Skyrim - Your Reviews and First Impressions

[Mucro]

Wow. Just wow. Everything feels so much more alive. I love it. Solitude is absolutley breathtaking and the Bards guild is a lot of fun.

Spoiler:

Especially the burning King Olaf

Amazing, truely. At first I was beginning to miss the feel of Oblivion, but now: I could never go back to it.

11/10. Worth the wait.

[OblivionDuruza]

I was told when I picked up the game that I was the first person in Denmark that ordered it!

They gave me the official game guide for free. Only two other people in the country got that!

That game guide is HUGE 700 pages! Damn!

You lucky duck you.

I had "You're a long way from home Imperial", you're right it's a nice touch.

The game is beautiful. I spent a good few minutes at the top of a waterfall in the mountains just staring around.

I'm tempted to create 10 characters just to see what comment is made for each race. I've really liked talking to Khajiits near Whiterun, and learning more about Elsweyr. Really nice touches to fleshing out each individual race I thought.

[born2beagator]

#1 for me is a true sense of getting stronger. At level 8 I can put a bandit down in less than 5 seconds flat. No more uber bandits.

[777]

Things that stuck out for me in first 5 hours of play

-Great, and I mean great music
-Very dark feel to the game; hope it gets brighter at some points
-Dungeons/caves are huge and beautiful
-Very laggy/ buggy. Had to restart xbox because of frozen screen
-The planes are surreal and wonderful, first mammoth encounter was cool
-Have yet to see orc/bosmer/argonian/khajit
-Screen text is too small, can't read the stuff that pops up in the corner

Overall, the game is straight up amazing. Apart from the few bugs/lag (that I'm sure will be fixed from patches) I know I'm going to be playing this game for years to come.

[AeraDunmerMoon]

Bethesda, I am proud of you. I had plans to hit Rorikstead as soon as I got out of the tutorial, but I got so caught up in the main quests, and the side quests in Riverwood and Whiterun. Holy crap. I'm thoroughly impressed with some of the new characterization and the storytelling. I actually have respect for some of the characters that I met today. Real respect. I want them to like me. I went into giddies when the huntress lady from the Companions praised me. As for storytelling, it feels like all of the stuff that I did today had importance. Meaning.
I love the music. Fantastic job. I love the dynamics between npcs. I love the children.
The only thing I don't love is my computer's insistance at low settings and the lag that being unplugged causes. :p

[Thunderstruck elf]

10/10
It looks good, it's very fun, animations for things are very nice, and I am totally addicted to Fus-Ro-Dah. It is so awesome!!!

[grannas211]

Ladies and Gentleman, I felt as if I would throw my two cents in here. I will say at first the combat system was alittle different; however, once you get the hang of it, it truly is amazing. My only gripe is the favoriting system or whatever you want to call it. I miss the D-pad simplicity(on PS3 anyways).

Now for the good, which is pretty much everything. The world is totally immersive. If you truly go around and talk to people, you can start to see why this game took so long to make. I've had conversations about Elyswer, High Rock, the fueds over Talos in Skyrim, etc. Not that you wouldn't expect complete deepness from an Elder Scrolls games, just saying it is truly amazing.

[order_venom117]

I actually have to write reviews for a living so I got this a week early. Yes yes...let the flames roll in. After a week of gameplay, I feel that this was a major let down. It's pretty, I'll admit that. That's all I will admit.

Beauty does not make a game good, by any means. Skyrim is essentially the [&@%!] child of Fallout 3 and Oblivion. You have Oblivion's general feel, albeit copy-pasted onto a snowed-in background mixed with a streamlined version of Fallout 3's leveling and scaling systems. Furthermorrrrrrrrrre, theeeee sloooooowwwww-motiiiiiiiionnnnnnnnn killllllllllssssss do the game a disservice. Whereas games like Fist of the North Star abused the triple angle-cutback feature, Skyrim does the same with slow-motion to a point that makes certain movies (like 300) blush in comparison.

Should I delve into combat or quests? Sure. Combat is just as slow, glitchy and under-whelming as Dead Island's and quests feel far too "run-and-fetchy" for my tastes. The two-handed feature felt like an improvement but it hardly does enough to hide Skyrim's true flaws: It's rushed, superficial, unoriginal and too reliant on looks to get ahead...much like your typical high school cheer leading captain or football quarterback.

