» Mon Sep 26, 2011 9:03 pm You've read the http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1233644-sammus-eurogamer-qa/ you've read my http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1233862-sammus-perk-trees-qa-2/, and now finally I've got around to writing up my thoughts on the proper gameplay I managed during my second Skyrim demo yesterday. As I queued to play the game twice, I got a good long look at what other people were doing with their time on the game, as well as a bunch of stuff from my own personal playthrough. So I'll split this up into sections, and then just dump the contents of my memory.
First up, what I saw in load screens.
- As we know, while the game loads you now get a cool 3D model of... well, anything from the world of Skyrim. This can be an enemy creature, a weapon, a playable character, a shrine, a Dwemer artefact... there was a huge variety. There's a block of text at the bottom of the screen too, which sometimes describes the model on-screen, and sometimes gives a bit of lore information. You can rotate the model while you wait, which is a nice touch - they look absolutely incredible.
- Talking of the models, what creatures and items did I actually see on load screens? Well...
- The first load screen after creating the character showed a model of your chosen race. These ALL looked brilliant. I didn't see all 10 races, but I did see:
- A spriggan, which looked (for want of a better word) very "woody". Looked fantastic, and fantastical
- Another wood-based creature, which looked sort of like an ent from LotR crossed with Grendel from the recent Beowulf film
- A Falmer, which was quite an unpleasant-looking beast. Long arms and no obvious nose were defining features
- Some sort of heavily armoured creature - possibly an "automaton" as mentioned in the Illusion perk tree - coloured golden with a large helmet and huge armour pieces around the neck and shoulders
- Dragons - fairly similar to what we've seen before, still awesome. The text mentioned that dragon strength is determined by their colouration, not by their element - green and brown dragons are weaker, white and bronze are stronger. Fantastic news, as far as I'm concerned
- A huge greatsword - possibly iron - with two distinct grips separated by a second hilt. Looked very good indeed
- Some sort of necromancer's shrine - although I didn't see the accompanying text
- Reference to Vaermina - too far away to read fully.
- the Dunmer (http://cdn.gamerant.com/wp-content/uploads/Skyrim-Dark-Elf-Screenshot.jpg)
- the Imperial - a woman in full red plate armour, which looked amazing
- the Orc - a massive brute doing some sort of roar, he actually looked quite terrifying, in a brilliant way
- the Bosmer - a female wielding an incredibly ornate, fantastic black spiky bow with strongly accented curves
- the Nord - a proper barbarian with warpaint, doing a battlecry and swinging a massive weapon
- the Argonian - a light-armoured, green-skinned one with a surprisingly long snout. This load screen had more detail about the Argonian's racial abilities - it mentioned the 50% disease resist, whereas the bit on the character creator screen didn't mention the specific percentage
- the Imperial - a woman in full red plate armour, which looked amazing
- the Orc - a massive brute doing some sort of roar, he actually looked quite terrifying, in a brilliant way
- the Bosmer - a female wielding an incredibly ornate, fantastic black spiky bow with strongly accented curves
- the Nord - a proper barbarian with warpaint, doing a battlecry and swinging a massive weapon
- the Argonian - a light-armoured, green-skinned one with a surprisingly long snout. This load screen had more detail about the Argonian's racial abilities - it mentioned the 50% disease resist, whereas the bit on the character creator screen didn't mention the specific percentage
- A spriggan, which looked (for want of a better word) very "woody". Looked fantastic, and fantastical
- Another wood-based creature, which looked sort of like an ent from LotR crossed with Grendel from the recent Beowulf film
- A Falmer, which was quite an unpleasant-looking beast. Long arms and no obvious nose were defining features
- Some sort of heavily armoured creature - possibly an "automaton" as mentioned in the Illusion perk tree - coloured golden with a large helmet and huge armour pieces around the neck and shoulders
- Dragons - fairly similar to what we've seen before, still awesome. The text mentioned that dragon strength is determined by their colouration, not by their element - green and brown dragons are weaker, white and bronze are stronger. Fantastic news, as far as I'm concerned
- A huge greatsword - possibly iron - with two distinct grips separated by a second hilt. Looked very good indeed
- Some sort of necromancer's shrine - although I didn't see the accompanying text
- Reference to Vaermina - too far away to read fully.
