Ok so before I start let me preface this by telling a little about myself and my TES gaming experience. I've played Morrowind extensively ever since I got the game in 2003. I've clocked in over 2,000 hours in Morrowind. I used to play on the Xbox, before I got a nice computer, and I got a Nord Warrior to level 83 completely legit, without cheating at all. Doing so on the Xbox was a feat of great strength. I also had every artifact in the game, and I had over 1m gold. All legit, obviously, as I was on the console. I still play Morrowind to this day, playing with MGE and various texture replacer mods, Darknuts textures, etc.

Oblivion..well. I am not a fan of Oblivion. I'll just simply leave it at that. Lackluster gameplay, horrid textures, I mean even for an Xbox console game, the textures are atrocious. The NPC models look horrid, everyone looks like some bloated mesh of color and potatoes, the game is just bad to me. That's just my opinion, however. I did play the game though, pushed past the visual flaws and I found even more so lackluster gameplay. I just disliked it in general. The only redeeming qualities of Oblivion, in my opinion, were the quest, some of them were pretty great. The DB quest line was pretty amazing.

Now, onto Skyrim.

I've personally clocked in just over 120 hours overall, I have beaten the Main Quest and the Companions, as well as collected every Dragon Shout to the max, every Daedric Artifact, become Thane of every city, bought every house, and completed every major quest that can be gotten from the cities/as well as the majority of wilderness quest.

I got the game the day after release, as I couldn't attend the midnight release, to my dismay. I was forced to pick it up the following day and rushed home once it was in my grasp. This was the game I had been anticipating since Morrowind; 8 years have I wanted a game in Skyrim, ever since I played a Nord in Morrowind. The culture, the snow aspects, it just fits me. I was not displeased.

This honestly has the be one of the greatest free roaming video games ever created. Notice that I didn't say one of the greatest "RPG's" ever created, because there are a few things that this game lacks in order for it to claim said title. Let's discuss why.

Art Style:
Skyrims art style is very rustic, and to me that's very good. From the chilling winds blowing off tundras, to the weather beaten flags hanging from abandoned bandit ruins, this game pretty much nails what it means to be "realistic". The art style lends to this greatly. Being a long time Morrowind fan, and realizing that what made Morrowind so timeless was its art style, I had VERY high hopes and standards for the next installment of the TES series, and again, I was not disappointed. The art style in this game is phenomenal. The attention to detail, the way the world is just put together, it's all amazing. Very well done, and I am absurdly impressed.
Better than Morrowind? Tied
Better than Oblivion? Yes


Thoughts on the world in general:
I can say without a doubt in my mind that Skyrim is 100% for sure the most breathtaking video game world ever created. Every little thing that adds up to greatness; The textures on the ground, simulating fallen golden leaves mixed with dirt and rubble, from the swaying grass (with the surprisingly impressive draw distance on the console, mind you), to the snowy tundras billowing snow off like a tornado, rapping around tunnels and canyons, to the excellently hand crafted feel of it all, it's just amazing. Every single rock, every single waterfall, every single puddle of water that shimmers in the sunlight, the rocks glistening under the water like glass, it's just breathtaking. There is no game world that is as open and big as Skyrim that can even TOUCH how amazing this game is. Superb, well done Bethesda. Tenfold what I expected, and leaps and bounds above Oblivion.
Better than Morrowind? Yes
Better than Oblivion? Yes

NPC Animations:
The animations this time around are a vast improvement, except for when the game bugs out and sends people flying across the map for no reason. I can't tell you how many Sabre Cats and Mudcraps I've sent flying easily 100 feet at 90 miles an hour with the simple swing of my mace, for no reason whatsoever. It used to happen to ME when Giants hit me, but now I do it to others lol. /shrug
As far as combat goes, I think the animations are very good. The "kill shot" animations are a little jarring, sometimes they glitch and happen REALLY FAST (Two Handed Axe kill shots, anyone? What's with that?) but other than that, they're spot on. I thought it'd be a little too much at first, but they don't happen as frequently as I had feared. Walking animations are great, better than Oblivion, and ANYTHING is better than Morrowinds walking animations.
Better than Morrowind? Yes
Better than Oblivion? Yes

