Skyrim: My honest opinion

[Mediansoft]

I'll try to list my feelings on Skyrim, hopefully I won't have to many issues as Ill just start and type what I feel like

It's all just to easy for me I thought dragons were something to be feared ? Yet all they are are annoying everytime one pops up I'm like "again ? I just killed one 20 minutes ago)

I really hoped this would be like Morrowind which was fantastic ... and in some ways it is, at least, it's a lot better then Oblivion .. but the world feels small.. I know there are a lot of caves and all (dense) but dense doesn't make the dense part large, it only makes for more to do on the same part...

I still blame the fast travel system... wasn't there in Morrowind and that felt a lot bigger .. was it bigger ? who knows but it sure felt like it.. (and don't tell me "just don't use it then", the game isn't made for that, in Morrowind you had your striders and boat connections, you joined the mage guild and unlocked the mage portals after a while etc, it felt realistic...

On that note, where are the fighter and mage guild ? Also how come I only need to do 5 or so quests and im leader of the theifs guild ? I could have sworn there are way more quests in the mage and fighter guilds of morrowind... this also results in not feeling at home .. I do a handfull of quests for the thief's guild and it's all over ... same with the Dark Brotherhood.. I did 3 assasinations, then the wedding quest, 2 more assisinations and then the emporer kill quests and it's over ... I did the whole line in like an hour... (5 assisinations sound like much but rly, it's just "fast travel, wack it", fast travel, wack it", fast travel home, done)

Gold is way to easy to come by ... I mean I have over 40k atm and what do I need to spend it on ? Gear ? It's really easy to get powerfull stuff for free... Houses ? Well I got a house, I never visit it as well , why should I ? It gives no advantages to do so really..., Horse ? I have one of my own and Shadowmere for free from the Dark Brotherhood...

Dungeons are a lot better then Oblivion but I still see copy/paste stuff going on which takes me out of the immersion when I say "ahah this is the tower model from Helgen". Traps in dungeons I really love, only problem is, they are to weak ... if you get slashed by those swirling blades or stomped by a battery ram you need to be one shotted, no matter of you are full HP... traps should ALWAYS one shot you if you are foolish enough to run into them head on... (maybe a mod can add one shot traps ?)

Puzzles ... I really looked forward to puzzles in dungeons, that was until I noticed they were so easy a 5yr old can solve em ... most of them are just "check for the symbols in this very room and copy em)... or just "find the hidden lever" it's all way to easy and not really serious stuff......

Enchanting isn't as nice anymore, I really liked the "create your own spells" in Morrowind as it let you be creative and think of stuff the devs really didn't had in mind but work... they scrapped that feature Archery is an improvement! Combat, while still not that complex or gratifying, is still better then in Morrowind where it was all just wack,wack,wack,wack (which in a big sense it still is, but it's masked better with smoother animations and all)

One of the main grips I have is with the landscape.. it's all to snowy , yes I know it's in Skyrim, it's the coldest province yadi yada... but it's like the entire game is "snow + mountains with some water here and there"... Morrowind had snowy regions, desert regions, swampy regions, lush regions, flat places, mountain places, lake, sea stuff, forest etc .... then with Oblivion they mostly had "happy hills and hellish gate worlds" ... even if it's set in Skyrim, surely they could work in more differences in styles, ofcourse this is amplified by my earlier mentioning of the world being relative small and dense (not a lot of room for different environments in that)

Another grip is the levelling system, I loved to see all my stats and their progress towards the next stat in Morrowind, they cut down in the amount of skills and totally did away with all of the "main stats" except HP, Magicka and Stamina"... I know they wanted to streamline and make it all less complex .. but in the end it feels gimped compared to the more mature solution used in Morrowind (and even Oblivion I hate to admit). Also the perk system is while I breath of fresh air, flawed... on my first playthrough I wanted to be a master crafter and thief so I went with stuff like blacksmithing, pickpocket, sneak etc... around level 20 I started noticing mobs were scaling a lot faster then I was, because I assume their hp and stuff is based on your level, not your actual skills... as I did not spend points in armor or one handed those skills were not cutting it anymore... so word of advise, you are FORCED to level up your armor preference and weapon preference in the earlier levels and leave the more interesting stuff for when you are already so powerfull that it doesn't matter you can craft something really good

Graphically the game looks okay, but I did expect more. There are some very blurry textures in there if you look up close. Also the water doesn't look right, hopefully someone will release a water shader mod or whatever for it to make it look more real, I swear the Oblivion water even looked better and the Morrowind water, especially for it's time was really nice.. I know, now the Morrowind water looks like a mettalic shining fud pool but back then, shaders were just really starting to hit the spot, it was awesome.... Also there are various places (if you go high up) where you can see between the mountains in the distance the land that's not traversable anymore and as they just left it flatline no texture... (looks a bit like a very badly done skybox in unreal)

Also I encountered quite a few "invisible walls", most of the time when I use my blink (whirlwind sprint or something) shout to "move over the air" to normally unreachable places. I know why they are there but really... I don't like that immersion breaker...

