What is it with Elder Scrolls games?

[CritialGaming]

I don't get it guys. Can someone please explain to me what makes the Elder Scrolls games so fantastic? Recently I picked up Skyrim, a game so great it warrants a re-release every 6-months or so. I figured it must be great if it continues to sell through all these releases and ports. So I bought the remastered version and gave it for a spin.

Gotta say....this game is kind of garbage. I mean mostly garbage. So after breaking free from my execution the game offers me a chance to flee the dragon attack with the people that were about to kill me. This makes no sense so naturally this is the option that I chose. Turns out that by doing this mission, the guard shrugs off your sentence and you are free to wander the country side. Apparently your crime was bad enough to get executed, but not bad enough to prevent escape? I dunno makes no sense.

So with my might sword I began to roam around. Since I don't know shit about TES I figured I'd follow the main story for a few quests to see what the deal is. I make my way through a dungeon, and instant start to hate the combat. First person melee combat is just weird, and it is even weirder when there doesn't seem to be any weight to my attacks. I swing a sword and the only indication of hitting an enemy is their health meter drops. There is no hesitation of impact, no graphically effect of blood or cuts on the enemy model, nothing. A swing that misses looks exactly like a swing that hits. There is also no depth perception in first person melee mode. You can't tell how close to an enemy you actually have to be to hit them, and or not be hit BY them. So I found myself moving back and forth in front of an enemy, trying to hit it while at the same time not being hit.

Fuck it. I'll throw fireballs, because at least that set them on fire. I know I hit them when they burn.

So an hour into the game you kill a dragon, not the dragon that attacked your execution, just another dragon. Apparently there are a shit ton of dragons in Skyrim. Also when I kill a dragon I absorb it's....soul? I guess. I certainly don't absorb any power. I feel like the whole Dragonborn thing is a waste concept. I mean the ability to murder and take the power of dragons? Why can't I grow wings or claws or some shit? (turns out I can become a warewolf so this transformation would make sense in the universe)

It all just seems boring and not very well thought out. Okay so Elder Scrolls games aren't about the main story, but rather about the mini adventures you can find when you just run in a direction. Okay sure, I guess I'll just randomly run around. I find caves all over the place, all of them have very similar sets of enemies and random sprinklings of gear inside. No story, nothing unique, just....stuff. Move on to a few random towns, and it starts to sound like they only have one very shitty voice actor in the entire game. Every dude sounds the same, the guy doesn't even try to change up his voice a little from character to character. Even when playing a major character he uses the same voice as random buttheads on the street.

So the story is nonsense, the world is big but pointless, the combat is weak, so why do people love this game? What am I missing?

Is skyrim just a shitty Elder Scrolls game? Were the first 4 games better? I've heard the grand tales of Morrowind, but I'm not going back to a game that old.

 

[WeepingAngels]

Morrowind is the best one I think but it's too old, I can't even go back to it. Oblivion is my personal favorite but most people hated it I guess because they don't like forests. I guess snowy mountains are better?

Anyway, in June 2011 people were talking about how Skyrim was the GOTY and all that. This was 5 months before release. It seems that all the hype came from the fact that Skyrim had dragons in it because it couldn't have been due to their love for Oblvion as most people hated that one. Yes, 2011 was the year most people finally got to play a game with dragons and they were beside themselves. Now my first game with dragons came in 1993 and that was on the SNES, an RPG named Breath of Fire so I was scratching my head wondering why dragons were so awesome in 2011.

So my answer is: Skyrim is as popular as it is because of the pre-launch hype and there is still lots of hype for the damn game.

Edit: I should also note that the dumbass hype about Skyrim has made me very anti-hype. To me, it's cringe worthy in the extreme.

 

[CritialGaming]

Morrowind is the best one I think but it's too old, I can't even go back to it. Oblivion is my personal favorite but most people hated it I guess because they don't like forests. I guess snowy mountains are better?