Next, an assortment of things I saw other people doing:
- I saw a lot of dual-wielding, both spells and weapons. It's definitely, categorically not possible to block when doing either
- Dual flamethrower is incredibly powerful
- You can dual wield different weapons, e.g. axe and sword (don't think there was any doubt about this, but nice to clear it up anyway)
- I saw a lot of people making pathetic attempts to use stealth. More often than not it failed - but it was clearly the players' fault, for being so terrible at the game
- I saw a lot of people die. The difficulty isn't especially high, but it can be unforgiving if you're not very good
- I saw plenty of people jumping down cliffs, although the rocks were far too high to jump back up unless you're Spiderman
- I saw a guy take on one of the tundra Giants at level 1 - the whole queue laughed when he was flattened with one swing of the Giant's hammer
- I did see a Giant's corpse on another screen, though, and an NPC next to the corpse talked to the player and said "you'd make a good Shield Brother." I didn't get to see any more of that conversation
- I saw a whole load of finishing moves, with all sorts of weapons. I saw the "pick up wolf and slash its neck" animation several times. My brother did one where he pushed the enemy away and then cut his throat - even the staff member hadn't seen it before and commented on how cool it was
- I saw a prisoner being led in shackles along a path by several Storm Cloaks. The player was given several options - kill the prisoner, free him, or free him and share his money (I think). The player tried to pickpocket him, at which point the Storm Cloaks attacked him and he was cut down.
- I saw a guy in a cave putting out torches in their sconces along the wall - probably for stealth purposes
- I saw a guy doing some leather-tanning. It seemed to be part of a quest for a woman in Riverwood. There was an animation where the player was next to a strip of hide which was stretched over a rack; he was running his knife across it. While the menu popped up showing the items he could create, the animation paused and went out of focus in the background
- Riverwood contained at least one child - Nord, I think. A big wolfhound was sat down in front of the kid, barking and wagging his tail. The dog had a name, like in Oblivion (Stump or Stumpy, I think)
- A number of people attacked the cows in Riverwood. It didn't seem to gain them a bounty, and the cow didn't fight back - occasionally it would try to run away, mostly it would stand there until it died.
- If the cow is killed with fire spells, you still pick up "raw beef" from its corpse
- A Nord male Hunter, who has a dog and fights with his fists. He mentioned to one player that he would make a good hunter.
- Dual flamethrower is incredibly powerful
- You can dual wield different weapons, e.g. axe and sword (don't think there was any doubt about this, but nice to clear it up anyway)
- I saw a lot of people making pathetic attempts to use stealth. More often than not it failed - but it was clearly the players' fault, for being so terrible at the game
- I saw a lot of people die. The difficulty isn't especially high, but it can be unforgiving if you're not very good
- I saw plenty of people jumping down cliffs, although the rocks were far too high to jump back up unless you're Spiderman
- I saw a guy take on one of the tundra Giants at level 1 - the whole queue laughed when he was flattened with one swing of the Giant's hammer
- I did see a Giant's corpse on another screen, though, and an NPC next to the corpse talked to the player and said "you'd make a good Shield Brother." I didn't get to see any more of that conversation
- I saw a whole load of finishing moves, with all sorts of weapons. I saw the "pick up wolf and slash its neck" animation several times. My brother did one where he pushed the enemy away and then cut his throat - even the staff member hadn't seen it before and commented on how cool it was
- I saw a prisoner being led in shackles along a path by several Storm Cloaks. The player was given several options - kill the prisoner, free him, or free him and share his money (I think). The player tried to pickpocket him, at which point the Storm Cloaks attacked him and he was cut down.
- I saw a guy in a cave putting out torches in their sconces along the wall - probably for stealth purposes
- I saw a guy doing some leather-tanning. It seemed to be part of a quest for a woman in Riverwood. There was an animation where the player was next to a strip of hide which was stretched over a rack; he was running his knife across it. While the menu popped up showing the items he could create, the animation paused and went out of focus in the background
- Riverwood contained at least one child - Nord, I think. A big wolfhound was sat down in front of the kid, barking and wagging his tail. The dog had a name, like in Oblivion (Stump or Stumpy, I think)
- A number of people attacked the cows in Riverwood. It didn't seem to gain them a bounty, and the cow didn't fight back - occasionally it would try to run away, mostly it would stand there until it died.
