Check out the rev3games, angryjoe and other Youtube vids about the pvp in Cyrodiil. They are reporting positive experiences overall which is a big difference from the so-so reviews of the pve starter and 1-15 leveling areas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBPkpsdzU0A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I82pz60iGL0

This has been my biggest pet peeve with the reviewers (specially angry joe for some reason I like his reviews and I find him honest) they haven't taken the time to unlock everything that's open to them in the later levels so their bad reviews of the game based on them not having reached such levels (angry joes first review he only got to level 8) we all know that the map and quests etc open up to you at level 15 so making a review and labelling the game as bad or a failure when your only level 1-10 is just bad journalism the 'reviewers' seem to know even less then us which isn't surprising as we are on here hunting down details while they may just be casually flicking through but it's still annoying .

For a game to be successful it has to be fun to play. That includes the initial levels. One thing that the developers chose to do is make the leveling experience one meant for a long haul. That development choice may not be apparent to the average members of the audience so they take the initial ten levels where you have to pay talent points you only gain once per level (unless your skysharding) to not only unlock new abilities but to also upgrade them very badly.

Yes I agree a final review of a game needs to include the higher end experiences. But these are "first look" or "preview" articles. If their previews and first looks were spent unenjoyable they need to include that experience in their article. It's kinda the whole point of writing a preview article.

What is hard, is that majority of the beta experience is barely level 10 and stuck within noob islands and tutorial. At least that is what I get from most comments, beta experience aside.

You get one talent point per level + 1 every 3 skyshard you find. Witch means you get 2-3 talent points each level if you find them all that is.

plus some from certain quest completion in the main story.

I gotta say, I don't quite get this. I actually LOVED the starting islands that a lot of reviewers were [censored]ing about. They're small and tightly crafted but they're jam packed with interesting content.

As for the skill points... they are not that rare. You start with a few things unlocked. Compare to WoW, you don't get your first talent point till level 10. Or at least in the old days was like that, dunno about now. And skyshards... anybody who isn't picking those up has only themselves to blame

One thing I noticed is that a starter zone with many other players around has a much different feel as compared to when you're the only person there. Not for me to figure out why. That's ZOS's job.

Same here, and I thought they were a good introduction to what the larger world would be like. Then again I played Daggerfall Covenant and I heard in some reviews that Ebonheart Pact's starting island was bad.

Ultimately though who cares, you don't spend that much time there.

I actually like EP's zones across the entire game more than any of the other factions. Its all opinion based.

I don't like how the only area you can PvP in, in the game,

is Cyrodill we should be able to either Flag for PvP (Outlaw mode)

or Hunt in the opposing players faction territories of our level range.
Or duel mode to fight our own friends for fun.