Skyrim: I think it's overrated. Or am I totally missing the point?

[Itchi_da_killa]

Snip.

And that, my friend, brings us back to my point: asking "is the game overrated" is the same as asking "did you like the game"? It's purely an opinion-based question, and neither side will ever be able to prove the other is wrong. The question essentially has the same value as "Is chocolate cake overrated?"

I never asked:
"Is the game overrated?"
I stated that, "I" thought it was, and then asked if anyone else felt the same. I was asking for other people's thoughts on it, because I like getting perspective. It was never an attempt to say that Skyrim "is" indeed an overrated game. Therefor there was never a need to prove either side right or wrong. Yes it is like asking someone if they liked the game. To clarify what I mean by overrated; my experience vs the games average score does not add up the same to me. The game usually rates 4/5 or 9/10 and so on. I felt it was a 7 at best. I was wanting to know if other's felt the same way. It's not hard to understand.

 

[VoidWanderer]

I never really got into the whole Skyrim worship thing. It is a funish game, but to me is best summed up as a game the size of an ocean, but with the depth of a teaspoon. The main quest was almost interesting, but lost me when the almighty Dragonborn got to play diplomat. The guild missions were very weak, even with the strong Assassin line sputtering out at the end.

The crafting was interesting, but easy to break. I loved the diverse magic system of the earlier games, but the one thing that annoys me is the fact that people barely acknowledge your accomplishments. You could be the Archmage but guards will say 'Gee, it looks like you know how to cast some magic, you should check out the magic guild.'

It was interesting, but never grabbed me like Kingdoms of Amalur did. KoA was awful in some regards, but I loved the combat and the fact that your accomplishments get acknowledged.

 

[LegendaryVKickr]

I think the game is also overrated. It's a broken, ugly mess. Combat is clunky, dungeons are indeed samey (Seen one nordic tomb, you've honestly seen them all). That said, is it a game worth playing? Absolutely? Is it a good game? I certainly think so.

I guess what I'm saying is, You've certainly not missed the point. I've clocked a thousand hours on this game (literally, my total hours is in four digits), and I think it's a great experience and a great game. However, I definitely can see where you're coming from when you're saying you see it as a 7/10. It's certainly not flawless, and it does have problems. If you can overlook the problems, you can find yourself having a lot of fun playing it. Even you said you thought you had fun at some point at least. But it's not a game for everyone. Although to be fair, no game is.

 

[Itchi_da_killa]

I never really got into the whole Skyrim worship thing. It is a funish game, but to me is best summed up as a game the size of an ocean, but with the depth of a teaspoon. The main quest was almost interesting, but lost me when the almighty Dragonborn got to play diplomat. The guild missions were very weak, even with the strong Assassin line sputtering out at the end.

The crafting was interesting, but easy to break. I loved the diverse magic system of the earlier games, but the one thing that annoys me is the fact that people barely acknowledge your accomplishments. You could be the Archmage but guards will say 'Gee, it looks like you know how to cast some magic, you should check out the magic guild.'

It was interesting, but never grabbed me like Kingdoms of Amalur did. KoA was awful in some regards, but I loved the combat and the fact that your accomplishments get acknowledged.

The combat in Kingdoms of Amalur was a hell of a lot of fun for sure. Too bad we couldn't Frankenstein that combat system onto Skyrim.

 

[Evonisia]

Maybe. I didn't like it personally, it just bored me from the first damp cave (not the intro) and boring spider boss fight. So I rushed towards something I'd probably say is story end and since then I haven't been able to play for more than a half hour without going off.

However I do get why people would like it so much. The reason I say maybe is because it's a horrifically buggy game (or it was at launch) so it mystified me as to why so many people went "Best game ever!" at it at the time.

 

[Captain Sunshine]

To the people saying it's not fair to say anything is 'overrated', seeing as the title literally starts with "I think", then it's totally okay to say overrated. That's like, your opinion man.

I have 20 hours in Skyrim and I think it's not for me either, though I did get enjoyment. Like any huge sandbox, enjoyment ebbs and flows, but where normally the bad parts of sandboxes are in the travelling, Skyrim differs in that the best parts of it are out in the wilderness. There I get immersed by the cold winds, the loneliness feels right, and the rare encounters are quick and exciting.