- If the cow is killed with fire spells, you still pick up "raw beef" from its corpse
- A Nord male Hunter, who has a dog and fights with his fists. He mentioned to one player that he would make a good hunter.
So, FINALLY, onto my own personal playthrough.
I used a Wood Elf male - preset 3 for those who care. Interestingly enough, the presets don't just set the face, they also seem to set the preset body size for that character. I slid the body size up to max and started the game.
I checked the starting stats (already noted in the first thread linked above) - from memory, Bosmer start with +5 in Sneak, Alchemy, Lockpicking and Pickpocketing, and +10 in Archery. There may have been more stat bonuses, but I missed them. You don't get a free perk at level 1, and all characters start with 100 in Health, Magicka and Stamina.
I ran straight off the road and headed through the wilderness for a bit, towards a "camp" symbol on my compass. When I got there I stayed out of sight and crouched into Sneak mode. The camp belonged to the aforementioned Nord hunter and his dog. I thought I was hidden but the "eye" symbol had part-opened; the dog barked and I crept back to where they couldn't see me again. I heard the Nord call his dog stupid - probably for barking at something the Nord couldn't see. I was still hidden so I crept out from behind a rock (still in broad daylight) and loosed an arrow. I got the 2x damage bonus, and darted back behind cover. The "eye" symbol had opened a very small amount; I heard the Nord shout something but he didn't approach. Instead the dog ran round the corner and found me; I immediately switched to dual flamethrower and torched the dog in a split second. The Nord then approached, with barely any health left, and I finished him very quickly as well.
I looted some Fur armour off him, to replace the Hide that I was wearing - it afforded very slightly better protection, despite the fact that the armour piece had no upper body to it, it was a skirt and trousers. It looked badass though, especially as my elf was ripped, and I also donned a hood that I'd found (can't remember where). I looked awesome. I moved on and found a cave entrance, manned by a Redguard bandit.
I approached with my weapons out - an Iron war axe in one hand, and a flame spell in the other - and the bandit got his weapons out in response. He didn't attack though, he just warned me to stay away. His voice took me off-guard - it wasn't anything like the standard Oblivion Redguard voice. I was pleasantly surprised by the variation. I was going to back up and find a covered spot but I guess I must have got too close; he charged. I killed him easily and took his Steel mace, which looked nothing like the spiked ball from Oblivion. More like a cross between the Silver and Iron ones.
I entered the mine, and decided to try some more stealth. Walking down the slope in the entry passageway I tripped a trap switch on the floor - rocks tumbled down from the ceiling (they looked far more weighty than the polystyrene ones from Oblivion) but they missed me. I froze until I was sure no-one had heard, and headed round the corner.
In the mouth of the main cave, there was a wooden walkway going off at about 10 o'clock for 10 or so metres; there was then a sloped walkway at the far end, which went downhill from the left to the right of my screen, towards a fire. There were two bandits next to the fire. I heard them talking, saying "I hope no-one comes in, we're hardly very well hidden" or something similar, to which the other one replied "don't worry, we've got our friend guarding the entrance." I was fully hidden so I nocked an arrow to my bow and tried to hit the first bandit. I wasn't quite used to the arrows - they don't dip as much as I expected - and I missed horribly. As soon as I realised, I ducked back round the corner, but the stealth eye had opened very slightly. I heard the bandits say "what was that?" "Did you see something?" or something similar. I backed up as they headed up the walkway together, calling out asking if someone was there. They couldn't see me though, and didn't come all the way across the bridge to my location - interestingly, when I leant back out to take another shot, they were both walking in opposite directions, checking out the whole cave.
I loosed a second arrow while the eye was still part opened, and still got the 2x damage multiplier. The eye then opened slightly further - most of the way, but not fully open. I got a second shot away which killed one of the bandits; the second one, at this point, was walking in my direction, calling out to see if someone was there. The eye wasn't fully open yet though, so I loosed one more and STILL got the damage bonus. It was only when he came round the corner and saw me that he knew where I was; he attacked me, and I killed him.
