Skyrim - Your Reviews and First Impressions

[Mattbott]

i havent encountered any bugs since the backwards dragons

good:
it's technically amazing
i like perks
a lot of little changes have made it more playable and animations are nice (eg finishing moves)
dragons are still great even after a year
solstheim has rescued me from mead halls

bad
skyrim = nords = boring (sorry, but that's just me and is not a slur on the game, race or people who like our northern cousins)
stories, guilds and dungeons are all looking a bit generic these days, they have settled into a winning formula, i am not in love with the game like TES3/4

ugly
trolls are ugly, but as usualy everything is lovely
3rd person view only for beast modes is a terrible oversight/decision imo .. really nerfed any excitement value in hunting as a werewolf for me
Esbern - the Paarthunax brick wall

[philfredobob]

*Removed, for being badly written, and not expressing my opinions properly. basically, i did it wrong....again...

[Khali]

I just noticed this post so I am beyond first impressions after 230 plus hours played. But I will give my thoughts any way.

First off I held off for a long time in buying Skyrim because I could never get into Oblivion for some reason. Something about Oblivion just put me off the game. Steam had Skyrim for $39 about a month ago so I grabbed it after much debating with myself. I am glad I did finally got the game. Skyrim has the feel of Morrowind that Oblivion just seemed to lack to me. I have enjoyed it immensely to this point. A side bonus to my holding out so long is that there is a huge amount of mods available and I have been slowly including them into my game. I could go on and on about what is good about Skyrim but I won't take the time to write a book and bore every one to death.

Now, for the not so good. I am on my fourth or fifth character because of bugged quests. I have come across several quests that glitch and wont let you progress any further. Since a lot of the quest lines impact other quest lines this issue can keep you from progressing along multiple quest lines and pretty much end any progress for a good part of the game. Even those that do not cross over into other quests it is still irritating when things do not work and you can't get certain quest rewards. Even simple things are bugged. There are several shops all over Skyrim that I can not enter because the doors are locked 24/7 or the shop owner just keeps saying "your not supposed to be here" and nothing else. Its like the game is stuck in night time mode for those shops. Even simple things like buying a house do not work correctly at times. I can not buy the house in Solitude because the NPC that sells it does not have the dialog for it. I have done all the quests I needed to do to get the dialog but no luck. So I can not become Thane of Solitude because of this and no one has a fix that I can find.

I want to complete everything on one character but when things glitch its impossible. The only thing you can do is start all over and hope to avoid the issues on the new character when other attempts at a fix do not work.

[dzio]

I couldn't play it for a long time, because my old computer was a pile of crap, but now I can. I've already done over 200 hours, but I still remember my first impression. It was something along the lines of "oh thank the Nine, it's like Oblivion never happened!". I'm not saying it's perfect, because it obviously isn't, but it's like coming back to Morrowind in some ways. The levelling is done right, the world doesn't look as if it borrowed the colour palette from a Disney princess and doesn't feel like it's revolving around me. I can once again roleplay without worrying about random encounters with wildlife kicking my butt because I haven't chosen the correct stats to raise. And the world feels alive like it never did before in TES games. All in all, I love it and I can already see I'm going to spend years playing it, just like Morrowind.

[Linkuya]

I'll post my full thoughts on the game, if anyone would like.

[philfredobob]

I'll post my full thoughts on the game, if anyone would like.

i'd say go for it, i like reading what other folks thought of Skyrim (even when i disagree entirely )

[Linkuya]

I copied this off of a recent blog I wrote, with slight modifications.

Spoiler:

Skyrim.



It all started on Gamespot. An article was published on Gamespot about 'Skyrim'. It told of the first hands on someone had gotten to play, and it also mentioned alchemy, though it didn't even mention the genre. I remember posting: 'Looks cool, but I'm not really into MMOs'. I had never heard of the series, but I assumed it was an MMO, for some reason. I was quickly corrected, and was surprised to hear it was a single player game, which aroused my curiosity. In Gamestop a few days later, an employee said, 'Are you excited for Skyrim?'. I said not really, which made him frown and say, 'I feel sorry for you'. What eventually made me super excited was a incredibly well written 10 page Gameinformer article.

During February 2012, I finally got a copy of Skyrim. I called in sick(hee-hee....), started right away, and the rest is history. Skyrim drew me in with it's incredibly detailed world, realistic characters, fantastic art style, and it's beautiful soundtrack. Every town felt alive, each quest felt organic and meaningful, and the questlines for the guilds were mindblowing. No other game I've played has so much quality content, it even outshines Oblivion. This game firmly grasped me in place, no other game mattered, this yearning for exploration has never been so fully realized. This game isn't even an RPG. It's a 'Tamrial Life Simulator'. However, for all it's earth shattering positives, it does have something negative.







This game suffers from a lot of bugs. From horses randomly flying, people randomly flying, heads disappearing, it's all here. The game also suffered from some pretty gnarly framerate drops. However, a lot of these issues have been patched since release. I'm still playing the 1.4 patch, and it solved nearly all my issues, and the game is lag free now.

Skyrim: Legendary Edition is set for release soon. Don't let the name fool you, this is the GOTY Edition we've all been waiting for. All the DLC for Skyrim is on disc, as well as the latest patch, 1.9. However, after seeing how bad the Fallout 3 GOTY edition was, here's to hoping this release is as solid as Oblivion's GOTY edition. Skyrim: Legendary Edition just might be the greatest complete game ever released.

If you haven't played Skyrim yet, this is what you've been waiting for. Give the game a chance, it just might suck you into a world you'll never forget.

[philfredobob]

Mind blowing guild questlines? we must have played different games ...

nah, im not attacking your opinion, no worries.

[Linkuya]

Spoilers below!

Spoiler:

I found them incredibly engaging, and I didn't see the emperor bait and switch or thieves guild plot twist coming.

[>EnterUsernameHere<]

Graphics where the first thing that I noticed when I first played Skyrim.

[Nord85]

First impressions when I started to play in April:

Spoiler:

The very first was a graphical "shock". I mean, Oblivion looked good, but was a bit cartoonish and the vanilla NPC faces ranged wildly from absolutely horrible to very good. Then, in Skyrim, when I looked around from that cart, it looked like another series completely. The NPC faces were much more natural, and the graphics were more real-looking all around. Also, the boreal forest surrounding the road to Helgen looked very much like those in my country. So, instant immersion in that regard (as opposed to the completely alien landscape of Morrowind).

The whole opening sequence completely sold the game to me. When I saw the Stormcloak's head fall from the block, I was again shocked. This sure was nothing like the bright, colourful boys' adventure book atmosphere Oblivion had throughout. And I liked that, although I had also loved Oblivion. Alduin's attack was very well executed and got my adrenaline running, since the feeling of danger and urgency of escape was so strong. I just couldn't take a break from playing until my character was relatively safe inside the keep.

Also, I could bore you with stories of staring the magnificent aurora etc. but I won't. Suffice it to say that for the first ten or so playing hours I was completely spellbound and in awe of everything from graphics to how visceral and dangerous the combat felt (I haven't tried the vanilla combat, btw, since from the start I've used a combat enhancing mod that drastically improves enemy AI. For example, now they actively strive to flank and surround you, archers tend to seek better cover between shots, etc. Also, no more "It was just my imagination" comments when they have an arrow sticking from their forehead. Instead, after hit the enemies search for you for quite long and efficiently.) In a word, impressive.

And now, a review aspect by aspect.

Graphics:

Spoiler:

I'm not a "gold-eye" who has to have everything technically impressive. For me, art direction is far more important, so for me Skyrim looks very gorgeous overall. Sure, there are ugly things like circular pull rings that look more like an octagon but I usually don't even notice them. NPC design is very good. I especially like how the looks of the females range from uglyish to plain to beautiful and how they don't have exaggeratedly sexual body models á la, say, Dragon Age. More realistic that way and makes the really good looking ones to stand out. Many of the men, especially Nords, though, could look less like Neanderthals. I get that they are supposed to look tough and rugged, but you can get that without making half the male NPCs musclebound pig-necks. This is a small gripe, though.

