I've played 3 months worth now and decided to cancel my subscription (I have 3 months left but don't see myself playing that much longer). I thought I'd give a review of my pros & cons for core mechanics and temporary features. I've reached V1.
Core Mechanics PvE
Pros
Sky Shard hunting - Super fun, especially with the add on.
Dark Anchors - Brilliant, love playing these with other people turning up. In fact if the whole game was just this for main quests I would of loved it. The huge physical events make you feel tiny and make the game seem awesome.
Side Quests (Except main story and guilds) - Good fun, dialouge can be quite boring some times but in general they are good fun.
Environment - Amazing, the visuals are really really good, hopefully the draw distance will get a boost in future.
Sound - A* cant fault the music and effects on anything.
Cons
Main story and Guild quests - Awful. I've not enjoyed them at all as the game forces you to play them solo. This wouldn't be so bad if they were easy, except I can play them when I'm 10 levels above and get walked over still. This needs an overhaul before console release and hopefully it should get it.
End game - The end game gets harder and more quiet (no one around). By V1 you have all abilities you want, so the leveling mechanic become less fun. I just lose interest after that point.
Economy - The horses are priced very high. In my mind this is an obvious long term move for a free to play, in store shop in the future. Having a horse is extremely fun, all the time, so taking that away from the player until they can afford it around level 25, is just taking the fun out of it. To earn one quickly you can't spend money on bank upgrades and bag upgrades. You also have to sell everything you find rather than use it to level you crafting, taking the fun out of it. At the end of the day Zenimax can do what they want but it's poor decision for the gamers in my mind. I would have had horses in varying prices from 100 gold up to 50k with more performance for cost.
Re play ability - For me, there's no desire to go through the game again. Other than rolling a new character, I can predict exactly how everything will go and that takes the fun out of it for me.
Feature Mechanics (Update-able features)
Classes - In serious need of that update. Some classes are super weak, some have no ability to complete main quest. It's ruined the game for me a bit waiting for that update.
Dye Packs - Should have been part of main game as you can craft an amazing Armour set and end up looking like a brown blob. Again it's ruined it a bit for me waiting for this.
1st Person View - It's getting a FoV slider but it's just hard to play the game in 1st person. You regularly get attacked from behind because of spawns so it's just easier to play in 3rd person.
Conclusion
The game is great but I should have waited 6 months to pick it up so that all the little issues could be ironed out and all the extra features could have been put in. Lesson learned I guess.
This is not a game designed for easy, focused, cooperative play. In fact the main story won't even let you. For an MMO that makes no sense to me. In future I will do my research before buying a game, as I buy an MMO to play everything together. 50% of side quests result in one person completing the quest and the other having to re do it when everything spawns, appears or phases in.
All in all, it's an ok game. The problem is it tries to be everything resulting in it being average in most things. In my mind it is still in Beta and the early adopters have paid the price for it. Pick it up in another 6 months when, fingers crossed, it should be quite a good game, if the players don't abandon ship before then.
Score: 5/10