Dungeons:
The dungeons/caves in this game are just..I cannot even find words. The first cave I entered was..just that. It was a freaking cave. And by that, I mean I literally had to sneak to get by the nooks and crannies. It was a cave that had a stream in the bottom of it, and it literally had a four foot high ceiling that was dripping water with moss and vines coming down almost touching me. I was in heaven. The realism in this game as far as caves goes is just amazing to me. The ruins are also very unique. I have currently cleared 226 dungeons, and EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM were unique, I mean yes, they are either a "ruin" or a "fort" or a "cave" etc, but every single one had turns I didn't expect. NO dungeons were the same. This was the BIGGEST setback of Oblivion. Once you had been in ONE ruin, you had been in ALL ruins. This is simply not the case in Skyrim.
Better than Morrowind? Yes
Better than Oblivion? HECK YES

Quest:
Ah, the quest. The "meat" of the TES series. This is the very reason that I say Skyrim is one of the greatest games in the world, and not one of the greatest RPG's in the world. Why? Because YOU DON'T LET ME CHOOSE ANYTHING. AT ALL.
There are absolutely no dialogue options in this game. Every single thing I can say essentially brings the same outcome. I can choose to simply "not" do a quest; but that's not an option, is it? There are no repercussions for choosing that route. There should ALWAYS be a repercussion for whatever I do.
On the plus side, Bethesda has stepped up their writing game. The Daedric Shrine quest are absurdly fun, and very well written. Most of the quest are very well written, and only a few left me going "...what?". Thank goodness. I thought that after essentially EVERY quest in Oblivion. Such horrid quest. Ugh.
As far as "choice" goes, there is none. If I accept a quest, that's that. If I don't, well, that's also that. No real repercussions. This is a flaw IMO. Skyrim doesn't feel like I'm given any choice, so what makes this any different from Halo? Ocarina of Time? World of Warcraft? These quest are simply...quest. There is no "choice". Just grinding.
Better than Morrowind? Yes
Better than Oblivion? Yes, but only polish. We still have no options

Guilds:
Very underwhelming. I completed the Companions the first day. From what I've read about the Mages guild and the Thieves guild, they are equally as short. While they may be jam packed with content, they are just TOO SHORT.
Better than Morrowind? No
Better than Oblivion? Yes

Voice Acting:
The voice acting in this game is AMAZING. Still to this day I'm hearing voices I have never heard, it doesn't happen often, but it does. This is LEAPS AND BOUNDS above Oblivions 2 voice actors for literally every single person in the game. Exaggerating, yes, but that's essentially how it played out. Th e SAME WOMAN played the voices of like 6 different races and their sixes. Ugh. I'm so glad they decided to spend more this time around.
Better than Morrowind? Yes
Better than Oblivion? HECK YES


Items:
I am absolutely loving the art style for the gear and weapons in this game. I am in love with the Dwemer set, as well as the new model for Daedric. Superb. Really good job. My hat goes off to whoever designed those sets. As far as that STATS goes..
I am really disappointed that Artifact are, once again, horrid pieces of loot. I should not be able to craft a better weapon than a Daedric God. That's just silly.
Better than Morrowind? Yes
Better than Oblivion? Yes, but once again, just the polish. Everything is prettier, but everything is also just as underwhelming end game. Random loot is better than this "UltraBBQBattleAxeofGod". That's silly.

Skills/Perks:
Ah...the skills and perks. Well, this is where I fall in love with Skyrim. I am absolutely thrilled they went the way of perks. It evolves your character into something it NEVER could have been in ANY other TES game to date. This adds a layer of customization and complexity that no TES game has ever had. Heck, I've even been half tempted to make ANOTHER Warrior, and go the Orc Dual Wield route. It would lead me to an extremely different playstyle. You can not do that in any other TES game. Very pleased.
Better than Morrowind? Yes
Better than Oblivion? Yes

UI:
I read threads on this board about how people are so upset with the UI; I could not disagree more. I am in love with this UI. I think the inventory UI is extremely easy to handle, it's very easy to navigate, and it shifts pages fluidly and neatly. As far as the skill perk UI goes, I'm very pleased. I love the whole "constellation" aspect they went for, since, that is after all what the skills are meant to represent. Very nicely done IMO. But, I hate to say, I love Morrowinds UI the best. Not being able to see my character in the item screen is a HUGE setback too. Very silly to remove.
Better than Morrowind? No
Better than Oblivion? Yes