The environments and buildings are excellently designed. The art direction really manages to evoke this Conan the Barbarian meets the Vikings- atmosphere, that I find very epic and adventurous. I especially love the numerous waterfalls and the mountain-surrounded tundra around Whiterun. Many of the weapons and armour sets, though, are simply ugly (for instance, elven melee weapons look rather like cheap plastic toys). I find I use more ones added by mods than the vanilla ones. Then again, there is some vanilla gear that is spot-on, too.

Overall, I'd give 9/10 for Skyrim for graphics and art direction.

Combat:

Spoiler:

As I use the afore-mentioned mod, I can't really say much about vanilla enemy AI. Mechanics-wise, I like Archery very much. It's challenging to learn when playing for the first time, but when you get the hang of it, it's all the more satisfying to score headshots from 100+ yards. Also, it looks like the arrow speed, trajectory and the feel of impact have been improved from Oblivion, which is a definite plus.

The "feel" of melee combat is much improved from the previous games. Now getting hit actually feels dangerous and characters get pummeled around much more realistically. Funnily enough, the last ES game that had comparable feel of danger in combat was Daggerfall! Also, blocking is in Skyrim vastly useful compared to the previous games. In Morrowind it was a complete joke and in Oblivion it was only okay. In Skyrim, sword-and-shield type is IMO the most fun combat combination, since with bashes and various perks like Block Runner and Shield Charge shields give you a whole repertoire of potential moves. Lastly, the killcams add to the enjoyment by sometimes giving the character a really badass feel. I especially like the axe-to-face one in its simple brutality.

The enemy types feel refresheningly different from each other and the previous games. One of my biggest surprises in Skyrim was how deadly enemy mages were, especially in groups. My favourite Oblivion tactic, closing the distance disregarding the puny damage I was taking and then striking the mage to ground, works no longer, since the magic can do hefty damage, stun you and slow you down depending on type. The first time I had to run away from a mob of mages with my warrior type was humiliating, but also a wholly new and rather fun experience. Then the undead; they no longer are the pushovers they were in Morrowind and Oblivion. Fighting the normal draugr is rather rote hack-and-slash as it should be, but the shout- and magic-using ones can really give you a run for your money. Animal, on their part, are, well, animals. Except for the mammoths and toughest bears, they are pushovers in higher levels, which is just fine. NPC enemies (warriors, bandits etc.) for their part are quite entertaining to fight. Some tactics are actually needed to win, if there are more than one or two of them. Also, I like sniping duels with enemy archers.

Then, the gripes. They are actually few and far between. The main one is that when using swords there should have been more moves other than just hacking away. I mean, how hard it could have been to implement stabbing, e.g. as a power attack? Even Daggerfall and Morrowind had that! It feels rather weird when you start to slash with a sword and a killcam kicks in showing the character stabbing the enemy.

As a summary, Skyrim's combat does what it needs to do very well. Yeah, cool combat moves and attack combos could have been nice, but I personally don't miss them at all, since I hate complicated combos in games. I'd rather watch them in killcams than curse in frustration after failing a split-second ten-button mash for the umpteenth time just to execute a basic combat move.

Overall grade with AI modded 9/10. Vanilla maybe 7 or 8/10.

Magic:

Spoiler:

This is actually the first ES game where I've used magic in any great degree, so I can't compare. Still, I can say off the bat that removing spellmaking isn't a good thing. The usefulness of such a feature is self-evident, but there's also a visual side to it. With Skyrim's rather spectacular graphical spell effects, e.g. a spell that both burned and freezed at the same time would look really terrifying. I mean, can you imagine a gleaming storm, that left a path of both ice and charred ashes, flying towards the hapless enemies? Or, say, an icy spear whose surface crackled with purple lightning?

Otherwise, Destruction feels a bit underpowered, especially without the perks. Dragon fights are a pain in the ass with any spells lower than expert level when compared to even low-level archer. Runes are a nice touch, though. In combination with sneaking and Illusion magic they can make for quite fun tricks (e.g. first frenzy the enemies from the shadows, then while they duke it out set a rune on a floor, then reveal yourself to the survivors and let them run into the rune).

Illusion is actually very fun and useful in many, many situations. This school, especially Frenzy, became fast the favourite of my half-mage character. I mean, how couldn't one like a magic school that lets you walk away from hopeless fights by calming enemies and then making them kill each other by frenzying them, then mopping up the survivors when they are running away because of a fear spell? The only thing to complain about the school is how ineffective the spells become after level 12 or so without investing heavily into Illusion perks, which in turn means quite a bit of grinding so that the requirements for the perks are met. So, best to hotkey your Muffle spell.

About the other schools I have no opinion since I haven't used them save the basic light spells and the starter healing spell.

Based on my limited experience, magic gets the grade 8/10 from me.

Crafting:

Spoiler:

Smithing is hugely useful, but implemented in a rather bland way. Still, it does what it intends to do so I have no complaints.

Enchanting is actually rather fun, but more limited than in, say, Oblivion. E.g. you can't anymore make a sword that does poison damage over 10 seconds, it's all insta-effect. Also, I can see the logic behind limiting putting two effects into an item to skill level 100, but by the time you reach that you already have all the enchanted gear you could hope for. Still, an useful skill, even only with the basic strength perks.

Alchemy is both fun and frustrating, as strange as it sounds. Fun, because messing around with different ingredient combinations to discover the effects feels rather like you really were a starting alchemist learning your trade the hard way by experimenting. Also, this way you can discover great potion recipes by accident (e.g. invisibility with health regeneration for quick getaways). But, the fact that potion strength scales so little with skill level but only gets major increases by perks is rather frustrating. Also, WTF it's with not being able to name your potions? That should be a no-brainer!

Overall, crafting is useful and works well enough, even if it's quite simplistic sometimes. 7,5/10

Writing and dialogue:

Spoiler:

This is all over the place in Skyrim, when compared to previous games. In Daggerfall the plot and writing were barely there and the later stages of the MQ hardly made any sense. But then, the game really didn't much to make you to pay any heed to the ”plot”. Exploration and fooling around was the name of the game. Morrowind had a more defined plot line and the writing was overall good, but terribly boring and long-winded at places. There were some real gems in side quests, but most of them were rather run-of-the-mill.

Oblivion was even more focused in its main plot and imparted some much-needed feel of urgency to it. There were also, like in Morrowind, a few convenient points to leave the MQ be for a while and just go do whatever. Side quest content was interesting and the plots of the factions were enjoyable. Still, there was much routine "fetch item Y from place X" stuff, with which I'm actually quite okay. There were some bloopers in the writing, especially the NPC dialogue (both to PC and with each other) was sometimes embarrassingly forced-sounding, but overall the quality was good enough.

Skyrim is in this regard much more uneven. Dialogue is mostly very good, and the voice acting makes Oblivions' decent one to pale in comparison. This time around Bethesda hit a good medium between Morrowind's often tiring walls of text and Oblivion's rather bare-bones exposition. Also, even the worst voice actor's aren't as horrible as Oblivion's were at their worst (the hyper-active elf males in Oblivion come to mind).

But when it comes to quests, the writing veers between good and absolutely stinking. The Main Quest is good, as it imparts some sense of danger and urgency to the proceedings. After all, dragons are flying everywhere and the Big Bad Dragon intends to eat the whole world if given half a chance. Story-wise, it's quite hard to ignore that (the game mechanics not wholly backing this up is another matter). Also, one meets some memorable characters during the main plot, especially Paarthurnax and the Greybeards being my personal favourites. There's this feel of epic to all of it, and the quests are varied enough to keep one's interest alive. So, no major complaints there.

Practically the only thing I missed were some natural "resting points" in the story, so that just going exploring and side-questing around would feel more justified. This could have been corrected with a few minor edits to dialogue. For instance, Delphine might well have told you that arranging the invitation to the Embassy party is difficult and might take a long time, so the character should check back in some time to see if it's arranged.

Many of the sidequests are nice, but rather forgettable. There's one shining exception, though: A Night To Remember. One can see the guy who wrote it really had fun. The other Daedric quests I have completed (Meridia, Peryite, Molag Bal, Azura, Namira) were quite interesting, too. Molag Bal's quest I disliked, but that is because I don't really like playing as so evil a character. I completed it only because I was hoping there was a way to double-cross Molag Bal, like there's a way to wreck Namira's cannibal party. But at least in Molag's quest there's the spooky start in the haunted house, which was a genuinely startling sequence.