I then left the cave and headed down the path, which turned out to be the path to Riverwood. I walked past a wolf on the way; it wasn't actually attacking me, just running past, but I hit it anyway. Another two wolves jumped out, and I torched them with fire before finishing the final one off with my mace - I got a finisher where I knocked the wolf's head to the side, right to left, before smashing the mace down on its skull with a backhand blow. Looked awesome, all in 1st person. Also in this fight I discovered that there is a "shield bash" with a bow equipped - I can't remember how I did it, perhaps by holding L and tapping R, but I sort of thrust the bow forwards with it held horizontally in front of me, and it bumped foes backwards.
I approached Riverwood in stealth, and saw a woman and a man. They saw me too so I ducked behind cover and waited till I was hidden again; I crept out and loosed an arrow at the woman, which did a huge amount of damage (2x multiplier on a weak foe). She screamed and started to cry out "I yield, I yield." The guy asked her if she was ok, but then spotted me, and charged. I dispatched him easily enough. When he was dead I heard the woman still crying out; I crept into Riverwood and stuck an arrow in her head, which didn't kill her (damn lack of location damage) - she knew where I was at this point so no bonus damage
she started to crawl away begging for her life and moaning piteously; I followed her for a bit and eventually she got up and ran a short way before cowering for her life. I finished her off with an arrow in the behind. I didn't get any message alluding to the Dark Brotherhood, but I don't think they were included in this early build.I then entered Sneak again, and turned around; I wanted to see if I could kill Alvor, the blacksmith from the videos. He'd seen me though, and he came storming out of his forge; awesomely, he actually picked up a warhammer from the rack of weapons by his house. He then attacked me with the hammer and did significant damage; my light armour skill increased and I levelled up. I went to the level-up screen mid-combat and put the 10 points in health and a point into the first Archery perk (bows do more damage) but then my time was up and I had to stop.
Other points to note (this list will no doubt grow as I remember new things):
- When health, magicka or stamina are low, a warning pops up on screen suggesting you heal or use a potion. I found it quite annoying, seeing as I already knew my health was low, but it didn't happen again after the first time.
- Stamina drains faster than I'd like, and doesn't recharge as fast as I'd like.
- Double fire pwns all.
- I increased about 5 skills before I hit level 2 - Sneak, Archery, One-handed, Light Armour, Destruction.
- Many enemy mages - necromancers mainly - used a magical shield. It seemed to soak up a great deal of damage before breaking. I'm assuming it's an Alteration spell, but as we only had a flamethrower and a healing spell in the demo, I didn't get to test it out.
- I also saw other people pick up enchanted armour and weapons - e.g. "Iron Armour of Minor health" or "Iron War Axe of Flame". The weapon enchantments looked better than the glowing effect in Oblivion - there were visible flames on the axe, but not massive ridiculous ones like in Dragon Age.
- Horse-riding is in enforced 3rd person. It's also not that fast. There's a nice variety of different-coloured horses - I saw brown, black, white and beige ones. The staff member I asked didn't know if different horses had different speed/strength.
- Stamina drains faster than I'd like, and doesn't recharge as fast as I'd like.
- Double fire pwns all.
- I increased about 5 skills before I hit level 2 - Sneak, Archery, One-handed, Light Armour, Destruction.
- Many enemy mages - necromancers mainly - used a magical shield. It seemed to soak up a great deal of damage before breaking. I'm assuming it's an Alteration spell, but as we only had a flamethrower and a healing spell in the demo, I didn't get to test it out.
- I also saw other people pick up enchanted armour and weapons - e.g. "Iron Armour of Minor health" or "Iron War Axe of Flame". The weapon enchantments looked better than the glowing effect in Oblivion - there were visible flames on the axe, but not massive ridiculous ones like in Dragon Age.
- Horse-riding is in enforced 3rd person. It's also not that fast. There's a nice variety of different-coloured horses - I saw brown, black, white and beige ones. The staff member I asked didn't know if different horses had different speed/strength.
