Skyrim: A Step Backwards?

[moose109]

Firstly Skyrim is a great game, one of my favourites. But compared to older Bethesda games it seems to be lacking.

 

I just got Fallout New Vegas Ultimate Edition and I'm addicted, NV is and excellent game but, to me, it show some major flaws in Skyrim's gameplay:

 

NV comes with a Hardcore - or 'realism' - mode. You have to drink, eat and sleep or you die. Why doesn't Skyrim, a frozen and harsh province, have these simple mechanics to add difficulty and immersion? I know there are mods out there that do just that but, come on, an older game showing more immersion and difficulty.

 

Dismemberment and Gore - In a game where you walk around with

a sharp-edged weapon I want to see body-parts flying.

 

Locational Damage - NV has five; head, torso, L and R arms and legs. Skyrim has none, or if it does I've never seen or noticed a difference.

 

Thrown weapons - one of the biggest disappointments to me in Skyrim was the utter lack of projectile weapons. The Nords, judging by lore are viking-like, would have been using throwing axes and or spears. Imperials - Romans - would also have been using spears. NV has knives and spears.

 

And the best selling point of NV: NO AUTO-AIM or AIM ASSIST! Where I point and shoot is where the bullet goes. Same for thrown weapons.

 

So to sum up: the base mechanics of Fallout NV would have made a great addition to Skyrim.

 

* * *

 

The wasteland sun beats down on my already scorched back. The heat causing the pools of newly-spilt blood to evaporate, filling the air with the sickly-sweet stench if death. The effects of the Buffout still lingering in my system, already calling to me for more.

 

Slight movement behind me, I spin and draw my .357 in one motion. A half-dead Ganger standing up among some half-rusted drums.

 

"Ya had enough!" He yells as he fires off a shotgun shell in my direction, shot ricocheting of a pile of tyres to my left, making high whistling sounds.

 

Saying nothing I grab a stick of dynamite, light it, and casually toss the stick at him.

 

Turning around I start to walk away. The last of the fuse burns as the stick skids between his legs. There is a brief and high-pitch scream followed by the roar of explosive fire. Quickly I pull down my goggles and pull up my scarf. Holding my arms out as dismembered body-parts and pieces of rusted drum rain down on me, I sing, "And I think to myself, 'What a wonderful world!'"

 

* * *

 

And now if we had the above in Skyrim:

 

The icy wind off the Sea of Ghosts tugged at Silver's cloak and hair, reminding her that she had better make camp soon.

 

Reaching to the quiver on her back, she searched with her fingers to find an arrow. Frozen fingers found the last two - Dwarven broad-heads - drawing both out, she places one on the snow beside her and nocking the other takes aim.

 

Someone at the entrance of a nordic tomb, their breath creating billowing steam clouds, receives the first arrow - the broad-head catching him in the throat, tearing through his neck-joint and severing his head. His companion jumps up from where she lay asleep, "Who's there?" she challenges, searching the surrounding area.

 

The answer comes in the form of an arrow piercing her right thigh, effectively crippling her. "Gods!" She cries as she stumbles to the snow. Struggling, she stands up and begins to hobble back to the tomb.

 

Silver dashes from her nearby hide, drawing her longsword and a small dagger. With a flick of her left hand the small dagger flies through the air... and finds its purchase in the outlaw's back. With a cry of pain the outlaw turns, only to meet the sharp edge of a sword slashing across her belly, luckily only scraping the skin.

 

Silver raises her sword with both hands above her head, her intent; to cleave the outlaw in half. As Silver swings at the outlaw she staggers back, tripping over the still-warm corpse of the first bandit, but Silver's sword still found her. Slicing through flesh and bone alike the blade cut through the outlaw's arm splitting it at the elbow.

 

Going in to shock, the outlaw starts to shake uncontrollably. Silver leans in close her, pulling back her hood, smiling at the outlaw.

 

The last sight the outlaw saw was the bone-white fangs and other-worldly red eyes before what little of her life-blood remained was drained from her slowly freezing body.

 

* * *

 

Just for thought

[Vooodu]

There's more then enough mods to make Skyrim a Hardcore Gore Fest if you choose.

[moose109]

There's more then enough mods to make Skyrim a Hardcore Gore Fest if you choose.

The point is F:NV is a older game with better gameplay and immersion. I know there are mods, I use a lot of them, but from a logical point of view:

 

F:NV is set in the age of firearms - a 'civilised' era. Whereas Skyrim is set in an era of intense violence but there's no actual violence.