Other interesting sidequests that warrant a comment were The Forsworn Conspiracy and Blood on the Ice. I liked pretending to be a investigator, and those quests have some nice twists. Seeing the Butcher's secret room in Hjerim was quite a shock in the first time. I would have liked to see, however, a lot less handholding and more real deducting needed. In fact, many of the quests would have benefited from having more subtlety.

Oh, and then there's Missing in Action, which I always complete with every character. Fralia's voice acting portrays a mother's worry so convincingly that it's always moving. Also, there are multiple ways to complete the quest, including a non-violent one (if you belong to the Imperial Legion). Lastly, the simple poetry in Thorald's message to his mother is touching. All in all, it's emotionally engaging, and isn't that the mark of a good quest?

For examples of bad writing in Skyrim, see Thieves' Guild as the main exhibit in the Factions section below. For less egregious examples, some of the dialogue is needlessly repetitive, and some characters are very ham-fistedly handled. For example, it's painfully obvious how much the writers want to rub in the audience's face how horrible, horrible person Rolff Stone-Fist is.

On the other side, we have e.g. Brunwulf Free-Winter, who (probably) unintentionally is portrayed as quite a hypocrite. I mean, for all the anti-war bull he spouts, he seems to have no problems asking the player doing some killing for him (too chicken to do it yourself, Brunwulf?) nor has he any problem letting others bleed and die in battlefield so that he can become a Jarl without lifting a finger himself.

At least this time we haven't Oblivion's ludicrously stupid dialogue about ”rich melting pots of cultures” (Ita Rienus about the disease- and crime-infested dump that's called Bravil) and such. Still, a lighter touch when handling themes like racism would be much less jarring. Now Bethesda seems to think its audience is so stupid it can't draw its own conclusions.

There are a few clever touches to the subtler direction, however. Books like The Bear of Markarth, The Madmen of the Reach and Scourge of The Gray Quarter all can be read as pure propaganda or the plain truth or anything in between, depending how the player wants to see things. Also, the book Ahzirr Traajijazeri is an interesting one in how it practically admits the Renrijra Krin will rather destroy the Leyawiin lands than let anyone else enjoy them. So, in the end it isn't about the people or anything else but power. This also casts Madanach and the Forsworn in a new light.

About Madanach then, I personally think he is one of the better-written characters. When I listen to him, I only see and hear a hate-filled, power-hungry terrorist who masks his true self behind good-sounding ideals. He reminds me too much of communist guerrillas of the Cold War era, that I could feel any sympathy towards him. Someone else, on the other hand, could take his words at face value, and neither interpretation could be conclusively proved as objectively true. More of this and less caricatures like Rolff or Brunwulf, and I'd be a happy man.

Overall, the writing is uneven but in the main does its job.

Rating for writing and dialogue (without considering the factions): 7,5/10

The Factions

Spoiler:

The factions are a mixed bunch. Nearly all of them suffer from one fatal flaw, however: They give not nearly enough exposition about the why's and wherefores. It's the same formula in each, save in DB: A rote mission or two and then you're thrown into some hugely important conflict without any preparation or sufficient explanation.

The Companions is the second best written faction IMO, coming only after the Dark Brotherhood. Kodlak White-Mane is a memorable character, and at least for me his death had a great emotional impact. Besides, when you join your ego isn't stroked as blatantly as in, say, the College ("You'll be a superb addition to the College" after casting one single noob spell). At least in the Companions you have to earn your spurs, even though that process ends up being very short and abrupt.

The Companions' plot is straightforward, so at least it doesn't fall into any major pitfalls and keeps going. It might make a good, simple warrior story if a few basic things were explained: Who exactly are the Silver Hand? How have they spied out the Circle being werewolves and why they make them such a priority target? Why should I, as the player, want to kill people who basically seem only to want to rid Skyrim of bloodthirsty monsters? Skjor's death isn't nearly enough motivation for this last one: The man has been nothing but rude towards the PC and was stupid enough to charge alone into the Silver Hand hideout. Basically, he asked for it.

There are some epic moments, however, that save this questline in my eyes: Kodlak's funeral was very moving, and the scene of Eorlund Grey-Mane striding into the Underforge brandishing the Wuuthrad while giving his speech gave some serious Viking saga vibes to the whole thing.

------

The College of Winterhold can be summed up like this: Deus ex machina. The first lesson was interesting and set the characters up nicely, and the Saarthal excavation was promising... Until the Psijic Monk came out of nowhere blabbing about doom and gloom. What the hell, dude? I'm just a new student who can barely keep a puny ward up long enough to complete Tolfdir's first lesson! Why are you pestering me, instead of taking your business straight to the Arch-Mage?

From this point onwards, I couldn't really feel much emotional attachment to the questline. That's because outside of Main Quests, where it's rather a given, I hate "the Chosen One" trope. I mean, it's just ridiculous that one would be the fated hero of every single group and place in the whole country and age. Why can't some other guy have the spotlight for a change?

The whole questline felt very rushed, since the plot forcibly drags you from one point to the next without pausing the action for any length of time. There were some good moments, though. For instance, the Labyrinthian sequence where you see the ghosts of Savos Aren's failed expedition. Unfortunately, even that had no proper build-up and as a consequence the whole things just kind of was there. During the quest I was like ”Oh, so Savos Aren had a tragic misadventure as a youth. How sad. But how did this tie with the Eye of Magnus or, well, anything?”

Basically, without some cool locations and sequences, the questline would be yawnworthy.

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Then, the Thieves' Guild. It was a huge disappointment and, quite frankly, a stinking turd of awful writing. There are at least two long articles online describing how practically nothing of it makes any sense, so suffice it to say those articles are spot on. One could drive a truck followed by a train loaded with a battalion of tanks through the plot holes.

It's a shame, really, since the guild had much promise. As much as I liked Oblivion's Thieves Guild's Robin Hood-esque antics, it was refreshing to see Skyrim's guild was so blatantly thuggish and business-like. I enjoyed, for instance, the Goldenglow mission greatly. If there had been more quests like that without tying it instantly to a larger plot, that would have been swell. But as it was, the Goldenglow quest was the point where the plotline took a complete nosedive.

There were some good characters like Brynjolf and Karliah. But their potential was completely wasted on the idiotic plot. Speaking of which, the worst thing is that the basic plot of betrayal and old secrets resurfacing could work and could well be an engaging tour of sneaking and thieving, if it had been handled with any level of basic logic or skill. There were some engaging moments, like the final showdown with Mercer, but not nearly enough to redeem the quest-line.

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Last but not least comes the Dark Brotherhood. This was the best-written guild in the game, at least from a technical standpoint. The themes and action were consistent throughout, unlike in the Thieves' Guild, and the background was sufficiently explained and the more important happenings put into a context, unlike in the College of Winterhold. Also, the characters were quite interesting and enjoyable to chat with.

DB's plot was well constructed, having proper start, middle and ending with a few ”resting points” during which to complete the smaller contracts. There could have been more imaginative ways to do the murders to spice the things up, but all in all it was adequate and enjoyable. I also liked the way how the questline moved from smaller contracts to the ultimate climax of killing the Emperor. Unlike in other factions, there was a genuine sense of progression. Of course, there was the whole Chosen One thing again, but it felt much more natural this time, because it wasn't instantly thrown against your face á la the College, but at first only hinted at and then revealed at an appropriate point.

There were, of course, some faults. Astrid's betrayal was rather awkwardly handled and motivated, but it worked barely well enough not to destroy the suspension of disbelief. Also, the destroying of the Falkreath Sanctuary was a flashy and exciting sequence, but ultimately it was only a variation of Oblivion's Purification. Basically, it seems it was put into the plot just for the sake of having a ”shocking” twist.

And, as a personal gripe, the wrong persons survived. I have no problem with Nazir, but I'd rather had anyone else than Babette survive. She's the most boring of all the Brotherhood members and something of a wasted potential. I mean, she acts too much like a child for being a 300-year-old vampire. It could have been very creepy and shocking if they had written some seriously dark and mature-sounding dialogue coming from the mouth of a seeming child. Aventus Aretino was disturbing enough, but they could have upped that ante with Babette.

