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

[nogitsune]

I'm just thinking that maybe Skyrim isn't your game, that's fine, Dark Souls isn't one of mine, mostly being that I'm not a big fan of hard games that don't try to meet me in the middle with Difficulty settings. In a lot of ways, The Elder Scrolls are like old school RPGs, I'm talking before Fallout. They're games that gave you a big world to explore and while the story would be pretty linear, they were ok and the combat would be servicable for the most part (Ultima 6 had decent tactical combat while 7 literally played itself in combat while 4 was pretty tedious and basic). They were games that dumped you into a large world where you could do whatever you pleased.

Skyrim has problems, every game does. I do like the combat even though it's cheesy, though the least cheesy of the series. It allows different solutions like being Stealthy or fight at long range and hit and run or fighting up close and personal. It's not as engaging as Dark Souls or Dragon's Dogma but it gets the job done.

I don't buy "the game needs mods" argument, it holds no water with me from my experience as I found the modding community very disappointing, too many people trying to fix what aint broke trying to make OOO and just ruining the game. So many mods had to just be removed to make the game playable again. Though I did like dragon souls for perks and other stuff but I found the game very enjoyable without mods. Bu some people love the mods and that's cool.

 

[JuFro]

The ultimate point is this, are you playing a game just to be playing a game? I know any new and different world to explore, any set of game rules to learn, is exciting, and makes us yearn to master it, to uncover all its secrets. However can anyone honestly say that Skyrim has a good story, or even decent gameplay? Let me ask you this, you are getting killed in Skyrim, what do you do? Pause the game, click on health potions. This is not to say that Skyrim is "easy", although it is, the point is that there is no gameplay to speak of. Sure there are many things you can "do", but none of them really mean anything because its just a big pile of toys to play with. Exchange that with say Bioshock, Dark Souls, Risen, each of these games at least makes you learn, you run at a splicer, trying to only use your wrench, you should die, or lose so much health that the next encounter is impossible to beat in exactly the same way. You learn to use your shock bolt, then hit with the wrench! Sure that may be the only strategy at that point in the game, but as the game goes on it expands. Dark Souls, for all its sometimes unfair difficulty, is for the most part extremely fair, it expects you to actually want to play a game, I mean come on, in Super Mario, you learn to jump at the right time to land on the gombas, this is gameplay, however basic. Skyrim is actually just like grand theft auto in this respect, it just wants you to sit back with a joint or whatever and "hang out". This is not to say that games must be INTENSE or that I'm a party hater, but come on, I'd much rather play Amnesia, and get a good story out of it at least. Why would I play Skyrim when it has nothing to offer? Other than that it is a game you can play for 200 hours. Again this brings us back to the point, are we buying fun an interesting experiences? Or do we judge a game by its "time until I'm bored" value? 60 dollars for this fun amazing game that lasts 10 hours, or 60 bucks for a game that lasts way longer so who cares! I mean come on, its like we are paying for "life time". Its just sad, remember when games were this amazing thing, this special fun experience? Now we are just funding our bad habits...but hey! DARK SOULS II!!! (p.s. I hope the elder scrolls series continues and improves itself greatly, I've played Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim to excess, and I guess what really made me go off like this is that I was so hopeful as I played through each one that I would find something worth my time just around each corner)

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I think the total sales of Skyrim cross platform are somewhere north of 20 million units sold. It's the most popular western CRPG of all time by a fairly healthy margin, and enjoyed resounding critical success as well.

While critical and popular acclaim do not make something "good", the odds are high that your dislike of that thing is a result of it not matching up with your particular tastes. As opposed to it being secretly awful and only you are bold enough to say it.

 

[Kargathia]

I refuse to play unmodded skyrim now, because without mods its only a thinly veiled exploration game with nothing to actually explore for.

Yup. I'm still starting up Skyrim, but I'm not really playing Skyrim by now, I'm playing Skyrim Mods: The Game. It's good.

 

[Jusey1]

While I don't think it's "overrated", I do lament the loss of the deeper role playing elements that were found in "Morrowind" and "Oblivion".

Skyrim has more roleplaying elements than Oblivion for sure... Not more than Morrowind but definably more than Oblivion.

Honestly... I hated so many things in Oblivion. Bleh. Couldn't do much of what I wanted to do in Oblivion... Can do a lot of the things I wanted to do with my RP chars in Skyrim though. And Morrowind.

