I heard a good bit about needing ESO + to really enjoy this game, but I've played the whole time so far without spending anything in-game and I am still having a lot of fun. Especially if you like Elder Scrolls it is worth it being able to travel to various parts of Tamriel within one game.

I won't lie it is undeniably scummy some of the stuff they require eso + for, like having crafting material take up space in your inventory just so you get fed up enough to just buy eso + for the craft bag. Some areas are also locked behind eso + which kinda sucks but it is more understandable I think and you still have tons of stuff to do in the areas you get for free.

With that being said, I have been able to do crafting stuff and manage my inventory spaces with the bank upgrades and bag upgrades just fine. So if you're stubborn and willing to put in a little more effort with the slot upgrades and organization, there should be no problem enjoying the game for hours without spending a dime.

As someone who came into this as an Elder Scrolls fan and having no experience with MMOs, I think this game is very fun.

As some one who has over 1000 hours on this MMO on pc and thousand's more on PS4 I'll say that if you're going to pick the game up today, be warned that it is a massive slog. There's well over 10 years worth of DLC and expansions that have came out since it's Pre-beta days. Advice that I could give to new players who are just starting fresh, don't be afraid to ask someone in chat if you're stuck on a boss, struggling with a dungeon, need help with a quest or just general know how information, the community is very friendly. Start small when it come's to playing through the DLC's because some of them are short and some of them span over two regions (like the elswyr dlc) each with respectable achievements that unlock attire and cosmetics for you to put on so you'll want to do them.

You'll see a lot of people complaining in the review section on this game about "needing a membership to get a craft bag" whilst I do agree in some terms that it's a shady tactic, don't let other peoples opinions sway you from playing the game still, you can cap your character inventory at 140 and further more slot's off your mount, you can max your bank out at 480 slot's. So unless you're looting every item you see it'll take a while to fill. If you enjoy the game and want the craft bag then buy the membership, it's 8.99 but I would recommend purchasing 3 month at a time. You don't just get a craft bag with the membership, you gain bonus increase in gold gains, exp gains, free DLC's, free crowns on every reset of your subscription, bonus exp gains to skills lines and a little bit more, for the price of the membership and the costs of the DLC's alone would run you up more than £8.99.

The crafting system is great, you gain levels in each respected crafting skill line based on deconstructing items and you gain exp based on the quality of the item, some items you'll find that are grey will sometimes give you a bonus 200% towards whatever crafting skill line they're in. Some take a little bit longer than other's to do I.E enchanting, jewellery crafting. However each have their own mean's to levelling quicker.

The combat will take sometime to get used to, especially in terms of DPS as it focus's heavily on LA or light attack weaving during your abilities for bonus damage and proccing your enchants on whatever weapons you're using. Healing is straight forward and a lot of the overall buff's come one or two spells and mainly your sets, lastly tanking, tanking is by far the most enjoyable role you can play, takes sometime getting used to or at least until you get certain sets that make it A LOT more easier to do, but tanking in the endgame trials and harder dungeons is really fun, you're not just a stand there and take damage, certain bosses require positioning, tank swapping, using certain abilities before cleaves or one shot mechanics.

PVP is very hit or miss, but unfortunately you'll need to do it to level your skill lines up, some of the skills you gain from PVP can be used inside PVE content, for example barrier, guard, vigor and war horn. Try to level them during events where you gain bonus exp gains to PVP skill lines, it'll make the grind a lot easier, trust me. I normally just run my daily battlegrounds each day, that should bag you enough exp and make it feel like less of a chore.

The housing system is great, you can find recipes that'll allow you to learn to craft certain housing item's, the UI for item placing is very easy to use and quite easy to pick up.

lastly, this is one for people looking to do endgame content, every trial has a normal and veteran version of them. Very similar the dungeons that you unlock, 10-50 unlocks normal dungeons and 10CP to 160CP unlocks you DLC content. When doing normal and every trials certain mechanics are present in normal and certain ones are only present in veteran, ALWAYS do the normal first so you can learn the basic mechanics for each trial. The first trials being VAA,VSO and VHC are very easy to zerg through due to them being outdated, however some of the more modern trials are quite difficult, but with the right group they're not impossible.

Enjoy the game at your own pace, don't let anyone rush you a long, there's plenty of content for you to go at from the start, try not to get overwhelmed, there isn't a time scale to do it all.

127gb download followed by 111gb update in the launcher itself and if you're like me and have a peak download speed of 3.8mb/s; you won't get to play the game before the refund period closes because Steam tracks the launcher opening as playing the game.