Did you like them in Morrowind?

That is one amazing screenshot

Thanks for sharing these!

Also a simple way to make the game a lot more realistic and gritty looking: turn down your gamma slider.

Mine is set to around 10% , it really makes a big difference.

Ahh I only played oblivion and Skyrim, don't go that far back... but I guess what you're trying to say is that they didn't make them up for TESO

I'll try to think of them as evil, gassy and poisonous mushrooms.

Nope.

It's not even on the same level as the departure Diablo III took from their series.

The art direction of ESO and a lot of assets have been borrowed from Oblivion and Skyrim. Maybe even a few assets from Morrowind too (Like Mournhold temple). I really like how all the races look in the game (with the exception of the Argonians). I prefer them over the NPC design in Skyrim which when I first saw them, thought they looked "cartoony" compared to Oblivion and Fallout 3.

The monsters were designed well. Some were a little generic, but none of them were cartoony to me.

The world design has a very good range spanning from vibrant to bleak. I think they did a great job for the most part.

While I prefer the Witcher series for realism, I've always looked at the Elder Scrolls as a sort of Lord of the Rings fantasy style RPG; fantasy being the key word. I love the new graphics and prefer them to Skyrim. I has so many gripes with Skyrim; small towns, bland environments, copy paste taverns, no rain splash, ugly elves. Elder Scrolls online is a breath of fresh air to me; it's colourful and has that painterly feel, but not so much that it emulates WoW or EQN.

There are plenty of breathtaking scenes to behold in Elder Scrolls Online; and you're still getting the Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim themed music and lore. Give it a chance, you own Bethesda and Zenimax that much; they haven't let us down yet.