Anyway, in June 2011 people were talking about how Skyrim was the GOTY and all that. This was 5 months before release. It seems that all the hype came from the fact that Skyrim had dragons in it because it couldn't have been due to their love for Oblvion as most people hated that one. Yes, 2011 was the year most people finally got to play a game with dragons and they were beside themselves. Now my first game with dragons came in 1993 and that was on the SNES, an RPG named Breath of Fire so I was scratching my head wondering why dragons were so awesome in 2011.

So my answer is: Skyrim is as popular as it is because of the pre-launch hype and there is still lots of hype for the damn game.

Edit: I should also note that the dumbass hype about Skyrim has made me very anti-hype. To me, it's cringe worthy in the extreme.

To be fair, I don't think Skyrim is a disaster of a game like No Man's Sky. But it is nothing to write home about.

 

[WeepingAngels]

Morrowind is the best one I think but it's too old, I can't even go back to it. Oblivion is my personal favorite but most people hated it I guess because they don't like forests. I guess snowy mountains are better?

Anyway, in June 2011 people were talking about how Skyrim was the GOTY and all that. This was 5 months before release. It seems that all the hype came from the fact that Skyrim had dragons in it because it couldn't have been due to their love for Oblvion as most people hated that one. Yes, 2011 was the year most people finally got to play a game with dragons and they were beside themselves. Now my first game with dragons came in 1993 and that was on the SNES, an RPG named Breath of Fire so I was scratching my head wondering why dragons were so awesome in 2011.

So my answer is: Skyrim is as popular as it is because of the pre-launch hype and there is still lots of hype for the damn game.

Edit: I should also note that the dumbass hype about Skyrim has made me very anti-hype. To me, it's cringe worthy in the extreme.

To be fair, I don't think Skyrim is a disaster of a game like No Man's Sky. But it is nothing to write home about.

Well that depends on your basis of comparison. Based on the amount of hype and the fact that Skyrim keeps getting re-released it should be held to a much higher standard than No Mans Sky and under that standard, it's kind of a disaster.

Not that I didn't put many hours into it, I did and that's how I know that in many ways it was a downgrade from it's predecessor.

- Stats were basically replaced by perks which were far less fun to me.
- Dragons became just as annoying as the Oblivion gates, they were a nuisance.
- Guild quests were terrible compared to Oblivion.
- The ingame world map was terrible, how do you take something functional (Oblivion, Morrowind) and make it useless?
- Combat did improve over previous games in the franchise but as you said, it's still not satisfying.
- Sure the main quest (the story) is never the focus in ES games but this one was the worst one yet.

On a more personal level, I bought it for the PS3 and the damn thing ran like shit. I did play it on the PC later but Bethesda should have never released it like that.

 

[Saelune]

Just because you dont like something, doesnt mean its garbage.

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

So the story is nonsense, the world is big but pointless, the combat is weak, so why do people love this game? What am I missing?

It's for the people who like the "do your own shit" PnP RPGs and exploring a world.

Fuck story, I never like what anyone else writes anyway. I even modded out the start of Skyrim because I didn't want to be stuck with what little story they had put in.

If exploring is it's own reward for you then a big world isn't pointless.

Yeah, the hand to hand combat is shit. Stealth and sniping all the way.

Mods.

 

[CritialGaming]

So the story is nonsense, the world is big but pointless, the combat is weak, so why do people love this game? What am I missing?

It's for the people who like the "do your own shit" PnP RPGs and exploring a world.

Fuck story, I never like what anyone else writes anyway. I even modded out the start of Skyrim because I didn't want to be stuck with what little story they had put in.

If exploring is it's own reward for you then a big world isn't pointless.

Yeah, the hand to hand combat is shit. Stealth and sniping all the way.

Mods.

A game should be good out of the box. If a community of third party needs to come in and fix a game, then it isn't a good game.

As for exploring. This is the same argument as "find your own fun" in gaming. Fuck that. I paid a developer for fun. I don't want to have to make my own fun, my own stories, use my own mods to make the game fun, I want the game to be fun out of the box. Otherwise what exactly did I pay for?

