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2Dec 12

The Elder Scrolls V: Boredom

This thing won 2011 Game of the Year?

This thing has people pouring in hundreds of hours into it?

This was groundbreaking back in 2003 when Morrowind was around. This was cool in 2006 when Oblivion did it with prettier graphics, voice acting and real-time combat. This was unacceptable in 2008 when Fallout 3 had absolutely no sense of direction and did not address ANY of the quirks that were present in Oblivion. This was saved back in 2010 when Fallout: New Vegas showed how an open world game needs to have proper quest design and writing to remain interesting.

The only difference is that Obsidian created New Vegas. Bethesda have gone and developed the EXACT same game that they have created since they started. Their quest design and writing have not improved in the least. Is Skyrim entertaining? I suppose it's better than Fallout 3. But it's essentially Morrowind/Oblivion set in Skyrim. The country of Skyrim is interesting, better than Cyrodiil but not as quirky as Morrowind. But at the end of the day, Skyrim is not a major step up from Bethesda's previous works.

This series of random quests that have no purpose game design essentially tosses you into an ocean that's no deeper than a puddle. It's big and there's lots to do, but none of it has any depth. It's all superficial. I notice children love jumping around in giant puddles and splashing like morons. I also grew out of that many years ago. None of the characters have anything meaningful or interesting to say. There are never important details that you need to hear, only dialogue to skip (awful as most of it is) to start your next fetchquest.

There is no reason why Skyrim should have won Game of the Year anywhere. This is a sad little joke when compared to the masterful design of Fallout: New Vegas. Boo Bethesda, boo!

26 comments
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psn8214
psn8214

You know what the funny thing was, is that I definitely made all the same observations as you and I still loved the fack out of that game. I realized fairly early on that it was puddle deep, but that fact never detracted from my enjoyment of the game, despite me having similar feelings about Fallout 3 and Oblivion (I adored New Vegas though).

NeonNinja
NeonNinja like.author.displayName 1 Like

 @psn8214 

Nothing wrong with enjoying a game that's puddle deep.  The world is beautiful.

psn8214
psn8214

 @NeonNinja Indeed. I think that's why I enjoyed it so much. Do you know I've spent over 180 hours in Skyrim and I never beat the main quest. Never even got to the point where you had to choose your allegiance. I think I really just enjoyed that it allowed me to have adventures in a fantastical Nordic environment... 

Gen_Warbuff
Gen_Warbuff

Man, not sure how I feel about your blog. I tired to love Oblivion, but could not play it. I enjoyed Fallout right until the sudden end., never picked up Vegas. I LOVE Skyrim. Not sure anybody ever said it was meant to be a big andvace in any direction for Bethesda.... I love the world it offers, and don't mind any of the side quest, but feel the main story is misisng, i could care less how it plays out. I guess I have mixed feelings about this game but love playing it.

 

Thanks for making me confused now.

NeonNinja
NeonNinja

 @Gen_Warbuff 

I do what I can. :P

kennythomas26
kennythomas26

 @NeonNinja  @Gen_Warbuff Bro I kind of felt the way you feel about when I played FO3 and I have not played Borym yet, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to feel the same as you do with borym, I never like morrowind and oblivion my buddy bought for the original xbox last gen and I believe I dozzed off a bit and so did he and Oblivion looked as s tale as FO3 did.  

CamoBullo
CamoBullo like.author.displayName 1 Like

This. Just, this. This basically sums up how I feel about Skyrim. I mean, I love Oblivion, it's a beautiful world you're in -- but there's just nothing besides the main quests and some guilds. To me, Skyrim is just Oblivion with dragons. I know I'm ignoring most of Skyrim's mechanics but... That's all it is. Want a game where you feel satisfied with destroying dragons? Monster Hunter. 

usagi704
usagi704 like.author.displayName 1 Like

I chalk up the GOTY awards for this game to most people thinking that just because you can do whatever you want, in whatever order you want that it automatically makes a game better. That's why you see the term 'linear' used as a pejorative whenever it is brought up. The more non-linear a game is the more they cream their pants for some reason. You NEVER see non-linearity used as a negative. When I talk about games, I almost never describe games as linear or non-linear since it's simply unimportant as it really doesn't say much of anything about a game and it's certainly not a reason to play or not play a game.

NeonNinja
NeonNinja like.author.displayName 1 Like

 @usagi704 

The sad thing is, having just come off of Dishonored I played a truly non-linear game.  Dishonored has linear level design with objectives that pop up as you go through the mission.  But you can complete those missions in numerous ways.

