The complicatedness of Skyrim's quests

[xanordon]

I finished a quest for the daedric lord Meridia - and was rewarded with a kick-ass sword - and I thought it was about time I made my way to High Hrothgar to see the Graybeards. (I'm not using fast travel in this game because not using fast travel seems far more adventurous and increases the immersion factor by a gazillion-fold for me) I stopped at an inn on the way and a woman there asked me to fetch her drunken husband's stash of alcohol. So I did and when I got back she was behind her locked door at home, probably asleep, so I thought I'd wait for her in the inn, maybe have a sleep myself. But in the inn, I got into a drinking contest with a guy called Sam, and woke up the next morning in the Temple of Dibella in Markath, a very far distance away, with a quest to sort out everything I had done the night before (which I didn't remember!)

 

So after cleaning up the temple, I started out to go back to the Inn to give the bottle to the poor woman, and sort out what I had done the night before, when a pauper asked me to steal a valuable statue from the temple I had just awoken in. I did that, got caught, and to make up for it I had to go and fetch their next "Sybil", a medium who spends her life in contact with Dibella. So then I started out again to complete all the quests, so I could then get off to High Hrothgar, but near the front gate a visiting tourist from the Imperial City got murdered, and in the confusion a sneaky looking guy quickly passed me a note which said to meet him secretly.

 

So now I have a lot of quests to complete before I make my way to High Hrothgar. I have to meet this sneaky guy and complete his quest so I can go and fetch the Sybil for the priestesses of Dibella, so that I can return the bottle to the woman and find Sam and sort out what he and I did last night, so I can then continue on my journey to High Hrothgar. No doubt my path to High Hrothgar, even when I can continue, is strewn with further quests as well.

 

The point of this ramble is to say that to me, Skyrim and its quests seem even more involving, more complex, more immersive, and even more fun than any of Bethesda's previous games. What do *you* think?

[InAComaDial999]

The thing that really stands out from previous games is how you get the quests. You don't just get an NPC running up to you and forcing you into dialogue, or have to click on every random stranger to find out what's going on. Here, more often than not you find out about quests because you actually hear people talking about a situation, and then it's up to you to decide whether to go talk to them to investigate further. It's that feeling you get from seeing the world happen around you, and being able to choose whether to get more involved, that makes it feel so natural and immersive.

[mazakala]

Most of the quests are kinda short though, the majority of the time doing a quest is usually spent chopping down draugr in some obnoxiously large and tubelike dungeon. Don't get me wrong, I like dungeon crawling, but I'd prefer more complex dungeons and less chopping... I've never gotten lost in a dungeon in Skyrim, there's usually just one way forward and then there's the quick exit at the end, very convenient but a total immersion breaker when it appears everywhere. Having modded many Bethesda games and really enjoying level design, I know I would have done a better job myself... Also I'd like more quests where you have to figure things out by yourself, it's kinda boring to always have markers tell you exactly where you need to go and what you need to do... Other than that I very much enjoy the quests in Skyrim :)

[Krawll]

Most of the quests are kinda short though, the majority of the time doing a quest is usually spent chopping down draugr in some obnoxiously large and tubelike dungeon. Don't get me wrong, I like dungeon crawling, but I'd prefer more complex dungeons and less chopping... I've never gotten lost in a dungeon in Skyrim, there's usually just one way forward and then there's the quick exit at the end, very convenient but a total immersion breaker when it appears everywhere. Having modded many Bethesda games and really enjoying level design, I know I would have done a better job myself... Also I'd like more quests where you have to figure things out by yourself, it's kinda boring to always have markers tell you exactly where you need to go and what you need to do... Other than that I very much enjoy the quests in Skyrim :)

 

 

I agree with a lot of things you said but not with all. When you said you'd preffer less chopping , i don't agree with that . I actualy found that there weren't enough encounters in the dungeons and that the encouters weren't difficult enough. Now i guess you are simply not as cambat oriented as i am. Though i have to say that i agree with you about the fact that you can't realy get lost in dungeons.

 

Personnaly, i do wish that dungeons were bigger and more confusing but i also wish there were more encounters and a wider variety of traps and i also wish that traps were more deadly. I don't recall ever getting killed by any of the traps at all. Their damage is soo low that i usualy don't even bother healing myself after being hit by one . The only times i realy found traps to be annoying is when i travel with followers. The real funny part about followers and traps is that they usualy say something just as you get close to a pressure plate or trip wire therefore allerting you of the danger but then they will be the ones to actualy trigger it lol. Since they can't jump at all and they are not scripted to see pressure plates and walk around them, they pretty much always trigger every traps.

 

For example, in case some of you hadn't noticed that yet, whenever Lydia says :" I don't like where this is going " that means there is a trap near. Other followers will have different lines.