 

[CaitSeith]

It was released in 2011. Very few games released that year were open-world, or had such mods support for the PC version. Exploration and sidequest are its strength. The world is full of random encounters. Sometimes enemies, sometimes NPCs, sometimes dragons (which the background music always treats them as a big deal). The sidequests give you different rewards, and the ones for the Daedric Artifacts usually have some unique twists (i.e. bringing some NPC for a sacrifice, or entering into a different world). But the ones where you gain the favor of the local head authority (the Jarl), give you a bodyguard, the right to buy a house at the town/city, and the privilege of telling the guards to ignore your minor crimes. Personally I never fought in first-person, and I always changed to third-person perspective.

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

A game should *SNIP*

I'm telling you why other people like it. Why you don't is utterly irrelevant.

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

Oddly the Elder scrolls games are one of the few rpg's I actually do like. I hate linear games that make you have to follow a story line. I hate the limitations of classes due to how boring they make combat. I like to be able to do what I want, the way I want whenever I want. Elder scrolls games give the player more flexibility to " mess around" and do as they please. Like if I want to go stack every book in the game in one of my houses on Skyrim, I can do that.... along with chunks of meat, sweetrolls, dead bodies and helmets..I actually tried to see how much stuff it would allow me to pile in one house but do not think I ever maxed it. XD I actually thought they did the alchemy skill rather well and the enchanting was okay, not the greatest, but I have seen worse. It has been a while since I played that, but I think It was rather funny playing wirh the sneaking and thieving skill as it was entertaining to be right in front of NPC's and they some how cannot see you standing right there. LOL


In the online game, I appreciate that your opponents are not as predictable as most games. For example, to me the entire idea of " see elf, know elf's strengths and weaknesses, counter elf" idea of class/ race based games as boring as hell to me tbh. I like the idea that some one can wear whatever armor they like, be whatever race or class and be able to do whatever in a fight so they are not as predictable. Yes, they have much that can be improved, (especially in terms of pvp mechanics) but I do appreciate the "sandboxiness" of it all. Games that make you follow quests and nonsense all the time like you are in a movie that is just playing but keeps you stuck in their story are pretty boring to me. I would rather have players write the story tbh.

I want to play the game, not have the game play it for me.

 

[Saelune]

So the story is nonsense, the world is big but pointless, the combat is weak, so why do people love this game? What am I missing?

It's for the people who like the "do your own shit" PnP RPGs and exploring a world.

Fuck story, I never like what anyone else writes anyway. I even modded out the start of Skyrim because I didn't want to be stuck with what little story they had put in.

If exploring is it's own reward for you then a big world isn't pointless.

Yeah, the hand to hand combat is shit. Stealth and sniping all the way.

Mods.

A game should be good out of the box. If a community of third party needs to come in and fix a game, then it isn't a good game.

As for exploring. This is the same argument as "find your own fun" in gaming. Fuck that. I paid a developer for fun. I don't want to have to make my own fun, my own stories, use my own mods to make the game fun, I want the game to be fun out of the box. Otherwise what exactly did I pay for?

I dont use mods. I still play Morrowind modless. I am currently replaying Skyrim, and doing so modless.

Im also playing Elder Scrolls Online again.

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

So the story is nonsense, the world is big but pointless, the combat is weak, so why do people love this game? What am I missing?

It's for the people who like the "do your own shit" PnP RPGs and exploring a world.

Fuck story, I never like what anyone else writes anyway. I even modded out the start of Skyrim because I didn't want to be stuck with what little story they had put in.

If exploring is it's own reward for you then a big world isn't pointless.

Yeah, the hand to hand combat is shit. Stealth and sniping all the way.

Mods.

A game should be good out of the box. If a community of third party needs to come in and fix a game, then it isn't a good game.

As for exploring. This is the same argument as "find your own fun" in gaming. Fuck that. I paid a developer for fun. I don't want to have to make my own fun, my own stories, use my own mods to make the game fun, I want the game to be fun out of the box. Otherwise what exactly did I pay for?

I dont use mods. I still play Morrowind modless. I am currently replaying Skyrim, and doing so modless.

Im also playing Elder Scrolls Online again.

