I started writing various impressions in some news thread, but realized it started to become a bit much, so I cut it short (relatively speaking) and decided to make a thread about it. I will try to keep it spoiler free for now. If people ask specific questions, I'll reply with spoiler tags. Let's try to keep it spoiler free, so everyone can read it.
First off, let me say the game is massive, so I obviously have not completed everything yet. I have the following content left:
— Cities —
- Winterhold
- Windhelm
- Solitude
- Dawnstar
- Falkreath
— Regions —
- South west
- North east
- North (central, area around Solitude)
— Guilds —
- Thieves Guild
- Mage Guild
- Dark Brotherhood
- Legion
- Stormcloaks
In other words: Quite a lot. My first character was an honorable orc fighter and focused on fighter based guilds and quests. I avoided as many thief/murder type quests as possible, simply because there's no way to pick an honorable outcome. I'll do those quests on my thief character. My mage will also be honorable, so he'll focus primarily on the mage guild + various major cities.
The reason I'm doing it this way is a drawback that is as ever present in Skyrim as it was in Oblivion - linear quests. I've found a few exceptions, so it's a bit less linear than Oblivion, but they are quite rare.
The comparison will be primarily to Oblivion and/or Morrowind, as the Bethesda recipe is still quite unique.
Graphics
As always in Bethesda games, the graphics are great. Not as impressive as Oblivion was back in the days, but it should be more than enough for anyone who enjoy RPGs. My computer has no issues running the game on Ultra, no glitches or anything.
It is a bit interesting to consider the whole engine thing. Is it really a new engine? It's certainly a lot smoother, but a lot of the effects are so similar to what we're used to in Bethesda games, I'm really starting to wonder if actually made a new engine, but copied so many of the things we've seen in Fallout 3 and Oblivion. An example is the slow-down-killing-blow thing - it's identical to previous implementations.
It's not really important though, as long as the game runs smoothly and looks nice.
Sound
I'm not as overwhelmed as some of the reviewers seem to be. Yes, it's all high quality stuff, but hardly mind blowing. The music is certainly not on par with Gothic 3, or even Morrowind in my opinion (I really enjoyed the sound track of Morrowind). The voice actomg is all solid, but I don't see how they're better than DS3, Alpha Protocol, Gothic 3 and so on and so forth that all got criticized for having bad voice acting. In fact, some of the voice actors are actually the same, such as the guy that played Deckard Cain in Diablo 2 (he was in both Gothic 3 and Skyrim).
Still, it's as good as anyone can expect, and quite a bit better than Oblivion - no random voice stuff or weird conversations. The conversations are certainly scripted this time, which works out a lot better.
Gameplay
Same as always. If you like Bethesda's gameplay, you'll like it here too. If you never liked it before, you won't like it now. Simple as that really.
There are a few improvements though:
- I actually prefer the new character system. Not all perks are equally interesting, but they do seem fairly balanced and it's quite a smooth system.
- Dual wielding! About time! It even works out well - my first character used primarily dual wielding, and he sliced most creatures apart pretty fast. Except Giants. Don't go near Giants.
- Working 3rd person view! Yes, they did it! It took them a bunch of tries, but this time they nailed it. I can now flawlessly switch between my beloved 3rd person view, and 1st person view for inspecting something closely. This is a pretty big plus in my opinion, though I still feel it's something that should've been available already in Morrowind. It can't be that hard to implement properly, can it?
- Toned down level scaling. I'm pretty sure there's still level scaling, as I completed the game in Blade gear, capable of killing most creatures without breaking a sweat. I suspect the system works similar to the system in Gothic 3, where there is limited level scaling, but not enough to remove the "danger factor". Bump into a Giant early on and he'll kill you in a single blow. Bump into him 15 levels later, and.. he'll kill you in about two blows instead. Dragons seem to scale more than most enemies though, as they seemed to be roughly as tough no matter when I met them.
- Better use of 3D and the Z-axis. This is something PB mastered years ago - how to properly make use of the Z-axis. Oblivion, Morrowind and Fallout 3 all used a similar recipe, with slopes more than proper mountains, and very few canyons, bridges etc. Skyrim is vastly superior to previous Bethesda titles in terms of 3D.
That being said, there is also a drawback: Morrowind still trumps Skyrim when it comes to magic. Neither Oblivion, nor Skyrim, is anywhere near Morrowind.
