The Three Best Parts of ESO Gameplay: The Three Best Parts of ESO Gameplay

Anyone who has played MMOs for a while quickly learns that they can be a bit repetitive. Even such wildly different games as City of Heroes and WoW had a lot of similarities in how gameplay worked. That's why when a MMO comes out that shakes up the usual expectations, players tend to have one of two reactions--resistance to the new approach or excitement over the chance to play something DIFFERENT.

Personally, I fall into the latter category. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed CoH while it was around, and WoW held me attention for years. Rift is fun and well made. But when I started hearing about all the ways ESO was shaking up the expected tropes of an MMO, I couldn't wait to get my hands on the game. ESO has had a rough start, with some nasty bugs and glitches messing with players and trashing the entire world economy. I'm also not real keen on the way ZeniMax is treating the players and dealing with problems. But ESO gameplay? Now that is just awesome. In fact, I couldn't pick one favorite part of the game itself. So instead I picked three.

Skills--Okay, 'skills' is a pretty part of a game, but there is nothing about the way ESO designed their skills that I don't like. From the unlimited skill points, to the morph abilities, to weapons and armor skills not being tired to specific classes. Though if I had to pick one favorite aspect of the skills in ESO it would be the lack of cool downs. For the first time in an MMO, combat actually has a real element of skill, not just timed button mashing. I need to figure out which attacks are most effective on most enemies, which drain to much Magicka or Stamina to be worth using unless I absolutely need them, which skills can be combined for best effect--and I can seriously adapt my combat strategy for each new battle based on what works. Not "attack 1, attack 2, attack 3; attack 1, attack 2, attack 4 (3 hasn't cooled down yet!), etc, etc."

Discovering crafting recipes--Like skills, I think ZeniMax got a lot right in crafting, my favorite part of MMOs has always been the chance to explore and experiment. Which means having crafting be something that I teach myself and recipes as ideal combinations of materials that I can discover makes me a very happy player. I can actually discover new (well, new to me) stuff, not just have it handed to me by a 'trainer' I need to hunt down every time I want to learn something new.

Realm vs Realm--the PvP section of ESO is basically a three-way civil war, with different alliances battling for control of the empire.

I don't usually go in for PvP in my MMOs. It feels to much like a bloody free-for-all and newb hunt. ESO gameplay is set up so that any character over level 10 can join the civil war ad hold their own. Even better, there is a story point to the combat that encourages strategy and working together with other players, rather than just running your own personal smash-and-grab.