Difficulty:
I'm very pleased that Bethesda decided to go the "let's make it tiers of difficulty" instead of that ATROCIOUS slider they used to have. UGH. That thing was so irritating. Making it so that the game has "Halo" style levels of difficulty is an idea I had for the series since I played Halo: Combat Evolved. It just makes things more simple. And simple is good.
I am, however, a bit perplexed as to how I am getting one shot on Master at level 45 with 360 HP by lightning spells. That needs to be tweaked just a bit. That's a little silly. I have cleared out entire bandit caves with 3+ enemies on me, never falling below 60% HP, and then all of the sudden LOLSUP one shot by a single lightning shock from a mage a mile away. Wut. Very irritating.
Better than Morrowind? Yes
Better than Oblivion? Yes

Final Thoughts:
Overall, I'd give this game a solid 9.5 out of 10. Not a pure 10 based on these facts:
-This game is not an RPG, it is me playing the role of someone who has absolutely no choice in what happens, I am playing a script.
-Guilds are absurdly underwhelmingly short
-Todd Howard blatantly lied about various aspects of this game. The "Radiant AI" is not nearly as "radiant" as we were led to believe. Quest givers do NOT take over dead quest givers tasks; only one does, and that's the first quest you get, for the Golden Claw. No other quest will do this. You can also not sabotage anything and effect the economy WHATsoever.
-Daedric Artifacts are again pointless

I'm very pleased with this game, and I daresay that it is indeed the first true TES game since Morrowind. I am in love with this game, and will probably play it for many years to come, until TES:VI comes out.

Cheers.

Better than Morrowind? ......yes.
Better than Oblivion? This game is everything Oblivion was NOT. So yes, this game blows Oblivion to..Oblivion.

Took me an hour to write this and it's already on the 3rd page, GG.

Free bump for you. I thoroughly enjoyed this post, it was a great review.

I agree with your dislike of the Non-"Radiant AI." I've killed a lot of people, and it seems their functions are rarely replaced. Lumber mills are unsabotageable and there is no way I have found to impact a village's economy. For whatever reason, I don't like Rorikstead, but I can't make their village suffer in any way besides killing people, and that isn't helpful because I want the people to suffer, not die.

The guilds were too short, but only because they took out all the b**** work. You can still do that on the side (and I recommend it for the Thieves Guild especially). If you want to just do the story of the guilds, it is easy to just do story-related quests. The Dark Brotherhood is the only one that doesn't have a lot of quests to do outside the main story. I don't particularly mind not having to do a bunch of b**** work, but it does make the guilds feel shorter.

I enjoy Morrowind also, maybe not as much as you but i did.

Didn't enjoy Oblivion to much.

But Skyrim is the best game i've play and i agree completly with you.


Going back to Skyrim

Thanks. I'm really enjoying this game, just thought I'd share my opinion.

Good read, i pretty much agree with most all your flaws and strengths of skyrim.

Also hated oblivion as well as I felt like all the mish mash of colors made me feel like I was playing in Candyland.


You should become a reviewer for PC game site as your next hobby!

Honestly, I can't bring myself to play this game. Not until the CK is released. There's just too many things that need to be modded in. And it's not that I'm saying the game is bad (although some of the features in the game are pretty bad, in my opinion). In fact, the reason I've refrained from getting past level 8 on any character is because I don't want to spoil the game playing it on Vanilla. I want to wait until I mod it heavily before playing through all of the quests and stuff.

Please, oh please, release the CK soon!



You say the UI isn't bad? Have you ever opened a chest? You can't even sort the items by their type. You have to scroll through a whole bunch of crap just to find that one item you were looking for (I'm talking about when you open up the chest in your player owned house).

And you can't change the way the items are ordered (by default, it's alphabetically ordered). It would be nice to be able to order them by weight and value and stuff.

And have you tried storing items in a chest/container? Try storing a weapon. Ok, that was easy. Now try storing a consumable item the same way you just stored that mighty fine battle axe of yours. Woops! you drank the potion when you were trying to store it! Why the hell did they program it like that? Oh, it's the key bindings. Too bad you can't change the key bindings.