Oh, one area I left untouch is the really stupidity of vertical climbing.. I can scale about any mountain in the most unrealistic way possible by teabagging the wall till it glitches me upwards... it even goes faster with your horse, really it's hilarious.. works for both climbing and descending... and it's very badly done

Bugs, the game does have a lot of em, I saw people sleeping sticking half in the beds both vertically as horizontally, people sleeping next to their bed, characters floating, weapons floating, npc's running against stuff like walls or doors or getting stuck... sometimes after being stuck for a while they "magically teleport" to where they want to be, I guess a feature Bethesda included to not have them stuck forever... (they don't alway do it however), also hint, if you hav a stuck npc and you can rest 1 hour, it somethimes get them unstuck..

On that subject, resting.. according to the game I haven't slept in about 2 months, by all accounts I should be dead and burried by now... I know it's the same kind as "you don't need to eat or drink either" but had to laugh when I read the stat

AI is improved but still really dumb... you can easily exploit it starting from the first dungeon with the spider not being able to move through the door (which at least is somewhat realistic) but really, you can sometimes jump on a small ledge and they stand there looking like fools humping the edge while you release hell... to Beth's credit, they did add a mechanic that when they can't reach you they try to hide in cover.. they don't always do it though, nor does it always work (as most of the times I can still pick em off from my invincible spot) This works indoors as well, just jump on a big table move to one side, burn em or whatever works for you and when they get close move a meter to the other side and they will walk all the way around again etc etc... why not give npc's the ability to jump as well ?

Stealing is still dumb ... why would a vendor in Winterhold care for not buying a stolen item in Whiterun ? It's not like he knows I stole it right, it's not like I come in and say "hey I ripped someone off back there and want to get rid of the evidence, wanne buy ?"... All it adds is a hassle as I need to go to misses T in the Thief's guild and sell my stuff, wait 24 hours, sell my stuff, repeat that cycle and be done with it.. what does it add ? Nothing really except a waste of time... I could understand an exception for really really rare stuff that everyone in Skyrim knows belongs to someone (let's say for example the crown jewels or specifically branded stuff like journals or wedding rings with names on it..)

On that subject, they should remove the vendor gold limit as well, it serves no purpose as for starters, they have way not enough gold (if this was a real economy it would crash so hard) and all it does is force you to fast travel to other vendors and waste time or just wait 24 hours all the time and well, waste again time... it doesn't add anything as it can be circumvented with spending just more time you should be playing instead of looking at the rest screen going down...

It's the same with the carry limit.. if you don't care about maximizing your dungeon runs (and in a way that isn't really a bad thing to do as well, you get to powerfull, rich to fast if you max your runs) then it's all fine, if you do it means happy running to the start of the dungeon, fast travel to vendor, sell, get back and repeat 10 times to get all the gear and stuff monitized... for that that don't want to bother with this, hit the tilde key (one below the esc key) and type: "player.modav carryweight 5000" or whatever number you want to ADD to your current...

Models are improved, argonians look a lot better for example .. they still have some rough textures and facial expressions but I noticed there are already plenty of model texture mods out there. One thing I can't stand however is, if you include children, let me be able to kill them as well. This is a game, I kill monsters, zombies, elders, dogs, beasts and if I want to yes, children... (and some really deserve to die the way they threaten my character as well).. I mean I'm fed up with the whole morally correct thing ... this is not rl, this is a game. It's unrealistic, breaks the immersion and well, if I role play an evil character then killing children is what you do, look at Anakin! The prequel Star Wars movies are 100 times more designed for kids then "A New Hope" and 10 times more then "Return Of The Jedi", yet Anakin still murders the younglings... granted it's not visible onscreen but the implication is clear.

