The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

[Yeargdribble]

I used to be a grinder in turn based RPGs. It really took playing Oblivion for the first time on a reasonable difficulty to make me realize how much fun it can be not just raping everything.

In Skyrim, I managed to get my block to 100 naturally without spending undue time grinding it up and it was extremely rewarding. Every time I got access to a new perk I loved the anticipation of working toward the next one. I can absolutely own people with my shield now, but without working my way there I really don't think I would've appreciated the skills that 100 block gives me or learned how to work them into the combat system efficiently.

[Necronopticous]

I finished the main quest last night. I usually don't care for achievements in games, but I realized there are only 10 I don't yet have and at least 8 of those are easy and straightforward things I just haven't gotten around to yet, so I will probably fill out the achievements list in a game for the first and only time since Viva Pinata. After that I think I can retire from Skyrim and concentrate on NetHack until Diablo 3 comes out.

P.S. I actually literally fell asleep during the minor main story spoiler:conference for peace in High Hrothgar.

[Yeargdribble]

I've been waiting for this... Yahtzee gave Skyrim and absolutely glowing review.

The Escapist : Video Galleries : Zero Punctuation : The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

[Quindiana Jones]

I honestly don't know if I'll even play this more than once.

The mods will come and you will have your new content/gameplay. *nod*

EDIT: Also, where the bloody hell is Spellmaking? Easily the funnest part of Oblivion was making your own ridiculous spells. They've improved the gameplay only to reduce the fun!

I never got the full effect of this in Oblivion, I guess. I mean, you can only change the time/intensity of existing spells. What's so ridiculous about that? When I heard about spellmaking in Oblivion I got all sorts of insane ideas but then I found out it's not spellmaking, it's simply spelladjusting.

One day I shall show you my PC, and we will both have a good laugh at the idea of it ever being able to play anything xD.

Spellmaking was awesome. It gave non-PC owners the ability to do what they want with the game. My first spell would always be a ridiculous Fortify Speed, Fortify Athletics one, and you'd be zip-zipping around the countryside like nobody's business. Now we're stuck to a slow speed and crappy jump height. Keeping some of the "pointless" abilities would have freed up the LB button for something good like Headbutting or Pimpsmack. Although Skyrim spells are cool, and I think the different varieties of delivery is fantastic, it wouldn't have been hard to have that and Spellmaking. You'd just have other options of "Spray, Rune, AoE" etc. The groovy glitches you could take advantage of were some of the best parts about Oblivion (for other playthroughs, of course), and it's unfortunate to see the Elder Scrolls series heading towards that bizarre version of realism game developers love.

Once again though, excellent game, love it, good job Bethesda, but looking forward to the next one on next gen consoles which will hopefully have more freedom with regards to the player and dicking about in the amazing worlds.

[Kokichi]

Marked for Death with three words is OP.

Followers be OP.

DLC please. :c

[Shattered Dreamer]

Marked for Death with three words is OP.

Followers be OP.

DLC please. :c

Considering it sucks at 1 word, I have 2 words but haven't used it, I'm happy to hear it becomes useful with 3 words. I can't wait to get 3 words for Dismay I've made quite good use of this as a method of crowd control.

[Shattered Dreamer]

I've been waiting for this... Yahtzee gave Skyrim and absolutely glowing review.

The Escapist : Video Galleries : Zero Punctuation : The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

That review is hilarious I laughed until it hurt

[Ultima Shadow]

I don't "hardcore grind" skills in these games, but when I find something easily exploitable, I have a hard time not exploiting it simply because "it's there, right in front of my eyes". Like... when you realise you can skyrocket the smithing skill with nothing but iron ingots and leather stripes, it's hard to not simply buy all those iron ingots and leather stripes whenever you see them for sale. It's especially hard when you reeeaaaally want that sexy, badass-looking Ebony Armour too. And once you have the Ebony set, you are only 10 levels away from Daedric - THE most badass armour in the game.