Really, this is simple stuff that should have been fixed way before it was released.

I agree with pretty much everything except the skills/perks. I think they failed very badly on them. They have so many skills that are just so obscenely powerful and other skills that are so awful that any sort of customization and build options fly out the window. I also feel they lack a lot in the magic area. I mean when I play dragon age 2 on my mage I use many different spells and use them together to great effect and there are tons of different ways to build a mage. In Skyrim it's... spam the expert level spell of your choosing. Seriously... I have 1 spell in my arsenal, nothing else is really worthwhile other than just to add variety for the sake of variety.

The UI on PC is also horrible... it works better just using the keyboard, if you start using the mouse(like any PC user would) you start encountering typical flash problems such as the UI not recognizing where your mouse actually is properly.

I'll agree that chest need sort options, just like the inventory. I didn't mention that, but I do agree. Everything else about the UI is great IMO. I'm on the Xbox 360 btw.

I have 167 hours clocked myself and I hit level cap of 81 and just logged off. All my skills are 100 with the exception of resto at 96, alteration at 96, and destruction at 97.

I started melee and had to switch over to the magic schools at level 70/71ish... It was such a grueling and unrewarding experience that I am now taking a break from skyrim and going back to oblivion/morrowind. I literally spent years of my youth in the daggerfall dungeons and the world of morrowind, maybe my expectations for this game was too much.



The sounds in this game are so deep and have immersion. Much like you I consider the art/story/asthetics of the game an upgrade over their counterparts. But the skill system is dumbed down and unrewarding. The loot system is lackluster because it's not dynamic; when you have all the items disenchanted their is no purpose of raiding new dungeons at level cap looking for better loot.

Unlike previous elder scrolls games... This game doesn't have the longevity. Once you have 100-200 hours in with your character then you're done. You either reroll a new character or quit. And don't even try to claim the dragons covers this either. After killing hundreds of dragons they are nothing more then a nuiscance that spawns over you at the worst time. They aren't hard or challenging and they offer no substantial reward. I have hundreds of bones and scales tucked away in my chest and the armor that is crafted by them is a downgrade compared to daedric etc. My stats page shows me that I have accumulated 1.5 million coin of which I only have 100k left because I spent most of it on trainers it would seem.



But that's not all. My biggest gripe about this game is this false sense of choice when it comes to imperials/stormcloaks. It was an idea adopted after fallout new vegas. In reality the system svcks because the world is litered with invulnerable NPCs. What distinguished the elder scrolls series from other games in the genre was the ramifications of your decisions would be fealt; that if you killed someone you might make a quest impossible to complete. I genuinely fear for elder scrolls 6 or 7 because I know they will continue this trend to the point where the majority of the game world cannot be killed. I found a khajjit named "M'aiq the liar" just walking in a forrest with no quest/story tied to him and he was unkillable. When the game takes away the choice of killing a useless NPC who is labeled a liar by his peers then all hope is lost.

Why would you try to kill M'aiq? He's awesome.

Well written review!

My very first PC game (not counting my Apple //e from years ago) was Oblivion. Maybe I didn't know any better, but I loved that game. I logged over 650 hours on one character, adding mods near the end. I did Morrowind afterwards, and after a couple of slow starts, came to the realization that the story and atmosphere was way, way better than Oblivions. I played that one pretty much to the end, only stopping completely when Fallout 3 came out.

Since you have a very in-depth knowledge and appreciation for the Elder Scroll games, I'm wondering if you have tried Nehrim? If you don't already know, it's a complete overhaul mod of Oblivion, using only the game engine. Everything else is completely new and different from the original game.

Having played Nehrim, I will say that is is light-years beyond Oblivion, pretty much equal to Morrowind, although much shorter and still a continuous work in progress. The team that did this spent a lot of time on graphics, quests, and story lines. Interestingly, there seems to be a lot of Nehrim influences in Skyrim, including the giant spiders and a lot of building architecture.

I am about 30 hours into Skyrim, and, like Morrowind, it was a somewhat slow start, but now I'm thoroughly addicted.

finally someone having fun with the game. i am at 200 hrs soon and my impression is very positive. im a morrowind lover and oblivion liker, i think skyrim is on par with morrowind even though i miss some things like, as you said, choice (like conflictin questlines), as well as spellmaking and a couple of talents, especially in the magic section. and there could be a couple more enemy types. but it makes up for that with pure size and richness of content.

