Skyrim Rating

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Couldn't agree more about the followers. In fact, other than the quests that required you to have a follower, I soon stopped using them entirely. Now that I'm playing a stealth character again, followers get downgraded from "non-essential", to "detrimental". I cannot defend that which is indefensible, and so I won't bother to try.

As for the loot and items, it all depends on what you look for in a game. Sure, the item list is tiny compared to the Diablo series. There's basically three types of melee weapons in the game - sword, axe, or mace. Take you pick between a one or two handed variety, and the different grades are the same graphic with a different color. At least the armors look different when equipped.

But then I got to thinking that even though the item list is fairly light, more doesn't necessarily translate into better. Sure it was cool finding those super-uniques in Diablo, but it only directly contributed to enjoying that game because you couldn't get through the game without the uber items. Skyrim is designed in such a way that you never are in a position where you need item x, y, or z, before going to area a, b, or c. And due to that, having more items wouldn't necessarily be anything beyond frill material.

The driving force behind Diablo - it was an item-finding game. Finding items WAS the game. It was also completely linear in how you proceeded through the game. So if they skimped on items, it would be completely dull. Skyrim is not focused on items, because you can only do each quest once. Once an area is cleared, it's cleared, except for an odd random encounter if you return. You can't run areas repeatedly so it can't be all about the loot, because it would destroy the non-linearity of the game. (I guess you could play it linearly if you wanted, if you never diverted from the main quest line.) If it were an item centric game, people would find a set way to do all the quests in an exact order to optimize their character as early as possible. The point behind Skyrim is to be open-ended and done in any way that you'd like.

 

I personally can't attest to how good or bad it is because I've never played it. I pretty much only rate games based on story and character depth, lol.

So how is it? I might consider getting it if you guys give it a good rating -- obviously you're experts on this xD

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And by that I mean I'd like one of you to review it for me.

 

I'm giving it a 4, mostly because I think everything that has something to do with questing feels very rushed, not to say downright badly done. I don't like how linear the dungeons are, and how nearly all of the quests (not just the radiant ones) involve looting that random item at the end of a long string of corridors. The guild storylines are also ridiculously short and not particularly engaging.

The rest of the game is incredible and it's definitely one of the best I've played in years.

 

Then you'll hate it, because the actual story - like the conversations you have with people, all of whom want to tell you their life story before telling you anything meaningful - are probably the worst part of the game.

One of the few complaints I have with the game is that the conversations are dreadful. Now, you'd think that Bethesda would realize this, and thus attempt to minimize the amount of conversations you had with people. But they went the other way. They took what was quite possibly the worst aspect of the game, and completely immersed the player in it. I mean, if that's your thing, OK, but seeing as how much of the story involves talking, and 90% of what characters say add little to no value to the actual story, well...

The good part of the game is that your character is completely customizable. 18 skill sets, over 250 perks, can only reasonably hope to get about 60 of them, and an unlimited number of quests (although only 5 or 6 "big" quests, other than the main storyline), give it immense replay value, especially if you RP it.

My first character was a fighter, so I stuck to the fighter related quests, like joining the Imperial Legion, and doing the Companions quest. My second character was a thief, so I did the Thieves and Assassin Guild. My third character is a mage, and I'll do the mage related quests.

But combinations are certainly possible. You can be a fighter/mage, and fighter/thief, or a mage/thief. (Although you probably can't do all three effectively - not enough skills to go around.) But seriously - you can play through this game 10 different times with different characters, and assuming you concentrate on different skill combinations, it will be a different experience each time.

 

I'm gonna give it a four. Be about 3.8 if the option was there. Mainly due to afew gitches.
I am only playing the xbox version so I don't know if it relates on PC.
IMHO of the 3 recent Elder Scrolls efforts, the story/side quests/replayabilty of Morrowwing (GOTYE) was by far the best. Oblivion was extremely lacking in this department however the grafics made everyone just stop and look around from someplace high. It was a huge moment graphically for the series.
Skyrim basically negates the downsides of the other 2 thoygh I myself have run across afew glitches that make certain quest impossible to complete.
Still a great game and if they change their minds and release a patch inclusive hard copy for xbox I will upgrade. I won't download extra content from xbox live though.