And enchanting actually levels up very fast if you use it often (without actually grinding). It only requires more "hard to get" material than any other skill to level up.

It's a lot more fun when you have to run like hell from those giants, than when you can simply walk straight up to one and smack it down in two hits with your enchanted Daedric Warhammer. But at the same time... who would use less powerful weapons and less powerful armour "just because"? I think pretty much everyone equips the most powerful things they come across, since they don't want to intentionally nerf their character ( unless you're doing some kind of challenge and set up rules for yourself that involves doing just that ).

This is the problem with smithing and enchanting - they are too easy to access, too easy to level up quickly and too easy to abuse once you figure out how.

In short: it's fun to make/find insanely powerful weapons, but it sucks to actually be a god. And yet, striving to become that "god" character is part of the fun of leveling up/searching for more powerful equipments etc.


Personally, my biggest issue with Skyrim (beside not being able to kill children) is that it's poorly balanced in too many aspects. Even if you don't abuse/power-level smithing and enchanting, you "will" become more overpowered than anything else could possibly make you once you do get them to 100 - whenever that may happen. If it never does, then fine. And in the same way smithing/enchanting is ridicolously OP, there are other skills that are very, very weak. I mean... why would you actually bother putting perks in Lockpicking for example? Hardly anything in the entire skilltree is worth the effort.

The x15 sneak-damage multiplier skill is also a bit too powerful too. At least when you equip those things that doubles it, meaning you get x30 damage from sneak-attacks.

Finally, my last issue is the magic skills:

Destruction: is awesome early, but all the cool spells get too weak almost right away. I love the idea of the magic traps, but they stop being useful just a few levels after you get them - and they never get better. Fireballs, icestorm and the elemental cloaks cost too much magicka at low levels but their damage becomes almost irrelevant when you are strong enough to cast them frequently. As a pure mage who relies on Destruction to kill foes, you will have to make sure you never get your levels too high, or the fun will be ruined since all the unique spells will become useless. And the magicka cost of the Expert and Master spells won't be worth the damage either, unless you once again abuse enchanting to reduce the casting cost to practically "nothing".

Really... they should have reduced the base casting costs and base damage for certain spells, then added individual multipliers for the spells "per point above 20 in the destruction skill" or something like that. For example; fireballs and such could have used a +1% or +2% multiplier per increase, while traps and cloaks could have used a +3% multiplier. Since opponents generally have higher HP but less attack power/defense than the player, spell damage is already dangerous for the player as it currently is though, so reduce enemy spells from being too overpowered, the enemies could have "half damage" penalty for spells.


Illusion: the spells - at every single level - do pretty much the same thing, save "Invisibility" and "Muffle". The lack of varity makes the skill pretty boring and it's hard to be motivated to put valuable perks in the skilltree. Illusion feels, to me, very much like the usual "same spell, but more powerful" thing that Oblivion had so much of. The master spells might be a bit more fun though, since they affect everyone around you. But it's still the very same effects.

Alteration: The passive effects in the skilltree are good and Paralyze + Master spells are very powerful and awesome. No problem there. But the first two entire levels - Novice and Apprentice - only contains 4 spells out of which 2 are basically "see better in the dark" and the other two "better defense rating for pure mages who wear no armour at all". So the only reason to ever get the "cast Novice and Apprentice for less magicka" perks, is to get access to the "cast Expert and Master for less magicka" perks. Really... more low-level spells needed!

My first spell would always be a ridiculous Fortify Speed, Fortify Athletics one, and you'd be zip-zipping around the countryside like nobody's business. Now we're stuck to a slow speed and crappy jump height.

...speaking of Athletics and Acrobatics, I think magic that increases running speed and such would have been a perfect addition to the Alteration set of low-level spells.


...both Conjuration and Restoration are perfectly fine and pretty well balanced though.


/end of rant.