I have indeed played Nehrim. Well, I tried. I installed it, it worked for like 4 minutes and then it kept crashing when I tried leaving the starter dungeon type thing. It was very frustrating.


yeah, I mean the game is very enjoyable. It has flaws. No game is perfect. But overall, the game is great.

I didn't know M'aiq was invincible.

i was going to write a long winded review, but you largely summed up my main points. i actually have to disagree with the utter hatred of oblivion, especially when compared to the uber-love for morrowind. i've played both games thoroughly, and personally loved them both, in different ways. it's interesting to see the progression now between the three games (morrowind to skyrim - i haven't played arena or daggerfall and don't intend to... heard mixed reviews on both and they're just far too outdated for me)

i personally feel that the gameplay has been on a steady upward incline since morrowind, and likely before. i find it odd TS points to morrowind as having better gameplay than oblivion. now i played oblivion first so perhaps i'm biased, but the first time i picked up morrowind.... i'm swinging a sword at a dude and nothing happens, nothing at all. there is no reaction on the dude i'm swinging at, no indication in the game that i've missed or anything, just... nothing. i stopped playing the game multiple times before ever making it out of seyda need because i just had no idea how combat worked, and there was no indication in the game of what to do, or what the hell was going on. now eventually i figured out that i was missing and it was due to a low skill level and so on, and i wound up playing the hell out of and loving the hell out of the game. but to point to gameplay as one of its greatest assets is... well, strange. robotic characters, robotic animations, stiff controls... where is the amazing gameplay here? oblivion at least made you feel like you were swinging that sword, and with the rumble on the xbox controls, blocking with a shield or sword felt pretty genuine as well. plus, when i swung at a guy, if i hit him, it did damage - the amount of damage was dependent on my skill level and the weapon and so on, but if i managed to hit the guy, i actually hit him... no fake generated misses that dont make any damn sense. he either blocked, moved, or i hit him...

i'd say what morrowind has over the other two is really just two main things: first being dialogue / element of choice. now if we're being super-duper honest, morrowind's dialogue in terms of scripting was horrible and that is another thing that has been on the upward trend IMO - the level of writing (largely - not in every instance) has gotten better with each game. however also seemingly with each game, the level of ability to choose any kind of path on any quest or conversation even has gone down. morrowind, while it was far from perfect in this area, was a hell of a lot better than oblivion and makes skyrim look, as TS points out, not like an RPG at all. i know that the focus of the series is not necessarily on element of choice (like in fallout - please god bethesda, do not allow this trend to continue into fallout 4!) in terms of questing... just saying that seems at odds with the whole "you can be who you want to be and play how you want to play" motto of the series. i mean, if the idea is that we have this living, breathing world (which has been realized like never before in skyrim) and i am this legendary figure (or can become at least)... then the ability to make choices in as many instances as possible is just as important in making that world feel alive as, say, falling leaves fluttering through the air or a river actually having a current. i think bethesda really needs to look at games like BioWare's KOTOR 2 and even thier partner Obsidian in Fallout: NV and the sheer amount of dialogue available to go through, and how that influences quest progression, character development, etc. i mean sure radiant story is pretty cool, but how about radiant questing? why can't we have some kind of system that allows multiple variations of endings for a given quest, or better yet, a variety of different ways to proceed in a quest line, depending on the choices we make - the people we talk to, the questions we ask, the questions we don't, the things we say and do... i mean honestly i'm not saying that every quest in the game has to be infinitely complex with like six different ways to solve it - this system could be reserved for just the more important quests: specifically the main quest, guilds, and maybe a couple other quests the dev's feel like they want to highlight. and i heard todd howard say that they "sacrificed the level of depth with companion-characters in order to have a greater level of choice of which companion to take" which again is a bit of a cop-out. really what got sacrificed in this game is any kind of character development at all - the characters in the game, just like the quests, are static and unchanging. you can either interact with them or choose not to, but you can't, say, convince the kid that wants you to kill the orphanage lady that it's the wrong thing to do and maybe hook him up with a good family that will take him in instead. anyway this for me is a serious problem, and a trend in the series that has me concerned for future games - it's the one area that they are proceeding further and further away from the direction i'd like to see them go. as much as i want to be able to make choices about my character and what skills i use and such, and have consequences there (thank you, perk trees!), i want to be able to make choices about the world around me, and the people i meet, and especially about the quests that i'm on, and there needs to be major changes in the world based on the choices i make. i want to be able to convince the imperials and the stormcloaks NOT to fight each other, and perhaps even to unite against the thalmor instead... and even better yet (though i realize this last bit is the hardest part) i want the events of one questline and the choices i've made be able to influence, even if its just in small ways, the events and so on of another questline.

