So, now that the honeymoon period is over... (Skyrim thread)

[Thoric485]

The core game was underwhelming, but of 2011's 5+ million sellers it really was the worthiest to be GOTY. Also Bethesda's PC support is commendable and mods will keep Skyrim on my hard drive for years.

I just hope the overwhelming critical success doesn't get to Bethesda's heads, so they think they've outdone themselves. This was a step forward for the TES series, but a long overdue one.

 

[Alexander Cunningham]

I think the problem is. Its too big for its own good. Most of the time I was bored with nothing to do. Baaaad game design

 

[Westaway]

Sooo boing. Have zero motivation to put it back in my xbox. I miss Fallout...

 

[R Man]

I like Skyrim. Though it is a touch too grey. Some of the cities could use a dash of colour. Other than that it is good. Now the voice acting isn't great, but it is good enough and an improvement over Oblivion.

Seriously, some of these criticism don't make sense. How is the leveling system unintuitive? I would have though that it was the most immersive and intuitive of them all. To me it is reasonable that you would get better at a skill by actually using it.

And the criticism of item farming and Armour? What the hell? Skyrim is better about this than most games. For Skyrim the top end armours are pretty much equal with the right perks. Not to mention you can just resort to magic for all those wizards out there. Compare that to WOW or Dragon Age where not optimising defensive equipment is basically death, or makes it much more difficult.

I didn't say the skill system wasn't unintuitive. It's fairly clear on how it works. I'm saying the way the skill system works always has me in the mind set that I'm playing a game. I can never get into the world because in the back of my mind I know I'm going to miss out on the best I can get if I don't grind my Smithing to make and upgrade the best armor and weapons, grind my Enchanting so I can super charge them with the best enchantments, and grind my Apothecary to make Smithing and Enchantment potions so I can buff them to make even BETTER weapons and armor. I'm always AWARE that I'm in a game. The world feels sterile and lifeless because I don't feel like I'm interacting with it at all. Like I'm always looking in through a window.

Still does not make sense. You have options to optimise equipment in other games, like WOW and DAO, why is Skyrims crafting any different? And there were similar things in Morrowind and Oblivion with potions and enchanting. Besides, you don't need the best, at a certain point armour value stops going up, and with only the basic smithing skill a heavy fighter can max out defence, especially if they have a shield. And you will eventually find the good stuff when you are at the right level. Stealth or Mage characters have even more leeway as they rely less on armour. The game in no way requires you to max out your character, and considering that you can do the quests in your own time when you are ready this should not be a problem.

 

[TheAmokz]

Best game of the year. Anyone who disagrees with me is just wrong.

 

[ElectroJosh]

After two playthroughs and 102 hours of play time I am giving it a rest. Did I love it? Yes. Will I play it again? yes.

The first playthrough I was an assasin-type character; sneak, lockpick, one-handed weapons (dagger specifically), bow an alchemy were the only skills I bothered with. Had heaps of fun as a dark-botherhood agent on the side.

2nd Playthrough I was a badass warrior; Smithing, Enchanting, Two-handed (war-hammers specifcally), and heavy armour (with a bit of sneaking and bows on the side) - I played the companion quests as my side-quests.

My third play-through I'll probably be a mage or a mage/theif (I haven't done the mage guild or theives guild quests at all) - but I am saving that until some DLC arrives. In the meantime I have returned to fallout NV because I finally got around to purchasing all its DLC.

 

[RatRace123]

My reaction to Skyrim remains unchanged:

Pretty good, but still has some of those irritants that other Bethesda games have had for me. I will say though that it's the best one I've played yet.

 

[ms_sunlight]

But they don't REACT to it. It changes literally nothing. You can be a Werewolf, Archmage, the new Listener of the Dark Brotherhood, Leader of the Thieves Guild, have made contact with every Daedra Lord and won thier favor, become a Thane of every major city, be the Harbinger of the Companions, Murder the Leader of the Stormscloaks all at the same time, and not a single person will react any different to you than when you started the game.

Exactly. It's colour text, nothing more. It doesn't change anything about how you interact with the world, not even merchant prices. Morrowind had a complex and satisfying faction reputation system - I miss it badly in Skyrim.

 

[SajuukKhar]

Exactly. It's colour text, nothing more. It doesn't change anything about how you interact with the world, not even merchant prices. Morrowind had a complex and satisfying faction reputation system - I miss it badly in Skyrim.