Also, why can't I drop quests ? There are quests out there that conflict with my current role playing persona. I don't want to do them yet they keep building up in the cluttered mess of my journal ... (to be fair, morrowinds journal was even worse with a lot of backtracking pages etc, that was until they added that index thing that improved it a lot)

To that note, the interface is horrible, sorry but it is... yes you can get used to it but really ? I mean why can't I filter on item type ? As in "show me all leggings" instead of scrolling through the whole apparrel list ... why can't I easily compare ALL stats of an item selected with my current item equiped ? (yes you can see armor ratings, but there is more to an item then that)... The game REALLY needs an updated, cleaner, pc orientated, with filters UI mod. Whoever passed this UI as "great, it works" for the game either played to much consoles or is half braindead.. (I say this because I can imagine it works better with a controller, but still, i can't see it being great even then)

No choices... there are so little choices in this game and the ones that are there have such a limited difference... this is a ROLE playing game. It means you should play a character a certain ROLE. This is seen more and more in modern rpg's... we went from back in the days of limitless creativity in table d&d to the early video game rpg's that did try to let you play your character as you wanted, back in the days you had to choose your true neutrals or lawfull good.. your backstory, your traits, skills, features and lots more, the basis of a rpg is to let you make choices that influence you and your world around you in MEANINGFULL way's ... it's all so cut and dried in Skyrim... you are either wanted by a hold or scott free (all that your bounty amount matters is the amount of gold to pay up, or the fact if they attack or let you go)

You either get Azura's star or the Black star... but in the end it all just depends on what npc you return an item to and the dialogue/what needs to be done is mostly the same...

To that end, why is it all the vendors say the same thing ? I mean how many times have I heared "Trinkets, Loose ends, that sort of thing" or "A bit of this and a bit of that" ... why not give all shop vendors their own lines ? They had 70 voice actors, it can't be to hard to just spend an extra hour in 4 years of development for shop keeper lines right ?

To briefly get back to guards, yesterday I shot an arrow streaight THROUGH his face and he told me "watch it" and walked on like nothing happened. To that effect why do arrows stick right through obviously letal parts of the body yet they run around as if it doesn't hurt them at all... If you get an arrow straight through your face your dead or at least severly wounded... they shouldn't be running and fighting with multiple arrows in them like all is fine .. to that end why if I shoot an arrow in someones head he doesn't bleed ? If your lucky you get some splats of blood on the ground etc but that is like the game thinking "ok he got substracted HP, better draw a blood decal on the ground), they do NOT bleed, as in from the wound leaking over their face etc...

Oh, another annyoing thing I found was with the horse riding. You can sprint but why is there no Stamina bar for my horse ? I have one, so it sure would be easy to give my horse one right ? It's the same with water breathing, where is the breathing bar ? Also horses jump funny, it takes like a second or so before it jumps, it doesn't always jump either....

I'm glad they did away with the "emotional" individual npc rep system from Oblivion. It was silly, involved seemingly random results and could be gimped by just saving/reloading etc... I add this because I thought for a while after the last part on something good to say

Stealing is way to easy as well. I mean hypothetical situation, im in a shop, go stand behind the npc, sneak and magically he won't see me even if I take stuff hes LOOKING AT... or even better, I just put a few buckets over their heads and bingo, they don't care... basically I can steal anything from anyone, anywhere and it breaks the atmosphere (and makes you filthy rich real fast)... also I know some pickpockets are really skilled but with the perks from pickpocket I can steal a guards gear he is wearing and he just walks on .. you seriously expect me to believe he A: did not see that happening, B: did not feel that happening, C: does not feel it suddenly is chilly walking in the snow in your underwear ?

On the subject of guards again, I once killed someone with a arrow in the head in a city, just as I shot him a guard turns around the corner. He most likely seen the body drop to the ground, even better there I was standing next to the dead npc with an arrow sticking out with my bow drawn, and he passes me and goes like "oh hi there" and passes us on ... Those are some really BAD guards !

Immortal npc's ... I know some npc's are "important" to the story, quests etc. But it's so exploitable... besides the fact it breaks the gameworld immersion again it also is a god cheat. If you have one of those npc's at your side they can beat anything with time, just make sure he is the tank and you are far enough for the mobs to not aggro you and your immortal npc will stand up after being beaten and go for another round. Also you can abuse npc's like that who are all alone to level up skills as they always go back normal and you don't get a bounty for (some) of em. (its boring though and takes long so I don't advise it)

If a important npc dies he should die, no respawns... if that means you fuck up your game in the process, so be it, again ROLE play, your actions have meaning this way. Ofcourse one problem would be with npc's getting themselves killed because of stupid AI which in turn wouldn't be fair towards the players ... so maybe instead they can have a hardcore mode? If you die, you are forced to reroll. Npc's don't respawn, dungeons don't respawn etc...