the other thing morrowind had over oblivion and skyrim is in it's unbridled craziness with spells and abilities. this isnt even a major complaint, but basically i loved the flying and teleporting spells, and i thought it was cool (in a hilarious way) that you could stack bonuses endlessly in morrowind so as to create the most ridiculous potions and armor and.... well whatever you wanted, to achieve some zany results - and they even joke about it with that dude in seyda neen and the jumping potions. its funny to hear people complain about balance in skyrim... i wonder if they played morrowind? lol. i'm not necesarily asking for the craziness back, but it was fun to go nuts and see what happened in that game, at least for a bit. on the real side though, teleporting and flying spells! i read somewhere one of the dev's (i think it was todd howard) saying that they didn't want to do that because it was basically just a way to cheat out of a lot of cool stuff they were doing with level design in dungeons and whatnot.... i say, first off, teleporting and flying could be unlockable through like high-end perks and only available to people who have followed a certain magic school (likely in the current system alteration i guess) through to the end - its a sweet payoff at the end of a skill tree... sure, it can wind up being a bit of a cheat on certain things, but isn't that what the end-tree stuff is anyway? second, couldn't it also be an opportunity to get even more creative with dungeon design?

on that note, while i love the streamlining they've done for skyrim overall, i have to say there are some things i miss - destruction magic having more than just elemental magic to play with for one - where are my status effect spells and absorb health/magicka spells? i actually would have preferred a perk tree that went more - status effect / absorb stuff spells vs. elemental magic spells. i don't understand why restoration doesn't have any cure disease / poison / etc. spells, or any status enhancement spells for that matter. and illusion has no night vision spell? i mean i'm sure that the explanation is that they want to separate the available effects of alchemy and enchanting from some of the magic schools, but i'm not sure that expanation flies with me - first off, alchemy already steps on the toes of many other skills as it is - restoration has healing spells, alchemy has healing potions. illusion has illusion and fear spells, alchemy has potions... i mean i suppose there isn't overlap with destruction now, but why is it cool with two other magic shools and not with this one? part of being an open game is that the player gets to make choices and i like that there is now more consequence to the character build choices that one makes than we've seen before, but some of the streamlining they've done seems a little redundant is all.

i also have to agree with many others on the board and say that the whole items and crafting issue is a little underwhelming. i like that you are able to craft some seriously sick weapons and armor, but there really does need to be a class of item that goes above and beyond what the player is able to make - aedric and daedric items, for one, and some seriously sweet uber-rare random loot would be nice too (ie. mundane ring from oblivion) the dragon-priest masks are nice in that there is one that fits almost any play-style, but that's about it... daedric items aren't really worth it by and large (though some of the quests are pretty cool) and there isn't much else worth mentioning in terms of great loot. definitely seems odd that i should be able to craft something on par with or better than armor or weapons made by a force of nature like the aedra or daedra.

i guess i did wind up writing a long-winded review, though mine is much more all-over-the-place than the TS...

to sum it up, i think congratulations are in order for bethesda. there are plenty of haters on these forums, but screw those guys IMO. the game is incredible, tons of fun to play, and is moving almost everything in the right direction as far as i'm concerned, other than the element of choice and consequence when it comes to speech, characters, and questing. i really hope beth takes everything they've done here, and brings it to fallout 4, but going in the complete opposite direction on that one front. fallout is a series of games primarily about choice and consequence, and the system they've got i think can be made to take that concept farther than it's ever been taken in a game before. i just hope beth has the balls, the brains, and the desire to do just that. and then when they see what a raging success that could be, they bring it back to TES for TES VI... and make the greatest game in history.