Where it falls apart is... most other places. Even surrounded by people, you still feel lonely because they are dead-eyed and uninteresting characters, excusing one or two. I never felt connected or a part of anything in the world because I never had any Bioware-style interesting companions to talk to or exciting plot to get motivated by, but I'm probably playing the wrong game for that.

I will say some of the quests were great fun. The one with the conspiracy in that town... I can't remember, but it's the one where the miners have some militant group and people are being killed in the streets but no one's talking about it. That was great, because you're SUPPOSED to feel alienated and alone in the town, and it worked really well.

 

[Riff Moonraker]

First of all, I'm not trying to step on peoples toes here so please don't get too upset at me.

I will be honest; I'm not into the "dark age/ Tolkien'ish" fantasy RPG thing too much.
-but
My friends, and other people I know have been trying to get me to play Skyrim for a while now. So I finally tore myself away from Dark Souls, and made the plunge. I now have over 100 hrs in the game, but I'm too tired and worn out with this system, that I can't go on. I have forced myself to play through at least 30 of those hrs, because I'm not a quitter and I really wanted to experience a fraction of the time my friends have put into this game.

So here is what I "think": I kind of liked it, but...
This game is way too long and tedious. The dungeons are samey and go on and on. The encounters are easy, even on master. I witnessed town guards kill dragons, so what the hell is so special about the dragon born...really? Shouts are weak, so who cares? Speaking of dragons; I have killed so many that I am annoyed every time I hear one up in the sky, or when I see a shadow move past me on the ground. The combat is so clumsy, that I feel like many boss fights are won by accident. The game has crashed on me too many times to be considered a "complete" product. I fall asleep periodically while playing, (no lie, I really fall asleep). I have killed Alduin and I seriously don't want to do another thing in this game, despite having a tone of active quests.

-How ever
It's a damn beautiful game, with great music and lore.

Does anyone else feel that Skyrim is overrated?

---------------------------------update stuff based on comments--------------

First of all let me just state; I applaud Bethesda's vision they had for Skyrim (I haven't played any of the other Elder Scrolls games).

What "I" meant by over rated was that I don't think the game deserves all of the stars and numbers from game scores and such. Like it has a 9/10 from Gamespot, 96 on meticritic, et cetera. I think the game deserves a 7 at the most.

Yes I do have a little more than 100hrs on the game. I did have fun at first, but then it started feeling like a chore. I have a personality that doesn't allow me to quit things "easily", so it was hard to just stop playing this game because I felt like I "had" to finish it.

Mods make lots of things great.

First off... understand that ALL games appeal to different folks. Its not unusual or rare to see people not getting, or liking something that is really amazing to other people, at all. But, in all honesty, you sum it up with the following quote:

"I will be honest; I'm not into the "dark age/ Tolkien'ish" fantasy RPG thing too much. "

That right there is the answer to your question. Its why you feel you are slogging through the game, its why it doesnt really appeal to you, and when you feel that way towards dark age/Tolkien'ish things... its not going to change. There is nothing wrong with that, it just means that this particular genre isnt really your thing.

Tolkien is the seed of everything RPG that we know and love today. From Skyrim to even Dark Souls... all fantasy-esque RPGs owe everything to it. Even Mass Effect, and Sci-Fi RPGs. The reason I say that, is because Tolkiens stories started something wonderful in the mind of several pioneers, including the great Gary Gygax, who gifted this world with Dungeons and Dragons. This game was the forefather of all role playing games, and introduced (and is STILL introducing) people to the fantastic world of paper, pencil, dice, and a heaping slice of imagination to create dungeon crawling, monster slaying, hero vs. bad guy epic tales that have geeks and fans worldwide huddling around talking about their wonderful quests to this day. And some of those geeks and fans would get into computers when they became available for the common household, and eventually consoles... and recreate the fun they had back in their buddies kitchen rolling dice to see if they "killed the beast" and saved the day. Thus games like Wizardry was born, and eventually... Skyrim, Oblivion, Dragon Age, Diablo, etc. and so forth.

