Skyrim immersion vs Oblivion

[scottym23]

Looking back to Oblivion and loading up my old save file from years ago, I remember the first time I exited the sewers and saw the amazing few of Cyrodiil. The grass was so green and the world was so vast. People would have gripes and still do of the layout being almost copy and pasted over and over because it's so similar. However I may have a unique perspective when I say it was refreshing to see a game do that and for many reasons. The first being that in an open world free roam game having too much uniqueness feels almost cheesy in a sense. There's no wow factor if you are literally stumbling over crypts and dungeons every couple of yards. Also in undisturbed nature such as forests the area and terrain are suppose to look similar; nature tends to do that. I remember actually feeling excited when I found a special and unique area due to the fact that I had to spend my time searching for it and it was rewarding finally getting to that certain location.

 

In Skyrim now, I can't help but feel that they tried to add too much to a small area (As far as elder scrolls games are concerned). When first escaping Helgen with Ralof you see Bleak Falls Barrow, then on your way to Riften there is a mine you can fight baddies in and loot, then on your way to Whiterun to alert the Jarl there are a couple more dungeons to explore. After that it was almost overwhelming the amount of areas to cover. Sometimes i'd get a quest to defeat bandits at a certain location, and on the way see three other crypts or dungeons. Then when I reached the bandit quest area, there were multiple other locations on my compass viewer above my character that I could go to. The wow factor faded so quickly that it was getting to the point of annoyance finding all these places to explore.

 

What I think they should have done in Skyrim to solve this problem? I know the game world of Skyrim is already vast, but for the amount of content they put into it not nearly vast enough in my opinion. They had an opportunity to make this a much larger experience than it is now, but I think they were catering to the newcomers and not "elder scroll" type of people who love to roam around and enjoy the immersion of these types of games if you know what i'm getting at.

 

So what are your thoughts on this matter? I love to discuss this and any comments whether you agree with me or disagree completely are greatly appreciated!

 

SIDE NOTE PLEASE READ -- I am an avid elder scrolls fan and have played every installment of the series. In no way am I saying either game is bad or that I favor one game over the other, this topic isn't meant so much as a "which game do you prefer?" more than it is a "which game had a better sense of immersion when it came to the terrain and overall layout of the area?" Both of these games are two of my absolute favorites of all time, and this topic is just to point out little things they could have done to make the game even more spectacular.

[Elsarian]

What you state could not be more spot on than it already is. I believe that Skyrims world and landscape needed just that; landscape. By spreading out these locations and adding much more land to the area, then I think the game would have been even more epic. Sure, it's a given that the game is massive and has lots of content, but I just wish that there was more land, and more area to breathe in rather than more dungeons/locations.

 

But one will also add in the factor of hardware. Skyrim was all about the 360 and we know it. So the question that then comes into play is whether or not it would perform well on that system or not. This is why I am praying to the gods above that new generations of consoles will up the ante with their hardware, and maybe, just maybe, will we then start seeing some truly massive, and I mean massive games. Perhaps the size of the elder scrolls' game's are just scratching the surface and their true potential has yet to be unleashed.

[scottym23]

What you state could not be more spot on than it already is. I believe that Skyrims world and landscape needed just that; landscape. By spreading out these locations and adding much more land to the area, then I think the game would have been even more epic. Sure, it's a given that the game is massive and has lots of content, but I just wish that there was more land, and more area to breathe in rather than more dungeons/locations.

 

But one will also add in the factor of hardware. Skyrim was all about the 360 and we know it. So the question that then comes into play is whether or not it would perform well on that system or not. This is why I am praying to the gods above that new generations of consoles will up the ante with their hardware, and maybe, just maybe, will we then start seeing some truly massive, and I mean massive games. Perhaps the size of the elder scrolls' game's are just scratching the surface and their true potential has yet to be unleashed.

 

That's an excellent point you bring up about hardware and am disappointed in myself for not adding that in my original post haha. But yes I agree completely, Skyrim already has its bug and lag issues the size it is now. Bringing it to the Oblivion-esk layout with a large separation between unique areas would have made Skyrim ginormous and in doing so also decrease the performance.

 

Oblivion was able to do this however because the graphics were obviously a lot worse than Skyrim's due to the sheer time difference and how far technology has advanced in the past 6 years. This made the simple (yet still immersion friendly and respectable) graphics easy to use without using a lot of the hardware's power. If Oblivion had the same hardware intense graphics Skyrim has, i'm not sure they'd be able to pull off a game of that magnitude. I own a ps3 and 360 along with a very nice computer that can run the game with all of my added mods on ultra settings, so I know my processor and computer could run an Oblivion terrain style with Skyrim graphics and quality easily, but also understand and respect that consoles and people with certain computers couldn't run a game of that size. So hopefully in the (near) future when technology gets even more advanced, games with the size and layout of Oblivion with the amount of quality and game content as Skyrim can be common practice. We can only dream :P.

[ledmack]

This is why I am praying to the gods above that new generations of consoles will up the ante with their hardware, and maybe, just maybe, will we then start seeing some truly massive, and I mean massive games. Perhaps the size of the elder scrolls' game's are just scratching the surface and their true potential has yet to be unleashed.

 

 

AMEN!

 

Although I believe it is all about your play style. Some prefer crowded areas with non stop quests with a cave at the exit of the dungeon, etc. I prefer to have more real estate in gave and sacrifice the action. Going at a slower pace and exploring is one of many things that attracted me to the elder scrolls series to begin with. I still get to do it with Skyrim, just not as much as I would like.

[DeathWarrior]

Both are among my favorite games, but I actually think Skyrim has a better enviroment and more immersion. Oblivion's landscape seemed like repetitive temperate forest everywhere outside of Bruma and Leyawiin/Bravil while Skyrim has much more varied enviroments: Arctic/Icecap in the far north near Winterhold, Autumn Taiga in the Rift, Alpine Forest in The Pale and Hjaalmarch, Temperate Forest in Falkreath Hold, Mountainous/Valley terrain in the Reach, and a Hot Spring in Eastmarch. Also, while Oblivion is still what I would consider immersive, I find Skyrim's gameplay to be even more immersive due to things like dual-wielding, mining, smithing, and woodcutting. I've also had more problems with bugs and crashes in Oblivion than I have had in Skyrim so far, contrary to what most other people experience.