 

now back to the main subject , what i beleive is that Bethesda tried too hard to please everyone and by doing so , they ended up dissapointing everyone. I'm sure everyone will agree that it's impossible to please everyone equaly in life. So what bethesda did is throw a quarter of a bone to every different types of gamers instead of throwing a big fat bone to one type of gamers. The result of that is that now everybody is still hungry for more .

 

I beleive that other games have been very successful by trying to please a single type of gamers. I'll take Diablo 3 for example. When it comes to this game, you eihter LOVE it or HATE it , there is no inbetween. Personnaly i would never play that game even if it was the only game left in the world. but if you watch Youtube videos of Diablo 3 , you find that some people are actualy Loving it a lot. When it comes to Skyrim, everyone loves some aspects of it but are also dissapointed by many other aspects of it.

 

I also beleive that this is why they decided to release a Contruction Kit which will allow fans to modify their game as they please. In other words, they gave us a SandBox with an unfinished SandCastle , they let us play around a bit and when we start whining about it they give us a toy bucket and a toy shuvle and tell us : " here, just finish it yourself, we've made our money"

Edited January 20, 2012 by Krawll

[Dukkah]

^Ditto the above. Why can't we have Daggerfall dungeons with Skyrim graphics and stability? Even today, those 2-D death traps still fill me with dread. And remember to anchor at the beginning, or you'll spend another hour trying to get out after finding whatever item or killing whomever.

 

That complexity and atmosphere is just missing in Skyrim, whose dungeons are very linear and don't require much thought. Just walk forward and let the conveniently collapsed extra passages guide you to your goal. Yawn.

[RbtRvltin]

I do like the quests, just they're too short. Also, every single quest (with the exception of two or three) has a fort, crypt, ancient Dwemer ruin, barrow, redoubt, or cave to clear. This isn't Fate, guys. It's an RPG. That should involve talking and THINKING. Just my two cents.

[StanIsTheLaw]

I agree with the originator, too many little quests. I have completed becoming the arch mage, yet I still have a quest to enter the college. I have stuff in my inventory from quests that i cannot even remember or find in the journal.

 

I did get lost a couple of times in dungeons, but only because I was not paying attention.

[jmalkavian]

@xanordan you don't have to do most of the quests "there and then" ...can un-check it and do it later. Yes the quests seem to be somewhat more variational...{can only answer based on two play-throughs of ES4...which i found to be ridiculously monotonous and boring...hence only two play-throughs...there was a couple of quests that were kinda OK though.

 

@icomadial999 Yeah ya get a map up-date just by hearing about a possible quest...that's a "nice" thing.

 

@mazakala It's nice to be able to "move on" to next quest rather than stumbling around the same dungeon...adds to the variation...But like you say you have modded games before and therefore i think it gives you a kind of "overview" and understanding of map layout...making it easier for ya {unlike me with short term memory dmg} is easy to get lost hehe...But i also contribute that to the graphics ..for some reason i get more eye strain from skyrim than any game i've ever played...and i don't blame my rig {[email protected] 5770} it's gettin' old But it plays NWN2 very well and next to never "stutters" and NWN2 in my opinion is possibly just as resource intensive as skyrim except that skyrim's map is MUCH larger and most of the maps are "so bland"...But using "clear skies shout" helps that...but not in dungeons. And having the exit at the end...think of it as an escape route {back door}.

 

@krawll if you think they're not difficult enough....try doin' them at a low level ...easy to get butt kicked in "some" dungeons. I also agree that they gave us a "sandbox" and my malkavian insanity detects a possible conspiracy or merchandising tactic probably the latter as there seems to be a few very "professional" type mods being planned i only hope that they can be all {some} "plugged-in" in the same play-through.

 

@stanisthelaw Have you maxed any mage skills? "conjuration" for an example...there is more to just being an arch-mage with "specialty" quest if above 90...maybe need 100...i thought it was a nice touch.

 

But having said that it's kinda sad that there's so many bugs...but nothing is perfect....yet {still hopeful}. tc.

[KiraTsukasa]

I kinda agree. I guess. The quests aren't very difficult, and neither are the enemies. I'm only at level 27 and I can wipe out Draugr Warlords (the main enemy I run into at this point) with a bow at 100 yards and blindfolded. And there's just SO MANY of these quests. There's so many and they're so easy that they become monotonous after doing four or five. I actually have a harder time finding a path through the landscape to get to the cave or whatever I'm going to.

 

On the other hand, though, at least all the maps are different. Unlike Mass Effect 1. Great game, but every sidequest map was EXACTLY the same, except for placement of boxes and the occasional door that didn't open. I'm REALLY glad that there was SOME creativity to the maps in Skyrim.