 

The expansion I think will only be available via download from xbox live. Did you at least download the patches? It fixes a lot of the major problems.

Now that the "newness" factor has worn off for me, I think it's a great game, but I'm not sure if it's going to rank as one of my favorite games of all time. It's definitely very solid, and well worth the money spent to purchase it, but I'm not sure if it would receive an epic ranking from me. It's very good, but not fantastically great.

 

Compared to all other single player role playing games released the last few years Skyrim stands head and shoulder above the rest. As I have written before there are lots of things I do not like with Skyrim the fact is that I have spent more hours on it than any other SP RPG in years. Fun hours and I am still not done with it. I am sure that I will start both one or two more characters in the reasonably near future.

I also think that as we grow older and more experienced our taste gets more advanced. I am not sure that if we had played many of the games we have such fond memories today that we would find them as great. I know that I am way more picky nowadays than ten years ago.

 

I largely agree with your assessment - especially the part about Skyrim being the best SP RPG in last several years by a wide margin.

My assessment was really questioning whether or not it is a "Pantheon" game for me. I'm not sure it's there - and at this point, I think it's going to fall just short. It's like the difference between BG/SoA/ToB as compared with IWD/HoW/TotL. The former is a Pantheon game series, the latter is just very good. Or, to throw out a Blizzard comparison, it's like the difference between the Diablo series and Warcraft/Starcraft series. Again, the first is Pantheon, the second isn't, but still a great game series. The Total War series is another example of a great game that falls just short of Pantheon status.

Keep in mind that for me, the Pantheon is a very, very, exclusive group. It's the BG series, the Diablo series, the Civilization series, Sid Meier's Pirates (countless hours spent on both the original and subsequent one 20 years later), and the Pool of Radiance Series from TSR dating back to the 1980s of my childhood.

Actually, this deserves it's own thread...

 

This game might deserve a 4, but I've given a 5 based solely on the fun I've had with it. I almost haven't had this much fun playing games in years, perhaps even a decade. Sure, it had bugs, but it was huge fun.

 

Four from me. My disappointments with Skyrim are mostly to do with the insane lack of spells and the lack of in-world relevance of anything you do. The Civil War questline, just as an example...

Spoiler

I expected something somewhat epic even if downplayed due to it being a side-quest chain but after researching and agonising over which side I wanted to back and subsequently going through the series, I was left feeling like such an idiot. Four/five five minute quests which are basically identical, a speech from the faction leader and the uniforms/accents of city guards changed and there, that's your civil war over.

It left a bad taste in the mouth as the whole Stormcloaks/Imperial rivalry seemed like quite a big deal with many NPCs commenting on the situation and having opinions but apparently no-one in Skyrim actually cares much. The rest of the quests in the game similarly have no impact either apart from retarded guard comments that you hear ad nauseum ("Psst - hail Sithis!" - how the hell would you know about that, random guard??)

...but ultimately it's just simply a fun game. The graphics, the character customisation, the flavour of the setting, the opportunity to play without NPCs etc. I'll rank it about equal with Dragon Age (which I found utterly tedious storywise but very fun in other areas so, similar experience weirdly!).

 

Prolly gonna get me in some trouble but....

I happily give Skyrim a 1/5 stars. The previews looked great, actually everything looked great. After starting it, waiting for installation (PS3) and trying to sit through the talking I just thought it was terrible. I borrowed a friends copy so I'm glad I didn't waste any money on this. I had nothing but errors and glitches. Utlimately very very boring. I gave up on Bethesda awhile back after Fallout on ps3. There are MUCH MUCH better rpg's on ps3 than this.

 

90 percent of the glitches and whatsnot, has been fixed with patches now. Allthough I never encountered many of them to begin with (xbox360).

 

I think a lot of it has to do with when you purchased the game. My understanding was that it was terribly buggy when it first came out. I did not purchase Skyrim until March, and so for me, the worst of it was already over - fixed with the first couple of patches. Evidently a new patch came out yesterday, as I was forced to download it when I tried to play.

To be frank, I don't understand how some people can have such poor impressions of the game. I can understand if you don't think it's a great game, but it's been one of the better RPGs to come out in a long time. If you like RPGs, and you like fantasy games, I can't understand how you can't think it's at least an "OK" game.

 

I got the game 2 days before release (pre-ordered it, and i got it early). The only bug I ever encountered was when quests didn`t update. It was a game breaking bug, but a simple re-load fixed this. I never encountered any other bug. Maybe its just alot worse on PS3?

 

I bought it day one and haven't seen a single bug or glitch. I experienced a slow down and some crashes in my first game but I thought it was due to my computer. It didn't happen in my other games so I guess it was the game. I still enjoyed it a lot, I even enjoyed it while it crashed a bit more than acceptable but only ever saw crashes in my first game and the first week or so.

 

Personally I think it is ok, but I can easily understand those that call it a poor game.
Story, irrelevant, to me had 0 tension.
Combat/Mechanics, imho way to simple (largely the magic system/spells available).
UI.. terrible, absolutely terrible (defined on how many actions it takes to switch a spell/change equipment/sell-all-gems).
Art, loved every green area disliked the many gray ones (50%+?).
But it is a good "world simulator" one can drop,place and pick up anything, people have occupations/property, the exp-principle get-better-at-what-you-do and most importantly mod support. mods>all.


I guess it depends on what one finds fun, personally I want to have a set of as different as possible actions for my character(s) and try to find out what happens eg. support-xy/murder-everything*/pacifist or using enhance-jump to get to a ledge for save ranged attacks/invisibility+silent kills/ultra-shield+flaming feet...
In Skyrim my actions are either not that different from each other or have a to similar/weak effect.

*I still remember how annoyed I was at Fallout: New Vegas for no one caring that I slaughtered the entire ceasar's legion camp (with my fists, ..naked) :/.

 

I'll give it a 4 - due to the follower issue. They were so static, I ended up dropping them after a bit. Overall, though, I thought it was a great game, pretty to look at it and very playable. I didn't experience very many glitches. I do wish the game offered different sort of environments though - I got a little tired of seeing the same gray colors of the rocks/snow, etc. There didn't seem to be much change from that, even down in the southern parts of the region. I know it's supposed to be in the northern area of the continent, but a little greenery would have been nice! (other than what was found in a handful of caves).

 

I really really wanted to give the game a poor score, because I have a rather huge chip on my shoulder about Bethesda. I have repeatedly been excited about one of their releases and disappointed with the reality.

I tried really hard not to get sucked into the hype around Skyrim, but ended up picking it up on a steam sale, cause it was the only thing anyone at work was talking about for a weeks.

So, the base Skyrim is extremely pretty. Being from the north myself, it made me badly homesick - Bethesda has always done scenery quite well, and they didnt shirk here.

They do NOT do as well with character models. ALL of the elf-based races look awful, and the humans are only a little better. I settled on an Orc, because it's hard to **** up giant tusks and green skin.

He was a fighter-mage. Axe in one hand, spell in the other. One big thing in their favor is that all of the noob-level spells are flamethrower style - making them vastly easier to use than the standard firebolts and such from Oblivion. Unfortunately they dont scale, so you eventually have to move on to the firebolts/balls and then it's near-impossible to hit anything. Also, spells and arrows both seem to have crazy short range. After trying to shoot a mammoth at medium range for a minute or so and not knowing how the hell I was missing, I went to the internets, wherein the true glory of Skyrim was revealed.

Mods. (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/21586 fixed the slow-projectiles issue.)

If you're playing on something other than PC, you are sorely missing out.