I am a long time TES gamer ever since Daggerfall and Skyrim is everything that I could have hoped for. I don't have time to write a review to give it justice or even comment on yours (which was excellent and I agree with on 99% of) so I'll just give my one liner

Skyrim is everything awesome from Morrowind, subtract the crap from oblivion.

Meh... too tired. Willl make sense later.

hes an aspect of hermeaus mora(hes immortal) a god in plain sight

I enjoyed reading your review. Great job! It is evident that you are honest about how you feel about Skyrim. Using Morrowind and Oblivion for comparisons was excellent. You didn't take the "dis is teh best games evar!!!1" approach.

I have never played Morrowind, sadly. I played a lot of Oblivion and enjoyed it. It was the game that turned me on to Bethesda, and I also love Fallout 3. Oblivion, Fallout 3, and Skyrim are my favorite games of all time at this point. (After 32 years of gaming. :wink_smile: )

Skyrim does have it's flaws in both certain design and mechanic choices, and of course it's share of bugs. But overall I love this game. After only 50 hours in, I am still surprised and amazed every time I play. Then again I "slow-play" Beth's games, because I like to savor the rich worlds they create. This game will take a long time and several characters before I see everything it has to offer, and I'm just fine with that. And it never hurts to use your imagination when playing games like this. I wish everyone thought that way, too.

oh yeah, couldn't agree more - you should be able to kill anyone. anyone. why not? i mean, for certain quests you can have other people step in (like was supposed to happen...?) and take thier place, for others, you simply cant do that quest, and for the really important characters, perhaps the act of killing that person actually starts a different quest. or, maybe just make you hated and shunned by a particular faction. like you kill the queen (or jarl's wife, cant remember her name) of solitude, and you basically cant go to solitude anymore - or any other imperial garrison or camp, AND you now have imperial assassins hunting you at every turn.

action and consequence. something that has been lost from the series almost completely and desperately needs to be returned, as far as i'm concerned. it doesn't make the games worthless - they're still tons of fun, but it does take away a layer of complexity that adds to the unique experience of the game, and, takes away from what they seem to be trumpeting as thier focus nowadays : immersion. you want to completely immerse me in a game-world? graphics, character creation choices, etc. are all great... but equally as important is action and consequence.

and character development. i know there are way too many characters to have a fully-fleshed out background for every one of them in a game like this, and that's fine as far as i'm concerned if gaurds are largely just gaurds (though it would be cool to see them actually have like shifts and then appear in bars or whatever on thier off time, have families and whatnot... they dont all need to have massive dialogue options, but some sense that there is a person behind that armor is all i ask for). but pick a couple characters for each quest-line to flesh out more fully, and specifically, having a small number of characters that your character can interact with more directly that are truly fully-fleshed out, perhaps have thier own questlines, and have thier own view of the world and situation, that your character can influence in various ways (perhaps a couple "good" characters that you can simply influence some decisions they make, some "bad" characters with the same, and some "grey" characters that you could perhaps help to swing one way or the other)

To the OP: You gave it a 9.5 and you said Skyrim is not a rpg?

I disagree with your post, but thank you for not resorting to insults of Bethesda, other gamers, and "dumbing down" in your post. I wish more of the criticisms against this game could be posted in this type of manner. I can take the negative remarks a lot more seriously when they are posted this way.

rofl i hate that.

Have a question for you though.

Your thoughts. Comparing morrowinds amazing dialogue(imo) to skyrims voice acting. Id actually say i prefer the typed up dialogue more...it just seemed liek i could get everyone backstory, everything i wanted to know. It seemed much more engaging to me.

I love skyrim but one of the main things i would have liked to have seen from morrowind, would be...quest dialogue that actually lets you do the quest without a marker....such as "go east from the city...hug the north side of mount blah until you run into the river bleh...from there head north immediately until you see this stone shaped like a blahblah....there you will find the cave"

Good review you hit some points right on the head. Love to comment more but just got home and I'm itching to play.

By the way 2000 hours on morrowind? Over 120 hours already on Skyrim? Do you work?!

Harvv or Harw now sure which,

The quests for the Master level spells are really fun and old school. me and my girlfriend have been doing the Destruction one the past few nights. Its a little vague though, but no quest markers at all! Kind wish there was more like this!

Great review, friend!