The Elder Scrolls Online Review (thaellin)
The game is fun when it works, but there are severe bugs resulting in faultless player deaths when you get into endgame content. There are also endless smaller bugs which interfere with groups making progress (desyncs, crashes, required game mechanics randomly not working during a run...) Developer Support is nearly non-existent for things which do not involve monetary transactions; bug reports generally ignored or closed with "thanks for the feedback" resolutions.
Game balancing changes seem largely designed to drive players to buy new content or invest more playtime in farming gear rather than address any actual balance issues. It is not clear that the dev team understands the community.
Becoming effective in the game requires the support of an out-of-game community (this would be fine if it were required to /excel/ but it really is required if you are going to /survive/ endgame content). Voice chat on PC requires a separate program (Discord everywhere I've seen).
Many no-brainer improvements to the game are provided by addon community. It is expected that you will use an addon to replace the UI, addons for group info sharing, addons to make the in-game traders usable, addons to make a player house seem like a guildhall... In the few cases ZOS attempts to provide similar functionality it does not fill the actual need. Example: saving gear loadouts is provided by an addon - you 'can' use the armory, but this saves/restores full character snapshots so it is most useful for characters who are topped out on all skills - otherwise you get rolled back to an earlier state and have to reallocate the extra points. Having more than two loadouts requires purchasing of additional slots /per character/ at 1500 crowns each... and the armory does not allow you to swap while inside vet content. Armory has its uses, but it does not solve the original problem and costs real world money to begin to make it worthwhile.
If you do not subscribe with ESO+ the game tends to turn into an inventory-management sim, with reduced bank & housing space and no access to the 'craft bag' (which holds unlimited amounts of the tiny crud you pick up all over the place in the course of playing). Having ESO+ gives access to 'DLC' but does not reduce or contribute to the cost of yearly chapters. If you are planning to really play this game, expect to pay more than $250 a year for the subscription + the essential yearly chapter.
The game is pretty. The voice cast is great. The music is wonderful. The content team makes interesting environments... but there are technical and developmental scope issues which boggle the mind. I do /want/ to recommend this game to new players, but I cannot invite anyone to enter into this one-sided relationship.