Alas, Bethesda has fallen prey to the sequels curse once again. Morrowind was great, Oblivion was average and Skyrim was just disappointing. Skyrim gets 7 mudcrab conversations out of 10.

[zzfallens]

It simply feels unending. I am constantly being bombarded with quests and getting lost in this vast open world. The game is excellent! I can run it perfectly which adds to the fun. The textures are out standing and the environment is surreal. All the different locations and cities constantly remind me how huge this game is. I am loving my character. I am a Breton Battlemage level 16 and this is the most fun I've had in a game in a long, long time. The quests are so fun, and I'm constantly selling my loot. I've got 25,000 gold, with the Whiterun house already boughten & fully furnished! All in all this game is amazing and I can see the years and years to come of satisfaction waiting for me.

[ArgonianDunmer]

The coolest thing by far so far is the stealth kills that I've been able to pull off. It feels a lot better as a stealth character than in Oblivion.

[born2beagator]

Well scratch the getting stronger part. Either I have leveled badly wrong or I just suck, because the enemies have become ridiculously hard at level 10. I can barely take down bandit thugs.

[Akiraka]

I actually have to write reviews for a living so I got this a week early. Yes yes...let the flames roll in. After a week of gameplay, I feel that this was a major let down. It's pretty, I'll admit that. That's all I will admit.

Beauty does not make a game good, by any means. Skyrim is essentially the [@#$%] child of Fallout 3 and Oblivion. You have Oblivion's general feel, albeit copy-pasted onto a snowed-in background mixed with a streamlined version of Fallout 3's leveling and scaling systems. Furthermorrrrrrrrrre, theeeee sloooooowwwww-motiiiiiiiionnnnnnnnn killllllllllssssss do the game a disservice. Whereas games like Fist of the North Star abused the triple angle-cutback feature, Skyrim does the same with slow-motion to a point that makes certain movies (like 300) blush in comparison.

Should I delve into combat or quests? Sure. Combat is just as slow, glitchy and under-whelming as Dead Island's and quests feel far too "run-and-fetchy" for my tastes. The two-handed feature felt like an improvement but it hardly does enough to hide Skyrim's true flaws: It's rushed, superficial, unoriginal and too reliant on looks to get ahead...much like your typical high school cheer leading captain or football quarterback.

Alas, Bethesda has fallen prey to the sequels curse once again. Morrowind was great, Oblivion was average and Skyrim was just disappointing. Skyrim gets 7 mudcrab conversations out of 10.

I'm almost glad someone is willing to admit to not liking the game, because I'm still on the fence about it myself, but...
First, almost every post beginning with 'I test/ review/ etc. games is almost always a troll post. Bearing that in mind, I'm very loathe to take this seriously.
However...
Dude, the Slow-mo. can be turned off. It doesn't stop the god-awful choppy transition in and out of the animation, but it helps.
I agree that Skyrim literally feels like Oblivion with Fallout's atmosphere. But that's exactly why it's so good. It's the polar opposite of the cartoony b.s. atmosphere of Oblivion and games like WoW. It's exactly what the game needed.
Aren't run-and-fetchy quests a well-documented cliche of the RPG genre? In fact, isn't every quest ever describable by no more than three paradigms? That is; 'go to x and get y', 'go to x and kick z's ass', 'go to x, kick z's ass, and bring me back y'? Since when is that a new (and/or bad) thing?
I was definitely feeling like Skyrim was rushed too. And indeed it might have been. It's also so damn big I think some things were just honestly forgotten about. I can hardly recall the span and scope of things I've done and seen and spoken about with NPC's already, and I've only seen three towns and two dungeons.
I'll straight up laugh at how bad Oblivion was. A complete failure by Bethesda's standards. Skyrim, however, can't possibly deserve that kind of scorn. It isn't perfect, but it is in no way looking to be anything but the best RPG to come out in the last few, and next few, years.

[OblivionDuruza]

It's not as long this time around though (probably only around half an hour for the whole thing, and there's a lot of scripted stuff in that), and it's a lot more active than the in Oblivion, IMHO. Still, Morrowind's intro was nice and sharp, and this time you can't just make a save before you exit the sewers to restart from there and skip the intro.

[Akiraka]

Still, Morrowind's intro was nice and sharp, and this time you can't just make a save before you exit the sewers to restart from there and skip the intro.