All Morrowind's reputation system did is change the text that appeared when you first opened the dialog box with a NPC.

Beyond that all the price fluctuation and ability to get information ate still handed through speech in Skyrim.

Also the reputation system in Morrowind meant nothing because you could join every possible faction, even all 3 great houses if you knew how to do it.

 

[EightGaugeHippo]

Comparing to Oblivion (like it should be*) I like it alot more. What ever I hated in oblivion was removed (EG speechcraft minigame), things I liked where revised and expanded upon (EG improving armour), with the exception of a few features like the Arena, Umbra and spell making.

The Melee combat felt as though each his had actual power behind it as opposed to swinging your sword by your enemy.

Magic, with the exception of removed spell making, felt truely arcane.

Stealth was over powered, but in a fun way.

Story, I enjoyed the main quest, mainly because I bloody adore dragons in any and all medium. Though writing was somewhat uninspired.

[Edit]
Forgot to round this off.
Overall Skyrim was a good game in my opinion, its no second comming of Morrowind but its better than Oblivion.

(* Stop comparing Skyrim to Fallout, it is fantasy, it is not a fallout game, it is not post apocalypse, it is not even a shooter. You would not try to fairly compare bacon and cake because that would be silly, compare bacon and spam by all means BUT LEAVE THE GOD DANG CAKE OUT OF IT!)

 

[SajuukKhar]

Comparing to Oblivion (like it should be*) I like it alot more. What ever I hated in oblivion was removed (EG speechcraft minigame), things I liked where revised and expanded upon (EG improving armour), with the exception of a few features like the Arena, Umbra and spell making.

The Melee combat felt as though each his had actual power behind it as opposed to swinging your sword by your enemy.

Magic, with the exception of removed spell making, felt truely arcane.

Stealth was over powered, but in a fun way.

Story, I enjoyed the main quest, mainly because I bloody adore dragons in any and all medium. Though writing was somewhat uninspired.

[Edit]
Forgot to round this off.
Overall Skyrim was a good game in my opinion, its no second comming of Morrowind but its better than Oblivion.

(* Stop comparing Skyrim to Fallout, it is not a fallout game, nor is it a shooter. You would not try to fairly compare bacon and cake because that would be silly, compare bacon and spam by all means BUT LEAVE THE GOD DANG CAKE OUT OF IT!)

FYI Umbra wont be comming back, it was destroyed in the books.

 

[StriderShinryu]

In retrospect, I still think it's a great game.. but it didn't give me the sort of uber long lasting experience that it does for others. I quite enjoyed the two main stories and absolutely loved the setting. Gameplay was surprisingly solid considering I played a sword and board pure warrior so was using nothing but melee skills. Blocking and shield bashing especially felt exactly as they should.

The only real downfall for me is that I felt the game didn't do enough to make me want to keep playing. I stopped playing around level 45 or so but already had all of the skills I ever wanted, including some I didn't. I had long since seen every enemy type and just felt like I was playing the same game at level 45 as I was at level 20, Sure there were still plenty of caves, keeps and quests I hadn't tackled but with the gear and skills I had long since acquired already getting old, and with little actual challenge in the combat anymore, I just didn't feel any drive to keep at it.

Overall, it's an extremely solid experience but just be wary that the guaranteed 100s of hours of play time many fans of the series swear by is very much a "your results may vary" situation.

 

[RedDeadFred]

I am still thoroughly enjoying it. I seriously have about 8 characters going. Half of which are specifically for roleplaying.

 

[ms_sunlight]

All Morrowind's reputation system did is change the text that appeared when you first opened the dialog box with a NPC.

Beyond that all the price fluctuation and ability to get information ate still handed through speech in Skyrim.

Also the reputation system in Morrowind meant nothing because you could join every possible faction, even all 3 great houses if you knew how to do it.

No, it has a direct numerical effect on how much they like you, based upon their own faction, which changes conversation options, merchant prices etc. It's not the best faction reputation system ever implemented in a game, but it's hell of a lot more than Skyrim has.

Besides, I'm pretty sure you can only join 2 great houses - Hlaalu plus one other - and I'm also pretty sure that's considered a glitch.