Mods to fix the terrible faces, mods to fix your horse trying to tank dragons, mods to fix your iron ingots weighing more than the ore they're smelted down from, mods to adjust the crummy ragdoll effects on bodies, mods that turn some of the "infinite use, but 30 second duration" racials (khajit) into a toggle, mods that fix the god-awful interface. Mods that fix bugs.

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/19 - the Unofficial Skyrim Patch is a nearly must-have. It fixes sooo many things.

As many other people have said, the characters are a bit wooden, and they could have had a little bit more in the way of different voices, but I think the real issue that drove me nuts was the interface - and specifically the things that were obvious carry-overs from it's console-designed roots.

Potions refuse to sort in any sort of sane manner. The mouse controls - especially in menus - are incredibly sluggish, and cant be turned up sufficiently with the in-game UI. Ini modification can fix it for aiming in the world, but not in the menus. The menus themselves are hard to navigate, and often nested in order to accommodate D-pad controls.

I was pretty stoked that you can equip a spell on either hand, and a weapon on either hand. I quickly reversed which button did what, because having the right click swing the left sword, and vice versa drove me insane - but then found that spells from your quick-select menu automatically went to the left hand, and weapons to the right. Then I found that you cant use a shield at all unless it's in the left hand, and with a bow "main" click will always be draw and fire. I eventually got used to shooting the bow with right-click, and zooming in with left, but I never could use a shield.

Many many many of the quests are of the "fetch me this thing from this dungeon full of random bandits!" which were pretty uninspiring. There are a LOT of such quests, if you just want some motivation to kill bandits - and sometimes that's fine, but engaging storytelling it is not.

The main plots are not actually terrible. The Dark Brotherhood and thieves guild plots are both quite solid. The Companions guild is pretty good - though

Spoiler

if you end up contracting lycanthropy the controls and limitations of the werewolf form are miserable. I imagine it's the same for the Vampire Lord.

The Mages guild questline is so so. Nothing it brings up is ever really explained.

I have no idea how anyone could ever side with the Imperials after they're about to execute you for "Cause you happened to be there, and now it sucks to be you". The Stormcloak quests seemed like they should have been so awesome, but after a half-dozen "Go to this fort, kill everyone there. Now on to the next!" quests I just wanted it to end - and end it did, with a tolerable speech, and a "I bet some more plot will happen eventually-but-not-during-this-game" epilog.

Dragons are neat - but frustrating to fight. They're near impossible to hit with ranged weapons while moving due to the terrible physics on projectiles, and they seem to have an arbitrary dislike for landing more often than once every 5 minutes or so. Eventually when they are no longer terrifying the game starts to feel like dragon-exterminator, and they lose a bit of their grandeur. Again - mods can fix this - http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/21528 - making the dragons you run into once you've leveled up a bit still at least moderately scary.

On the whole I'd give the base game a 3 - but the fantastic mod support made possible by the very very solid editor has led to the ability to tweak almost any of the things that are really bothering you, and smooth out some of the rough edges. As much as I hate to give it one, post mod support it gets a 4.

 

The werewolf remains terrible even after the Dawnguard expansion. The problem is that no matter what you're still limited to one transformation per day, so it's simply not practical to level and gain perks as a werewolf. The Vampire Lord, OTOH, can be toggled on and off at will, making it much easier to play, and the perks are actually kind of good.

Dawnguard also fixes this. They introduce two new dragon classes Revered and Legendary, which are beefier versions beyond ancient. On Master difficulty, even at the armor cap, a legendary dragon bite hits for around 400 damage. So, even if you have a lot of health, you better be able to kill him before he hits you twice, or be prepared to start chugging potions like crazy.

 

I have played over 700 hours of Skyrim and gotten my money's worth. I have not purchased the DLC Dawnguard and probably won't unless there is a mod that I really want that needs Dawnguard. I only gave it a rating of three because of the bugs and problems Modders doing quest mods are having.