Thematically, I love how Bethesda didn't sugarcoat the insanity and evil surrounding the Brotherhood. In fact, the very first client you get to meet is both. I mean, if you listen to Muiri it's evident she is a petty, vengeful monster who wants others to die for her own mistake of trusting the wrong man. Not very sane, if you ask me. And of course, it goes without saying that hiring hitmen isn't exactly a moral thing to do.

Also, the fact that the smaller contracts don't really have any context or reasons explained emphasizes the fact that the player character is nothing but a tool, killing without conscience. It doesn't really matter if the target is a vampire or a feeble beggar. It's just a business matter, albeit a very ugly one. Also, the cruel and cynical things the player character can say to their victims are even more spot on than in Oblivion. Basically, none of the player character's actions can be justified by any normal or sane moral standard. The Emperor is practically the only exception, and that only if one is a Stormcloak or Thalmor sympathizer.

This same amorality and cynicism extends even to the Brotherhood's spiritual views. That is, they worship a being that cares nothing for their well-being and revels in people's misery. That's not exactly the spiritual path a sane person with a conscience would choose. Also, there's the whole hypocrisy of the concept of the Brotherhood as a family. In Oblivion this was more evident, when the player killed the whole group touted as his ”family” for mere suspicion. But in Skyrim it's still present, too. For all of her talk about ”family”, Astrid doesn't think twice for trying to get the player character killed. There's hardly any discussion or attempts to sway the character through persuasion, just barking orders first and then, an outright betrayal. I have no doubts Astrid would do the same to anyone in the Sanctuary (save maybe Arnbjorn) if they displeased her.

This thematics topic could be discussed further, but as a summary it can be said that the Dark Brotherhood is a good glimpse on the dark side. Personally, I had to force myself to do some of the quests (Narfi was the worst, followed by Nilsine). After the questline proper ended, and especially after seeing the torture victims in Dawnstar Sanctuary, I felt so dirty and exhausted by all the evil and ugliness that I couldn't do Night Mother's quests but shelved the whole character and started another. The questline had been interesting, but I sort of regretted completing it anyway. The frightening thing was that I had actually to an extent enjoyed choosing the most cynical dialogue options and planning how to off the victims. I'm not sure I want to do the questline with any character again.

But that's a mark of good writing, since at least it got an emotional response from me and got me thinking. That can't be said about the College or the Thieves' Guild. One can only wish they engaged the player half as much as the Dark Brotherhood.

Overall, the ratings for Skyrim's Guild's: Thieves' Guild 3/10, College of Winterhold 6/10, Companions 8/10, Dark Brotherhood 8,5/10. (Bard's College not given a grade as it's not even really a guild.)

Attributes, Skills, Leveling and Character Creation

Spoiler:

At first, when I heard how different the whole skill and attribute system was in Skyrim compared to the previous games, I was sure I would dislike the system. However, it actually works quite well and now I like it at least as much as the previous ones. For one thing, the new system eliminates the need to grind non-needed skills to get that +5 modifier. Also, there's no more need for some unintuitive strategies like putting the least-used skills as the class skills (this one I never used, personally, but have seen it discussed many times). Then, it is more simple that all skills now count towards leveling. With birthsigns this can be controlled enough to avoid issues with level-scaling. Of course, simpler means less space for customization, but compared to the hassle of efficient leveling it's not a bad thing.

The perk system is also quite good. Some of the character customization that came with the more numerous skills of previous games is covered by perks, which makes having less skills overall not that bad. Also, some of the perks are so good it gives an incentive to try and use actively that skill to meet the requirement. It's not all nice and good, however. The dark side of the system is that e.g. Alchemy is rather useless without investing multiple perks. With some skills the cost of points to get any reasonable effectiveness is so high it becomes questionable if it's worth bothering.

When it comes to character creation, the removal of classes altogether was a bad idea. As dzio has pointed out in another thread, classes aren't just numbers but a way to express the character's backstory through game mechanics. Now it's like the new character has done absolutely nothing, or conversely only dabbled in everything, before the game's start. Basically, the character isn't even a jack but a noob of all trades. A better system would have been to set all skills to 5 at start, then apply racial bonuses, then let the player choose, say, four to six skills that get a +15 bonus. The end result would be functionally the same than old classes without breaking the new system.

Then, we have the level-scaling. This is another feature I thought I would hate after playing Oblivion and seeing the ridiculous side effects of it. But yet again I was pleasantly surprised and unlike in Oblivion, I haven't still used a mod like Oblivion Unleveled and won't. That's because the level scaling in Skyrim is subtler. It is still possible to make your character weak by leveling the wrong skills, but this means e.g. rather extreme spamming of crafting skills at low levels. With normal play, there's a sense of one's character becoming stronger, without wholly abandoning the challenge of the fights. The loot scaling, for its part, should be less formulaic IMO, with a chance to get high-level items at low levels and conversely, a chance to find complete trash in a boss-chest at high levels. Otherwise it's fine.

Grade for mechanics pertaining to leveling and skills: 8,5/10.

Exploration:

Spoiler:

Unlike many, I actually find exploration in Skyrim even more fun than in Morrowind. The landscape isn't a relentlessly gray wasteland like half of Vvardenfell was. Of course, there are many barren snowy/glaciated areas, but I'll take those any day over the Ashlands. And that's a relatively small part of Skyrim, anyway.

Compared to Oblivion, I like how smoothly the different areas transition from one another. In Oblivion it often seemed that when you took one step in the wrong direction, you suddenly were in a completely different landscape (e.g. how abruptly the Great Forest changed into the Colovian Highlands). But when e.g. traveling from Falkreath to the Reach, one doesn't really notice the change until well into the latter region.

Also, I find the ”radar” in the compass actually encourages me to explore. In Morrowind I tended to make a beeline for my objective and take as few detours as I could. In Skyrim, however, the place markers in the compass often make me think like: ”Oh, there's a mine/grove/a landmark nearby. Why don't I go and take a quick look?” The quick look sometimes changes into a very long, and enjoyable detour, during which I can even find new quests or at the very least beautiful locations.

Speaking of locations, they are another step up from Oblivion. There are many very beautiful and interesting spots in Skyrim, often hidden away in the folds of the mountainous terrain. That means even reaching them can a mini-adventure in itself. Also, there are definitely more hand-placed treasures and secrets than in Oblivion. I've played 250+ hours of this game and am still finding things I've not seen before.

All in all, exploration in Skyrim is very fun, except in the most bleak areas. Overall grade 9/10.

Music:

Spoiler:

The music in Skyrim is simply amazing. I enjoyed Jeremy Soule's work in Morrowind and Oblivion greatly, but in Skyrim he outdid himself. As I love Richard Wagner's music, I was delighted to hear definite echoes of e.g. Rheingold and Parsifal in the themes. That is not to say Soule was simply aping Wagner, far from it actually. While he takes some influences from Wagner and perhaps also Edvard Grieg, he certainly has a distinct style of his own. I especially love how he uses the orchestration to set the mood; in calmer moments the strings and woodwind instruments take the lead, while the brass is saved for combat and dramatic moments. The music also enhances the emotional experience of the game greatly. For instance, while dragon fights can be rather routine after a while, they certainly feel epic with One They Fear blaring in the background. While perhaps not on the par with the great musical geniuses of the 19th century, Soule is certainly a gifted composer and I enjoy listening his game music even on its own.

So, the grade for the music is perfect 10/10.

Summary: As any good game, Skyrim is more than a sum of its parts. Taken one by one, many of its features aren't that good. Still, what matters is how those features play together. So my final verdict isn't an average of the points above, but rather an estimate of the enjoyment I derive from the game. Taken as a whole, Skyrim is one of the best games I've played. It has a great, epic atmosphere I enjoy tremendously and its gameplay works very well in the main. There are, however, problems with the game that sometimes annoy me or take awayfrom the immersion. Therefore, I'll give the game 9/10.

PS: Sorry for the gigantic review, but the more I wrote the more I found that warranted commenting.