Quests
Overall, the quality of the quests is relatively high. There are quite a few FedEx quests, but it didn't really bother me as I just avoided them after a while (they usually pay insignificant amounts of gold).
The only real complaint is the exact same complaint I had in Oblivion: No way to influence the outcome of the quests/questlines. In D&D terms: If I'm playing someone who happens to be Lawful Good, I want to be able to handle situations as if I'm Lawful Good, not True Neutral. I consider this a major issue, as it really lowers replay value - there are now dozens of quests I simply don't feel like doing again, as the reward was lousy and I know exactly what the outcome is. Nothing will change.
Edit1: I see there is an achievement related to conquering one of two cities. I suspect I know what needs to be done in order to complete it. If my suspicion is correct, that is quite a choice with a fairly big impact. Definetly something I'll check out with my next character.
Story
In good ol'Bethesda fashion it's quite.. weird. I'm not going to spoil anything, but at times it felt as weird as the questline of Morrowind. No need to close 10 Oblivion gates though, so it's automatically superior to Oblivion in that regard. The writing seems to be the same as always - good enough to be captivating, which is all it really needs to be in an open world game.
Skyrim still has the "it's urgent, but not really urgent" thing going on, but that's hard to avoid. I've played very few games where this was not the case. In fact, the only game I can think of Baldur's Gate 2, which used a rather cheap mechanism to avoid the problem (gather 20.000 gold).
Exploration
The heart of such a game! And yes, it really is a lot better than Oblivion. I haven't noticed a single re-used dungeon, and I've even encountered several big ones with puzzles and what not in them.
However, about halfway through I lost the motivation to explore. I realized that, while most dungeons seem unique, what I'm going to find inside them is not. I've only seen a few pieces of hand placed loot, and they were all related to some quest (Companions quest, main quest, etc). The rest seem to be generic, which means it's not really worth anything after you get to the point where money is no longer an issue. Near the end of the game I had more money than I could spend, so why drag along useless items?
In other words, I primarily did dungeons that were quest related near the end. If I didn't have a quest in some specific dungeon that I came across, I simply didn't enter it at all.
It's better than Oblivion though, hands down. Not all games can be Gothic 2, right?
Oh yes, almost forgot to mention: The scope is very impressive. I'm not sure how it relates to Oblivion in terms of size, but it feels a whole lot bigger. Could be the Z-axis thing though, as Oblivion was similar to Denmark, while Skyrim is more akin to Norway.
Unfortunately, that also means Oblivion was about as varied as Denmark, and Skyrim as varied as Norway, which means.. not very varied at all. Don't get me wrong - it's very realistic for an area the size of Skyrim to not be very varied, but when I'm playing games I prefer a little more variation. Maybe Bethesda should make a sci-fi game? That way, their worlds can all be realistic, but still varied as you travel between different worlds with different climates and cultures.
All in all, I still think Morrowind had a more fun world to explore. It not only felt a bit more varied and unique, but I seem to recall more special loot too, and a culture that was a bit more interesting to explore. Of course, Morrowind had Buzzards and massive, boring ash plains, so it wasn't fantastic at all times.
Verdict
Well, I've only completed about 1/3 of the overall quests (rough estimate), in addition to the main quest, so I can't really give a final verdict just yet. However, I would currently place it somewhere between Morrowind and Oblivion. It is clearly superior to Oblivion, I very much doubt anything is going to change my opinion on that matter. However, I'm still a bit uncertain as far as Morrowind goes.
On the plus side, Morrowind was more interesting in terms of factions and quest structure. Deciding which house to join had a massive impact, as did the other factions once you neared the end of their questlines. I also remember that it felt like a much greater achievement to reach the top of the Legion than anything I've felt in other Elder Scrolls games. I really felt like the king of the world when I finally beat what's-his-name in the arena, after having gradually risen through the ranks.
Then again, Skyrim has superior atmosphere, NPC behavior and overall gameplay. It's nowhere near as rough around the edges as Morrowind was, and would obliterate Morrowind in terms of gameplay if only the magic system had been anywhere near the one in Morrowind.
Anyway, in time I'll reach something of a final verdict. For now, Morrowind is still the top Elder Scrolls game for me - the main reason being the factions and the fact that I didn't grow bored as fast while exploring the world. It simply didn't feel as predictable.