 

[SajuukKhar]

No, it has a direct numerical effect on how much they like you based upon their own faction,

NPCs in Skyrim still have hidden numerical values on how much they like/dislike that can change based on actions you do and what actions you preform. This is what allows you to marry certain NPCs.

which changes conversation options, merchant prices etc.

Both of those things things are in Skyrim and are affections by your speech skill and actions taken to and for their faction.

Besides, I'm pretty sure you can only join 2 great houses - Hlaalu plus one other - and I'm also pretty sure that's considered a glitch.

Na there was another glitch that you could get into all 3, and regardless of if it was a glitch you still could.
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The only real difference between Skyrim and Morrowind is that Morrowind gave you a bar, which in turn makes it more noticeable and thus makes you notices changes in it more often, while skyrim keeps it all hidden making it seem less there then it is.

 

[Windcaler]

I really enjoyed Skyrim. For a long time I just explored the setting. Its common for me to walk outside whiterun, pick a direction, and start walking till I find something interesting. I did the same thing with fallout 3.

The melee combat was pretty dull but no worse then melee combat in fallout 3 and new vegas. Archery and magic were fun playstyles but magic fell shortwhen I got into the 40's. They really need to patch it so magic scales with level like every other combat style. Perhaps the most fun was an unarmed fighter in full Daedric armor. Some of the kill moves are brutal! However this is where I wish they would have taken a page from new vegas and added in special moves. Then again, having no real knowledge of ES lore I dont really know if theres room for martial arts in the setting.

I think I should point out that Ive only finished the main quest so far and it was a mixed bag. I always felt like Alduin wasnt the real threat to Skyrim, the elves were. Alduin just kind of flew around and woke up dragons that were easily killed off. Ok yes he destroyed Helgen but Helgen wasnt really a place we knew. It just didnt have the same impact of destroying a town we got to know and like. For example Riverwood. However I saw the elves as a greater threat to Skyrim because of their dictatorial outlook on freedom of religion and how they were permitted to hunt down and torture/kill anyone just for their beliefs. The problem, for me, was there was no way to really fight the elves. I hope that gets fixed with an expansion pack

Now I cant really speak on the civil war sides since I havnt completed either of them. Ive only done the join up quests with both factions. However, as a person I tend to want to stand with the stormcloaks more. Freedom of religion and the right to govern ourselves are two causes that I feel very strongly are worth fighting for. On the other hand the imperials seem to just want to keep the status quo but I suspect entropy is taking its toll on the Empire. They may be the best option for standing against the elves right now but that doesnt mean that they will always be the best option for Skyrim.

Basicly I think it falls short on some factors but I still think its a superb game

 

[SajuukKhar]

Alduin really isn't that much of a "threat" because he can't really be stopped, just delayed. The only "threat" he posed was that he came too early.

Alduin is a force of nature like the wind or the rain he is needed for the world to work.

The Thalmor are the bigger threat.

They seek to undo Sithis who is Lorkhan who is Talos and in doing so have summoned the world eater too soon. If they can remove Talos from the mythic they can undo the lunar god's plans and ruin the mortal races chances to find CHIM.

 

[Scarecrow]

I never finshed the main story, but I did do a whole lot of the side quests, and even got to a fairly high level...30 I think. Never picking it up or playing it again. Just got so boring and pointless. Plus I have yet to find a charater I like whatsoever. The game was just a disapointment in my eyes.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Played it once only, couldnt be bothered to do it again. Mostly for all the random crappy missions you kept picking. Morrowind and Oblivion i must have played 3 or 4 times each. They have more character and charm, especially Morrowind. Skyrim, not so much. Plus the fact they are making Daedric weapons/armour worthless now. In Morrowind their was one set or armour and the weapons were hidden. Oblivion, get to a certain level and every random character wore it. I feel in there next game, you will start off with a suit of daedric armour and choice of weapon.

 

[SajuukKhar]

Played it once only, couldnt be bothered to do it again. Mostly for all the random crappy missions you kept picking. Morrowind and Oblivion i must have played 3 or 4 times each. They have more character and charm, especially Morrowind. Skyrim, not so much. Plus the fact they are making Daedric weapons/armour worthless now. In Morrowind their was one set or armour and the weapons were hidden. Oblivion, get to a certain level and every random character wore it. I feel in there next game, you will start off with a suit of daedric armour and choice of weapon.

Considering Daedric weapons/armor don't start dropping in loot untill level 48 I don't see how they are making them worthless.