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I finally got Skyrim. I remember I played through Oblivion several times, messing with different combinations of class/race. That was one thing I liked most about the game. It doesn't seem like Skyrim is going to have the same kind of replay value. I can go back and restart with any race, but I don't really need to try anything different with the classes. Everything seems to be available if I want to use it with the character I have now. Has anyone gone back and started over after beating the game?

I've put 600 hours at least into one character, nevermind the others...

TBH, for me this game defines replayability.


And yes everything is available to one character - IMO, it's Skyrim's biggest advantage over Oblivion, no limitations to a single class. Even your perks aren't fixed, after completing the Dragonborn DLC's main quest you can rearrange your perks.

^ This. I have 7 characters all between 100-500 hours.

The replay value goes up if you give your character a story and try and make decisions based on its personalilty.

CBR JGWRR wrote:I've put 600 hours at least into one character, nevermind the others...

TBH, for me this game defines replayability.


And yes everything is available to one character - IMO, it's Skyrim's biggest advantage over Oblivion, no limitations to a single class. Even your perks aren't fixed, after completing the Dragonborn DLC's main quest you can rearrange your perks.

My husband and I have almost 2000 hours of gameplay between our 4 characters...he has one and I 3. Its all about the roleplay...if I didn't approach the game that way Skyrim would have been a faze for me. I am seriously obsessed with this game and it has definite replay value. I started out with one character and did a few questlines...sparing a couple others. It helped me investigate the game. Once I felt satiated, I deleted that character and created the ones I have now with backstories. I think it helped extend the life of the game for me.

The Elder Scrolls games define replayability. Especially if you roleplay. I have what, 350 hours between like 5 characters? And that's nothing compared to some people on this forum who play Skyrim seemingly exclusively.

Not as much as the previous games, but you can still sink thousands and thousands of hours into it.

As I said in a similar thread:
10 races
4 Guilds
3 DLC
Numerous NPC connections
2 Distinct Regions
Etc.

No reason to only play it once. Or five times.

Frost Mage wrote: And that's nothing compared to some people on this forum who play Skyrim seemingly exclusively.

Yeah. I used to be an amateur motorcycle racer but then I took a Skyrim to the Xbox...

:getmecoat:

I'll miss it when I get the PlayStation 4. I'll miss it a lot.

Br3admax wrote:As I said in a similar thread:
10 races
4 Guilds
3 DLC
Numerous NPC connections
2 Distinct Regions
Etc.

No reason to only play it once. Or five times.

Not to mention that the game will only get bigger as more and larger DLCs come later this year.

Br3admax wrote:I'll miss it when I get the PlayStation 4. I'll miss it a lot.

Keep your PS3 and keep playing it...?

It's my parents PS3 and I'm going to college. Duh.

CBR JGWRR wrote: And yes everything is available to one character - IMO, it's Skyrim's biggest advantage over Oblivion, no limitations to a single class. Even your perks aren't fixed, after completing the Dragonborn DLC's main quest you can rearrange your perks.

Only true in the case of skills. I know thats what he asked, but for clarification: There are choices that are limiting. i.e. perks, stormcloaks vs imperials, masque of cV or the rueful axe, ...etc. There is also different dialogue based on what has been accomplished by your player, specifically in DLCs and the Mainquest.

So if you want to see EVERYTHING, you need multiple characters, multiple playthroughs... I have had 50 characters reach level 35-49, (thats about when your character gets fleshed out the way you want them to be). And my latest character is 68. Every-single-one has had completely different experiences both within and outside of the storylines.

Alnevar Odai wrote:

CBR JGWRR wrote: And yes everything is available to one character - IMO, it's Skyrim's biggest advantage over Oblivion, no limitations to a single class. Even your perks aren't fixed, after completing the Dragonborn DLC's main quest you can rearrange your perks.

Only true in the case of skills. I know thats what he asked, but for clarification: There are choices that are limiting. i.e. stormcloaks vs imperials, masque of cV or the rueful axe, ...etc. There is also different dialogue based on what has been accomplished by your player, specifically in DLCs and the Mainquest.

So if you want to see EVERYTHING, you need multiple characters, multiple playthroughs... I have had 50 characters reach level 35-49, (thats about when your character gets fleshed out the way you want them to be). And my latest character is 68. Every-single-one has had completely different experiences both within and outside of the storylines.