Liike...Who hasn't played it one time just to see how many guards and NPC's they can kill before they reset it and pretend like that didn't just happen? XD

 

[Saelune]

So the story is nonsense, the world is big but pointless, the combat is weak, so why do people love this game? What am I missing?

It's for the people who like the "do your own shit" PnP RPGs and exploring a world.

Fuck story, I never like what anyone else writes anyway. I even modded out the start of Skyrim because I didn't want to be stuck with what little story they had put in.

If exploring is it's own reward for you then a big world isn't pointless.

Yeah, the hand to hand combat is shit. Stealth and sniping all the way.

Mods.

A game should be good out of the box. If a community of third party needs to come in and fix a game, then it isn't a good game.

As for exploring. This is the same argument as "find your own fun" in gaming. Fuck that. I paid a developer for fun. I don't want to have to make my own fun, my own stories, use my own mods to make the game fun, I want the game to be fun out of the box. Otherwise what exactly did I pay for?

I dont use mods. I still play Morrowind modless. I am currently replaying Skyrim, and doing so modless.

Im also playing Elder Scrolls Online again.

Liike...Who hasn't played it one time just to see how many guards and NPC's they can kill before they reset it and pretend like that didn't just happen? XD

I keep putting it off, but one day I intend to try to kill every single person in Morrowind. Probably as a Werewolf.

 

[CaitSeith]

Now my first game with dragons came in 1993 and that was on the SNES, an RPG named Breath of Fire so I was scratching my head wondering why dragons were so awesome in 2011.

And mine was the action game Forbidden Forest on the C64 in 1983. Your point?

 

[starbear]

So the story is nonsense, the world is big but pointless, the combat is weak, so why do people love this game? What am I missing?

It's for the people who like the "do your own shit" PnP RPGs and exploring a world.

Fuck story, I never like what anyone else writes anyway. I even modded out the start of Skyrim because I didn't want to be stuck with what little story they had put in.

If exploring is it's own reward for you then a big world isn't pointless.

Yeah, the hand to hand combat is shit. Stealth and sniping all the way.

Mods.

A game should be good out of the box. If a community of third party needs to come in and fix a game, then it isn't a good game.

The game is good out of the box. In fact, most people think the game is fantastic out of the box. Third party mods don't "fix" the game. They change it. Enhance it, for people who want a different experience.

As for exploring. This is the same argument as "find your own fun" in gaming. Fuck that. I paid a developer for fun. I don't want to have to make my own fun, my own stories, use my own mods to make the game fun, I want the game to be fun out of the box. Otherwise what exactly did I pay for?

You didn't pay this developer "for fun." You paid this developer for a licence to be able to install the game on your computer and for you to be able to play the game if you so desired whenever you like. If you wanted to play a fun game then you need to do a better job of finding games that suit your "sense of fun." In the case of Skyrim, you have chosen poorly. You determined that is "must be great if it continues to sell through all these releases and ports." But your reasoning was poor. Skyrim continues to sell through all these releases and ports because many people enjoy a style of game that you don't particularly like.

So here's what you need to do. You need to find games you like and stop buying games you don't like. Skyrim is full of exploring, and you "find your own fun." This is style of gaming that you personally don't like. SO DON'T BUY SKYRIM. It was patently obvious that Skyrim was full of exploring and that you find your own fun. You could have found this out by reading reviews, asking other players, watching lets plays on youtube, or even going over to a friends house and playing the game a bit before you bought it.

So next time, before you buy a game, don't just assume that because it is popular that you will love it. That might not happen! Spend a few minutes doing a bit of research, and you will find you will not only save yourself some money, but you will end up playing games that you actually enjoy! And remember this bit of salient advice: just because you play a game and you don't like it, that doesn't make the game objectively bad. Because you are an individual, and game taste is subjective, you might end up not liking something that plenty of other people like quite a lot. This is perfectly fine! Learning to understand this really basic concept will help you to adapt to living in society.

I hope this helps! I look forward to reading your posts about playing games you actually like!