[Jun Satou]

All I remember is falling of my chair laughing hysterically when Hadvar said "Who are you?" and I scrolled up to highlight a wide-eyed Argonian xD

Then I never forgot the crashes and the lagging. (I didn't download/install the patches until a quite a few months in to keep exploits e.t.c.)

[Jeelius-Tei]

When I first started playing Skyrim, I was amazed with all the content it had. The animals, the food, the weapons, and the world. It was my first RPG. I played Skyrim for months, but one day I decided to try Oblivion. I found Oblivion to have more depth than Skyrim, despite being 6 years older. However, I enjoy both games equally, although I do like Cyrodiil better than Skyrim.

[Da_BossMaN69]

My review may be seen by some as slightly offensive, as I will try to not only give my opinion but also try and counter some of the criticisms I've seen so far, so if at any point you think Im making a vague reference to your post and trying to confront you or something along those lines I'm not simply giving my counter.

First, The best feature of this game to me is the combat which is leagues ahead of Oblivion, despite having only a few variations in gameplay. The aspects I like about it is that the game makes it feel so realistic.

When you draw your sword the camera bobs down for a second with your arm, as it does with every swing, you can almost feel every hit. And when you're staggered yourself you dont simply lose control of your character.

The camera shakes wildly but you cant still land hits as you tumble downward.

Enemies respond much more realistically to your hits they dont simply shrug off stabs as nothing. They also have tells this time around allowing smart players those moments to land blows without being hit themselves, provided they can dodge these attacks.

The addition of sprint is a godsend as it not only helps for travel but as for combat as you can weave past enemies and pop up right behind them.

And the killcams are great, always makes my kills worth it, rather than them simply tumble to the ground like a ragdoll you can instead stick them with your bigstick or bash them in with your hammer or even your shield.

Archery is much better this time around as I can actually pick off enemies at a distance with little to any repercussion.

Mounted combat is finally here after a while and while many despise it I welcome its addition. Its gratifying to land hits on horseback, If your patient enough you can kill nearly anything on horseback. NPCs are left to tour devices as very rarely can they counter you.

Archers and mages are easy to take down as a warrior on horseback as they cant land a blow.

My only regret with it is how once Beth decided to give us this combat they forgot the armor that goes with it. Horses are too fragile sometimes.

Magic has been constantly critiqued and I dont know why when its leagues ahead of its predecessor.

Sure Oblivion and Morrowind may have had more spells but how many of them did you use or need. Burden for example was one such spell, simply put it was a poor mans paralysis, do you really miss it?

Mysticism is another example, sure while the actual school is gone, so what? None of its more useful spells are gone. Soul trap, telekinesis, spell absorption, detect life is all still there simply given to different schools.

They made destruction much better in this game, sure again you claim theres less spells but because of that each spell is more unique. What they did in the previous games was keep the same spell but simply made it "stronger" with each level.

The equivalent to this would be only have iron weapons visually whose only difference is stat wise. So a daedric sword and iron sword would look the same.

They even stepped it above that as most spells function differently. Not only do they do damage but have additional effects. Compare the adept spells fireball is an explosion, chain lightning actually bounces of enemies, and ice storm is a large wave of frost.

They're purpose is crowd control. You wouldnt use incinerate on large compact groups as its waste magicka and hit only 1 enemy.

Plus with the addition of mage armor it renders bound armor useless and gives mage defense, on top of that with wards you can now have a magic shield

[K Candyman]

My first impression was good. I like the game, the storyline, almost everything is great!!:D:D:D.
Also archery in Skyrim is much better and more easy!
I saw al lot of comment on magic but for I never use this I am not the one to comment on this

But on some points you have more freedom in Oblivion like the atributes and class system you are less bound to the races skills(At least in TES IV you could create costum classes and chosse your own major abilities, making the chosen race less crucial for a playstyle).

Also I miss the short and long swords, and a few light armor sets(chainmail, mithrill for example), And the prursuading system of oblivion is something i miss, It just gave barter with someone way more fun!

[ashleyco]

Bethesda continues to amaze.

[lmstearn]

Vanilla Skyrim & Vanilla Oblivion run very well. Skyrim is much better textured.
(But, of course, I do call them "Vanilla" with the Unofficial patches installed.)

Modded Skyrim runs better than the modded Oblivion.

And Skyrim is just that tad bigger than Cyrodiil, don't you think?

2nd edit:
Nord85, an excellent review.

The only disappointment with Skyrim was that there was nothing to match the Imperial City.

Most of the dungeons are "linear" in that there is only one start point and one end point. No improvement design-wise to the dungeons of Oblivion.

And the books, the books. They just chucked in Oblivion's books for good measure. No problem with that, really, except, given the considerable timescale, the condition.of the covers and pages of the older Oblivion books are expected to be in a more dilapidated condition. "Reprint" info on the title page with dates etc, or "compilation" issues could ameliorate.
And older issues on the higher shelves, newer on the lower.

And... no Black Horse Courier in Skyrim. News is not such a big issue.

And lastly, (I am really the last to say this) both lack Celeb rubbish. Why cant one pick up a rag with pages splashed with Ulfric's designer Underpants or Elisif's new tiara etc..
Something to get annoyed about, and go kill something.

[Nord85]

Now that I've bought Skyrim Legendary Edition and played through all the expansions, I might as well review them. First I'll take a look at Hearthfire, then Dragonborn. Dawnguard I'll review last, since I completed it with a magic-using character and so didn't really play with the new toys provided by the DLC. I'll get to it when I have got some experience with the crossbows and other gear with a new character. So, here goes:

Hearthfire:

Spoiler:

I liked this. After having to uninstall Build Your Own Home mod due to it making the game freeze more, I missed the modular home building that mod provided. Hearthfire gives that, and in a grander style to boot.

The house is big, and the different room options give a good opportunity to make the home suit different needs. Especially the greenhouse and the library became fast favourites for my book-collecting, potion-concocting mage character. Also, at least Lakeview Manor which I built is situated in a beautiful spot with a good view.

Only, I wish there were more architectural styles to choose from. The pseudo-Viking hall style looks good, but for e.g. an Imperial it would make more sense to build something resembling the houses in Chorrol. I'm not saying all the different races' styles should be included, but two or three available basic styles would be nice. At least there should be a few different colour schemes available for the interior. It wouldn't even need to be flashy, but something like choosing between mahogany, the current (rather bland) whitish wood and, say, chestnut. This, however, is a rather small complaint, and what we have certainly looks good enough and suits the setting well.

When it comes to the building process, it's nice how you have to actually work for it. Collecting all that iron and clay and what have you and making all those hinges and other supplies was tedious, sure. But after all that was done and I walked into my brand new mansion, I was quite proud of it. It felt more like a real home for my character than the ready-bought houses like Breezehome. On the other hand, it's also nice Bethesda provided a short-cut, as in, you can buy furnishings via the steward. I, personally, built maybe 90% of the house and furnishings from the ground up, then got bored of spending that much time at the forge and bought the rest via my trusty steward Faendal.

And the fun doesn't even stop when the house is complete. Houseowners have their share of troubles, as I discovered when being attacked by a bunch of bandits on my doorstep. Also, there have been wolves and a bear I have had to get rid of. Not to mention the altar down by the lake, which seems to attract ever new necromancers no matter how many I kill. These kinds of diversions give some spice to the DLC, and seem to be rare enough not to be annoying.

When it comes to the other features, adopting kids and such sounds like fun, if you're so inclined. Personally, I find Skyrim's marriage and family system both a bit cheesy and underwhelming, so I haven't done that. But at least the option is there, and having more things to do is always good. Baking and new cooking recipes give some rolepalying opportunities, too, which is a nice thing. Basically the only thing I'm missing is the ability to have housepets on your own. I don't want adopt kids, but I'd like to take a stray dog, or maybe a tame fox, and have it around the house.

Final verdict: A good addition to the game, but can be a bit bland. Then again, one really shouldn't expect this kind of simple house DLC be a mind-blowing experience. 7,5/10.

[PoeticallyCrippled]

It is christmas, and I am totally high on sugar, since Chocolate, Fazer, Panda and Milka.

