In what way is Skyrim shallow? Especially compared to Oblivion?
Oh and my first character was a Dunmer mage. Now I've got a Khajiit marksman/light armor/swordsman. He murdered some black people for their stuff and now has twin scimitars :jess:
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In what way is Skyrim shallow? Especially compared to Oblivion?
Oh and my first character was a Dunmer mage. Now I've got a Khajiit marksman/light armor/swordsman. He murdered some black people for their stuff and now has twin scimitars :jess:
Haven't you heard? It's cool to hate on new games these days.
My issue with Skyrim was the complete opposite - there was too much for me to do. The completionist in me had a seizure and I haven't touched it since.
Nord, Heavy Armor, one-handed, bow. Unless the DLC has raised the level cap, I'm at max level with like 9 perks still left to spend. I don't really need much else.
I've heard it depends on your PS3 hardware. Some people have problems loading and the game crashing. Also I've heard the farther you get in the game the more problems you run into. This may have been fixed but I know it was a big issue with several of my friends.
My problem with Skyrim is the same as all the Elder Scolls games and FO3. I don't enjoy killing things in like 2 hits once I'm level 15. It's too easy to become over powered early on and just dominate everything. By the time I'm in the late 20's early 30's I have several houses no need to a horse and more money than I'll ever need.
To be fair, I did get my money's worth out of it (60 or so hours, so $1/hr, not bad). I take some issue with judging a game solely on monetary worth, though. No other medium really gets judged using that as a metric so I don't think it's fair to write off complaints just because I did put a lot of time into it.
The shallowness comes from the characters inhabiting the big, pretty world Bethesda made, and the quests you're tasked with. Everything is gorgeous in the game. I loved exploring the nooks and crannies and walking through the cities. But no quest or character grabbed me. I did a significant chunk of the main story and stopped after capturing the dragon and flying away because I realized I just didn't care. It felt like a grind to advance the quest marker without anything really interesting happening. I also had done a lot of random quests and finished up the Mage's Guild on this play-through and felt they were the same.
I rerolled a totally different character after that, hoping to get more out of it by taking a path I don't typically play. I stopped the main quest and got caught up in the civil war, went through the Fighter's Guild and Dark Brotherhood, and still... nothing compelling. More grind for checkboxes in my quest log.
I can't tell you exactly what it is that the game is missing for me, but Oblivion really did have it in comparison. I think Oblivion felt more like a living, breathing world with characters I enjoyed compared to Skyrim. I liked seeing their little schedules play out and the kind of mischief you could get involved in with them. There really weren't any characters in comparison that gave me that same level of engagement and satisfaction. It had the same emptiness that MMOs have for me; it stopped being fun as soon as I stopped caring about the little bars going up every time I handed in a quest.
You are literally a crazy person, Stu.Quote:
I think Oblivion felt more like a living, breathing world with characters I enjoyed compared to Skyrim.
Dark Elf has always been my race of choice since Morrowind. It originally started out back in the Morrowind days because I like Drizzt Do'Urden (I know, completely different kind of Dark Elves), but in Oblivion and Skyrim i've always picked Dark Elf kind of as a nod to Morrowind being so awesome. Nords were always my second choice, just because I kind of like the big, barbarian like people.
My Skyrim character is a Dunmer and a hybrid between a fighter and an assassin. He's good with light armor, dual wielding swords, a bow and arrow, and sneaking. For the first half of the game, I would sneak around and get the sneak attack with an arrow or a back attack to give me the advantage for when the fight became close quarters combat. Now its to the point where a sneak attack kills everything, lol. I rarely use magic. My character is generally "good", but hates the Empire.
Well that isn't my main argument, not by a long shot, but I was too lazy to go into anything else at the moment. xD
My main arguments are usually against the following three points that people bring up:
a.) "It's too dumbed down", to which I reply that it's questionable (imo) because even some of Morrowind could be seen as "dumbed down" or easy, and most of the changes were of Quality of Life variety anyway;
b.) "The world isn't interesting", to which I reply, okay, I can understand how it's not interesting compared to Morrowind, but I have trouble seeing how it's less interesting than Oblivion which just feels like generic fantasyland/bad character design (to me);
and c.) "The quests don't grab me", which I actually don't have an argument for because that's a personal thing, I guess.
