Skyrim - One Hour With Skyrim Finally Made Me a True Believer

Ripten has a hands-on Skyrim preview titled One Hour With Skyrim Finally Me Me a True Believer. The author is a self-professed "PC RPGamer and an old school Elder Scrolls fan", who was apparently disappointed with the E3 demo but converted after this hands-on. Pesonally, I didn't see anything that would really convert the non-believer but here's a snip (language warning for the those offended by such and bad spelling warning for the rest of us):

I pressed the map button and the camera shot up into the heavens. Talk about an in-game map! The map of the game is actually the game world itself! You will actually look down upon all of Skyrim in real time from the clouds. Talk about draw distance! It was gorgeous to say the least, and really conveyed a grand sense of scale. You are small, Skyrim… is enourmous. I saw a town nearby and decided to head off in that direction. However, it wasn’t long before I was approached by a woman who was trying to escape from yet another group of bandits.
She ran to me and asked for my help. I accepted as the bandits came toward me. It was too late to draw my bow so as I meant to draw my axe, I instead hit the wrong button (damned consoles) and ended up in 3rd person perspective. “Shit!” I thought. “This wont do at all, I’m fucked!” But there was no time. I side stepped one bandit and hacked at another. Before long they were all brought down as I circled my camera around to survey the damage I’d done. I jumped around in celebration. “…Hey” I thought. “The jumping animation isn’t terrible anymore and… holy shit I just played the game in 3rd person and it worked!” Not only that but it was damn near enjoyable. Dare I say that Skyrim is playable and outright fun in a 3rd person perspective?! Could such a thing be true?! Did Bethesda actually live up to the promise of making an Elder Scrolls game that was playable in something other than a first person perspective?! It had appeared so. I was impressed.

Thanks, Count Chocula!
More information.

I daresay I like 3rd person perspective, but I also prefer point and click navigation instead of the typical Hey-I'm-driving-a-car! Hit-the-gas! Now-steer-left! WASD scheme.

3rd person sounds good to me, even though I've been able to fully enjoy their past titles in first-person. This is the next logical step in the series, outside of a full fledged 3rd person MMO, but I highly doubt Bethesda is ready to do that yet.

I grew up obviously on 1st person dungeon crawlers and 2D sprite based RPGs, but lately I've grown to really love 3rd person RPGs, so I plan to play Skyrim entirely in said mode…

I will never play a Elder Scroll game in 3rd person. I don't have any problem with other 3rd person RPGs, like Gothic, Risen, Divinity II, etc, but for me, 1st person will ever be the way to play the games of the Elder Scroll saga.

Originally Posted by fastica
I will never play a Elder Scroll game in 3rd person. I don't have any problem with other 3rd person RPGs, like Gothic, Risen, Divinity II, etc, but for me, 1st person will ever be the way to play the games of the Elder Scroll saga.

Interesting, I feel similarly about using 1st person in past Bethesda games as well as Fallout New Vegas.

I have played each of Morrowind, Oblivion, FO3, FNV, roughly 80% of the time in 3rd person and about 20% in first person, mainly when using a bow and arrow (or some sort of long range gun in the case of Fallout).

The most intriguing information in the article, however was the confirmation of VAMPIRES!

Also,

• There is a group of vampires hanging out in a mountain cave not far from Riverwood
  
• The bartender in Riverwood is Jim Cummings (at least the writer believes he is) and he gave the PC a quest to steal a journal from someone
  
• There is a sort of attack move where you can push enemies around with your shield or weapon, he uses it to push some draugr off a cliff
  
• When bards sing in taverns, the patrons dance

I really don't like 3rd person, over the shoulder RPGs. Suddenly there's this… person in between me and everything I want to look at. I can't get a good, close look at anything without awkward camera movements or, if they've bothered, using a usually clunky first person camera mode. It's fine if it's an option, and it's always nice to be able to take a look at your persona, but being stuck in that view completely kills my sense of immersion.

That said, one exception is the system used in Vampire the Undeadening Bloodlines Colonated Longname, where it jumped to third person if you used melee attacks. I found that far less jarring, and most of the gameplay was still through my eyes, not from some creepy, invisible stalker following my character around.

If he really was an old skool PC RPGamer he would have complained about how laughably easy it apparently is. I'm hoping (and this seems logical) that the demo version they were playing had the difficulty nerfed.