Also note: Comment section wont load up on PG4, cannot reply to a few posts. Meh >=/... Need to find a way to fix that or something.

 

[Nazulu]

It was wondrous for me at first with all the discovering and challenges to look forward to, then you find out it's not all that different and you do pretty much the same thing over and over with the shallow combat system. I wouldn't have minded that if I didn't keep getting over powered with every class I chose.

I had to push myself in the end to get through all the big quests. Some were enjoyable, and I really liked going into Blackreach, but that's about it.

It's a very detailed game, but it is over-rated and I don't think I'll ever jump into it again.

Wow, that is exactly how it happened for me, and how I feel! At first I was all like; woot! and then I was like: meh. I "was" going to buy the DLC too, but I really don't want to play this game anymore. I was falling asleep while playing! lol. Who does that?

It's the most common experience for those who quit the game. I didn't care about modding it in the end either, you just get used to it and that's it, you've seen Skyrim. I haven't even played the other Elder Scrolls games and I can already agree with the Morrowind fans. Actually, this video helped.


Around 6:51 he mentions the stuff I wish Skyrim had.

 

[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?

Dark souls can give 200 hours of entertainment, easy.
Days I've sunk into mp in that game. Which isn't even covering making new builds, trying different equipment combinations and signing down so I can help others with bosses again and again.

When did you jump into another skyrim player's game and help them take a boss? Oh... I see.

Praise the sun.

I love Dark Souls. Is liking both of these games mutually exclusive? WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME!?

 

[Hawk eye1466]

At first I'd have agreed with you, because I first got skyrim on xbox and played only the base game so all your complaints were pretty justified, except I had a hell of a difficulty curve I don't even think my difficulty was that high but even in daedric armor I was being killed in only a handful of hits from most things. But that was the xbox version where I didn't even finish the main story once I really didn't care so I only had a handful of hours doing side missions and then never touched it again.

Then I got the pc version and good god the differences! I got a mod that gives me lightsabers! I had to make them and some of the items were pretty hard to find, I didn't know you could make a flawless ruby with gold and a normal ruby so I searched for a long time. But all the other mods for graphics or just little things like making all the dragons trains or changing the fight music to danger zone, or the Falskarr mod that added an entire new area there's so much that just made the game fresh and interesting enough to keep me playing.

But it's a fantasy game where in the end your swinging a sword most of the time so it's totally understandable why you found it boring and the dungeons are so similar I just stopped going into ones I didn't have to for a while.

 

[Amir Kondori]

I really like the Elder Scrolls series, at least starting from Morrowind, the first one I played, but Skyrim has continued this awful trend of a world as wide as the ocean and mechanics as deep as a puddle.
The first part is why I spent so many hours in the game, the second part is why I eventually got burned out on it.

 

[Something Amyss]

I love Dark Souls. Is liking both of these games mutually exclusive? WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME!?

From put it in the TOS. This just goes to show nobody reads the TOS.

 

[nogitsune]

It was wondrous for me at first with all the discovering and challenges to look forward to, then you find out it's not all that different and you do pretty much the same thing over and over with the shallow combat system. I wouldn't have minded that if I didn't keep getting over powered with every class I chose.

I had to push myself in the end to get through all the big quests. Some were enjoyable, and I really liked going into Blackreach, but that's about it.

It's a very detailed game, but it is over-rated and I don't think I'll ever jump into it again.

Wow, that is exactly how it happened for me, and how I feel! At first I was all like; woot! and then I was like: meh. I "was" going to buy the DLC too, but I really don't want to play this game anymore. I was falling asleep while playing! lol. Who does that?

It's the most common experience for those who quit the game. I didn't care about modding it in the end either, you just get used to it and that's it, you've seen Skyrim. I haven't even played the other Elder Scrolls games and I can already agree with the Morrowind fans. Actually, this video helped.


Around 6:51 he mentions the stuff I wish Skyrim had.

You really should play the other games before you judge and use your own mind before saying game x is better and you haven't even played it and Morrowind is a game worth trying, even though I like Skyrim better and think it is a better game. It's major flaws give it an old school charm.

Though I remember that video and it's BS, that guy's nostalgia goggles are on so hard it's cut bloodflow to his head.

I'll respond to that list he shows.

1: bull shit, I don't need to say anything but other than it's Bull shit, you can die in Skyrim and you can fail. I really don't need to say more, I do like how he shows his pure Bias so early.