But you can make a save just before the guard calls you over to him.

So glad I did that already >.>

[Josjie]

I'd give it a 9/10. It's not worth the many 100/100 scores it is getting imo, but hey, I only trust independent game reviewers anyway. So I wasn't expecting any different.
I've played for quite a few hours on the PC. It definitely feels like the best of Morrowind, Oblivion and Fallout 3 combined. Oh and I won't spoil anything in this review .

Pros
- Stunning world filled with beautiful locations. The mountains look great. The major cities are magnificent to watch, even as you approach them.
- Good immersion thanks to better voice actors and new animations. Plus there are NPC's who make music! I also played tag and hide&seek with two children!
- Dual-wielding is awesome. Magic is much better now. Archery is also a lot more fun.
- Blacksmithing!
- Better guilds (from what I've seen so far). I only joined Skyrim's equivalent of the Fighters Guild but so far the guild is already a lot more interesting than the FG in Oblivion.
- I love the water in this game! The waterfalls, the steam.. I can't get enough of it.
- Greatly improved dungeons. They all look unique.
- Great music.
- A bit darker and more realistic than Oblivion.

Cons
- Horrible, horrible menus on the PC. I'd pay money to get Oblivion's inventory system back. Hopefully this'll get fixed by mods soon. You can't use your mouse so you have to use WSAD and E/Enter. A quick look at your skills? Impossible, because of that fancy sky filled with birthsigns. Comparing items or even selecting a different item is a pain. You get used to it eventually but honestly, this is one of the worst menus I've ever seen in a PC game.
- Low textures. While visually this is a major improvement in the TES series, there are quite a lot of low textures, especially on some walls/floors.
- Crappy melee combat. You can't sprint and jump. It's simple hit&block and you hardly get the feeling that your weapons "connect". Dark Messiah of Might&Magic and Demon's Souls showed us how good 1st/3rd person combat can be. Why do we still get such a bad combat system in TES, after so many years?

[OblivionDuruza]

But you can make a save just before the guard calls you over to him.

So glad I did that already >.>

That doesn't save your from most of the intro though. There's still most of it to go after that.

[Arch-Mage Matt]

Matt's Pros and cons because everyone else is doing it:

Pros:

-Dragon fights are awesome.
-I played tag with a child.
-I can recruit half the people I see in the game as companions, and they have amazing commands you can give to companions
-I recently bought a dog named Vigilance
-The landscape is beautiful.
-So are the graphics, no matter what anyone says otherwise. Skyrim is a game, not real life.
-Companions don't die after they're recruited. They just fall over for a few seconds.
-There are so many small quests to do

Cons:

- I feel like I'm the only Khajiit in the world
- Companions are good fighters but still have bad AI. They're slow and they get stuck on things.
- ... I really have no other complaints with what I've seen.
-

[The Loner]

MY thoughts...
incredible graphics
great tutorial
plot with deep meaning (oblivions was kind of "go fetch this")
Good points on the side of the Stormcloaks and Legion

My sister saw me playing and what she said made me want to beat my head against a brick wall
her:Is that skyrim
me:yeah,did you know you can be a werewolve?
her:you mean like Jacob!?!?!? <------i nearly lost it there
me:NO! *sigh* -in game i was pushing a wagon around
her: set the wagon on fire
me:you cant
her:this game sucks

-beats head-

[Arkhon]

Pros:
Ok so I've been playing for like 10 h now and I still didn't finish the Imperial Legion's quests, there's so many of them, not to even mention other factions and miscellaneous quests... Skyrim is way cooler than Oblivion - quests are much more original and not boring. Same thing with the overall environment - it's alive... I could update UESP on so many things already but I don't have a time for that, there so many cool things I've discovered in the game . Do not fast travel or use carriages, simply walk the roads and you will meet many interesting situations, dependable on your previous and current actions . Battles are way better than in Oblivion too, at least there isn't 5 people fighting a battle...

