A severely lacking game.

[hubsabubs]

You know, I have been playing Skyrim for a couple months now, gotten into some serious modding. IMO this game lacks so many decent features, I am glad to see them dropping Skyrim from their platter at Bethesda Games. The game has been out for about a year and a half and yet it lacks sooooooooooooo much.

 

The melee combat system in itself is difficult due to shortage of a targeting system, you just hack and slash until you hit something. I'm tired of throwing myself off cliffs and into gulley's/valley's when I do a power attack and or miss an attack on someone. The bow targeting is off by a little bit to the left so you have to learn to over adjust when you fire just to hit the target. The battles in this game are ridiculously underpowered, and the monsters you have to defeat you can cut through like butter.

 

Where are the epic boss battles and realm invasions. I wanted to see some Huge bosses. Each dungeon lacks in number of bad guys. I want large epic swarms hell bent on defeating me, or stopping me from completing my quests, I want blood spattered brutal mayhem when raiding a dungeon. Why is it I can attack from my horse, however there's no battles or enemy encounters that take place on horseback. I would really love some mounted player on mounted enemy battle action. How about some dragon mounted aerial battles? Considering you can ride them in the Dragonborn DLC. The roleplaying aspect falls short of an actual RPG. Where is the running jump? I can't jump while I run, do you know how difficult it is to run up a mountain have to stop then wait a second then jump an obstacle then run some more.

 

The leveling system is shot, I have never played a game with a worse leveling system. And they try to cover it up with Legendary skills. Please come on. Yes the environment is immersive, but again lacks so much realism. Where are the drunken brawls you would find in a tavern or alehouse? Or some street action you would find in the alleys or side streets of cities. There's no entertainment. Where are my wenches at? Why can't I sit down and play some lore friendly games in a tavern? Chess, cards, something who knows just something.

 

To me they spent more time on the look of the game than the actual game itself. I want better, and I doubt Elder Scrolls Online will do it for me

Edited April 19, 2013 by hubsabubs

[daventry]

I agree with you

Edited April 19, 2013 by daventry

[bcofer]

I feel this way often, but still play for the "Oh look" moments. Oh look, Blackreach. Oh look, an opposing army advances.

 

But yes, killing the god dragon before becoming even a guildmaster seemed weird.

[Cipherthe3vil]

Skyrim would be epic with an Eastern RPG style combat system. Some of them anyway. I saw a video/gameplay trailer showing some other similar game where it gave off a very skyrim like feel but the combat looked amazing: You could even leap on flying creatures and keep fighting them like that.

[Elfriend]

I've been playing it for almost a year and I think it's fantastic. Bow sight is off, so you have to adjust your aim? My, that's unrealistic. Ever get into a long melee duel with a boss AI that knows how to block, bash and power attack? I'm still figuring it out, but I have yet to fall off a cliff attacking someone with a sword. Been through the whole game and not satisfied? Try it with some of the realism mods like Hypothermia and Basic Needs. In fact, mods will correct a lot of your complaints. Try playing it as a sandbox, rather than just blowing through the built-in main quest. But then, you don't sound like a role-player.

 

I'd like some of the things you mention, like gambling games in the inns or random muggings in the cities (there are some), but no game has everything for everyone. Until one does, I'm sticking with this one.

[demidekidasu]

I agree with you completely, OP. I think the biggest problem I personally have with the game is the seriously dull world. I mean, everything is just narrow valleys and you are constrained far too much by geography. Can't wonder too far into the woods without coming up against some unclimbable rock wall or mountain of some sort. And when there are open spaces, there is literally NOTHING of interest there at all. Think back to Oblivion (if you ever played it). How many times did you get lost in seemingly endless woods then suddenly stumble upon some random farmhouse, deadric shrine, ancient ruins, or whatever, with a quest that starts there? There was actually a point to exploring in Oblivion, whereas in Skyrim, it essentially PUNISHES you for exploring, by breaking quests... It just begs belief that this is an Elder Scrolls game at times.

 

But guess what? This is their most successful game, so expect the next one to be even worse...

 

However, I agree with Elfriend that some of the complaints you mentioned are fixed with mods, thankfully :)

Edited April 19, 2013 by demidekidasu

[hubsabubs]

I understand being fixed by mods and modders. By all rights why does it have to be fixed? Ask yourselves that, we as consumers however granted the power of having access to a modding system. Did we have to go out on our own and fix it. I am finding myself piling on mod after mod to just get it the way It should have been out of the box.