2: Neither does Morrowind, There is no real consequences other than NPC liking you less and that doesn't mean much other than maybe using speechcraft or bribing on rare occasions. There are the great houses but that's the same as the Civil war except with one extra faction. This argument is more suited to Oblivion than Skyrim.

3: Same with Morrowind. You make very little impact as well.

4: Both games have crappy quest and journal systems.

5: in Morrowind, most NPCs exist to say the same thing, nothing of interest. I can count the number of NPCs with any personality on one hand.

6: Morrowind had almost zero puzzles, mostly RNG crap where you click a lockpick or probe on a door, Oblivion and Skyrim are more complex in this regard.

7: I think he means found items, though to be honest, Morrowind was the culprit. The game made it better to cast the cheap bound weapons spells than to actually find weapons. Hell if you didn't find the secret merchant you really couldn't get much value for any of the stuff you sold. Not to mention it's terribly easy to get the best stuff in the game, the best med armor could be gotten by killing a guard in Vivec. Also you pretty much can't help but get light armor that outclasses all light armor in the game save for Glass if you had Tribunal installed.

Despite all this, Morrowind is a neat game, it has some great atmosphere when you aren't dealing with people that say the same thing. There's some great exploration to be had if you can deal with the god awful combat, it's all RNG crap with little to do with player skill. But still you really should play the game and not simply take someone's word that it's better.

 

[gphjr14]

I found the PS3 version to be boring as shit. Learned my second word in dragon's tongue and traded it in for Far Cry 3, never looked back.
Might give it a try on PC mods make everything better.

 

[Jusey1]

-snip-

Correct. That whole dumbing down video is just bullcrap from a guy who loves Morrowind a lot.

 

[Edl01]

Isn't this like...the 20th thread we've had about Skyrim being Overrated? Or have I just finally went insane?

 

[Zen Bard]

While I don't think it's "overrated", I do lament the loss of the deeper role playing elements that were found in "Morrowind" and "Oblivion".

Skyrim has more roleplaying elements than Oblivion for sure... Not more than Morrowind but definably more than Oblivion.

Honestly... I hated so many things in Oblivion. Bleh. Couldn't do much of what I wanted to do in Oblivion... Can do a lot of the things I wanted to do with my RP chars in Skyrim though. And Morrowind.

I think they all have role playing elements, but they seem to be reducing the freedom and choices available with each successive release.

There were multiple ways to approach quests in "Morrowind" and "Oblivion". I remember a buddy and I both starting doing The Brotherhood Quests in "Oblivion" around the same time. We'd synch up an compare notes after each mission and were amazed how we'd used completely different methods to accomplish our tasks.

I just didn't find that level of depth in "Skyrim". The options seemed more binary...like in "Fable"; there's this way to do something, or THAT way.

But that true level of openness and freedom just wasn't there.

 

[Nazulu]

snippy

Yeah yeah yeah. And regardless, these are the things I wish the game had, that was my point.

 

[Stu35]

Isn't this like...the 20th thread we've had about Skyrim being Overrated? Or have I just finally went insane?

I'm never sure if it's the same thread as the last one I saw.


My favourite one is the invariable declaration by most who posts such things, something along the lines of "Well, I'm probably in the minority, but I dislike Skyrim". It's curious, because the previous 19 (or however many) threads all have plenty of people agreeing that they don't like Skyrim.



Personally, I enjoyed Skyrim. I can completely see the complaints people have with it though - as someone who has it on a console I have been subject to the same bugs and problems that many had (which cannot simply be resolved by someone saying "well you should have got it on PC and downloaded "X" mod, then you'd appreciate it.").

As I say, I love the game, it had many, many, many flaws, from samey-dungeons to spoon-fed quest markers to absolutely pointless 'puzzles' (Seriously, what ancient nord was stupid enough to design a fucking security code involving rotating pillars, where the code is clearly marked above the door needing to be opened), it was buggy and the choices were entirely binary. You could kill the Emperor and life just carried on as normal. It's seriously barely mentioned... Let's put this into context: If the President of the United States was killed, people would be fucking talking about it. Even people with little to no interest in the matter, it'd be a pretty big topic of conversation.

As I say. I still like the game. I enjoy the gameplay, I enjoy messing around with different combat methods, so yeah I'll still switch it on every now and then and have a playthrough.

To each their own.