Those are pretty much my only issues with the game ( plus the lag that occurs on the PS3 version ). Also, despite "being unable to resist making a very good enchanted daedric armour", I still have trouble with Ancient Dragons and some other foes (like the Dragon Priests) on Master difficulty. So even with "god mode activated", you are not completely invincible.

[Madame Adequate]

Destruction gets a smurf of a lot better once you get Impact and a couple of spell cost reduction items to help. Mostly Impact though.

Also Illusion might not have many spells but when one of those spells is Fury I don't really care, because it's funny as hell. Silent casting > Sneak > Fury a Bandit, someone gets killed > Conjure the corpse, the games begin anew!

I do miss Spellmaking though, I really loved it in Morrowind and it was okay in Oblivion. It'd be nice if for no other reason than just being able to make something tailored to your current level rather than the big jump between like Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning right here.

I do wish there was still Acrobatics and Athletics. They could have folded them into a single skill that did things like more efficient stamina use, better carry weight, etc. on top of the obvious run faster and jump higher.

[Ultima Shadow]

Destruction gets a smurf of a lot better once you get Impact and a couple of spell cost reduction items to help. Mostly Impact though.

I have impact. But the 1-second stun or so you can get out of it still doesn't make the traps useful. And especially not the cloak spells since impact doesn't seem to have any effect on them. The stun is nice, but... when the damage output of - for example - traps is as low as it is on higher levels, it just never feels worth the effort of placing the trap.

I mean, sure... casting Incinerate and master spells for a very reduced casting cost can still be useful damage-wise. But the most entertaining and unique spells ( like the traps and cloaks ) remain incapable of doing any noteworthy damage at all. And yeah, this is the reason spellmaking would be awesome - or even is "needed" in this game. What I enjoyed when I first got the fire trap was how I could make use of a wide variety of destruction spells rather than just spamming the same over and over. But now, I can only make use of the "best" spell I have, and even then I can still do more damage with a completely unenchanted and non-legendary daedric greatsword. Perhaps, to a certain degree, it's just as much the weapons being too good as the spells being too weak. But I just don't like the idea of a single powerattack with a sword doing as much damage as a master-level archmage's most destructive spell, which unlike the sword-swing takes some time to cast and cost lots of magicka.

I can't even imagine being able to take down an Ancient Dragon with destruction spells, unless I can cast Lightning Storm for free. Last time I hit one with a dual-casted fireball, you could hardly see the damage to the lifebar. =O

[Renmiri]

Question, why do all the NPC Vendors only ever have 700 gold on them! I need them to have more money so I can finish furnishing my home in Solitude.

Yeah... I bought the biggest house in the game. uJellies?

Get to 80+ speech and they will all have 1,000 gold. A bit before you can get select vendors to have 1,500 if you invest on them.

PS: The guy on Riverwood (first village you meet in the game) always has 10,000 gold or more.

Marked for Death with three words is OP.

Followers be OP.

DLC please. :c

Oh so you joined the Dark Brotherhood as well

Read somewhere that the most op trinket comes from the Bohetian quest. Means you have to lure a companion to his / her death. I passed on that one.

Still deciding if I'm going to kill the emperor or not. Kinda weird being an assassin and the Dragonborn at the same time

[Araciel]

Spell making has been lame since Oblivion too... I miss levitate dammit!

[Shattered Dreamer]

If you want to talk about useful daedric artefacts you'll want to lay your hands on Mace of Molag Bal, Mehrunes' Razor, Sanguine Rose & most of all Spellbreaker. While you can probably make better equipment later on these have proven invaluable to me.

[Shattered Dreamer]

Just killed an Elder Dragon, after everything I've heard about them I was rather disappointed how easily I killed it :/

[Renmiri]

The Bohetian quest gives you Ebon Mail armor, a sneak + "poison cloak" to melee enemies when in combat. Makes the game way too easy. Bandits go "You shouldn't have come her... Aaagh" before you even swing your sword