 

To me that's nonlinearity.  Having the ability to play how you want and go where you want within the game.  Skyrim is big, but everything plays out the same way.  It's just a big, dumb game that's everything wrong with how we view "non-linear" games.  Just because the world is open does not mean it's actually non-linear.  This is a very restrictive game that doubles as a hiking simulator.

DarkLink77
DarkLink77 like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 2 Like

I'm DarkLink, King of System Wars, and this blog is legit as f*ck.

loopy_101
loopy_101

Scaling is the only reason I lost interest in Elder Scrolls, Oblivion is a much better game when you add the patch that removes it. Sadly this isn't an option on either the Playstation 3 or Xbox 360 versions though.

NeonNinja
NeonNinja

 @loopy_101 

I just took the difficulty of Oblivion and dropped that slider down.  I hated how stupid bandits would come up to me in glass armor and swords in areas that I had previously been in.

fend_oblivion
fend_oblivion ranger

Sometimes bigger doesn't necessarily mean better. The Elder Scrolls games have huge maps but they're surprisingly lifeless. The quests become redundant after a while. Another thing that Bethesda should really fix is their main quest line. One can simply do sidequests all freakin' day long and barely graze the main storyline. That's not how it should work. Sidequests should be built around the main quest. One can save Skyrim from Alduin and the next moment go hunting for nirnroot. Seriously, what the hell?

 

To add insult to injury, the initial hero that I made after great labor happened to look like every other character in the game. Seriously, this is an immersion killer. What's the point of being the Dragonborn when he looks like all the other Nords? :[

 

 

NeonNinja
NeonNinja

 @fend_oblivion 

The Bethesda main questlines are a joke.  And the sidequests are completely separate from having any impact on the world.  That's what was so good about New Vegas.  You could do sidequests as well, but they felt overall relevant to the impact that you were having on the game world.

Legolas_Katarn
Legolas_Katarn

Poor quest design, a broken level system, a broken enemy scaling system, booring dragon battles, magic being useless (and a lot less spells), and poor writing. A nice pretty world to explore that gives you no reason or need to explore it. That's how you know its a Bethesda game.

Legolas_Katarn
Legolas_Katarn

All the more idiotic when people say they spent 300 hours in Bethesda's games, there is not 300 hours of content in these games. When my friend and I were working on our reviewing show we were going to do that Fallout series at some point because of our love for Fallout 1 and 2 (and liking Vegas and tactics) and our hatred for Fallout 3 and Brotherhood of Steel. I recorded my entire playthrough of Fallout 3 after not touching the game for three years. In the end playing through all the main missions, half the side missions, and all of the DLC that I had never even gone through before (and many of their side quests) took me around 45 hours.

NeonNinja
NeonNinja

 @Legolas_Katarn 

The quest design is just outdated at this point.  I need more then "go here to kill this guy and get me this item."  And the writing?  Oh my God it's so bad.  Yeah, Skyrim is beautiful and I may load it  up now and again to wander in the world, but there's nothing to do in it.  I'll pass.

TriEdgeFury26
TriEdgeFury26 like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 2 Like

Someone took an arrow to the knee...teeheehee, all joking aside though, I have yet to play the game myself. I loved morrowind though.

ermhm
ermhm

Couldn't agree more :)One shiny moment ( a few shiny hours I guess) was when I accidentally stumbled upon the huge underground cavern with the neon blue shrooms.

NeonNinja
NeonNinja like.author.displayName 1 Like

 @ermhm 

The game is beautiful and exploring it could be fun, but that moment of exploration is based almost on a visual sense of wonder and not by anything meaningful in the game.

xHellBoundx
xHellBoundx like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 2 Like

Agreed. I barely touched the main quest and 100 hours later I don't want to touch the game ever again.

lightwarrior179
lightwarrior179 like.author.displayName 1 Like

This guy finally got some sense knocked into him. Oblivion wasn't any good. Not even in 2006 besides the technical feat. Skyrim is better but by 2011 standards it isn't much to boast. 

 

Black Isle, BioWare, Troika and Origin -- the CRPG legends from the past used to prototype games with as much depth as The Elder Scrolls within a few hours.

Bethesda doesn't even have a room to be ashamed of themselves.

NeonNinja
NeonNinja

 @lightwarrior179 

There's no depth to this game.  I'm going back to replay a good game.  One of my 9.5s from this year is in need, I just have to figure out which game.

RebelMac
RebelMac

 @lightwarrior179 I played Oblivion  - it was boring game indeed. To these legends you mention I would add SSI an old games studio.

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