A lot of the communication about this game was about how such thing had been "vastly improved" compared to Oblivion.
One of the main point was about how the Skyrim's dungeons would be far superior, lovingly handcrafted to be much more varied and interesting. And well, this does leave me scratching my head.

So far, it seems that yes, there is more varied type of dungeons (more than the four elven ruins - natural caverns - fort ruins - mines from Oblivion). There is also some "boss fights" in the unique ones which are rather fun.
But WHERE the hell is the "lovingly handcrafted" part ? Because for now, all I've seen, regardless if it was random dungeons or unique ones, have been extremely repetitive corridors with one entry and one exit, where you just follow the one single ultra-linear path.
That's both boring and repetitive as hell, as well as being even inferior to Oblivion's layout, which, as bad as it was, at as least more than one single tunnel to follow, with branching paths and several ways to go to the same place.

Have I been VERY unlucky, was it another communication lie, or is this just another casualty of the "streamlining" of the game (because yay, a secundary path would be too complex !) ?

There are many beautifully hand-crafted dungeons. Just off the top of my head I can think of Labyrinthian, Ustengrav, Lost Knife Cave, Blackreach...

Not too mention the really cool Dwemer and outdoor areas.

I'm surprised anyone finds it lackluster especially if you're comparing it to Oblivion. Oblivion was just copy and pasting for the most part.

I personally think the dungeons in this game are vastly improved over Oblivion in every way so I guess it is just a matter of opinion.

I can't think of a single dungeon I've visited that looks similar to the one next to it.

I don't know where you've been going, but the caves/dungeons/ruins are absolutely beautiful, and unique on top of that.

Nchuand Zel comes to mind for a non-linear dungeon, along with the aforementioned Blackreach. I'm quite happy with the dungeons in this game, they're not copypasta from place to place.

Ive certainly found them to be vastly superior

Visually they're vastly improved and mostly unique.

They're mostly still linear though. Not that I mind personally, because I'm very easily frightened and absolutely hate being able to take multiple paths in a dungeon.

There are plenty of well designed dungeons with unique stories to them.

they are vastly improved if you dont think so then you need to lay off the skooma.

I ended up finding myself in a Dwemer ruin where some Falmer were sitting [yes sitting] on chairs wit a long table overlooking some pews. I wasn't sure what it was. Or what the Falmer were doing, but they soon attacked me wen they saw me trying to see what they were doing. It was either a glitch or something awesome.

Multiple paths would have been a GREAT implementation, don't get me wrong, but I find Skyrim's dungeons to be anything but "extremely repetitive."

I have yet to walk into a cave or dungeon and think, I have been here before. Each one has been unique and beautifully crafted.

Are some small? Yes. Do they have similarities to each other? Yes, to an extent they do, but how many real world castles have you been in? All the ones I have been in are similar. Caves? Same thing, they are all similar. Heck, all the Egyptian ruins look the same once you get inside, same with Myan and Aztec.

I agree with everyone here: No dungeon has been quite like the other.

I really want to believe you (because it's better if the game is fun, obviously), but as I said, so far I've only seen dungeons made of one single tunnel that you follow mindlessly - which feels WAY MORE copy'n'pasting than Oblivion, which at least had different layouts.
Sure they have (as I said in my post) more varied graphics, but a linear tunnel gets old much faster than a tileset, to be honest.

I've a bit of a hard time believing that I just coincidentally found only the rare dungeons that are totally and completely linear, though if it's the case I'll be overjoyed.

Do like you normally do in every post of yours OP, blame consoles.

LOL at the last sentence.

I was a bit let down in Labyrinthian because I expected a maze and I'd prefer some broader dungeons with multiple paths, but overall my impression is positive. Each dungeon feels unique and even some of the repetitive elements (like the egg laying areas in Falmer caves) make sense from a realism and artistic perspective.

Bethesda gets an A for dungeons in Skyrim.

You should actually play the game more, it helps. I've found quite a few with multiple paths.

They do seem improved and a lot more unique, but i'm still slightly disappointed by how short and linear most of them are. Maybe it was just wishful thinking on my part, but I was kind've hoping for dungeons you could spend hours getting lost in.

Also, the level-scaled loot is a serious blow, and kind've puts me off delving into every dungeon I come across.

As far as appearance goes, I think Skyrim's dungeons are head, shoulders, chest and waist above Oblivion's, both in terms of uniqueness and beauty/awe. As for the almost ubiquitous linearity, it struck me as a little odd at first, but as someone that absolutely has to loot everything in every dungeon, or at least make sure I haven't left anything interesting behind, it's saving me from a huge amount of tedious backtracking. It was a stroke of genius to give every sizable dungeon a backdoor to conveniently transport you to an exit once you've cleared it, rather than forcing you to retread a bunch of empty corridors that you've already seen (while occasionally overburdened). And the gameworld itself provides more than enough non-linearity to sate the need for free roaming. People criticize linearity, but really, a well crafted linear experience can be extremely entertaining if done correctly, and this game offers hundreds of them.

I really don't see how you come to your repeated conclusion. Dungeons in Skyrim, to be specific, are many varying sizes, designs and themes. I've never once felt in any one dungeon that I had found a familiar corner as a previous one. In fact I think the only dungeons that come close to that are crypts. Since they all house dead bodies or Draugr in a similar fashion. That said I would expect the imagined traditions of the Nords to be consistent. It would be odd to find a crypt that didn't have some similarity.

Again I can't fathom how you feel lost in a repeating matrix.

Same here. I really enjoy the dungeons in Skyrim. Heck, i don't even mind doing some of them again with other characters.

I too was let down by the Labyrinthian. I was expecting not only a maze, but a difficult and hard maze. But instead a voice basically showed you the path.




Agreed. I liked getting lost and finding little places people didn't think were there. But when you played Oblivion as long as I did I remembered nearly all the quest and dungeons by heart. Freakish I know.

the dungeons do look good but they also look the same. the long twisting corridors are in every one, the little scalfolds/bridges going over portions of them are the same, the mostly big room at the end with the boss is mostly the same etc etc

But then again, it's a dungeon that's underground. There are not many different posibilties that can exist.