All of this came from Tolkiens genius, so while aspects of it may not be your thing such as with Skyrim, you are still enjoying things today that have roots in that beginning.

 

[Ieyke]

The entire Elder Scrolls series is hugely overrated. I only mess with Skyrim out of my love for looking at Norse stuff.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

I'd say if people are making threads asking if Skyrim is overrated a full two years after the game has come out as frequently as they do, it's not overrated.

The game is very malleable in its play style, mods or no mods.

The fact that people are playing and talking about it years after it came out only proves that it's popular, which overrated games tend to be.

Also, 2 years is hardly a milestone for that matter. People are still making threads about Half Life 2 which is going on 10 years now, and don't even get me started on Nintendo.

Here's the thing. Popular games getting talked about a lot doesn't automatically mean the game is overrated. Daikatana is pretty popular, but its universally agreed that the game is garbage.

That being said, when it comes to Skyrim the "is this game overrated" thread has been going on pretty much every month, maybe even every week since the game came out 2 years ago. And calling the game overrated assumes that everyone praises the game without looking at the negatives, which didn't happen with Skyrim.

Most people who really like Skyrim readily admit that the PC version is always the best due to mods, but that the game is pretty solid without them. Most people also admit to TES games being borderline broken upon release. If the game were overrated, those issues would not be talked about by a lot of people.

As for the Half-Life 2 threads, I haven't seen one in a while. They are less frequent, probably due to the obnoxious "HL-3 confirmed" joke that eventually pops up in threads. Nintendo threads are pretty popular due to the Wii U's situation which is understandable, but the game that gets mentioned most on these forums is Skyrim. Whether it be "is this game overrated", "Skyrim vs. Dark Souls" or my favourite "Why do people like Skyrim and not Kingdom of Amalur?" Skyrim gets the most mentions.

Nintendo threads usually get the most posts, though that is dying down due to a good chunk of the Nintendo die hards getting banned.

 

[Jusey1]

People screaming about "dragons woohoo" were everywhere. It was if they had never seen a dragon in a game before.

Well duh... Skyrim was the first time in The Elder Scrolls series that Dragons were in. All the TES fans were screaming about all the lore stuff, what is known about them, etc... It was kinda a big thing, ye' know? (Note: The Dragonlings in Daggerfall are just a strange species of lizards, they aren't actual dragons).

-snip-

For me, it is my overall enjoyment of the vanilla game (Note: Vanilla being official Bethesda works, including DLCs and patches). I honestly couldn't enjoy vanilla Morrowind... I needed to mod the combat, luck system, etc and other things to make it more of an RPG and not a dice game...

Basically, cause of Morrowind's negatives... I like Skyrim more. Now modding wise, a Modded Morrowind VS a Modded Skyrim? Morrowind wins for sures. Only a few awesome mods from Morrowind had been remade (One including "Solstheim Castle" which honestly I need to look into on the PC cause that castle was ****ing amazing in Morrowind! In Skyrim? Holy crap!).

 

[Lightknight]

I actually thoroughly enjoyed Skyrim Vanilla. I always play through these games without mods first and have never been punished for doing so. I view mods very much as DLC. I don't buy DLC before playing the game unless it's on some great sale.

So I do strongly disagree that vanilla is somehow bad. It's just that modding really enriches the experience even more.

 

[InfernalGrape]

It is good, but does it really deserve 9/10 - 10/10 range of reviews, that's the question!

 

[klaynexas3]

Skyrim is overrated. Why? Because the game in of itself is boring. You like to explore? I give you maybe 20 hours of gameplay to keep you entertained. You like to quest? Maybe another 30 before you start getting deja vu. After that it's all mods. But I don't count that. If I wanted things created by other people, I'd buy my games from them, not give Bethesda money so they can make a shallow game for other people to improve. It's just such a step down in comparison to the other games. The engine is good, but that's really all it has that makes it worth a damn.

Is Skyrim a good game? Yes. Is it the second coming of Christ that people treat it to be? Not even fucking close.

And again, I will not count mods as what makes a game good, that makes the mod good.

 

[drummond13]

You played a game for 100 hours, 70 of them without "forcing" yourself, and you feel the game is overrated?