That is all I can think of for now, might add more later. Feel free to add questions/impressions/discussions etc.
Edits:
- Edit1, quest section updated.
First off, let me say the game is massive, so I obviously have not completed everything yet. I have the following content left:
— Cities —
- Winterhold
- Windhelm
- Solitude
- Dawnstar
- Falkreath
— Regions —
- South west
- North east
- North (central, area around Solitude)
— Guilds —
- Thieves Guild
- Mage Guild
- Dark Brotherhood
- Legion
- Stormcloaks
In other words: Quite a lot. My first character was an honorable orc fighter and focused on fighter based guilds and quests. I avoided as many thief/murder type quests as possible, simply because there's no way to pick an honorable outcome. I'll do those quests on my thief character. My mage will also be honorable, so he'll focus primarily on the mage guild + various major cities.
The reason I'm doing it this way is a drawback that is as ever present in Skyrim as it was in Oblivion - linear quests. I've found a few exceptions, so it's a bit less linear than Oblivion, but they are quite rare.
The comparison will be primarily to Oblivion and/or Morrowind, as the Bethesda recipe is still quite unique.
Graphics
As always in Bethesda games, the graphics are great. Not as impressive as Oblivion was back in the days, but it should be more than enough for anyone who enjoy RPGs. My computer has no issues running the game on Ultra, no glitches or anything.
It is a bit interesting to consider the whole engine thing. Is it really a new engine? It's certainly a lot smoother, but a lot of the effects are so similar to what we're used to in Bethesda games, I'm really starting to wonder if actually made a new engine, but copied so many of the things we've seen in Fallout 3 and Oblivion. An example is the slow-down-killing-blow thing - it's identical to previous implementations.
It's not really important though, as long as the game runs smoothly and looks nice.
Sound
I'm not as overwhelmed as some of the reviewers seem to be. Yes, it's all high quality stuff, but hardly mind blowing. The music is certainly not on par with Gothic 3, or even Morrowind in my opinion (I really enjoyed the sound track of Morrowind). The voice actomg is all solid, but I don't see how they're better than DS3, Alpha Protocol, Gothic 3 and so on and so forth that all got criticized for having bad voice acting. In fact, some of the voice actors are actually the same, such as the guy that played Deckard Cain in Diablo 2 (he was in both Gothic 3 and Skyrim).
Still, it's as good as anyone can expect, and quite a bit better than Oblivion - no random voice stuff or weird conversations. The conversations are certainly scripted this time, which works out a lot better.
Gameplay
Same as always. If you like Bethesda's gameplay, you'll like it here too. If you never liked it before, you won't like it now. Simple as that really.
There are a few improvements though:
- I actually prefer the new character system. Not all perks are equally interesting, but they do seem fairly balanced and it's quite a smooth system.
- Dual wielding! About time! It even works out well - my first character used primarily dual wielding, and he sliced most creatures apart pretty fast. Except Giants. Don't go near Giants.
- Working 3rd person view! Yes, they did it! It took them a bunch of tries, but this time they nailed it. I can now flawlessly switch between my beloved 3rd person view, and 1st person view for inspecting something closely. This is a pretty big plus in my opinion, though I still feel it's something that should've been available already in Morrowind. It can't be that hard to implement properly, can it?
- Toned down level scaling. I'm pretty sure there's still level scaling, as I completed the game in Blade gear, capable of killing most creatures without breaking a sweat. I suspect the system works similar to the system in Gothic 3, where there is limited level scaling, but not enough to remove the "danger factor". Bump into a Giant early on and he'll kill you in a single blow. Bump into him 15 levels later, and.. he'll kill you in about two blows instead. Dragons seem to scale more than most enemies though, as they seemed to be roughly as tough no matter when I met them.
- Better use of 3D and the Z-axis. This is something PB mastered years ago - how to properly make use of the Z-axis. Oblivion, Morrowind and Fallout 3 all used a similar recipe, with slopes more than proper mountains, and very few canyons, bridges etc. Skyrim is vastly superior to previous Bethesda titles in terms of 3D.
That being said, there is also a drawback: Morrowind still trumps Skyrim when it comes to magic. Neither Oblivion, nor Skyrim, is anywhere near Morrowind.
Quests
Overall, the quality of the quests is relatively high. There are quite a few FedEx quests, but it didn't really bother me as I just avoided them after a while (they usually pay insignificant amounts of gold).