 

[CritialGaming]

So the story is nonsense, the world is big but pointless, the combat is weak, so why do people love this game? What am I missing?

It's for the people who like the "do your own shit" PnP RPGs and exploring a world.

Fuck story, I never like what anyone else writes anyway. I even modded out the start of Skyrim because I didn't want to be stuck with what little story they had put in.

If exploring is it's own reward for you then a big world isn't pointless.

Yeah, the hand to hand combat is shit. Stealth and sniping all the way.

Mods.

A game should be good out of the box. If a community of third party needs to come in and fix a game, then it isn't a good game.

The game is good out of the box. In fact, most people think the game is fantastic out of the box. Third party mods don't "fix" the game. They change it. Enhance it, for people who want a different experience.

As for exploring. This is the same argument as "find your own fun" in gaming. Fuck that. I paid a developer for fun. I don't want to have to make my own fun, my own stories, use my own mods to make the game fun, I want the game to be fun out of the box. Otherwise what exactly did I pay for?

You didn't pay this developer "for fun." You paid this developer for a licence to be able to install the game on your computer and for you to be able to play the game if you so desired whenever you like. If you wanted to play a fun game then you need to do a better job of finding games that suit your "sense of fun." In the case of Skyrim, you have chosen poorly. You determined that is "must be great if it continues to sell through all these releases and ports." But your reasoning was poor. Skyrim continues to sell through all these releases and ports because many people enjoy a style of game that you don't particularly like.

So here's what you need to do. You need to find games you like and stop buying games you don't like. Skyrim is full of exploring, and you "find your own fun." This is style of gaming that you personally don't like. SO DON'T BUY SKYRIM. It was patently obvious that Skyrim was full of exploring and that you find your own fun. You could have found this out by reading reviews, asking other players, watching lets plays on youtube, or even going over to a friends house and playing the game a bit before you bought it.

So next time, before you buy a game, don't just assume that because it is popular that you will love it. That might not happen! Spend a few minutes doing a bit of research, and you will find you will not only save yourself some money, but you will end up playing games that you actually enjoy! And remember this bit of salient advice: just because you play a game and you don't like it, that doesn't make the game objectively bad. Because you are an individual, and game taste is subjective, you might end up not liking something that plenty of other people like quite a lot. This is perfectly fine! Learning to understand this really basic concept will help you to adapt to living in society.

I hope this helps! I look forward to reading your posts about playing games you actually like!

But how do i find games if I don't listen to word of mouth, or reviews? That's the whole point of reviews isn't it?

I like open world games. I am a fan of Far Cry, and the Witcher 3 is in my top 5 games of ALL TIME! So Open-world isn't something that is out of my element. In fact if I just read the back of the Skyrim box, it is a game that should be right up my alley.

So believe me, I didn't pick a game that I knew from the gate I was going to hate. I never go into a game expecting or wanted to hate it. Who the fuck would actually do that?

 

[votemarvel]

Fallout 4 and Morrowind aside (though to be fair it has been more years than I remember since I played the latter), I've never been able to get into Bethesda role playing games. I'm including New Vegas into this as it is the same formula.

I hate first person melee combat. It lacks any sort of weight and completely robs you of depth perception, peripheral vision and spacial awareness. Not a problem I say to myself, I'll pull back into the third person mode and...oh dear god those animations are horrific.

The bulk of the games are fetch quests. Go there, kill these things, maybe grab something they had, and report back. The main quests I confess to finding somewhat enjoyable, but are weighed down by the tat layered on top of them.

Also I hold firm to the belief that if you feel the need to add in a fast travel system so that your players won't get bored travelling across the game world, then your game world is either too big or doesn't have enough content in it. Perhaps both.

 

[WeepingAngels]

Now my first game with dragons came in 1993 and that was on the SNES, an RPG named Breath of Fire so I was scratching my head wondering why dragons were so awesome in 2011.

And mine was the action game Forbidden Forest on the C64 in 1983. Your point?

I made my point, that getting excited over dragons in 2011 made no sense.

 

[starbear]

So the story is nonsense, the world is big but pointless, the combat is weak, so why do people love this game? What am I missing?