In my high, I have decided - against my better judgement - to share my superior thoughts and opinions about Skyrim, and about the Elder Scrolls in general.

First and foremost; It is Christmas, and I dont mean to be mean, cruel, judgemental or in anyway impolite. I just don't like Skyrim,
or the casual direction games are going in. What follows are my thoughts about the problems of skyrim, though I am well aware they aren't
really problems of Skyrim; they are my problems, since it seems some people actually like skyrim. Well, there nothing wrong about love, but
at least think about the stuff I bring up. All i want is that there would be some games that actually made sense, and would feel
like they were a real, complicated, immersive world.

Also, I know that skyrim is already a little old, but I haven't felt like writing this before. So here it Goes.


1) Leveling up; I hate the Skyrim system

Why not make the races really different and distinct? Ever since morrowind, I have hoped that they would
really make it matter what race you choose, by making them have different maximum stats. Seriously,
no bosmer can ever be as strong as the strongest orc.

I know it is kind of wrong to talk about the differences between races in the world we live in, but I doubt anyone would get particularly angry
if the Altmer were more Intelligent (in an arcane way, since Intelligence kind of only measures magical talent in the Elder scrolls games)
than any human race. Though I still would make the Redguards have the same intelligence stats as the Imperials, only to avoid that
argument that maybe I think maybe some races are more stupid than others in real life too.

Oh, but the Nords could definately have a slightly lower max. intelligence, (for example, 90, when compared to imperial 100), since generations
of detesting magick would probably do that. And because I doubt we scandinavians would be particularly insulted by that.

The following table is what I figured what the maximums for attributes shoudl be for all races.

I divided them into groups to make it easier to compare the races to other races similar to them. Take note that the table doesn't show properly,
something to do with something, sorry about that.

Strength Agility Speed IntelligenceEndurance Willpower Personality Luck
Altmer 80 90 100 140 80 120 100 100
Bosmer 75 130 120 100 75 100 100 100
Dunmer 100 100 110 100 100 100 90 100

Orsimer 140 75 90 75 140 90 90 100

Breton 80 100 90 120 90 120 100 100
Imperial 100 100 100 100 100 100 120 100
Nord 120 90 100 85 125 90 90 100
Redguard 110 110 110 80 110 80 100 100

Argonian 90 110 90 120 100 110 75 100
Khajit 105 130 130 80 95 80 80 100

Take note that not all of the races have the same combined value when all the max. attributes are combined: Balance between races is for sissies,
and the actual racial abilities also affect it. For example, In my mind, the Altmer will always have a weakness for elemental magic, like they had in
Morrowind.

However, since the changes in attributes don't correlate with anything in linear fashion, the table above is only an example, and really only
shows what I thought the absolute relations of values between races should be.

Despite what I said earlier, I actually made the human races distinct form each other, however, dont be offended by that; in this case,
intelligence and willpower are only values related to competence in magic and the innate pool of Magicka.

Also, I have taken severe artistical freedoms in governing those max. stats. and those do not represent the lore, spirit or soul
of the elder scrolls. Neither will I explain them, since it would take a ridiculous length (I have a slight tendency to ramble on),
but I still recommend you to think how do you see the races of the elder scrolls.

But I do explain what I think attributes mean, in short:

Strength is strength. A rather obvious attribute,really. Next please.

Agility. The ability to jump around looking fancy and kewl, much like in gymnastics. A general co-ordinational ability and so on.

Speed. Movement speed, BUT includes the ability to move faste in combat, i.e. fast people swing swords faster, and duck, evade and do
ukemi's faster and better.

Intelligence. The arcane pool of magicka AND the innate ability to learn magick, which means that high intelligence => faster
magic skills learning rate.

Endurance. The amount of physical punishment you can take; also severely affects your fatique. Basically means that with high endurance, you can keep
on going after taking the wound, whereas a weakling would collapse from one warhammerblow to the forehead.

Willpower. How fast ones Magicka regenerates; with high willpower it is also possible to occasionally resist spells.

Personality. This is the most difficult one to judge the meaning of; And so I say; this value doesnt really mean anything, it is
just a game mechanical value. It is so low with argonians and Khajit, because their ways and culture are so different from others, as is their
way of thinking, that it is hard for them to relate to others and to understand them, which affects their communication abilities.

Fatigue; Determined mostly by your Endurance, but also by your strength, willpower, agility and speed, in relation to each other the ratios are
6:4:2:1:1.

Helth: Determined by Endurance. As it Should be.

Magicka. Determined by Intelligence, Race, and Sign. Though I dont demand Signs back, the World was a better place when we had them.


2) How to level up?

Some have said that the leveling system wasnt very good in oblivion or in morrowind, where one had to carefully plan
their level to maximize the benefits. I never minded that, but you know how to make leveling dynamic, easy and
plan-free? By making the Attributes increase as you use/train skills. Not at the same rate, but for example three Long Blade increases
also increase the Strength by one point. And, naturally, different races increase some attributes faster than others, as it is easy for a
orc or a nord to bulk up strength, but they are also about as agile as a hunch-backed Ogrim.

The skills might not only level up one attribute; after all, swinging your sword also takes speed in combat, since you want to swing, and move,
faster than your opponents, so some combat skills (blunt, blade) could also occasionally increase your speed, and agility. I'm not going
to go through the whole system here (I actually have developed a whole leveling up system for this), but I think everyone should atleast
give this kind of leveling some thought.

Also, I think skills should increase faster the more experience you have in that field.. For example if my blade is already 90,
I should learn other weapon skills more easily, as I already have much combat experience. As in real life, if you already know
one martial art (say, Karate), learning the other (Taekwon-do) is much easier, even if they dont have that much in common. This should also affect
training prices.

Which brings us to....

3) Training 5 times per level.

Now, seriously. I loved the way how I could play a coward in morrowind. I would only do fetch quests and some very easy combat quests until I was
level 14 or 15. Before that, I just spent every drake I earned to Training. Because thats what I would do in real life;
train in controlled enviroment, and then go fight the undead, and the daedra, and the other evil that plague the land.

The training cap, is stupid, moronic, retarded and completely unnecessary. If one doesnt want to train, he doesnt have to, but if I want to train,
why on earth are you stopping me?

And, now that we are talking about training, why do people in skyrim only offer training in one skill? I dont expect everything to be like in
Morrowind, but the three-skill system was pretty good in that one. I dont think it should be hard to find trainers, especially in perilous times
I would expect that the normal people of Skyrim would be getting some training, and there would be skill trainers everywhere.

4) The world gets tougher as you do

I dont like it when the world scales up as I level up; that should not happen. I think the world should be set, and the player character could have
some sort of skill to sense the danger ahead, or in some dungeon. In Skyrim, this could be a spell, or an ability of the Dragons, how they could
smell the threats others posed to them, and as such could avoid encounters they could not win. This way, there would be a clear motivation
for the Drangonborn to get stronger.

I know that the Elder scrolls have pretty much always (atleast since III) been leveled, but I think the direction is wrong; after morrowind, we should
have gotten games where the world scaled up less as we gained levels. Instead we got oblivion. I cried for months.

5) Spells

No teleportation, or levitation? It is clear that skyrim is no place for wizards; it is a place of casual fun.
Which is clearly what the gaming industry in general is going for, and Bethesda as well.

First of all, this is exactly the game ot include levitation, because then you could chase the dragons in their own element.
It can naturally be argued that it would be dangerous, possibly fatal, but it would definately bring another option for those dragon fights.

And teleportation spells; These would make traveling way faster, even with fast travel, though I would abandon fast travel completely.

Add Divine intervention, and Mark and Recall. Maybe a few different marks, so you could mark, say three places, depending on you MYSTICISM skill

Oh, and bring that back. Mysticism would also be the school to go to in the case of the sense-danger I talked about earlier.

Also, if were leaving fast travel off my game, there could be other fast ways to travel. For example, sleds, or skis;

I so wished I could get some skis in skyrim and go around on those. I also wished for high walls of snow, and real difficulties of the north,
that i am very familiar with (I live in Finland). But no. There are no walls of snow; or snow nearly at all for that matter.
There is on slippery ice, or anything else that would make it difficult to travel in Skyrim, which is just sad and pathetic.

