Level of Immersion

[WaLkAwaY]

Hi I swear I searched for the word "immersion", before I posted this. So if there is already a thread about it I apologize in advance.

 

I was wondering what the level of immersion was like in Skyrim compared to Oblivion. I played Oblivion and loved how you could pretty much do anything with added mods and it kept the game alive forever for me. The only hiccup i ran into was when I changed computers and I did not want to spend the countless hours going back through the mods again. I have had Skyrim loaded on my PC for a week or more yet have not played it as I was waiting until I could post here.

 

I played vanilla Oblivion as well as Morrowind as well before modding them. So my choice of not playing vanilla Skyrim unless I have to or at least before I was able to come here and get some feedback is a premeditated one.

 

So if anyone wants to throw down their thoughts about the immersion of Skyrim I would appreciate it.

[Reddimus]

IMO it's the same or a bit less in terms of ambiance. While general NPC banter seemed repetitive in Oblivion, it felt like there was a lot more of it. Also Skyrim doesn't zoom in on NPC faces like Oblivion did, which I feel creates a bit of a disconnect.

 

My 2 Septims may differ greatly from others'.

[hymhym]

My 2 Septims may differ greatly from others'.

 

Not much from mine.

 

AS to the topic of the thread: Skyrim improves immersion on some facets, and lessens it on others. All in all it's about the same, just with different things that break your immersion.

 

As to waiting for mods or not - I don't know. I played Through Morrowind mostly without mods. Got late to Oblivion and never played it without at least a 100 mods running, yet I immersed myself in both roughly equally.

 

One thing to keep in mind, is that we do not yet know much about the inner workings of Skyrim, since we do not have the CS. It was supposed to be available at launch, but as of this moment: nobody knows when it will be released. And therefore, how moddable the game really ism is still an unknown variable, as is to what extent people want to mod it. I, myself, am fairly optimistic about the moddability of Skyrim, but am slightly worried about how much modding enthusiasm it will generate.

[Goliath978]

I had the same thread :)

 

But: it's immersive if you get immersed. It isn't a game for me. It's a world.

[JimboUK]

I'm having fun with it but I'm not immersed in the world at all, I can't connect with my character either and I really can't explain why. :confused:

[JayDubWill]

I'm having fun with it but I'm not immersed in the world at all, I can't connect with my character either and I really can't explain why. :confused:

Well there's not much back story to begin with. This is typical TES style but still, why was I a prisoner? How did I get captured? Who are the legion, why are the stormcloaks fighting them? Why do I care which side to join (I haven't joined any yet). Why are the Dragons back? Granted I'm only 30 hours into the game and haven't done much of the main story line, but I should have a few hints to some of these questions by now. Asking NPC's what side they support hasn't given me any of the reasons why they are fighting.

[WaLkAwaY]

Thanks for the prompt replies. Oblivion had me amazed but also had me going in circles. About the time I was playing it there was this one mod that I discovered that you could only use the item if you found it in the prison cell at the beginning. Kept starting over to go find it and then kept losing it for some reason.

 

Really looking forward to this game and after looking around the files area a bit i see there are already many mods out or at least I think they are mods.

 

I was speaking to someone on a different forum and they said they ran up against a dragon and it just let him beat on it. So I was thinking that the AI has a bug or two. The potion making seems a little nerfed from what it was in Oblivion and I did not find a section in the guide that talks about spells and creating or collecting ingredients for them. Then again I have only read the guide a little and gave the TOC a cursory glance. I think I remember making arrows in Oblivion right down to choosing what type of feather to use. Collecting food and also weather effects were awesome too.

[JimboUK]

I'm having fun with it but I'm not immersed in the world at all, I can't connect with my character either and I really can't explain why. :confused:

Well there's not much back story to begin with. This is typical TES style but still, why was I a prisoner? How did I get captured? Who are the legion, why are the stormcloaks fighting them? Why do I care which side to join (I haven't joined any yet). Why are the Dragons back? Granted I'm only 30 hours into the game and haven't done much of the main story line, but I should have a few hints to some of these questions by now. Asking NPC's what side they support hasn't given me any of the reasons why they are fighting.

 

It's not the lack of backstory, Morrowind and Oblivion didn't have one and I connected with the world and my characters in those games. It's not the lack of chargen options either, I was fine with Morrowinds pre made heads. The emotionless zombie character who just stares ahead all the time isn't helping nor is the fact I care little for the factions in the game but it's more than that, I just can't put my finger on it.

[Pushkatu]

I think these kind of games are as immersed as we allow them to be. I have hundreds of hours into Morrowind with no mods installed, a couple more hundred into Oblivion, most of them after I installed mods, but I enjoyed it nevertheless and close to 60 into Skyrim, with just a couple cosmetic mods installed, most are INI tweaks. A good way to get into Skyrim's atmosphere is to forget what Morrowind and Oblivion had and just enjoy what Skyrim has to offer. People complain all the time that they've paid 60 or so bucks for a game they have lost interest in after 50-100 hours, but I tell those people, what about the other games, that barely give you 10 hours of gameplay, even less?:yes:

If you want more immersion, take your time, don't rush things. Also, don't use fast travel to much, becouse you will miss quite a few random things, that will spice your gameplay experience. :thumbsup:

[abaris]

I think these kind of games are as immersed as we allow them to be.

 

 

Not entirely true if the game itself tries constantly to break your immersion. I won't go into details, since this is the no spoiler section, but its all about questlines and the impact (or lack of) you have on the world through your actions.

 

Its nothing new either. Its been there since Morrowind. And that's why I enjoy sidequests and free adventuring a whole lot more than the actual main- or faction quests. Its one of the biggest Bethesda weaknesses. If I remember right, the fallout series was only published by Bethesda but made by a different company. But that's where they should have looked when it comes to meaningful questlines and the players impact on the world.