Thing is, I really don't like respawning dungeons either ... think it's about 30 days or something for a dungeon respawn... I mean if I clear something I want it to stay cleared (I know the map still says cleared, not the same). Your actions always mean less if whatever you kill spawns back to life anyway. I heared there is not enough content in the game to get you to max level without repeating already cleared dungeons. I am not max level yet, but if that is the case then Id say to Bethesda, "increase the land size", would fix two things I mentioned here in one go!

Shops also respawn goods (well all indoor houses etc do). This in a way could be considered logical as well "they restock items", but it's a deal breaker for completionists who want to take on the challenge of stealing every item from every house in every city.. maybe a mod will disable those respawns so a place I robbed clear, stays clear...

The first time I got to Riverwood Inn I was amazed by the bard, he sang songs, played music etc .... that was great.. that was until I later noticed there really aren't many songs to begin with and bards in totally different places have the same style and same songs... If you add more bards, add more songs! Yes you can have crossovers, but the selection is REALLY limited.

Some quests have you following npc's, for example, follow a npc to a dragon attacking up on the hill", yet everytime you come remotely close to the npc she stops and says "We need to know what happens up there", over and over and over, so you stay clear, yet then they stop to make sure you are close enough etc ... they should disable the "auto greet" when on a following/escort quest..

Interiour/exteriour, why still loading screens ? I know it is to save the framerate etc, but that's just a design problem, I have seen other open ended worlds with open int/ext and it worked. Maybe this goes back to the fact it has to run on 5 year old console hardware ? It's been like this for ages in the Elder Scroll series but every generation Im hoping to see it gone... (just the fact you could have real windows then makes it worth it, also the fact that it would be harder to steal etc, as anyone outside the interiour cell, does not care, it's like a different dimension)

Character creation has the same Oblivion style feel to it ... I don't know why you always have to be a prisoner that is destined to be the greatest thing to come around in the last 1000 years... I mean, Morrowind, prisoner on a ship. Oblivion, prisoner in a dungeon. Skyrim, prisoner on a cart ... ofcourse in reality it's because prisoners are excused for not having a lot of wealth and everyone loves a comeback story right ? ... well not really.. they need to get away from this for the next game or it will start getting laughable. Also, why are you always "destined to become so great", I mean, is that the only story, the only ROLE to be told, to be experienced ? You can argue being a housewife in Whiterun till the end of your days isn't compelling storytelling but there ARE other possibilities, that also might involve lots of question, fighting, storytelling without being inhumanly strong or the next demi-god/hero to the lands you travel... Anyway, what I did notice during creation was the really badly done hairstyles.. This is 2011 peepz, we can do a lot better

Lockpicking is better then Oblivion but I for some reason miss those Morrowind style locks where you knew where you stand ... could open locks of 55 and it was a 75 lock, tough luck, find a key or other way to get it open or come back later... but at least it's not the horrible Oblivion style!

On the note of stealing again, why is it possible to "move" (action key E or enter or whatever) a "stealing" item in the gameworld without anyone caring ? For example a coin purse or valuable weapon.. just "move it floating through the air straight passed the owner to a corner of basement and sneak-grab it there"... it makes an already easy to steal game just no challenge at all anymore... I could swear moving a designated to steal item in Oblivion was considered stealing... if anyone could confirm that and if so why did they dumb it down for Skyrim ?

Also you can make a total mess of any shop or wherever running on the counter, tables, throwing everything off and all you will get is "Why did you do that" ... It's a little silly...

Books, lots of books, journals, notes, books that give you skills like days of old ... all fine and well, but please give me a "take" button on books so i don't need to first open it with it's animation and then I need to take it and it closes with it's animation (sometimes it skips the animation but not sure why and can't reproduce it at will). They need a directly take button.

Anyway, Im sure I could find some other stuff as well, but I'll keep at it this before this gets a bore ....

TlDR: Skyrim is nice but it does have some issues, here is my opinion.

Don't take me wrong, I LIKE skyrim

[conscript]

This belongs in the big Skyrim thread.