I've been playing Oblivion a bit lately, and I took note of, IMO, the single most differentiating factor between games, other than the obvious changes. The element I speak of is fear. In oblivion, I at least, feel fear when entering a cave, fortress, ruin, oblivion gate, and even just walking around. Skyrim on the other hand gives you the feeling of saftey and security throughout most of the game.

My question to you is, if you do, how do you implament fear and excitment into your playthrough?

Thanks in advance.

I will say I certainly felt fear when I first played Skyrim. So many ways to die. All the unknowns.

Now though... so much of the game is memorized that its hard to be surprised/startled or scared anymore while playing. Now I know when I enter a cave, just what I'm getting into.

Oblivion.... Fear?
Only thing that scared me about Oblivion was the way NPCs look.


Wear a headset, remove the HUD, turn off music = There's a bear behind you....

Can't say I've ever felt fear in any of these games without being heavily invested in a roleplay.

Hmm yeah I don't know that I agree that Oblivion was more fear laden than Skyrim. I feel like you are talking about tension moreso than fear. If that is the case, I can tell you that, like Resident, after having played the game so much I lost that tension. Having experience with Elder Scrolls games also just makes the game less tense. I have been taught the hard way to save often, so I typically don't feel fear when I walk into a new cave or ruin and see some big nasty beast ready to tear me a new one.

I guess you could say that after playing games for a while, you just lose the ability to be afraid by the penalty of the game. Even with immersive games like Skyrim. Heck even with scary games. I mean I played a ton of Resident Evil and it used to make me freak out, but replaying through 4 on my Xbox and I don't feel jumpy at all. Again, I know what's coming and I think that helps out a lot. Maybe it's graphics too? The more games become photorealistic, the more frightening they will be I'd wager.

Yea, I felt fear in Oblivion. I don't want to start with Daggerfall since that game still scares me so much.

Unless Roleplaying I have not felt fear while playing Skyrim.

Except a fear of flying killer brooms.

I can't compare it to Oblivian but I felt that early on in Skyrim I felt fear, which slowly disappeared as the game progressed.

In the first dungeons I was weak, got killed easily and didn't know what to expect. The Draugr rising from their crypts, the Frostbite spiders etc. terrified me.

Of course, as my character has become more powerful I don't really felt scared when I see a Draugr wake up as I can easily beat them.

That said I still hate Frostbite spides, had one jump on my character's face in 1st person which terrified me the other day.

Mods I'm afraid, something like dragon combat overhaul. Gimp builds might work too, like, play in max difficulty with no shields or magic.