And, spell failures, i want those too. It was really motivating to increase the magic skills in morrowind, not only to get better spells, but also
to actually succeed in any spells, since even the simplest spells failed with low fatique until your skill was high enough.

Although, I do confess that the skyrim system for wielding spells in hands is great. Though I also think that with higher skill levels I should be able to
cast some spells even tohugh I'm carrying something else in both of my hands.

Also, no spellmaking? One of the most fun aspects of the game, gone? I know that some effects have been a bit problematic in previous games,
like Drain life for 1 sec, and so on, but nevertheless, I am extremely dissapointed that there is no spellmaking in Skyrim.


6) Shouts

This is how I would have made shouts;

After consuming the first soul, you would have been able to use only one shout, obviously. But when you consumed
more souls, you would have more shouts at your disposal, and if you wished, you could use them right after another, to an extent.
This would show how the Dragonborns voice-based abilities enhanced as he slayed more dragons. For example, using shouts in fast succesion
would require more and more souls like this; 1 soul 1 shout, next shouts to be used in fast succesoin would require 2, 3, 4, 5 souls
So, after consuming in total 6 souls, you would be able to use 3 (1+2+3=6) in succession before having a sore throat and having to
drink some coco before you could scream some more.

This it might have been essential for you to only to be able to use the most powerful version of the shout as the first shout, and the following
ones would all be only first-word-level shouts.

Basically what I wanted is shout-songs. Because that would have been awesome. Maybe a little op as well, atleast later when you already had consumed
like a dozen souls, but by that time, you should have easier time agains common foes.


8) Fatigue;

I would also make the fatique system more like in Morrowind. I find it odd how in Skyrim you can run ten thousand miles without going out of breath.

In my mind, with rising level of atheleticity, you could run harder, faster and longer. Again, there could also be racial differences, I expect that the
Khajit could run better than other races, even with equal levels of skill.


9) Whiterun woodcutting

Where are all the woodcutters axes? I once runsacked whole whiterun without finding a single one, and ever since then, I have checked almost
every single living settlement, and only about half of them have woodcutters axes.

Obviously not a big complaint, but really friggin annoying to go around for hours looking for an axe.


10) Serving the Console players.

It would see that a lot of the features of the two previous games have been designed with the console players in mind, which I think is unfair,
especially since we PC players havent even gotten any changes in our game. The main example of this is the terrible user interface and inventory
system of Oblivion, which hasnt been much improved in Skyrim.

11) Actual hard terrain.

I mentioned this earlier, but I found, and find, it odd, that the Snow in skyrim doesnt affect travel in anyway. Have your ever walked in a
two- or three feet deep snow? I have, and it sucks. Fighting in snow like that would be even harder, and even more annoying.

With skyrim, I hoped for snow, actual, annoying snow, that makes travel way harder, and the tracing on animals much easier.

Besides, I really wanted to ski down a mountain while shooting passing trolls and bears full of arrows.


12) Architecture, and spring floods.

I find the architecture in skyrim is incredebly stupid at places. In a place like Skyrim, there would be serious floods of rivers and likes
in the spring when the snow starts to melt in the mountains. Meaning pelnty of structures in skyrim would be destroyed, goldenglow
estate for example. Also, I remember this one bridge, which is built right next to a small waterfall, so when the flood comes, the
bridge would be washed away, no matter that it is from stone.

The are also many other places where it is clear that the people designing this game havent had a real clue how people used to build
in places where it is cold. The houses of the poor people (i.e. most people) , for example, used to be small, tightly crambed, and thusly easy to heat
with a small fire or an oven. Though I do confess, that the Jarl Longhouses and other various houses are great, and actually somewhat historically accurate
to what people used to build, but the slums of Skyrim arent as well done. Although, again, I do confess architecture is hardly the main feature of Skyrim, and
the game doesnt really suffer that much from it. It just is something i find funny.


And lastly; Dont get me Wrong, skyrim also has good things about it, but I wont go into those, as it is in my nature only to focus on the bad.
Besides, I doubt I could offer any new compliments to Skyrim.

But this is how I would do it:

Two game options, you choose as you begin a new game; casual/simple or Complex

Casual/simple is as Skyrim is now, I dont care.

Complex is with the traditional attributes, and they increase as you level up (either by choice or as your skills increase). In complex,
the world is set, and doesnt tough up as you do, and so on. I know this requires some extra work, obviously, but this would also improve the
gaming experience of the people like me, who prefer the more complex and immersive world.

A little background info about myself:
I Love morrowind, despite its few flaws.
I desperately and absolutely hate, loathe and detest Oblivion.
I dont like Skyrim. I can enjoy it for short periods of time, but it is too flawed and dummed down for me to enjoy it.

I hope, that despite the Elders Scrolls online (ESO), there will one day be an Elder scrolls title I can enjoy even more
Than I enjoyed Morrowind. That will not be the ESO though, since I hate mmo:s, but Ill moan about that some other time.

Merry Christmas everybody.

[K Candyman]

Dude, you get that stat bonus at the beginning of the game, so if you like to be strong choose an orc, if you want to be swift and good with a bow choose a Bosmer.

well wen both are equal trained in the art of fighting they would be equally strong. accept the orc would be less nimble than the bosmer and the bosmer has lower health so stop whining about it. you don't HAVE to like every single TES game or it's system. and if it drives you so crazy go find a game with a perfect leveling system you can not find it i assure you.

Also bethesa is looking for the best way to make it that's why they change it to look how we react to it and than they costumize it to our preferance.

The problem in the roleplay is: if I want to be an Altmer because i think they look cool and they would be only good as mages as result of a lack on str. race based that would ruin my playstyle. with the system as it is now every race is playable and easy to adjust it to your own playstyle.

enjoy being high on sugar and best wishes for the new year!

[Lord Cluttermonkey]

Coming from Morrowind, I'ld say that Skyrim is superior on a technical level, offering more entertaiment, but isn't a game that provides anything beyond that.

My problem with it comes from the observation that most of it's story and factions are mostly there for the sake of entertaiment:
As a member of a faction, you don't get to experience any of it's social structure, it's ideals and the problems arising from them.
Instead, you experience a 'epic' questline, fighting monsters for the sake of 'epicness', resolving all kind of problems with brute force.
They all end in killing in something that the game displays as the source of all evil, followed by a ceremony crowning the player as the big hero he is, despite the only thing he has done was doing what he was told to do. There is no way to fail these quests.

While being entertaining, the game is not very educational or thoughtful. It mostly serves as an escape from reality, a thing that many videogames suffer from. That also means that it will be probably forgotten in a few years when a more entertaining title reaches the market.



In Morrowind, the factions actually represented social structures and believes, with parallels to our current and past society.
House Telvanni, for example, represented an egomanic, darwinistic society. Even their buildings represented this: They were created by trying to manipulate and control the nature, representing the wish of godhood, the total control of the individual over the outer world. Their isolation comes from the fear of being inferior to other cultures, which would conflict with their god-complex. That might also be the reason they prefer surrounding themselves with summoned, mindless creatures and slaves.

While the game itself is set in a fictional world, the displayed believes and the related problems are reflections of those in the real world.
The player experiences different standpoints and their problems, while the judgement about what's right and what's wrong is left to the mind of the player.

Despite it's now inferior technical aspects, it is and will be remembered for the reason that the entertaiment value wasn't its defining character.
It did not serve merely as an escape from reality, it allowed a different view on it.
I would compare it to the original games of the Fallout series in that aspect.

[svandex]

I still remember when I first encountered a dragon and have to kill it, I feel excited about it. I remember this is a small quest around Whiterun stronghold. The dragon is so big and flying upon you with shouts on you, you feel a bit nervous but you know you can defeat it(of course, this is your first dragon to defeat, not too strong). Killing dragons is a big thing in skyrim but this makes the game even more better than prequels.

[Stendarr]

Despite having the game from day one and having put a lot of hours into it, I still haven't reviewed it. This won't be a review but more a collection of thoughts I wanted to share. There's so much to say about Skyrim but I'd rather concentrate myself on certain aspects. I firstly want to say that my first Elder Scrolls game was Morrowind on the xbox and that I still haven't really played Daggerfall nor Arena and that I prefer Morrowind by far over Oblivion and that Skyrim was a considerate step up.

