I find it odd to be writing about The Elder Scrolls Online after having not played it for some months. It sticks in my mind though, as the game feels like home in a lot of ways. I love the world and how the controls feel as you move around it. I even enjoy the questing at times, despite how simplistic the characterization can often be. Mostly though, it is just a vibe and I will probably be back sooner rather than later.
That all being said, there is some heavy salt to it for me as well. Update 45 has just released and while there are some nice changes, like finally making the map readable and boosting mounts, it feels also like an affirmation that I see things differently.
Broken Combat
Light and heavy attack weaving is not fun, if only as a consequence of animation canceling. Mixing in light attacks between other, more grand abilities, is a neat thing!
However, animation canceling to do so is very very not-fun. What is worse, is this was not originally an intended aspect of combat. Zenimax Online Studios has just decided to leave it in for over ten years, and build the game around it. So now you get this silly thing where your characters grand spell-slinging gestures get stopped as soon as it starts. This is all so that we can break another aspect of the game that I will talk about next.
Objectionable Difficulty
I think animation canceling goes hand-in-hand with why the overworld difficulty sucks so bad and why end-game content is so inaccessible. The overworld content is built on the assumption that the players will not know how to animation cancel and the hardest content is built on the assumption that they will. Where does this leave us? Confused. Very confused.
The overworld is mind numbing with how easy its content is to do. There is zero resistance in questing and nothing ZoS has said or done leads me to believe they will address it in any meaningful way. There are ways to work around this and provide engagement, such as Guild Wars 2 and its excellent platforming, but nothing like that exists in ESO.
If I sound harsh, it is because I like the game a lot and ten years of these choices has been aggravating. I think PvP and a lot of other areas could improve if there was more attention paid to improving combat itself. I get not wanting to rock the boat, but a game that has added so many fun side activities could also benefit from improving its foundation. I don’t think it is without merit that the games most common abrasion-point for new players is its combat and how it feels “floaty”.