» Sat Dec 10, 2011 2:00 pm things that they did right:
magic system seems more "alive" for lack of a better term. in the previous games it was just a same spell with a different shader (not very good ones at that) and the only difference between the spells was damage type. i like how frost spells slow you down and shock spells hurt your magicka. they obviously took some cues from dark messiah and bioshock. another thing i like is that you cant run around and cast spells like a machine gun. they slow you down to cast them and you have to stand still for the top level spells. this seems to make more sense since you are having to focuse more to cast those high level spells. you do have to play smarter with them though cause ive gotten myself killed just running in and doing that willy nilly.
stealth is much better. they removed chameleon thankfully and sneaking seems alot more difficult now. its only really good at the highest levels or if you use the muffle spell which is how it should be. i also like that if you want silent spells and invisibility you will have to commit 3 perk points which i have found it is a very precious resource in this game and you have to be an expert in illusion. other than that if you try and invisie yourself after backstabbing someone they will instantly know you are there and attack you. this is much need change. it still gets OP after you get silent spells which is why i no longer pick that perk anymore.
no more master of all characters.......im so happy that you have to actually specialize in this game. every choice you make has consequences. my first character was a complete joke because i picked perks in every category which meant i was underpowered later on. but i learned my lesson and didnt make the same mistake twice. i hope they keep this aspect in the next game because it adds alot to replayability.
i like how they did the armor and weapon ratings this time around since i abosolutely hate how the higher level armors look. first time i equipped glass i thought i had accidently started up final fantasy, it looks about as sneaky as running around with a lit christmas tree strapped to my back. could it get any more reflective and shiny. *facepalm* and dont get me started on ebony. orc armor is very good looking though, its shame i use light armor for the most part. in the end it doesnt matter much though since most of the armors rating is based on perks and proficiency i can wear my scale armor endgame very comfortably. weapons make more sense than in oblivion as well since a steel warhammer should hurt roughly the same as a daedric and in this game they seem to hurt more than in oblivion where later on it was like getting hit with a bag of cotton candy. as before its your proficiency that counts the most.
the gameworld is by far the best of the TES series. yes, i think its actually even better than morrowinds.
its probably the only game you will ever catch me playing where im chasing butterflies and swimming after fish and actually having fun. the dungeons so far arent cookie cutter like oblivions although they all use the exact same textures. this might explain why this game is only 5.6 GB installed. im not complaining though since they are leagues better than oblivions. i especially have fun playing them through using the traps against the draug or dwemer. i either lead them into traps like the swinging spike doors or ill fire arrows at the fire pots and so on. another idea they apparently got from dark messiah. no more uber equpped bandits.....even if the bandits get harder they still wear the appropriate gear.
graphics are much better than i expected. with a few ini tweaks ive made the game more than acceptable to my PC snob sensiblities. some of the textures could be better but i qarl or someone else will fix that. couple days after launch there were already some texture mods. the simple fact of adding shadows although ugly as hell (fixable with ini tweaks) is a huge plus to the atmosphere. the water looks fantastic when you up the res and there is already a water mod that makes it look even better.
level scaling is far better than oblivion. my first playthrough was basically just a big jog around the entire perimter of the world and criss crossing through the interior just to explore random stuff. i got killed so many times by [censored] bears that i will never give another cent to the World Wildlife Fund.....ever.
gameplay wise overall thats a good thing though, because i want to feel like im in danger and a game that lets me go anywhere at low levels just svcks. its boring and not any fun at all. i love being pwned and then coming back later on and kicking their asses while i laugh at them (literally im laughing out loud when im doing this at my PC).game performance and bugs are much better than expected. aside from some goofy physics bugs, which i actually dont mind happening once in a while because they offer some comic relief, i havent encountered anything game breaking. the only one that seems to repeat is the warmaiden shop will lock in the middle fo the day for no apparent reason. i encounted only 4 crashes and ive logged in over 130 hours. and i got the shield quick time bug where everything slowed to a crawl. its fun againts enemies but it takes FOREVER for doors to open. only happened once though.
voice acting and animations are much better than oblivions. im still hearing the repeating voices but not to the extent of oblivions.
