing hit feedback and weak animations, and a few returning players say the class reworks helped.
7. Offer the overland difficulty option prominently from the first zone. Players who find the open world too easy say it breaks immersion, and the players who found the overland difficulty setting mostly praise it.
8. Answer support tickets and ban appeals with specific explanations. Reviews about support, bans and account recovery describe scripted replies, locked accounts and bans with no stated reason.