I'm confused. How much entertainment does a game need to provide before it's considered worthwhile? 200 hours?

 

[WeepingAngels]

People screaming about "dragons woohoo" were everywhere. It was if they had never seen a dragon in a game before.

Well duh... Skyrim was the first time in The Elder Scrolls series that Dragons were in.

Still didn't see the big deal and as it turned out, the dragons were a letdown.

You played a game for 100 hours, 70 of them without "forcing" yourself, and you feel the game is overrated?

I'm confused. How much entertainment does a game need to provide before it's considered worthwhile? 200 hours?

Depends on the game. If you spent 100 hours in previous TES games then 70 hours would be a letdown. I don't understand the "hours played = quality" argument.

 

[Lightknight]

You played a game for 100 hours, 70 of them without "forcing" yourself, and you feel the game is overrated?

I'm confused. How much entertainment does a game need to provide before it's considered worthwhile? 200 hours?

Yeah, in a world where $60 gets you less than 20 hours of fun (typically), anything more is much better value.

 

[Folksoul]

First of all, I'm not trying to step on peoples toes here so please don't get too upset at me.

I will be honest; I'm not into the "dark age/ Tolkien'ish" fantasy RPG thing too much.
-but
My friends, and other people I know have been trying to get me to play Skyrim for a while now. So I finally tore myself away from Dark Souls, and made the plunge. I now have over 100 hrs in the game, but I'm too tired and worn out with this system, that I can't go on. I have forced myself to play through at least 30 of those hrs, because I'm not a quitter and I really wanted to experience a fraction of the time my friends have put into this game.

So here is what I "think":
This game is way too long and tedious. The dungeons are samey and go on and on. The encounters are easy, even on master. I witnessed town guards kill dragons, so what the hell is so special about the dragon born...really? Shouts are weak, so who cares? Speaking of dragons; I have killed so many that I am annoyed every time I hear one up in the sky, or when I see a shadow move past me on the ground. The combat is so clumsy, that I feel like many boss fights are won by accident. The game has crashed on me too many times to be considered a "complete" product. I fall asleep periodically while playing, (no lie, I really fall asleep). I have killed Alduin and I seriously don't want to do another thing in this game, despite having a tone of active quests.

-How ever
It's a damn beautiful game, with great music and lore.

Does anyone else feel that Skyrim is overrated?

Skyrim is the most beautiful looking shallow shell of a game I've ever played.

The combat is meh, you're always either too strong or too weak. Its always either, BE one shot, or be the person one-shotting?there is no in-between.

The quests are boring and uninspired. The enemies constantly recycled. The dungeon assets are constantly recycled. Half the skill tree is pointless (I'm looking at you lock picking) and the crafting system is equally meaningless?unless of course you want to enter "god mode", in which case crafting is great?make your god-mode armor with your god mode enchants and 1-shot everything. Or enchant your armor to make your spells 100% free?aka, caster god-mode.

I liked the skill level up system, it makes sense to use something and become better at it?however it was like they finished that idea, said?"Well, thats done?add some Dragons and ship that shit!" cause everything else feels rushed, shallow, and meaningless. The quests were the worst. I've had more interesting quests in World of Warcraft. The stone things you click on abilities?.yeah, there is 1 good one per class, and no reason to not use the best one, literally make a character, and the first thing you should do after the escape is head to your little stone thing (forgot what they were called) and set it, THEN begin playing.

"Go here, grab something, bring it back?thanks, here's some gold" - REPEAT 500 times.

Then of course there are the dragon fights themselves. When we all first saw them teased, it was amazing?I couldn't wait to fight a dragon. After killing seemingly millions of them?I gotta say, the luster has worn off a bit. Not only are the fights too frequent (by design) but they aren't much fun either. The first one you ever do is great, you don't know what to expect and the dragon kicks your butt if you let it. After 50 of them, its more of a chore and you realize the pattern they do and its no longer any fun.