Talk about QFT.

Alnevar Odai wrote: - snip -

TBF, the option to do any of those is available to any character, which was what I meant...

I disagree with most of the above. Compared with the previous two TES games, I found Skyrim to be severely lacking any replay value. It feels like a much more scripted experience, discounting the radiant quests.

The replay value is determined by you, your play style, and your imagination. If you play on PC, Mods can factor into replayability as well. But really, it's all up to you. Zelda OoT is still emminently replayable after all these years, and it's a much more limited game. A game's life doesn't have to be over once you've unlocked all the Achievements, leveled up to the max, or completed every quest. But it can be, if that's the way you feel about it. Like I said, it's up to you.

My total playtime in Skyrim is little over 200 hours with three characters. In Oblivion, my playtime is ~3000 hours with dozens of characters and in Morrowind it's probably more.

So, the replay value of Skyrim is definitely higher than other games but, for me, not as high compared to previous games in the ES-series. In my opinion, the removal of the class-system in Skyrim was a good move. These games are all about player-freedom, so limiting the player to a certain playstyle never made much sense to me. Although, they did help support your character's backstory.

Br3admax wrote:As I said in a similar thread:
10 races
4 Guilds
3 DLC
Numerous NPC connections
2 Distinct Regions
Etc.

No reason to only play it once. Or five times.

Arguable. Because, with the exception of the Civil War questline (ignoring, momentarily, DLC), the factions are not mutually exclusive. I can have a character complete every guild in one play through, and with races essentially boiling down to aesthetics now, replay value in terms of number of characters has dropped. Your skill set can be changed on the fly, and sign bonuses picked up at will. With a few small exceptions, any race can be as adept as any other at any playstyle. Now with DLC, we have one more one or the other questline, and the ability to reset your perks, making a single character even more adaptable.

Now I'm not saying that this doesn't make the game replayable. I just wanted to point out that the list above were features in the game, not necessarily endorsements for replaying.

legoless wrote:I disagree with most of the above. Compared with the previous two TES games, I found Skyrim to be severely lacking any replay value. It feels like a much more scripted experience, discounting the radiant quests.

On the other hand, since you can't master every skill with every character any more due to perks, my curiosity compels me to try to max each skill at least once, perk wise, which adds replay value.

Evil-i wrote:The replay value is determined by you, your play style, and your imagination. If you play on PC, Mods can factor into replayability as well. But really, it's all up to you. Zelda OoT is still emminently replayable after all these years, and it's a much more limited game. A game's life doesn't have to be over once you've unlocked all the Achievements, leveled up to the max, or completed every quest. But it can be, if that's the way you feel about it. Like I said, it's up to you.

This is what it boils down to. Personally, I can play Skyrim over and over, even if I went with the same build ten different times. Even though my gaming experience is limited, I can decide that this is the best game I've personally ever played; Oblivion is a close second.

I had forgotten about the Civil War quests, because one of the guides I read more or less told me to start them later because they interfere with other quests. So now I know that I'll be giving it at least one more play through. I guess I'll see what the big differences everyone is talking about once I get to that point. I think I really just liked Oblivion's class system. I'm originally a fan of these games because they're a lot like Dungeons and Dragons. The removal of the class system from Skyrim takes away from that, but for me it doesn't ruin the game. There's still a semblance of a class system because of armor/perk/skill selections. You can't be a tank and a thief at the same time, but you don't have to restart the game to do one or the other either. I'm a huge fan of the WotC games and the Forgotten Realms games, and the ES games really resembled them alot, but I guess they're kind of getting away from that now.

"You can't be a tank and a thief at the same time"

You can. That's one of the great things about Skyrim - every playstyle can work.

hmm.. i'm of the opinion that you shouldn't be able to wear heavy armor and sneak or use magic at the same time, otherwise, what's the point of light armor and mage robes?

jello wrote:hmm.. i'm of the opinion that you shouldn't be able to wear heavy armor and sneak or use magic at the same time, otherwise, what's the point of light armor and mage robes?

Tell that to the guy in this book.

http://uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Hallgerd%27s_Tale

It is all a matter of roleplay. In fact a rather infamous set of heavy armor has returned with stealth enhancement enchantments.