Can't I just plug and play out of the box like I did the new Tomb Raider. A Game in which I could finally play without any real complaints other than damn I wish there was more to do after it was over.

Skyrim just isn't challenging. The puzzles are actually really easy. The gap between player and enemies is massive, making it to simple to just plow through. What actually is challenging is figuring out how to layer and mix the mods necessary to play it that actually work together without conflict and crashing the game

Try it with some of the realism mods like Hypothermia and Basic Needs. In fact, mods will correct a lot of your complaints. Try playing it as a sandbox, rather than just blowing through the built-in main quest. But then, you don't sound like a role-player.

One of my better arguments to propose is, Final Fantasy VII will always be the game changer, letting the world know you don't need excessive, ever so impressive graphics to have one hell of a storyline and world experience that people are still undergoing and experiencing more than 16 years later. Heck last time I checked a copy of it was on Amazon for $250.00 A near 2 decade old Playstation One game for $250.00. I see Skyrim in the used bin for 12.99$ and will see it fade off the radar into an, Oh yeah that's right I forgot all about that game in 5 years tops.

I don't sound like a role player. @_@ I was besting Final Fantasy on a portable gray brick called the Gameboy. Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Final Fantasy 1-9 because X, X2 sucked. Suikoden 1-5. On top of playing Turn based RPG board games, dice games since I was 9. Speaking of dice style games Neverwinter Nights and Neverwinter Nights 2 based on DnD rules are two of and will stay two of my favorites of the pc RPG game genre.

What happened to games that actually had Expansion Packs.

Edited April 19, 2013 by hubsabubs

[TheLoreSeeker]

Almost all the things you listed are JRPGs....some of them are my favorite games....but still different genre.

[splicer666]

I'm sure you've already played Witcher 2? It has plenty of gambling, brawling and harlots :smile:

Skyrim's predecessor, The Elder Scrolls II, also had harlots and strumpets. I always liked it much better than the newer games. Instead of pandering to kids, it actually took generic randomness to the extreme by putting the player through endless, horrifying dungeons full of adult content and gore, to complete any kind of quest whether its killing a Grizzly Bear or saving a girl. This forced your imagination to work more, and made the game feel more meaningful. Escaping these dungeons tested your persistence and that's what I call a challenge. The game also had better art direction, voice acting, cinematics, MUSIC, and a far more immersive atmosphere... all using DOS technology.
These efforts were led by designer Julian LeFay, who had an ambitious vision of a truly open-ended RPG, and the top-notch music was provided by Eric Heberling.

Elder Scroll has had the same lead designer since Morrowind, Todd Howard. He took Daggerfall's risk-taking innovation away and threw it all under the bus, turning the genre into a sterile, console-ized cash cow. Music in a game has lost importance, seeing as they now use the same grand orchestral tracks over and over until you turn off the music cause you're nauseous from hearing it so much.
You realize that all these games, Oblivion, and the new Fallout games too -- have adhered to the same old vanilla, PG-rated fomula, because they've all been inexplicably successful in the market, so "why go away from what works". Instead of refining the quality of the game, they've refined the graphics, ease of use, and over marketability of the brand.

Hence, we end up with mediocre gameplay.

Edited April 20, 2013 by splicer666

[hubsabubs]

Yeah I forgot to mention the fact about the music being redundant and increasingly mundane. N the fact it seems it's voiced by a group of 5-10 people just using different tones and accents. I got tired of hearing 16 different NPC's with the same voice.

 

Like I mentioned before about FF7, the size, music, environment, characters, and everything else. They were not afraid to use 3 Discs. Unheard of at the time for even Sony. Not to many games spanned more than 1 Disc. Heck Star Ocean had something like 6 Discs.

 

We have Terabyte hard drives now and Blu-ray drives and discs capable of 50 or more GBs. Expand the game base. I would definitely let 100GBs heck even 200 GBs of HDD space go to use for a game if it was worth it. I am already using 21GBs for Skyrim. Why provide us with such vast storage capability if they aren't going to let us get the best use out of it. They need to stop limiting themselves on size.

 

Could you imagine the world we could interactively live in and experience if they produced that size of a game. Look at the world we experienced in FF7 with 3 700MB discs. Could you imagine what they could of done if they had the power of 50GBs.

 

And what happened to the ratings panel. Just because GTA San Andreas had an Adults only rating didn't stop it from selling like hot cakes. It seems people are afraid to make Rated-R movies anymore let alone Adults Only games. Considering most of us hardcore Gamers are in our 20s-50s. Why not right? Most of us got to help create and start the Gaming Generation.

Edited April 20, 2013 by hubsabubs