70 hours isn't that bad.
That's roughly 0.86 cent per hour of entertainment.
Pretty cheap compared to any other form of entertainment.

Well, here's the thing. I can understand being able to change shouts and spells on the fly, because you aren't actually digging some piece of equipment out of a bag in the middle of a fight, but when it comes to changing weapons, they should only allow you to have so many weapons readily available on your belt, so to speak, and ready to grab. Having an axe and sword on your belt is feasible; having five different weapons on you and immediately at hand according to what you might need in the fight is just not realistic at all.

And it certainly stretches belief to the point of breaking to be able to chug six potions and change armor in the middle of a battle. The sad thing is that I do this myself. All that stuff I said in my previous post? I do that, and I do it constantly. I have some enchanted iron gauntlets I use for archery, and I have some improved steel plate gauntlets I use when fighting toe-to-toe. I start with enchanted leather sneak boots, enchanted archery iron gauntlets, and an enchanted sneak-amulet and a bow, then when I come across bad guys I shoot them from sneak until they start to close then I use my amazing ability to freeze time and change my equipment, and switch to epic plate gauntlets and boots, enchanted heavy armor amulet, and epic steel shield and war axe, then restart time. Boy those bandits/forsworn/cave bears/dragon must get pissed as hell when I go from Robin Hood to Iron Man in the blink of an eye just as they get within ten feet. I really shouldn't, but I do it because the game's kinda balanced to do things that way. Even if I forgo the switch between archer and tank, and just stick with the tank gear, there still would be battles where I just have to drink a quick potion or the fight can't really be won.

Also, @ the OP: Yeah, take a break. Grinding through the game will sour you on it real quick. If it's getting late and I'm a little tired but not quite ready to go to bed, I don't play the game. I'll just read for half an hour rather than force myself to zip through a couple quests in an hour's time. It just svcks all the fun out of it.

I think its enjoyable for what it is. I think its a better game than wow in many regards, but could have been better. I dont think its GOTY, I think that should go to Witcher 2, but it was still worth 70+ hours of my time.

I loved this game two weeks ago. I am playing on expert and am new to the Elder Scrolls series. My character is 1h+shield+heavy+restoration+ smithing.

Exploring the nord ruins outside of Riverwood was a beautiful introduction to the game, especially once I got Eyefinity working. As they say, quantity has a quality all its own, and Skyrim has that. In the first few weeks of play I explored, found treasure maps, watched my character grow in abilities, mined ebony and built legendary ebony gear, killed seven dragons, fought a dragon priest, solved a handful of dungeon combination puzzles, bought a house, encountered all kinds of bandits and thugs on the roads, wild animals, joined the companions, and am about half way (guessing) through the main quest at level 29. I have been doing a bunch of side quests to stretch out the game.

The game has plenty of challenges. Boss fights still require planning and use of all my abilities, and there are still some fights I have had to avoid, resolving to come back later. Difficulty is not the problem. I think the problem is diversity.

The thing is that now that my character has gained most of her primary fighting abilities, and I have visited about a third of the cities, I feel like I have experienced most of the game. Don't get me wrong, there is a ton of material I havent seen or experienced, but things are starting to repeat themselves. Every dragon fight is the same. Every bandit on the road attacks and has a semi-valuable gem and a lockpick in his possession. Most quests have about the same diversity as WOW quests. At first it seemed like there was more, as I am new to the series, but they are basically kill quests, travel quests, and gather quests.

I think it is a great game, but about 70 hours was the most I was able to get from it. I will probably finish the main questline over the next couple weeks when I have time, so figure 90 hours.



These are the things that should be improved to increase play value (for me):

*The fighting mechanic of hitting escape when things get tough and completely stopping action makes it as much of a strategy game as an action game. There is some diversity of action, and positioning is important, but its a pretty simple system. When compared to a game like Witcher 2, it comes up a bit short. Granted that is not the same kind of role playing game (you are Geralt of Rivia), but the whole mechanic of completely stopping time when you hit escape makes it less engaging. They should have done it like witcher, where going into your menu system slows but not stops time.

* Production value. The graphics are pretty good, but there are no cinematics or multimedia to enhance the experience. I'm not expecting something as involved and detailed as the Witcher2, but even WOW managed to integrate cinematic scenes into the main questline. If these exist, and I have not seen them, my apologies, but I think there should be more. The game relies solely on its middling graphics and large scope of its world. The rest lives in the imagination of the player.

*Graphics/Character Animations- These are sortof a let down for PC. They should have used DX11 for their flagship platform. It doesnt compare well to other PC titles in this regard. Its not just the graphics, but the simple character animations. My character has such a limited set of actions. Slash left, slash right, overhand power attack, shield bash, walk, run, sprint, magic ball in hand. Geralt of rivia has different kinds of attacks and movements which kept it visually interesting. Combat is quite abstract. I play solely in 3rd person because the first person graphics are so bad in combat.

*Interface- This is probably a result of being a console port, and probably contributes to the simplistic combat system.