This is Elder Scrolls we're talking about here; you'll get the most out of it if you really, REALLY dig yourself into the lore and roleplay. You won't be happy if you're not into wandering around the map while trying to get into your character's mind. Speaking of which I'm going to post my character in a moment :)
Yeah you gotta be a nerdy sperg and run around pretending to be your character and being IN character and stuff.
Attachment 39097
Tandryl Sarethi can trace his lineage back to Ald'ruhn and House Redoran. Not that he thinks about it much. He is typically more focused on the here and now; figuring out what things need to be done and how to go about doing them. His ancestors never did anything for him, after all, regardless of what the Temples said. Nor had the gods, who had all but forsaken the Dunmer. That was just fine with Tandryl; his people had survived on their own and would continue to do so.
He was born in Morrowind but as soon as he was old enough to work he went off to Cyrodiil on his own accord. A rather un-Redoran thing to do, to be sure, but he figured that he ought to go where the work was and Cyrodiil had lots of work, right? Unfortunately for him, he was never fond of the place-- "Damn the whole province to Oblivion", he later said about it when someone asked-- and all he could really locate was standard mercenary work anyway.
Eventually he decided to try his luck elsewhere and headed to Skyrim, which is where he found himself entangled with the wrong company and nearly beheaded until a dragon conveniently intervened. Eventually he wound up in Whiterun performing odd jobs for the Jarl while trying to reorient himself. He found the Nords to be a straightforward and refreshing people and considerably more tolerable than Imperials or his stuffy Altmeri distant cousins.
Things promptly took a turn for the interesting when Tandyrl turned out to be the Dragonborn, some sort of Nordic legend that he was unfamiliar with, and it remains a role that he feels somewhat awkward fulfilling because of that fact. He is well aware of the parallels of the role he now holds and that of a particular folk hero of his people. He very vividly recalls the stories his parents would tell of an untrusted outlander who came to Vvardenfell and eventually became a champion of a people he knew little about and a land that was not his own.
Young Tandryl asked his mother if heroes like that still existed. She said she didn't know. Tandryl told her that he thought they did. Age and cynicism later beat the idea out of him, but now he finds himself starting to believe again.
And so he remains in Skyrim, his duty-bound Redoran blood having kicked in with full force, and his heart wondering if, perhaps, Nerevar continues to guide him and his people after all.
Nerevar guide you.
What a dapper looking fellow.
Worth noting that I sunk well over 100 hours into the game and maxed out every skill before leaving it, haha.
Similar to what Stu said, I loved going into Skyrim and just running about, exploring the world and coming across the random stuff that existed solely for exploration's sake. It's when I realised that I'd been following the glowing marker for days in the hopes of something sucking me in and received only the faintest glimmer of immersion that I got a bit frustrated with it.
Also, the gameplay was considerably worse, despite the fact that the mechanics were so much better. They removed removed some of the most fun aspects of the series - playing with magic, trying to find the best/most interesting/most hilarious combination of things. I remember the first time I heard about the dual-wielding, I was so excited. I was making up left hand - right hand combinations in my head all over the place; weakness to Magicka with an enchanted weapon, drain Agility 100 pts and a lightning spell, a strong Calm spell with a massive damage health on touch spell so I could run around like some evil Jedi. The customisable nature of the Elder Scrolls games was nowhere to be found in Skyrim, and that's what made Oblivion "end-game" so much fun.
Don't get me wrong, Skyrim's a brilliant game. It's certainly better than Oblivion in every regard. Every regard except how fun it is to play. If I were to get it again - which I absolutely bloody will one day! - I'd get it for PC so that I could use mods to fill in the gaping holes Bethesda left and created. Also, because someone added a Shout called smurftonnes Of Trains.
EDIT: Skyrim was the first game, I think, that I properly roleplayed in. Rather than just calling my character Arthur/Quin, I actually searched around for typical Altmer names, the system of naming and the Altmer language before creating my character, and I always considered his backstory when playing. It was awesome. I later did it with a Khajiit, moving onto giving him a full name - :eek:! Now my Morrowind guy is fully fleshed out because of the practice I got with Skyrim. :up:
I've put over 140 hours into Skyrim, completed all the side guilds and whatnot. And I say without a doubt I would play Oblivion over Skyrim any day. Like Stu, I felt more involved in the world and closer to the people there. There are a few little things I like better about skyrim than oblivion besides the graphics. But, I prefer oblivions interface and map much more.
Also HATE casting magic in Skyrim even though if you get into the magics you can just one shot kill about everything.