There's so many reasons why I prefer Morrowind but I'll actually talk about what I think Skyrim does very well without delving too much in the game mechanics aspect about it sucks there's no classes and attributes anymore, far less skills, etc.. Whatever we say about these things, I think we can all agree Skyrim is still an awesome adventure game, if we solely judge it on that merit, which I think we kinda should. Even if the game disappoints people like me for how some rpg aspects were downgraded, Skyrim can be very much enjoyed for what it is. Oblivion was in a weird in-between position, even more that the level scaling system in it was literally game-breaking. If you didn't do what the game wanted you to do, you'd become rapidly way overpowered even if the difficulty was at its lowest, and that's definitely not the freedom of choice the series is known for.

Even if it's set in a kinda ''generic'' land, I like how the province is design. The different regions are more different like they were in Morrowind and are very well design. I must say I particularly like how these giant mountains were designed. Excluding the Throat of the World (which is super great), there are a couple of nice huge mountains that you can climb/somewhat climb and that shape the land. Just walking past these huge mammoths is very nice, and you've got incredible sights here and there. Walking from Riften to Whiterun/Windhelm is one hell of a nice walk, Whiterun->Riverwood->Helgen->Ivarstead is also a very sweet one. With the less prevalent level scaling where some areas become dangerous again, the adventure feeling is much more there. The dungeons are particularly well designed, definitely better than in Morrowind for sure even if there are several very nice places. The dwarven ruins are incredible and there are very nice nordic ruins and caves with lots of traps and the likes. Just walking around killing beasts and bandits and plundering ruins is very fun. And even if there are lot less factions and stuff, the quests are still more engaged and usually fun.

But as Skyrim did this adventure thing way better than in Oblivion, it still lacks a couple of important thing. First: artifacts. No, I mean artifacts in general, not just daedric artifacts you get from daedric quests. What hurts Skyrim and I miss from Morrowind is exploring dungeons in hope of finding rare and unique loot. You might find rare loot in Skyrim, but you'll mostly find the same things over and over again. Or this more expensive potion or random enchanted item. Problem is, everything is connected to a quest in Skyrim. I just played a tiny bit of Morrowind today after a couple of years and I forgot how much I liked the journal even if it could be frustrating at times. Yes there are quests, but they didn't feel imposed on you, you had much more freedom on how to approach them. You could a lot more easily ignore them or set them aside, but in Skyrim it's all about doing quests. In Morrowind you could get in a random ruin or could hear from a rumour that an artifact (non daedric) might be enclosed within. And most of the time artifacts wouldn't be related to a lengthy quest. And unless it was a daedric quest, you could always kill people or steal from them in order to acquire them. In Skyrim, if you're a thief who want all 24 Barenziah stones, you must join the College of Winterhold and buy an house in Solitude. Speaking of which, to hell with ''this door requires a key to be opened''. Another problem with the quest mentality of Skyrim, in which certain places can't be accessed and unique items are seen as ''rewards''. Can't you be this murderous assassin who kill people for their unique belongings, like you could in Morrowind if you wanted this unique (or maybe there were two copies) of this daedric armor piece?

And that kind forces you to play a certain way, instead of giving you freedom. Heck, the game encourages you of joining every faction even if it doesn't make any sense. And another thing: unkillable characters. Let us live with the consequences of our actions, that's part of the supposed freedom we should have. And especially in Skyrim that would open so many cool moments. You want to kill an important character, flee and escape with an horse. Or better, get caught, escape and then flee with an horse, etc.. It's all part of playing the character you want to play. These little freedom things and actual goals to explore would really put Skyrim up that notch that would make it that much better.

I might have some other thoughts for some other time.

[gerhardvh]

There are no other RPG games out there that can compete with Skyrim. The game is not perfect, but light years ahead of other similar games.

[Stendarr]

Despite what I said was missing from Skyrim to be that top notch adventure game, it's still a pretty excellent one at that. It's kinda hard for me to say whether I prefer Skyrim or Morrowind for that question. I do prefer Morrowind in general and I really love the whole collection artifacts thing and the additional freedom and choices the game gives you, but it's true the combat is a bit awkward and by far not as satisfying as in Skyrim and that the dungeon design is in general poorer. It's like Skyrim does certain things better than Oblivion and Morrowind but at the same time fails at other things. But anyway, I don't play Morrowind for its combat but for its incredible freedom, sheer number of choices, fun character building and improvement, ie. strong rpg elements, and its exotic land.

But like I said that's not all of the problems with Skyrim, only the major ones for me as far as I'm concerned to do a top notch experience of what it's aiming. Again I may be comparing with Morrowind, but that's because that's elements which I always loved and really feel their lack of.

First of all, voice acting. I know games nowadays should be all voiced and more cinematic. (but what really means more ''cinematic''? more like an american movie? that's such a broad thing to say. A video game is a video game anyway, it should use its inherent qualities to its advantage, not be an interactive hollywood film. But I'm going away from the question and it's not something Skyrim really suffers from.) Voice acting is obviously a sign of better technology but in my opinion it only makes things more complicated to do right and opens the doors to way less dialogue, factions and quests, in other words: variety. First off the voice acting was incredibly poor and damaging to Oblivion, some characters really felt comedic, especially the Dark Brotherhood and at times you felt more like watching the in-game characters acting in the Cyrodilic theatre troupe rather than being real regular inhabitants. It kinda often felt fake and that's really not a good thing. It was much better in Skyrim but again not perfect. Voice acting is also exponentially more expensive and requires much more time to deal with, so it's also a question of a dialogue lines limit which affects the number of things everyone can tell you as well as the number of factions and quests. And since there's more voice actors (and more better ones) in Skyrim with a lot of people saying the same lines, that limit is even smaller.

Skyrim got it better than Oblivion with the factions, but you still mostly only have the companions, thieves, dark brotherhood and the college of winterhold: the fighters, mages, thieves and assassins. That hardly helps defining well a character or hardly represents well different views and politics. At least you got the bards, imperials and stormcloaks. In Morrowind you had the fighter's, mage's and thieves guild. But you got other factions, the Morag Tong if you wanted to do government sanctioned assassinations, the imperial legion if you were loyal to the empire and want to help, imperial cult if you were a scholar or just wanted a bit of travelling/adventure, the tribunal temple for pretty much the same thing. There were also the 3 Great Houses if you wanted to do some Morrowind politics and gain influence. And there's 3 vampire clans and a whole lot of non joinable factions that still have their role. There was also the whole thing with dispositions. Some factions were at war, other are allies, etc. Even if the Telvanni Great House is more dedicated to mages, they hate anyone in the mage's guild for instance. Which faction you would join would really depend on what type of character you wanted, it was not about joining every faction, which you can't do. And often to go up in ranks you had to have certain skills up to a certain level, which would be very difficult or expensive for a knight trying to do thieves guild quests.

And then there's also the additional lines just for regular people. Yes a lot of lines are the same, but there's always a couple of people in each city that when asking about rumours and such can direct you to quests or even treasures or neat tidbits of info. It also meant that talking with people could help you understand the province and lore even more than just reading books, which were plenty anyway. And it's not necessary to completely ban voice acting, there was voice acting in Morrowind, mostly regular talking but important characters always had more things to say, especially in Bloodmoon.

I think the story also was a bit underwhelming since Oblivion. Yes you were some kind of big hero in Morrowind who helped stop a threat, but it was not something as boring as a bad daedric prince wanting to destroy all of Tamriel or this huge old dragon trying to eat everyone's soul. Please. Saving the world is old, it's getting real boring as it seems everyone is doing that now. Well, there's always a way to do it well, but not via giant monsters of bad evil characters. More interesting lore would help a lot. Dragons were kinda of a fun gameplay element when you were facing impossible odds, trying to escape via caverns or passages, but they are frigging boring normal fantasy stuff. Come on, you can do better than that, yes? At least Morrowind dealt with treacherous battles, false gods, heresy, cults, plagues, sickness and that kind of stuff. The whole Nerevarine thing wasn't that great, but it wasn't inherently boring and was drenched in so much lore and interesting events and things that it didn't matter.