Recent reviews by Kyrinael

First of all, I will start this review saying that ESO is a good MMORPG. It is not a perfect game, just like any other MMORPG, but it does most of its stuff really well compared to many others. What I like the most is that the world seems to be really well-made and all the NPC characters are voice-acted in decent manner, which brings always additional immersion to the experience. The combat system is a bit of combination of mouse and number buttons. It feels a bit wonky at first but once you get used to it, it is pretty decent. Personally I found it a bit more refreshing compared to the most MMORPGs on the market and I ended up liking it.

Performance-wise ESO runs pretty well on my seven years old rig. The only detail I've had to set to high or medium (depending on the area in the game) has been shadows, everything else I've been able to keep on ultra or at least high level. The optimisation in this game has been done really well and I was surprised that even my old worm box was able to run the game well.

Character development is also refreshingly different compared to other MMORPGs. Most of nowadays' MMORPGs tend to have a very simplified talent tree style of character development where most of the class skills come automatically, but in ESO you can actually combine different skill sets with each other and also morph skills once you reach the maximum level in them. The game also includes an advisor system in the character development, meaning you can pick up a pre-made character template and the game then tells you, which skills this certain template would benefit you the most. You can also turn all these guides off and entirely choose the skills and abilities you want by yourself, so using the guides is not mandatory.

Quest-wise ESO is good, although some of the writing with NPCs leaves a bit more to be desired. While I find most of the writing satisfying, the occasional humour here and there sometimes feels a bit forced and makes some of the writing seem a bit immature, at least in my opinion. However, what I like the most is that most of the towns you visit in game zones have their own quest lines, which make the game again a bit more interesting than your usual MMORPG. Also, every game zone has their main plot you can follow and eventually finish once you get closer moving to the next area. The game also has one main plot which is quite mediocre compared to the major expansions (Morrowind and Summerset), although it is worth going through at least once.

ESO also has quite a sizeable and active roleplaying community on both North American and European servers, so if you're wanting to play in character and with other people, that's also very well possible to do. Quite a few different communities exist, some of them area-specific, some of them more casual RP and some of them heavy RP. I'd say the RP aspect is pretty well covered and it is rather easy to find a community to join into.

Overall, The Elder Scrolls Online is a good game and I can recommend it to anyone who likes to play MMORPG style of games. There's also free to play mode which gives you access to the most of the world, so the ESO Plus membership is not necessary to play the game.

I have played ADOM pretty much since it came out and I've always liked the game. This new Steam version overall is a huge improvement to the old ADOM and definitely the added content brings lot into it. I probably have spent hundreds of hours to this game pre-Steam and now just recently bought the Steam version. The game has come forward a long way and nowadays has very informative Wiki page as well, which will help old and new players alike. I find myself spending quite a lot of time reading the Wiki every time if I have a specific kind of character in my mind I want to create. I also like the graphical version of the game, although certain types of items can be sometimes difficult to spot, especially in corridors when the translucent wall covers the view somewhat.

However, what I have noticed compared to the older versions is that the beginning of the game has become increasingly difficult. So far I have about 30 hours into the game and my problem seems to be the fact that no matter how well I plan my game, I can't seem to survive even past the puppy dog dungeon or the village dungeon in the beginning. My game usually ends when the game random spawns one or two powerful monsters on the level of all sudden and there's virtually no way to beat them, or sometimes no way to even escape them. I know it is a part of the roguelike genre but it is getting increasingly frustrating, especially when you want to play on the true roguelike mode without adjusting the original settings. Also, reading the Wiki really is necessary to get into game, so for the first roguelike experience, ADOM is not the easiest.

Overall, it is still a great roguelike game and I love spending hours to it. I am happy with my purchase and I can recommend it to the fans of the genre, regardless of the harsh beginning difficulty and the necessity of reading the Wiki before playing.