The only thing I don't actually like about Skyrim

[Relativelybest]

It's really the same thing I didn't like about Bethesda's other games: The combat system.

 

I didn't like how fighting was handled in Oblivion but eh, old game is old. I didn't like the melee fights in Fallout 3 but eh, it's mostly a shooter anyway. When I saw the trailer for Skyrim I got excited becuase it kinda looked like they had updated the combat mechanics to something I might actually have fun with. Understand that I more or less exclusively play warriors; I'll dabble in stealth and magic but if I can't barge into a room swinging something sharp around and kill anything that stands in my way I'm just not happy.

 

But no. Aside from some shiny new additions like dual wielding and finishing moves, it's still the same thing as before: You click on the button a lot to swing your weapon back and forth, back and forth at your opponent while he does the same thing and eventually one of you runs out of health and dies.

 

See, the reason I don't like this is that there is no real skill involved. You win fights because you have a better sword or a better armor or more health than your opponent, or perks that makes you better at hurting people with a sword, etc. Many times I've won mostly because I had a bunch of potions to keep me alive. Aside from power attacks or blocking with a shield, there's no way to vary how you swing a sword at people, no real strategies. I've played three of these games extensively and I've never felt I won a swordfight because I was actually good at swordfighting. The only times in Skyrim when I feel like I'm playing a genuinelly skilled character is during those finishing move cinematics, but I can't really trigger those at will and even if I could I don't want to win every fight with an instant kill cutscene. I want to win because I pulled off the right move at the right moment.

 

You know which FPS game did have really damn good melee combat mechnics? Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, that's which. It's been ten years and I still haven't seen another game with such an intuitive fighting system. It had three styles of lightsaber combat and you could actually chose which direction you swung your saber depending on which direction you were moving - vertical, horizontal or diagonal. Since parries tended to happen automantically when the path of your saber crossed that of your opponents, and even a glancing hit could end the fight, this led to some extremely varied, fast-paced and mobile battles, anything from minute long swashbuckling duels to samurai-style one-swing-instant-death rushes. I remember using cheat codes to spawn large numbers of enemies and just practice my saber skills.

 

So why is it that ten years later, Bethesda can't make a game where I can play a warrior with more options than mindlessly hitting my opponent over and over until he dies?

[Cyberlazy]

I think thats exactly why I am still playing FONV. Since I added all kinds of crazy ammo... And then gave them to all the NPC's... And then leveled the NPC's so they have 100 skills at level 20... And then gave them awsome weapons from several diffrent mods.... And then resized them all to be random sizes with large people/monsters having a slight dt/health bonus...

 

Well, Now im hiding behind walls. Running. Switching ammo depending on the conditions. Changing weapons often to all 4 of my main weapons. DYING. Sometimes even surviving.... (I also don't use stimpaks in battle..)

 

It actualy feels like a real game. Sadly, the equivilent mage in TES games lacks the equivilent skill... Theres not much to hide behind, theres not really any ammo or weapons to switch to, you just have your awsome whatever spell that you use to kill everything and the 5 or so other spells you use to handle everything else that comes up (unlock, fly, jump, heal, teleport)

[Dovahkiin069]

Man, this word are all the pure truth,Skyrim lacks on skill moves.Im with you man.

[Sader325]

Luckily we have the ability to mod things to make the game more enjoyable then it would otherwise be.

 

For instance, I found the last boss fight to be really... sad. So after some considerable modding I recreated the last boss fight in they way it should have been done. A fight that involved skill, mobility, tactics and timing to win. I don't play Skyrim much anymore, because there's not a single thing left for me to do, and not really much that I can do to top my own personal final boss battle.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORs52KcP0wA

Edited June 7, 2012 by Sader325

[PsxMeUP]

Before clicking on this tread I told myself "it's the combat" and sure enough, you agree. Not gonna repeat what the OP said, but ya, not enough skill involved. It's hard to believe they made the game for consoles.

[imperistan]

To be quite honest, there isn't much real skill involved with any of the more complex combat systems that Skyrim could be using. Being able to string button presses and other inputs together isn't much of a skill so much as a good sense of timing.

 

Though then again, may be because now that I fight with swords in real life I'm a bit more biased I say this. But this isn't to say that vanilla Skyrim combat is good as is, but complexity (and as such the need for this notion of "skill") isn't so much needed whereas it could do with more depth, which isn't necessarily tied to complexity. Adding more mechanics to combat (basically in the same vein of how skills work. IE, everything can make everything else redundant) would add some depth and spice to combat without unnecessarily raising the complexity level. New weapon types and more well defined type differences are the big and obvious change that could happen. Parrying (real parrying, not "blocking" with your blade edge) and different, situation-based bashing are another. A location-based exposing mechanic to replace the critical hit system is another good one.

[MightyZ0G]

I have to say that using a 360 controller on PC the combat is more fun than using mouse and keyboard but there is still room for improvement

[Relativelybest]

To be quite honest, there isn't much real skill involved with any of the more complex combat systems that Skyrim could be using. Being able to string button presses and other inputs together isn't much of a skill so much as a good sense of timing.

 

Though then again, may be because now that I fight with swords in real life I'm a bit more biased I say this.

 

Er, if you do real-life swordsmanship, I'd expect you to find that "a good sense of timing" is generally considered sort of a big part of actual fencing skill.

 

Anyway, my point is that I'd like to be able to decide how my character swings her sword and have that actually matter in the outcome of the fight. I'd like to be able to beat a much stronger opponent simply by a well-timed attack to an opening or a lucky hit at a weak spot, not because I had a ton of potions or a good healing spell or an enchanted dragon armor. I'd like it if what my sword does actually has an effect on what his sword does rather than them just passing through each other. At the very least I'd like regular hits to have a physical effect on my opponent beyond reducing health, so that fights are not just about making your health outlast his and I have a reason to not just tank attacks.

 

For crying out loud, in Fallout 3 you actually had the option to cripple people by targeting their's limbs, but only while using guns. If you used a melee weapon in VATS, apparently your character is incapable of aiming.

Edited June 7, 2012 by Relativelybest

[GoodfellowGoodspring]

You click buttons to attack, power attack, block and block attack what else can the game do to add more to fighting? The only way i can think of is to make the battling active/live and use a kinect/move controller so you can dictate where you want to strike and how, otherwise we would still be rolling a dice like on Morrowind or attacking like we do currently don't all games play like this?

[modder3434]

regardless of how people feel the combat is i have to say its an improvement over vanilla oblivion combat system.

 

i actually feel like i swung a sword instead of a fancy twig. combat feels more....meaty? like i actually hit someone with a deadly weapon.