+Size of Skyrim's world is exactly the same as Oblivion's, however in Skyrim you feel like it is x10 times bigger...
+Interesting quests and original storyline not like in boring Oblivion where you basically knew what will happen next...
+The openness of this world...
+NPCs / environment still not perfect but way more realistic than in Oblivion.
+Empire or Stormcloaks - There's no good or evil side. Basically it depends on how you feel about the whole thing...
+Graphics, even with my 5 years old graphic card (Radeon x1950xtx) I'm able to play on Medium-High where graphics looks amazingly good and I mean REALLY, Oblivion's candy-like ultra high graphics wouldn't even fit for the low here...
+Mercenaries, wife, cooking, making of weapons / armors etc. Brought lots of realism into the game.

Cons:
However, unfortunately I found in-game errors (?) too. In my game carriages were working perfectly, till some time. Now when I try to use carriages in any city they doesn't work at all. They never charge me any money and they tell me to get on the carriage, I do and nothing happens - my character simply just sits there and nothing else. Hope they gonna fix that.

-Carriage thing,
-NPC AI still needs an improvement...
-In my game when I use the forge character uses hammer but the warm iron bar he holds in his left hand is not even touching the anvil and what's even more annoying is that he holds the iron bar other way around - the hot part is at the top and the cold part is at the bottom...
-Console-like in-game interface menu, I hate it. Morrowind's was the best!
-So far nothing else.

[strobacaxi]

Well, I'm absolutely glad I managed to not read anything about skyrim, or watch anything!

The dragons are amazing, the graphs are so awesome I honestly spent like 10 minutes just looking everywhere
I'm just sorry my PC can't handle max graphs

[Spiney]

Well it's clear to me now that Skyrim was in fact release too early. Mainly for PC players for the game is buggy at best. And in a twist of dejavu, the players with the faster computers are getting it the worst.

For one the game is incompatible with W7 Default sound quality. I imagine they only had XP computers in Bethesda. But in turn the lowering of quality causes some players, including me to have lines of dialogue fuzz out. Thank god for subtitles, but it's a bugger of an immersion breaker.

Next is the purple glitch. Where the texture fails to apply to random models upon loading. I've had forests of purple trees, armies of purple armored enemies and a purple giant chasing me.

Or I've had models not appear at all. I thought that guard was the invisible man, but no, another graphical glitch.

And the crashes, oh all those crashes. I've lost count on how many I've had. Either entering a door, trying to travel by carriage, fast travel or even randomly while walking along a pathway. Needless to say it's a thorn in my progression.

And I can say I have progressed far. Level 18 already, sporting scale and elven armour. I can see the perks are balanced, for the one handed, light armour and block perks I have. But the simplified system will eventually allow players to über themselves by pushing every skill to 100. In truth it does avoid the problems with the old levelling system, but I don't think they needed to tear it all out, instead I reckon they could've refined it more, with the perks still.

I will say the story telling is better. Better voice actors (when lines aren't fuzzed out to incomprehensibility). And quest after quest after quest. My character has been busy doing all these chores.

What I can see is that Bethesda spent a lot of time on visuals, and making the quests bug free. Unfortunately, graphical stability, general stability and optimization are all missing from the final product.

I'm waiting for one helluva patch Bethesda.

[Black Thunder]

Remarkable! The 8 attributes in Oblivion, and the skill relation to them, prevented me to do whatever I want, since I wanted to maximize my character. But this is a sigh of relief -

Unlike Oblivion, the skills that you increase have no effect on attribute increases.

[JVElEven]

Even Minimum requirements look fantastic.

The only thng is that the controls takes some getting used to, and on minimum graphic, the chins get a little pixelated, but still...

HOLY CLUSTErf*CK!

[enyamerT]

Got 5+ hours of playtime yesterday (PC version), my thoughts:

Cons:
Occasionally some characters and objects blink in and out
If you remap your keys, some of the menus will display the wrong keys for use/take/give, etc.
Some wonky looking animations, such as shopkeepers sweeping the floors
Made me almost 2 hours late feeding my pets

Pros:
Graphics look great, distant land a huge improvement over Oblivion, haven't noticed any missing textures
No sound problems (had them with both Morrowind and Oblivion)
With the Favorites menu, I haven't felt the need to actually hotkey anything yet
No crashes so far

[chibimyuutsu]

I stated my likes and dislikes in other threads, but I have to say this...The song that plays while in Whiterun made me squeal in delight. Sounds just like the one from Morrowind!

And the Skeletons sound like Morrowind skeletons.

I also like the Fallout reference:

"Let me guess...Someone stole your sweetroll?"