*Scaling- This has been discussed ad-infinitum on the forums. I really like scaling for the most part, but there are problems with it. I got Ghost Blade which is a unique item with stats that scale based on the level you get it. Unique items should not scale. When I bust my butt to complete a hard dungeon, I should get an absolute reward. Because of scaling this feeling is absent from the game. There is not a feeling of accomplishment. I like not knowing how powerful enemies are until you start fighting them, but opponents are scaled to your level, not your abiliities, so when you find yourself demolishing opponents, it is more a reflection of your relative strength for your level and how well you did your professions and gear collection. Anyway, while scaling allows the game world to be more open which is good, progression has a very vague feel to it. I think there need to be more areas of absolute difficulty. Not the entirety of the game, just more fights that you attempt only to realize, "I'm not geared for this". And the world should let you know when you are treading in dangerous waters.

*Ability to Abuse Save without Repercussion- I have over 300 saves. I save because I don't want to re run content that I have already done should I die. The game just doesnt feel dangerous because of this. I wish there was a way to limit saves. I know this is not an MMO, just wish there was some negative repercussion for abusing save and reloading. Perhaps skills that were mid-level would regress if you start abusing save. Don't know how they would implement this, but it would be good.

*Limited voice acting- I think they did everything with five actors. It svcks to hear the same voice over and over in different characters. This really needs to be expanded.



*Crafting Limited- The economy and crafting is not as evolved as a game like WOW. I originally thought there was more diversity, but in Smithing you can keep crafting Iron Daggers, which should not give you skill ups. Alchemy system looks better, but I did not use it.

*Broken Economy- I got to a place where I have more gold than I can spend. I have 20K gold now, and generating gold is very easy. I want for nothing. Perhaps they should make some of the late game objectives contingent upon saving gold. Gold only has meaning at low levels.

*No classes- There is no incentive to replay as another class type because i can just power level any of the skills until I am level 80 or so. Freedom and flexibility is great at first, but none of the game is off limits depending on my "class". For example in WOW, a priest wouldnt have access to Warlock trainers, and there were class specific items and lore. I took a potion and my warrior faked his way into the mage college. Just didn't feel right. Sure it didn't restrict me, but I would be more compelled to play a mage if I hadn't been able to see it with my warrior.


I think Skyrim is a really good game (much better than wow), but there is enough repetition that after 3 weeks I feel like I've seen "everything". Because rewards are scaled, the game has a very vague sense of progression. And while the world is grand in scope and beautiful to behold, the combat system and PC graphics are sub-par for 2011-2012. The combat system has a very legacy, well-worn feel to it. Also, I think an open "sandbox" game needs to have more limits on character progression and be better tuned.


I am sure this will be flamed, but these are my opinions, and why I find myself becoming bored after about 70 hours of play. I think its obvious to most who play it that the game has the tools to be much more than it is with better tuning and more attention to detail.

Arena, Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim are all open world role playing games. Once you create your character and complete the introductory area (which usually handles teaching some of the controls, making your character and introducing the main plot) you are free to do ANYTHING and go ANYWHERE within the games bounds.

Good thing you weren't playing RPGs back in the pen and paper days. You would have probably offed yourself from frustration.

Wow, this has to be the ultimate in ironical replies. I had been playing PnP ever since I was around twelve until around age 28. I didn't bother mentioning it because if I wanted to play PnP, I'd play PnP. Not a "video game" that requires you to play "PnP" without actually having anywhere near the same amount of freedom. There's absolutely no comparison to what video game RPGs can do compared to PnP, so to even bring it up is rather pointless.

i used to play pnp but then i took an arrow to the sweet rolls

Your thaco svcks.

@Stonedsoul; You can actually...

Yeah pretty much this. Its like you play through once and then get bored so start a new character, get it to level 10 and realise your just doing exactly what youve already done on your first character so get bored again.

Would have been so much better if there was more choice in how to fulfill quests and more restriction on the guild quests like skill level requirements and ranks within the guild.

Woo hoo I do half a dozen things for some mages and in less than 1 week of time in game Im now Arch-Mage using Heavy Armor and an Axe and Shield and no magic whatsoever.....errrr

See, I keep reading this, but every time it is said everyone just skips over the bolded/underlined part...

That is like saying: If you are locked in a room, you are completely free and you can do ANYTHING and go ANYWHERE! within the boundaries of your room...

Sure, skyrim is big. Hell, its HUGE. And I'll give you: it is the most amazingly beautifull game I have ever seen. None of that stops the actual freedom from being extremely limited. I can do ANYHING... except have some sort of control on my dialogues, choose how to complete quests/tasks, select half the perks in the game (unless I want to be OP) or actually have a lasting impact on the world.

Ahh yes, but every game engine has limitations. To expect otherwise is very unrealistic. And there are also other limiters such as dev time, cash flow, economic slow-down, opposition from investors and whatnot which all contribute to the game engine limitations.

But for what Skyrim is, it is one heck of an amazing game which more then deserves the accolades for being such.

Lady E

How is that even a valid excuse? Did you play any of the previous TES games? Now imagine if we could have a game that took all of the very best elements from them all. Do you honestly think that's not possible? It definitely is.

Skyrim is one of the most atmospheric (tied with Morrowind in some respects) and beats them all aesthetically. In most other areas however it's well behind.