What Did Skyrim Do Right?

[AnkhAscendant]

There are hundreds thousands of topics about what's wrong with Skyrim. There's plenty of material for them, of course, but we wouldn't be so picky if there weren't good things about the game. Heck, we wouldn't still be playing it if we didn't like it ;)

 

So what did Skyrim do right? Did it exceed your expectations in some way? Or, alternatively, are there some things Skyrim changed that you definitely do not miss?

 

For me, I admit l wasn't following Skyrim news until about the beginning of November. I vaguely knew there was going to be marriage, but I figured it would be all sociopolitically conservative and I'd have to wait for a mod for my guy to marry another guy. I figured it would be one of the first five mods made, but I still figured it would need one. When I found out there wasn't any built-in prohibition on gay marriage I was surprised and delighted. Kudos to Bethesda there. ^_^

 

In the other category, I went and played Oblivion this weekend for a little while, and let me tell you, that mouse-only interface... Gah. I don't miss that at all. Thank you, Skyrim, for keyboard shortcuts.

Edited October 30, 2012 by AnkhAscendant

[scottym23]

One of my favorite aspects of Skyrim was the northern lights that lit up the sky at night. It truly can be breathtaking when you are running through the roads or off the beaten path to your destination (I don't use fast travel) and all of a sudden you look up and see this fantastic display of shapes and colors that you weren't expecting. Every time I see one of them in the sky I quickly find a good vantage point and make a new save titled "Northern Lights X" and the X is the current number of saves corresponding to that particular event I have. That number is 13 at the moment and ever growing ;).

 

By the way i'm all in favor of giving Bethesda credit where credit is due, but i'm not too sure they should be giving any credit for the same sex marriage aspect. They didn't do anything special for it, all they did was make the game not recognize sex in marital situations. They did the same thing in fallout new vegas with prostitutes. It's actually less work for them to do it that way than to code in a sex parameter for certain situations. Also they did that mostly to avoid the stress of all the complaints and possible hits they could take from not making it available. So do I think they did this from the kindness of their hearts? Ehh......>.>

[JanusForbeare]

I've made plenty of anti-Bethesda posts since Skyrim came out, since they rushed the game to meet a silly deadline, and somehow still got lauded for it by all the reviewers. There are plenty of good reasons to be disappointed in TES V, but you're right, they did do a few things well.

 

So what are those things? Well, in my opinion:

 

-Currents in bodies of water. This was my first real "pleasant surprise" when I played through the game.

 

-Hiring Michael Hogan as a voice actor - because who doesn't want to take orders from Col. Tigh? I'm also a big fan of characters with flaws, and Tullius fits that bill.

 

-Building a complex world that revolves around races/nations/individuals with different perspectives and goals, rather than a traditional good vs. evil theme (excluding Alduin).

 

-Making the Daedric quests much more complex and interesting than they've been in any other TES game (with the possible exception of Daggerfall, where you actually had to do research on the Daedric Princes, learn how to summon them, and wait for the stars to align, so to speak).

 

-Unrelenting Force. Die, bunnies, die!

Edited October 30, 2012 by JanusForbeare

[AnkhAscendant]

By the way i'm all in favor of giving Bethesda credit where credit is due, but i'm not too sure they should be giving any credit for the same sex marriage aspect. They didn't do anything special for it, all they did was make the game not recognize sex in marital situations. They did the same thing in fallout new vegas with prostitutes. It's actually less work for them to do it that way than to code in a sex parameter for certain situations. Also they did that mostly to avoid the stress of all the complaints and possible hits they could take from not making it available. So do I think they did this from the kindness of their hearts? Ehh......>.>

 

Oh, I know it's easier to not disable same-sex marriage, I actually just figured most games would go to the extra trouble just to be, I dunno, family-friendly. Clearly I haven't much faith in things. Sure it wasn't out of the kindness of their hearts, but I still give them credit for not going out of their way to be 'safe' ^^ Of course I'd give them even more credit for the same if they hadn't gone out of their way to make children invulnerable, but... :rolleyes:

[slainia]

Trying to think of things, and so far most of what i'm coming up with is mostly improvements on things they did with oblivion.

However, I have to admit - I lovelovelove using unrelenting force to shove enemies down stairs, or off -hopefully- small cliffs. Something so satisfying about seeing them go flying just as they're about to smash my face in...

I don't like havoc in my houses, tho, so... yeah.

Gonna have to think about this one. The game has don a lot right - but figuring out whats innovation or significant enough to be mentioned here is hard. haha.