The only real complaint is the exact same complaint I had in Oblivion: No way to influence the outcome of the quests/questlines. In D&D terms: If I'm playing someone who happens to be Lawful Good, I want to be able to handle situations as if I'm Lawful Good, not True Neutral. I consider this a major issue, as it really lowers replay value - there are now dozens of quests I simply don't feel like doing again, as the reward was lousy and I know exactly what the outcome is. Nothing will change.
Edit1: I see there is an achievement related to conquering one of two cities. I suspect I know what needs to be done in order to complete it. If my suspicion is correct, that is quite a choice with a fairly big impact. Definetly something I'll check out with my next character.
Story
In good ol'Bethesda fashion it's quite.. weird. I'm not going to spoil anything, but at times it felt as weird as the questline of Morrowind. No need to close 10 Oblivion gates though, so it's automatically superior to Oblivion in that regard. The writing seems to be the same as always - good enough to be captivating, which is all it really needs to be in an open world game.
Skyrim still has the "it's urgent, but not really urgent" thing going on, but that's hard to avoid. I've played very few games where this was not the case. In fact, the only game I can think of Baldur's Gate 2, which used a rather cheap mechanism to avoid the problem (gather 20.000 gold).
Exploration
The heart of such a game! And yes, it really is a lot better than Oblivion. I haven't noticed a single re-used dungeon, and I've even encountered several big ones with puzzles and what not in them.
However, about halfway through I lost the motivation to explore. I realized that, while most dungeons seem unique, what I'm going to find inside them is not. I've only seen a few pieces of hand placed loot, and they were all related to some quest (Companions quest, main quest, etc). The rest seem to be generic, which means it's not really worth anything after you get to the point where money is no longer an issue. Near the end of the game I had more money than I could spend, so why drag along useless items?
In other words, I primarily did dungeons that were quest related near the end. If I didn't have a quest in some specific dungeon that I came across, I simply didn't enter it at all.
It's better than Oblivion though, hands down. Not all games can be Gothic 2, right?
Oh yes, almost forgot to mention: The scope is very impressive. I'm not sure how it relates to Oblivion in terms of size, but it feels a whole lot bigger. Could be the Z-axis thing though, as Oblivion was similar to Denmark, while Skyrim is more akin to Norway.
Unfortunately, that also means Oblivion was about as varied as Denmark, and Skyrim as varied as Norway, which means.. not very varied at all. Don't get me wrong - it's very realistic for an area the size of Skyrim to not be very varied, but when I'm playing games I prefer a little more variation. Maybe Bethesda should make a sci-fi game? That way, their worlds can all be realistic, but still varied as you travel between different worlds with different climates and cultures.
All in all, I still think Morrowind had a more fun world to explore. It not only felt a bit more varied and unique, but I seem to recall more special loot too, and a culture that was a bit more interesting to explore. Of course, Morrowind had Buzzards and massive, boring ash plains, so it wasn't fantastic at all times.
Verdict
Well, I've only completed about 1/3 of the overall quests (rough estimate), in addition to the main quest, so I can't really give a final verdict just yet. However, I would currently place it somewhere between Morrowind and Oblivion. It is clearly superior to Oblivion, I very much doubt anything is going to change my opinion on that matter. However, I'm still a bit uncertain as far as Morrowind goes.
On the plus side, Morrowind was more interesting in terms of factions and quest structure. Deciding which house to join had a massive impact, as did the other factions once you neared the end of their questlines. I also remember that it felt like a much greater achievement to reach the top of the Legion than anything I've felt in other Elder Scrolls games. I really felt like the king of the world when I finally beat what's-his-name in the arena, after having gradually risen through the ranks.
Then again, Skyrim has superior atmosphere, NPC behavior and overall gameplay. It's nowhere near as rough around the edges as Morrowind was, and would obliterate Morrowind in terms of gameplay if only the magic system had been anywhere near the one in Morrowind.
Anyway, in time I'll reach something of a final verdict. For now, Morrowind is still the top Elder Scrolls game for me - the main reason being the factions and the fact that I didn't grow bored as fast while exploring the world. It simply didn't feel as predictable.
That is all I can think of for now, might add more later. Feel free to add questions/impressions/discussions etc.
Edits:
- Edit1, quest section updated.
Last edited: