I don’t want to look at the pretty landscape, no matter how gorgeous it may be, graphics-wise; I want to play a game, and if I have to spend twenty minutes looking at pretty landscape in order to play the next part of the game, I will decide to play some other game.
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Someone called it “a virtual Norway” recently.
Five word reply: Your loss.
The world itself is much smaller than it appears, and the quick-travel better handled. That said, I understand the objection.
My main complaint about Skyrim: it’s a single player world, but feels as static as a MMORPG. Seems like a gigantic missed opportunity.
Like many reviews, this tells us more about the reviewer than about the game.
But … but … open world! Sandbox!
I don’t have anything against open-world gaming when the travel isn’t boring. Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is just about perfect in this regard: running across the rooftops and plotting your course is fun, and if you don’t want to do it then you just take the tunnels.
Skyrim‘s travel is boring. And it’s not a sandbox game. Minecraft is a sandbox game. People are trying to sandbox Skyrim because the basic game itself is boring.
@zurn: My main complaint about Skyrim: it’s a single player world, but feels as static as a MMORPG. Seems like a gigantic missed opportunity.
Exactly. I could spend ages in Warcraft, to pick just one MMORPG, off by myself. But a key part of the games was that you could come across and interact with other players.
@trevel: Like many reviews, this tells us more about the reviewer than about the game.
Like many comments, this tells us more about the commenter than about the blog posting.
My favourite part of Skyrim is running around. When I NEED to get somewhere, yeah, I just fast-travel by clicking on the map. Certainly, you have to play a certain amount before that becomes practical, so I get that.
But when I’m questing or not questing, I’m running around finding random encounters, stumbling on ancient ruins, and adding markers to my map. I spend a few minutes looking at the landscape (mostly at night, because I like the sky) but most of the time, I’m waiting for something random to happen. My least favourite things are the dungeons, because I’d rather be finding things in the open, or having a dragon randomly attack me.
For somebody not into that, yeah … you’re not going to like Skyrim. Too bad.
@Sean: Exactly. I could spend ages in Warcraft, to pick just one MMORPG, off by myself. But a key part of the games was that you could come across and interact with other players.
I think you’re missing his point. It’s not the interaction with other players that’s missing; it’s the idea that nothing you do has any real effect on the world around you.
I always have the same problem with the Elder Scrolls games. In paper I should love them. In practice, not so much.
On the upside of the equation, Mass Effect 3 is two weeks away. So not being into Skyrim means one thing: more time for ME3
Whoops, that should read:
Yep. Precisely. All of the people shouting “But look at all the crazy things people are doing! Don’t you want to collect all the cheese wheels!?!?!”
No. No, I do not. I want to play a game that is entertaining to play (read: interact with) on it’s face and that tells an engaging narrative, not be expected to make my own fun with a set of boring tools.
QQ. Just steal a fucking horse.
Same review for Fallout 3, right?
“Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is just about perfect in this regard: running across the rooftops and plotting your course is fun…”
I found the opposite: I can have a snack in the Skyrim sandbox when action is low, but the AC:B sandbox occupies too much attention and is too annoying as I miss a jump and have to climb around again.
Sure is a lot of butthurt in the comments today. *eyeroll*
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I can understand if Skyrim just isn’t your type of game, but I don’t get disliking it based on how long it takes to get places.
There’s the fast-travel option others have mentioned, and the wagons you can hop on to get to towns you haven’t visited yet…so it shouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes to get anywhere, except for the most remote locations.
It’s great as the tech demo for the eventual Obsidian produced Fallout spin-off that will take all the pretty stuff and actually do something fun and engaging with it.
That’s why they should just stick to the original Transit Skyrim plan and build the damn LRTs already.
Fantasize about subways all you want, but who’s going to pay for them? Mjoll the Lioness? GROW UP PEOPLE!
How far did you get, exactly? I remember a slow start, and a ride in the back of a medieval paddy-wagon with a few other prisoners, during which one could move only one’s perspective to look around, but I don’t remember that as taking twenty minutes. I remember it as, like, maybe five? Ish?
I thought creating a character took longer. But I’d never done so before, so maybe it just felt that way. But doesn’t it go straight from creating a character to FREAKIN’ DRAGON ATTACK? And running from burning building?
I admit I don’t remember traveling to Whiterun. That might have taken a while. But I liked how stuff like caves and shit popped up. I think I ended up clearing several dungeons on my way to Whiterun. But I don’t remember specifically. It’s been a while.
I do think sticking with it is worth it. I thought the main narrative was compelling. The main side narratives, too.
“Playing another game” in Skyrim could as easily be “Clear a different dungeon” or “Steal something else” as “Insert a different disc.”
First of all, there are plenty of reasons not to like Skyrim (even coming from me, who loved Skyrim). It has the standard array of Bethesda bugs. Most of the writing (like most fantasy writing) is shit. The characters aren’t memorable, not even by the standards of the genre. The voice acting and dialogue are repetitive (nowhere near as bad as Oblivion, though). A cave is a cave is a cave, and you get pretty tired of them after a while. There are too many freakin’ dragon attacks to the point where it becomes really annoying. The usual problems with game balance that appear in every CRPG.
But travel is boring? Please. Travel is kind of the point. You go out into the world and discover new shit. That’s the point of an open world game.
If you play the game on PC, go ahead and open your console, type “tmm 1” (without the quotes) and voila, every location unlocked. You will never have to discover *anything* and thus miss out on a great deal of what the game has to offer.
But that’s not the point I’m trying to make. Go on and have a look at that map and tell me how you can run for two minutes, let alone twenty, IN ANY DIRECTION and not discover something new, not even counting random wild animals and monsters and giant mammoth-herders and wandering NPCs. The map is freaking littered with cities and towns and caves and keeps and whatnot. The game is filthy with things to do, and very little of it actually involves running from place to place.
Would this convince you to reconsider (http://thewertzone.blogspot.com/2012/02/new-skyrim-update-adds-portal-2-space.html)?
I would agree completely. Kingdoms of Amalur is far better than Skyrim. It has awesome scenery and backstory, but things happen and the combat doesn’t stink. 😉
I pretty much love everything written by MGK and Chris Sims, and both their Skyrim reviews seem to boil down to “this Elder Scrolls game is an Elder Scrolls game.” You may as well be dissatisfied with a screwdriver for not being a good hammer: that’s not what it’s used for.
@Snap Wilson – I’d argue that in Skyrim most of the time you discover something that the map tells you is already there (just blacked out). “Discovery” generally means “unlocking the quick travel option”.
Plus quests are exceptionally clear about where to go. Need to find an ancient amulet broken in three that has been expunged from all records? It’s auto-updated on your world map!
I’m not saying that I expect Skyrim to made it impossible for players, but it is less discovery in the game and more sightseeing using a tourist map.
@Travis O. – Skyrim was my first TES title, so I have no idea what it means to be a TES title. If TES games are full of hollow characters, cliche high fantasy quests and locations while being notable mostly for a big map and being able to kill NPCs, well, it’s sad that the franchise is so popular.
@ Travis O.
Perhaps he thinks it’s a poor showing of an Elder Scrolls game, or doesn’t particularly like Elder Scrolls games in general. There’s tons of niche markets, and even if it’s perfectly engineered for said market (Examples: Twilight, Downton Abbey, Touhou games), that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a good game, or series.
You either like the type of game Skyrim is, or you don’t. I do, but I liked Oblivion before it and imagine I would have liked Morrowind if I’d encountered it when it was fresh.
Personally, I loathe the Dragon Age and Mass Effect series. The style of gameplay just doesn’t do it for me. To each their own.
I will say the complaint I hear often–“the characters are hollow and unmemorable”–leaves me going “Wha-huh?” There are several fleshed-out, interesting characters in the game, to me. They just don’t get special cut scenes and monologues to explain themselves. The central characters in the main quest, the civil war, the Dark Brotherhood, Thieves Guild, and College of Winterhold quests felt about as complete as anyone from the Half Life series.
I really liked Dragon Age, myself (although not DAII).
Re: characters & story, it takes a little work on the main quest for me because I’m so distracted by travelling and following ghost markers (the one on your compass thingie). But I love the little scenes I find … lots of wild animals savaging people on their way somewhere, some travellers, and others just living out in the wilderness, making a little living. Finding the shack with the burnt out corpses was a little heart-breaking. My boyfriend has really been enjoying the storylines in creepy Markath.
I think Skyrim is definitely over-hyped. It’s a good game, and great for particular tastes. I wasn’t very warm to it at first; I didn’t like it at all. So I guess maybe I’m just pleasantly surprised how I’ve ended up.
MGK’s view’s valid tbh. I almost avoided it Skyrim entirely when it came out because of my experience with Oblivion which quickly felt more like a chore than a game. Watching my Fiance play through it convinced me otherwise, but you really need to be in the mood for exploration.
As far as RPGs go, there’s room for both Bioware’s “four main quest hubs and a lot of side quests” and Bethseda’s “wander around, maybe do a quest if it looks interesting” vibe.
@ taichara “Sure is a lot of butthurt in the comments today.”
Your willingness to share yours is quite surprising, given your ostensible disdain.
The map already has markers, but it still feels like discovery when I first reach them. Until I go there I usually have no idea what they are. I loved Fallout 3 and NV because they de-emphasized stat increases vs the TES games. I really wish Bethesda would just stop level scaling the enemies. If leveling actually improved your character and opened new areas to you then it would feel more rewarding.
@MattM enemies only get levelled to a certain point. Past level 30ish, wearing Dragon Armor and wielding Daedric weapons then a bandit isn’t going to give you a problem no matter what his level.
I can get pretty scenery on Star Wars: The Old Republic and still get more playtime in…
What do y’all feel about S.T.A.L.K.E.R.?
@Paul Wilson– The main problem with that is the fact that, without exception, all the high-level (i.e. ebony and above) armours make you look like a Power Rangers bad guy.
I maxed out armourer skill just so I could stay in my steel plate.
It’s mainly the helmets that look increasingly “Dark Lord von Shadowdark” past a certain point. Still, my favorite armors remain the steel plate and Dwarven (I actually love that it makes you look like a big gold linebacker, since it’s the only armor besides plain steel that doesn’t turn into boob-plate on women). The light armor tends to look okay, too.
@HonestObserver Only played the first one, which had a great open world feel right up to the point you ran into an invisible wall.