[MiloHunts]

Improvements over other TES games

 

Crafting has to be at the top of the list (modders tried to make crafting in Oblivion, MERP mod, but had a lot of issues)

 

Inventory? that is a laugh, SkyUI is a 2000% improvement

 

civil war? nope that is why War Zones came out

 

Dragons attacking? nope that is why Deadly Dragons is here

 

All new Armor? nope same old stuff (except for the hide, and dragon armor)

 

Guilds? nope downsized

 

Theifs guild? nope they have always been "no killing", but not here, the theives guild has turned into the DB

 

Vampires? ya they look better, but every Vampire is a day walker (Morrowind had it the best)

 

Snow, the snow looks alittle better, but the blizard winds are the best part of the snow.

 

NPC voices? hmmm well if you like hearing the same voices everywhere, then that is a plus

 

New start to game? not really, you are still a prisoner. So now there are mods like "live another life"

 

nicer skies? not realy, there were a lot of mods for Oblivion that made it look better

 

Great textures to everything? nope, that is why people make Hi Res

 

Horses are better from what i have seen, you can attack from horse back now, where in Oblivion there was a mod by the MERP team to do that

 

Skills better? depends on your point of view (I like Morrowind skills the best)

 

Better looking and moving Characters/NPC? yes much better

 

Better waters? the rapids are much better

 

Thats all for now :tongue:

Edited October 30, 2012 by MiloHunts

[slainia]

Milo - that's kind of what l'm looking at it from. Coming from Morrowind & Oblivion, Skyrim isn't truly outstanding. if you're new to tes, then yeah it's a pretty awesome game. But in reality, although the graphics and engine are much better they removed a lot of good things from previous games. Mostly Morrowind, but anyway. However:

I'm enjoying the new take on dwemer dungeons. It's mostly an aesthetic thing, but I'm liking it. Same with the crypts. I do miss morrowinds, but these ones are MUCH more detailed and realistic, especially in terms of immersion. Can't quite figure out why I liked morrowinds - probably the whisper sound effect, creepy! - but in terms of quality skyrim blows it out of the water. Misses out on atmosphere, but whatever.

 

I'm also REALLY enjoying the graphics. now that I have dynamic snow installed, it's not nearly as annoying, and I'm able to enjoy skyrim much more. I like the ability to have a companion, too, although I wish they were all as in depth as certain ones - I love Janessa's attitude & her ambient comments. IMO that's a reason in itself to have her along. (I feel guilty not using lydia, but she annoys me now. :>)

[MiloHunts]

More to add :teehee:

 

Random Caves and Dungeons

I have been making it a point to see what is in the caves and dungeons.

50%+ of the caves I have gone into have maybe 1 critter in them and are a single room, a lot of Dungeons are practically empty.

Not sure of Bethesda did this on purpose so modders can freely add to them, of if they were in such a rush to meat the deadline that they chose not to do anything with them, but it is very disappointing

 

On a plus side, the Dawn Guard quest, the Falmer part is very well populated with Falmer, very enjoyable killing run :D

 

EDIT:

Scratch what I said about Bethesda doing it for modders.

I was just thinking that the same Skyrim is out for the Xbox 360, so it had to be either they were to lazy or ran out of time before the dead line, either way they beleive in putting out an unfinished product and a sub quality product.

Edited October 30, 2012 by MiloHunts

[luzburg]

Combat Combat Combat Combat

 

Magic. I much prefer the way magic works in Skyrim to the mess it was in both Morrowind and Oblivion. (Especially with mods like Skyre that have made it much better again. The weapon buff spells are very fun and make enchanting less essential for dealing damage.)

 

Generally its a lot more fun, possibly due to the streamlined nature of the game. Morrowind felt like a chore to me, Oblivion did too until I found Oblivion XP <3.

[sajuukkhar9000]

-The world, Skyrim's landscape is vastly improved, and more diverse then Oblivion's.

 

-The dungeons, equally improved and more diverse.

 

-NPCs, considerably less reuse of voices, better NPC schedules, and NPC to NPC conversations.

 

-Daedric quests are now more intertwined with the world instead of them all being "Find shrine, pay tribute, do quest, done"

 

-Guilds, actually have depth now, they are on the short side, but an overall improvement

 

-Combat, you actually have more things to do in combat besides run up an spam mouse1, power attacks, shield blocking, and the various perks that modify them give several new options to make combat less dull then in past ES games.

Edited October 30, 2012 by sajuukkhar9000