Recent reviews by 2001 Space Oddity

This is a massive DLC, there's a ton of content and it's the size of a complete game. There's a bunch of new weapons and spells, new spirit ashes, new talismans, etc. I like big weapons, so the anvil hammer and meteoric ore greatsword are my new favorite weapons, and the talisman that boosts two-handed weapons is always on.

There are fewer caves and catacombs but they are much better designed than the ones in the base game, and the legacy dungeons are top-notch. The open world zones are weird, they feel big and open but also smaller and more siloed than the base game. I think it has to do with how they are arranged, in the base game when you see a new area on the map you can just walk over to it, but technically there's only a couple ways to get into the zone. In the DLC there's still only a couple ways into each zone, but you can't just look at your map and see how to walk over there. The path is usually not so obvious.

The story feels like a bit of a re-tread of the base game in a lot of ways, but there is some interesting new info you receive, new mysteries, and new NPC's. My favorite is Igon, his character and story are cool and the voice actor did a great job. It's not a particularly long quest, but I think it's the most satisfying one in both the DLC and the base game.

Most of the new bosses are good, they can feel pretty overwhelming at first but as long as you're using the new leveling system and take the time to learn the boss attack patterns you'll be fine. I'm not a huge fan of the final boss, phase 1 is really good but phase 2 was a bit over the top. The armor and weapons you get for defeating him are really cool though.

I really wanted to like this game but there is just so much about it that is annoying or tedious.

You can't lock on to enemies, making it awkward to go after a specific enemy. Say there are two enemies close to each other, you want to do a blink attack to the one on the right because it's about to attack one of your pawns. The game might decide you're going for the one on the left instead, and if that one happened to be running or moving away then you'll just whiff.

I'm wearing heavy armor and get stunned by a tiny goblin throwing a pebble at me, but if I do a jumping impale attack on a naked saurian it doesn't even flinch.

There seems to be an endless horde of enemies right outside the city, and the horde continues for almost the entire way to your quest destination. We leave the inn in the morning, get two steps outside the city and we're attacked by a group of goblins, just as we finish them off a pack of wolves attacks. We walk two more steps and then it's an ogre. We take it down, and now it's night time and we're looking for a campsite, but it's surrounded by ghosts or skeletons.

You also lose your max hp as you take damage. So by the time you make it to your quest destination you might be at 50% max hp and no way to heal unless you find either an inn or a campsite to rest. You also lose max hp when you die and load from the last save.

You can't dodge (unless you're a thief? maybe) which can make it very tricky to avoid taking damage when you're a melee fighter. And if you get knocked down by an enemy you become a helpless baby and need a pawn to pick you up. While you're waiting you'll get stomped on by the enemy, not only reducing your hp but also reducing your max hp.

A lot of weapons and armor are tied to your vocation, so if you're a fighter and want to use a two-handed weapon you'll have to change vocation to warrior. This also means you can't wear the armor you were wearing as a fighter, so if you upgraded your armor then it was a waste of money and upgrade materials.

Pawn AI can be maddeningly stupid. I had a pawn keep pointing out a chest up on a cliff and asking if there was a way to get to it. I would springboard him up to the chest, and then he immediately jumps back down without opening the chest. Then he points out the chest again and wonders if there's some way to get to it. This went on for about 5 or 6 times in a row before I just gave up and moved on.

Several times I had pawns get stuck literally running in circles. I went to an inn to store some loot and when I tried to get the loot from one of my pawns it said they were too far away. Turns out he was running in circles in the middle of the street near the entrance to town. Anther time a pawn was leading us through a cave and at one point just started running in circles for no apparent reason.

When you're walking through town NPC's will randomly stop you and force you into some annoying dialogue with them. This sometimes happens out on the road too, a pawn will stop you from whatever you're doing and try to get you to hire them.

Pawns will also chatter non-stop and repeat themselves over and over as you wander through the world. It gets very annoying very quickly.

Fast travel is extremely limited, making it very tedious to get around the world. There are oxcarts you can hire that only go to a few specific locations, and you're very likely to be stopped along the way for more combat, which kind of ruins the whole reason I was fast travelling in the first place. There's also stones that let you fast travel back to a handful of waypoints in the world, but these stones seem to be very limited. Of course you can buy them for $1.99 because it's more important to have microtransactions than to make the game fun.

I could go on but I think this review is long enough. I would get a refund if I could but I made the mistake of trying to give this game a serious chance and went past the 2 hour refund window. Two thumbs down!

Awesome game, it's like a mix of Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro in a massive open world. There's lots of different ways to play, I'm on my third build and still having a blast.

This is probably the most accessible FromSoft game in terms of difficulty. If you suck at parries, you can equip a medium/great shield and block-counter your way through the game. You can summon spirit ashes if you're overwhelmed by an aggressive boss, or you need a distraction so you can pull off a charge attack or spell. And if you're still having a hard time, you can still rely on the old fashioned techniques of over-leveling and coop summons.

I have never found an MMO I enjoyed, but I love the Elder Scrolls games so I gave this one a shot. What a waste of time and money. It doesn't feel like an Elder Scrolls game at all. In previous Elder Scrolls games, you are the main character in the story and your choices effect the world around you and the story that is being told. When you complete a quest, it's unique; only you are able to rescue the missing girl, or return the stolen goods, or assassinate the political rival, etc.

In ESO, you're just one of many people all doing the same quests. You see them doing the exact same quest you are doing. They slay the mighty beast, and you have to wait for it to respawn so you can slay the mighty beast and finish the quest. Watch out for the impatient players who will cut in line and make you wait again for the beast to respawn. And watch out for players who will wait for the treasure to appear after you slay the mighty beast and they loot the chests before you get there.

You'll see dozens of players talking to inivisible NPC's, making them look like lunatics (or a game bug). Then, once you finish the quest, it's your turn to look like the crazy person talking to nobody as you watch crowds of other players marching into the dungeon you just fought your way out of. The choices you make don't seem to have any noticable impact on the world. There's just no sense of immersion.

So in short, if you like MMO's, maybe you'll like ESO. If you're looking for an immersive story where you get to be the hero (or villain) and your choices have consequences, skip this one.

Too many cut scenes and not enough game play. Seriously, is this supposed to be a game or a movie? Very frustrating and not like the original games at all. The developers should be in the film business, not the game business.