^This.^ Skyrim is fun. No argument here, but it is shallow as hell. The two major tenants of RPGs are "player expression" and story. Min max the two as desired. The player expression is, at best, okay. Decent character creator, interesting leveling mechanic with some staggering flaws. I.e. Why does my barbarian have to forget how to swing his weapon in order to keep gaining experience through combat for combat perks? It is wonderful that the system tries to do the "you get better as you do it. NOT because you killed x of y creatures," but the arbitrary "you stop gaining experience after skill level 100 because... necessitates that I have to break character or lobotomize him to continue leveling. There are a set of mods that ,sort of, fix this. But, I'm judging the game by the product the developer shipped, and not what modders made.


The entirety of the main quest can be fully described in two sentences. "A powerful dragon shaped sorcerer/demon thingy is causing dragons to coming back to life, and that's bad. This is happening because ,in the distant past, some warriors used an elder scroll to cast the 'not my problem' spell and displace the villain into the future." That's it. I really could not care less how many in game novels there are or the thousands of irrelevant side quests. The main story in an rpg released in 2011 is something you can fit on a queue-card. That is pathetic, especially comparing it to Oblivion. Hell, you can find better stories on the f*cking Wii. Xenoblade, Last Story, Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, and Super Paper Mario.

 

[gamernerdtg2]

You forgot to mention that the combat is actually terrible, you don't have to level up, and people forget who you are - even after you go through a traumatic ordeal and they invite you to sleep in their house overnight. LOL the combat is "tense" because melee combat is awful. I'm talking about the 360.
You're assuming that we don't have the same taste because I hate Skyrim, but I'll bet we like some of the same games. My taste is quite broad.

I'm old school. I could put up with broken aspects of a game if it was a decent game. The focus of Skyrim is not combat, nor is it the story, nor is it the interaction between you and NPCs. It's about getting lost in a huge world without linear restrictions...and I really believe that it's better served on PC. The keyboard and mouse would be infinitely better than a console controller. I wouldn't recommend Skyrim to anyone. I see the appeal of most games that are popular, but Skyrim actually makes me angry that it's so bad. And I've played my fair share of bad games.

As to the fish, fungi, and animal species, that's all wonderful. Seriously. I like games that offer a lot to interact with. But Skyrim makes me feel like I'm a spastic tank, with two diseased arms that can't hit their intended target. Even if there were 10 thousand things to interact with, I can't stand the way your character feels in that world. In 2013, there's no excuse for a game that actually needs mods to be decent. It's a very strong, polarized stance I'm taking, but there you go.
I'm like this with no other game, except Metal Gear Solid (which is way better than Skyrim, but I still hate it).

See, I disagree with you on the subject of combat and levelling. I feel like levelling is necessary. Yes, in Oblivion levelling was atrocious and counterproductive, but in Skyrim it feels like my character is becoming more proficient. And I don't have a hard time hitting things. In fact it feels ridiculously easy at times. (Though that might be because I tend to play magicians/archers and don't swing swords a lot.) I've played a good few games too, and I *enjoy* Skyrim more than most of them. More than Dragon's Dogma or Dragon Age, which are great on their own merits.

So, you don't like Skyrim. Okay. But just please respect the fact that I do, and that I *can* like for legitimate reasons.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the convo, and your reasons for liking the game. I like seeing what someone else gets out of Skyrim b/c it helps me understand why the game even exists. If you tried playing as a melee class, you might understand where I'm coming from. That would make a whole lot of sense.

Dragon Age 2 was fine until I realized that I didn't need to replay it to get different outcomes that I haven't seen. I beat it and sold it back. Dragon's Dogma is my cup of tea. Granted, some of the RPG elements aren't as strong as they are in Skyrim and Cassardis is WAY smaller.

Anyways, when I chime in like I do, never assume that I'm trying to disrespect you or anyone for any reason. I get alot out of conversation, like I said earlier. If you feel offended, my apologies.

 

[oversoon]

When the grinding started to feel like a chore, I am unashamed to say I cheated. I gave myself the abilities I wanted, used some mods and console commands to balance my health more like a high risk/high reward action game (low health, high regen)and proceeded to play for the joy of just playing and discovering, instead of for loot and level. To me, Skyrim is a skeleton that NEEDS modding, but it is an absolutely wonderful skeleton that I have sunk hundreds of hours into. Once it's fleshed out with mods it feels a generation leap better (not exaggerating).

Also, my Dunmer is judging you.