if you havent played dual staff style i recommend giving it a try. it is a complete blast. just make sure to have lots of soul gems and a weapon with soul trap. its a very unique play style and requires a different sort of mindset and a bit more management of resources. lots of fun though. once they get magic patched or someone mods it i probably will be doing this for a good portion of all my future playthroughs its that much fun for me. i never played mages in oblivion and only a few in morrowind but magic in skyrim is actually fun to use and ive made two mage characters already.
things that i think need improvement:
quest arrows that point directly to where the "hidden" object in the room that you are supposed to search are still their. you have an option to turn them off thankfully. i really wish they would stop assuming that everyone is 5 years old though.
quests are very uninvolved.......i havent done the main quest yet since im to busy just trying out different builds but ive done most of the sidequests ive found, several daedric quests (clavicus vile being the best one so far) and all the guilds. i have to say........WOW, those were very short. :/ maybe i was spoiled by Shivering Isles and fallout 3/NV but i just expected more. not a gigantic deal though since the main point of this game is that its a sandbox to play in and sandbox games are usually at a disadvantage to more linear games when it comes to involved quests.
perk system. i love perks in the fallout games and im glad they brought them over, however the way they implemented them strikes me as odd. for instance, in order to get to to certain sneak perks i have to pick the perk that lets you walk over traps. i HATE that perk. i actually like having to look for the traps and avoid them it adds to the atmosphere of the game. i would rather have had them give you an ability similar to how dark messiah did it where if you crouch and remain still for a couple of seconds you could see nearby traps highlighted. i prefer the fallout method where you can choose which perks you want so long as you meet the skill requirements and you dont have to get stuck with stupid perks. some perk trees are completely useless, the lockpick one is probably the most blatant example of this.
attributes......i will never get over this. i understand the logic behind it, but only having three stats to upgrade is really depressing. i cant help but think of gothic 3 and that game svcked. i really wish they had looked at nGCD mod for oblivion. that mod had the perfect system for dealing with attributes and it got rid of the stupid 5x multiplier minigame that you had to deal with in vanilla TES games. having attributes also allows you to add extra features to the world such as how they had attribute/skill dialogue checks in fallout NV. without attributes you no longer have that option.
game balance. this one is obvious and ive seen tons of threads on it but we still have patches coming up so im hoping that some of this will be fixed. the one majorly OP thing that i havent seen posted about is my dog. thats right......my puppy, Vigilance, can own most monsters out there. i see him taking on frost trolls by himself and kicking ass. he one shots spiders that are three times his size.
difference between difficulty levels is weird. i started on master difficulty but lowered it to expert for one of my mage characters because my magic spells did virtually nothing to higher end mobs unless i chugged tons of potions. i dont mind chugging potions once in a while but when i have to do it for EVERY fight..it gets old. and no i dont exploit the game by using gear that virtually removes spell cost since that ruins the game entirely. dragons were perfect on master difficulty but they turned into complete marshmallows on expert. i expected them to be somewhat easier but not way easier. hopefully someone will make a mod that lets magic scale similar to how melee weapons and bows do.
level loot and gifts svck ass. i hate them. supposedly they had addressed this in KoTN but for some reason they forgot about it in this game. i did the thieves guild questline early in one of my playthroughs only to find out later on that my gear was forever complete crap. this is unacceptable and hopefully will be patched. especially considering that they had already solved this issue in their last TES game. as for unique loot, i have found about 5 or 6 instances of what i think is handplaced loot.......such as a daedric sword at level 15 or so. its a good start but i think their should be a few more than that. this is not including the daedric quests.
there are lot more points but i think this is turning into a wall of text as it is so i will just leave it here. im very happy for my purchase and im having the time of my life playing this game. i wish bethesda much luck in the next game which will hopefully be in highrock or akivir.
edit: forgot about companions. i like the idea they borrowed from talkie toasters mod of pointing them at a lock or door or something and they would perform the action. i really do miss the companion wheel from fallout NV though. that really spoiled me and having to go into dialogue everytime i want to swap gear or give them a command is inefficient.