It's for the people who like the "do your own shit" PnP RPGs and exploring a world.

Fuck story, I never like what anyone else writes anyway. I even modded out the start of Skyrim because I didn't want to be stuck with what little story they had put in.

If exploring is it's own reward for you then a big world isn't pointless.

Yeah, the hand to hand combat is shit. Stealth and sniping all the way.

Mods.

A game should be good out of the box. If a community of third party needs to come in and fix a game, then it isn't a good game.

The game is good out of the box. In fact, most people think the game is fantastic out of the box. Third party mods don't "fix" the game. They change it. Enhance it, for people who want a different experience.

As for exploring. This is the same argument as "find your own fun" in gaming. Fuck that. I paid a developer for fun. I don't want to have to make my own fun, my own stories, use my own mods to make the game fun, I want the game to be fun out of the box. Otherwise what exactly did I pay for?

You didn't pay this developer "for fun." You paid this developer for a licence to be able to install the game on your computer and for you to be able to play the game if you so desired whenever you like. If you wanted to play a fun game then you need to do a better job of finding games that suit your "sense of fun." In the case of Skyrim, you have chosen poorly. You determined that is "must be great if it continues to sell through all these releases and ports." But your reasoning was poor. Skyrim continues to sell through all these releases and ports because many people enjoy a style of game that you don't particularly like.

So here's what you need to do. You need to find games you like and stop buying games you don't like. Skyrim is full of exploring, and you "find your own fun." This is style of gaming that you personally don't like. SO DON'T BUY SKYRIM. It was patently obvious that Skyrim was full of exploring and that you find your own fun. You could have found this out by reading reviews, asking other players, watching lets plays on youtube, or even going over to a friends house and playing the game a bit before you bought it.

So next time, before you buy a game, don't just assume that because it is popular that you will love it. That might not happen! Spend a few minutes doing a bit of research, and you will find you will not only save yourself some money, but you will end up playing games that you actually enjoy! And remember this bit of salient advice: just because you play a game and you don't like it, that doesn't make the game objectively bad. Because you are an individual, and game taste is subjective, you might end up not liking something that plenty of other people like quite a lot. This is perfectly fine! Learning to understand this really basic concept will help you to adapt to living in society.

I hope this helps! I look forward to reading your posts about playing games you actually like!

But how do i find games if I don't listen to word of mouth, or reviews? That's the whole point of reviews isn't it?

Do you want a pony? World peace? If you want to find games you like you listen to word of mouth or you read reviews. It isn't fucking rocket science.

I like open world games. I am a fan of Far Cry, and the Witcher 3 is in my top 5 games of ALL TIME! So Open-world isn't something that is out of my element. In fact if I just read the back of the Skyrim box, it is a game that should be right up my alley.

You do realize why game reviews exist right? Because game publishers want you to buy their games, so when they write stuff on the back of the box they write it in a way that will convince people to buy their game. And I've just taken a look at the back of the Skyrim box: and you seriously made the decision to buy the game based on that?

Many games share open world mechanics. But some of those games are first person shooters with role-playing elements, and others are story-centric role-playing games, and others are complete sandboxes that you can play as you like. If your are going to make your buying decisions based on the back of the box you are going to end up being disappointed more often than not. Start reading reviews. It will save you time and money.

So believe me, I didn't pick a game that I knew from the gate I was going to hate. I never go into a game expecting or wanted to hate it. Who the fuck would actually do that?

Who the fuck buys a game on the premise that " it must be great if it continues to sell through all these releases and ports?" Just admit it: you got it wrong. You didn't do the most basic of research and ended up with a game that you never were going to like.

 

[Bilious Green_v1legacy]

I find the whole Bethesda approach to RPGs pretty unappealing. A game without a compelling narrative or compelling gameplay to pull me along will lose interest very fast. Bethesda RPGs seem to have neither; their stories are laughably shallow (and poorly voice acted), and the combat is usually rubbish. Skyrim's sole virtue seems to be as a platform to allow actually creative people in the modding community to turn it into something worth playing.