I keep seeing reports that say that say that Skyrim looks good - I have absolutely no doubt that it does and I have absolutely no doubt that if I was to play for an hour I would have a lot of fun as well. I'm waiting to see something that tells me that, besides its pretty looks and fun little gimmicks, the game has enough depth and content to keep me interested for as long as Daggerfall and Morrowind did.

Originally Posted by Menigal
I really don't like 3rd person, over the shoulder RPGs. Suddenly there's this… person in between me and everything I want to look at. I can't get a good, close look at anything without awkward camera movements or, if they've bothered, using a usually clunky first person camera mode. It's fine if it's an option, and it's always nice to be able to take a look at your persona, but being stuck in that view completely kills my sense of immersion.

That said, one exception is the system used in Vampire the Undeadening Bloodlines Colonated Longname, where it jumped to third person if you used melee attacks. I found that far less jarring, and most of the gameplay was still through my eyes, not from some creepy, invisible stalker following my character around.

I feel the same, but maybe Skyrim will change that. I'm curious to see how the different kill/finishing moves will be implemented. Do you need to be in 3rd person to see a finishing move? Sometimes it's good to get a different viewpoint.

I prefer 3rd person, so this is good news. It always annoyed me that Morrowind and Oblivion had weird 3rd person animations.

Originally Posted by spiraling69
I feel the same, but maybe Skyrim will change that. I'm curious to see how the different kill/finishing moves will be implemented. Do you need to be in 3rd person to see a finishing move? Sometimes it's good to get a different viewpoint.

Maybe it'll be like VATS kills in the recent Fallouts.

Originally Posted by spiraling69
I feel the same, but maybe Skyrim will change that. I'm curious to see how the different kill/finishing moves will be implemented. Do you need to be in 3rd person to see a finishing move? Sometimes it's good to get a different viewpoint.

Some finishing moves have first person animations and others are 3rd person only. Looks like it switch from 1st to 3rd and back if necessary. You can see a few in the different cut&pasted videos from E3.

Okay I am going to be an old curmudgeon and rant for a minute that I really hate this finishing move nonsense in RPGs and the fact that it has become absolutely obligatory at this point. RPGs are not Mortal Kombat. Who started this nonsense? I'm trying to remember the first game that had it.

At least if they have to do it I hope that it's not all slow mo instant replay. That drives me up the wall! I am not 15 and I am not impressed by some ridiculous slashing move that looks like it belongs in an Anime. Just get on with the damned game!

/angry rant

Originally Posted by Motoki
Who started this nonsense? I'm trying to remember the first game that had it.

I personally blame God of War.

I remember them in Gothic 1.

Originally Posted by CountChocula
Interesting, I feel similarly about using 1st person in past Bethesda games as well as Fallout New Vegas.

I have played each of Morrowind, Oblivion, FO3, FNV, roughly 80% of the time in 3rd person and about 20% in first person, mainly when using a bow and arrow (or some sort of long range gun in the case of Fallout).

The most intriguing information in the article, however was the confirmation of VAMPIRES!

Also,

• There is a group of vampires hanging out in a mountain cave not far from Riverwood
  
• The bartender in Riverwood is Jim Cummings (at least the writer believes he is) and he gave the PC a quest to steal a journal from someone
  
• There is a sort of attack move where you can push enemies around with your shield or weapon, he uses it to push some draugr off a cliff
  
• When bards sing in taverns, the patrons dance

Vampire confirmation is a big deal for a lot of people. I wonder if the author of this article was given permition or did it just slip out. Bethesda have been fairly tight-lipped about vampires and werewolf's, so this is a nice surprise.

1 hour, huh? Way to get owned. Imagine it was a car or a woman or anything.

Yup, you ate the bait. But if you think you really know a game from just 1 hour with it I think you don't really know games at all.

Originally Posted by Corwin
I remember them in Gothic 1.

Yeah, but they actually made sense in Gothic. They gave you a choice of killing someone or simply knocking them unconscious.

Finishing moves in games like God of War serve no purpose other than to give the kiddies more ways to see digital blood.

If they're talking about 'cinematic finishing moves', then yep, I don't like them either - I think they're kinda silly. "Wow, I'm so cool! look how I eviscerated that dood!" The Witcher does too much of that, wish I could turn it off. I can't, can I? You also lose control of your character during that move, and other attackers stand back to watch your handiwork - politely waiting until you're done. Surprised they don't applaud.

It kind of depends on how you define these finishing moves. The slow motion spinning camera is of course a recent addition but even as far back as the original Fallouts, the "Bloody Mess" perk served no other purpose than provide a "cool" finish when you killed an enemy.