 

Is this just Bethesda playing a 'modern' card? To clarify - games have gotten a lot easier and shorter and shiny. Less about actual gameplay and more about visuals, giving you the feeling that devs are afraid that we'll take one look and say, "Crappy visuals? No thanks." Granted, NV doesn't have an epic storyline but its highly enjoyable and quite a challenge.

 

The fact that Skyrim's Universe calls for extreme violence and there is just no actual visceral combat is disappointing.

[wyvernix]

Though I agree on you with the point that Skyrim does feel as though it is a step backwards, Obsidian is responsible for the development of New Vegas, not Bethesda. Bethesda only allowed them to use their engine and published it - You're comparing two completely different writing/developmental teams here.

[postal001]

 

There's more then enough mods to make Skyrim a Hardcore Gore Fest if you choose.

The point is F:NV is a older game with better gameplay and immersion. I know there are mods, I use a lot of them, but from a logical point of view:

 

F:NV is set in the age of firearms - a 'civilised' era. Whereas Skyrim is set in an era of intense violence but there's no actual violence.

 

Is this just Bethesda playing a 'modern' card? To clarify - games have gotten a lot easier and shorter and shiny. Less about actual gameplay and more about visuals, giving you the feeling that devs are afraid that we'll take one look and say, "Crappy visuals? No thanks." Granted, NV doesn't have an epic storyline but its highly enjoyable and quite a challenge.

 

The fact that Skyrim's Universe calls for extreme violence and there is just no actual visceral combat is disappointing.

 

 

You're debating completely subjective points.

[Shadeybladey]

 

The point is F:NV is a older game with better gameplay and immersion.

 

Well, I don't know about FO:NV, I was ofline between 2003 and 2012, but Skyrim was created for the Konsole Kiddie Generation and ported over to the PC. I think that is probably the reason for a lot more than just the utterly atrocious interface.

 

But I see little profit in discussing the subject when there are thousands upon thousands of mods that overcome the problem. That, at least, (as well as better graphics) will always be the major strength of the PC format for CRPGs.

 

Of course, feel free to discuss whatever you like, but it's more than three years since Skyrim was published, and we've all noticed the problems, dumbing down, cissy hand-holding and over-simplification of it. Especially those of us who have been with TES since Daggerfall.

 

~

[moose109]

@postal001 - Freedom of speech. And I know its subjective.

 

@wyvernix - The fact that Obsidian developed a great game in it's self is amazing.

 

@Shadeybladey - yeah, I agree about everything. Unfortunately I was also absent for gaming for about 5 years, so I'm 5 years behind on the complaining. Also FO:NV was released on console as well.

[bben46]

Us PC master race true believers like to think we mean something to the game makers - but lets face it we are somewhere around 10% of the market. They will be making the games for the Konsole Kiddies for the foreseeable future because that is where the money is - and we are lucky to get a half done port that is crippled because it cannot take advantage of half of what a PC can do. Luckily we do have mods to make it all better. :blush:

[calfurius]

I think may be a case of different strokes for different folks, but I could not get into Fallout. I've played a bit of it, and it's nice and all, but I just can'y help but think "Skyrim is more fun then this", when i'm playing the game lol. I don't know I just feel like Skyrim's world is more interesting and epic.

 

The wasteland look gets old pretty quickly, it still has the oblivion era "zoom in to talk to NPCs and the whole world stops around you", and I really don't like the animations or character models that much.

 

I don't know, maybe i'll go back and download a few mods and play on hardcore mode, maybe then i'll have more fun or something.

[Daedthr]

Us PC master race true believers like to think we mean something to the game makers - but lets face it we are somewhere around 10% of the market. They will be making the games for the Konsole Kiddies for the foreseeable future because that is where the money is - and we are lucky to get a half done port that is crippled because it cannot take advantage of half of what a PC can do. Luckily we do have mods to make it all better. :blush:

This is the ultimate answer to most questions regarding the "stepping backward" of Bethesda's games, the Elder Scrolls in particular. Something I find a little ironic is how so many gaming companies clearly tailor some of their games to younger age groups, whilst at the same time claiming that their game and its content is tailored towards a 15+ or 18+ rating. They're happy to tailor their games to suit younger audiences who need it all laid out for them, whilst happily saying that they respect that the games content might not be suitable for everyone, sticking a big red 15+ sticker on it. I mean come on, the age group that your game is supposedly for could probably deal with having to eat, sleep, find their way around with a compass and without just teleporting wherever they want at a whim.