Two Observations

[ArcieAdam]

In all the overwhelming chaos of Skyrim, I've just noticed two things that I should have noticed as soon as I've started playing, or rather, noticed something was absent, and I'd like other people's take on it, too.

 

For one, I'm quite thrilled at the lack of a Karma meter. As it turns out, I don't need the game to tell me whether or not I've done something morally unacceptable. Not to spoil anything, but there was a point in the game where I had to break out of a prison. In letting some of my cell mates escape with me, or rather, letting them lead the breakout as I safely watched from the sidelines wondering if I could find a way to trap and leave them to die (They were really bad people), they turned out to slaughter the entire town guard right in front of me when we got out. Citizens were running for their lives. And the game didn't tell me it was wrong. Who knows? Maybe you're the kind of person who agrees with these people's grievances. The game's not gonna tell you what's what. I'm gonna tell me what's what, and I'm glad that unlike Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, Dragon Age Origins, Mass Effect, etc, the game isn't going to funnel me into what it thinks is good or bad, paragon or renegade.

 

Secondly, I realize you can turn it on, but I believe the game either defaulted with it off or I unknowingly turned it off very early, but the game isn't holding my hand, telling me where to go. Yes, in this big world, quests aren't going to leave you in the dark. But when I find a note where an artifact used to be, telling me to meet them at the attic room of the inn at Riverwood, I can assume whatever it was I'm looking for has been taken by said person, as the traps had been sprung and the monsters slain, and I need to meet them at the inn at Riverwood. The game doesn't need a pop-up message telling me to do what I can puzzle out all by myself, thanks. I don't actually need my hand held after all, I'm fairly sure I can even do without the quest markers, and they're turned off as much as I'm able.

 

What else do you see in Skyrim that's giving you more freedom than you had in other games? Or, what in Skyrim do you think is holding your hand too hard? It turned out that I didn't need a Karma Meter or Quest Markers to tell me if I did something bad, or tell me where to go. What about you?