The Imperial City seems to be getting a lot of hate. I didn't mind it...the Waterfront district and the sewers seemed like they added to the city feel. I also liked the bridge crossing Lake Rumare along with Weye and Wawnet Inn on the other side. The inn was one of my favorite hang-out spots in Oblivion because I thought it had a cozy feeling to it.

My vote for worst city would probably be a tie between Dawnstar and WInterhold. No where near as interesting as I expected them to be. They had the same architecture as all the other little towns in Skyrim as well. Yeah, Falkreath was guilty of that too, but I liked its cemetery and the alchemist shop. I guess Morthal fits in the same group too, but i didn't have high expectations for it in the first place so I didn't mind it too much.

Seyda Neen, because come on guys, Fargoth.

Yh True. The Imperial City was an impressive design. The moat and the different districts. I think it just felt a bit under populated & needed a bit more going on.


yh nearly forgot Falkreath. I rarely ever feel the need to visit. A wooden fortified wall built around it would've made it feel better. It could also do with a few good shops and a base to work out of.

Morthal is the same

Karthwasten was pretty disappointing for me. I was hoping to make it my main base of operations, but the town is only a few locked buildings and a couple of mines, there isn't even an inn.

^This.

I also thought Stonehills was a little too minute, but I wasn't even expecting it to be in the game. Same with Karthwasten. Markarth felt a helluva lot smaller than what I expected, and I also did not expect that it was easy to traverse to. I seriously imagined it being completely surrounded by high cliffs, with only a thin slit as a way to make leave or entry. Winterhold... Just wasn't there. Even after the disaster (developer's excuse to have it small?), it still felt too lacking.
Yeah, I can pretty much protest the size and scale of all the denizens since Morrowind, though they all stand out in terms of architecture and design for sure. Perhaps several places used the same style of construct, but at least they were built by the hands of the same culture.

Riften was okay. Whiterun was okay. (I don't recall Oblivion and Morrowind since it's been a while). Solitude... f'ing amazing. THAT was a city.

Okay, it did have it shortcomings, but it was an attempt. I'll always be a little curious as to how easily a catacomb can be accessed from the outside, with three skeletons just standing within, and outside being all happy and sunny lol

Winterhold. I was expecting a City of Magic, instead I was presented a ruined hamlet with no shops and little life. It felt like Beth had just run of out time and they decided to leave the town unfinished in the last weeks before release. TES series has never really had any cities just medium sizeds town at best (well maybe Daggerfall should be considered an exception). A real city is where you can get lost, mugged and drunk. The Better Cities version of Imperial City achieved this I think. Hopefully Skyrim will have something similar.

Something I do think is that most the cities should have had a city wall built around them, whether it be stone or wood. I think some of the bandit forts look more like the centre for a district than a couple of the cities.

This isn't to say they are bad though. Skyrim still has the best environment and settlements in any game I've yet seen.

Totally agree for similar reasons. Aside from 'old enemies', I was really disappointed by Winterhold for Skyrim, the Imperial City from Oblivion and (aside from Sedya Neen) Dagon Fel from Morrowind. Haven't played the other games to weigh in on any whats been said. I feel as if these cities could have been made much more interesting, especially Dagon Fel, it could've been so much more...

Morthal. There is absolutely nothing there. All the other hold capitals had one nearby guild and more than one major sidequest. But other than that one with the burned house, there are no decent quests in Morthal.

Winterhold.

Um... the rest of the city fell into the sea.

Because we didn't have time to finish it.

Morthal, and Dawnstar definately

I was disappointed that Falkreath was a hamlet, without even the Great Collapse excuse. But the travesty of the IC really takes the cake.

Dawnstar. It had http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Dawnstar:Dawnstar based around it, and when we finally get to see it in Skyrim, it's basically a glorified village.

Winterhold comes in a close second. It's supposed to be Solitude's rival (and supposedly with good reason), but the devs decided to drop most of it into the ocean to save time.

But it's so pwetty!

All of the 'cities' in Oblivion were a bit dissapointing. I appreciate how much it takes to fill a city with life, but maybe they could have tried a bit harder so that they weren't as completely devoid of life at all. Anvil and Bravil were both nice, but if it weren't for the Better Cities mod I'd have been bored a lot faster. Even the Imperial City, compared to Rome was a little desolate.

Skyrim has taken a step in the right direction, but I still wouldn't call them 'cities'. This isn't necassarily a bad thing though, I think it might be more appropriate that Skyrim wouldn't have massive stone cities, except for a few, like Oblivion should have had.

Imperial City

My god was it underwhelming to say the least. I said this before, I think Beth should have released the Imperial City as an expansion. Sort of like Mournhold, but better. If not that then they should have just released Oblivion with the IC being huge as [censored] with the surrounding land it sits on, like Vardenfell.

sarthaal it was [censored] everyone there was dead

Pretty much all the small towns in Skyrim. Rorikstead, Shor's stone, Karthwasten, Dragon Bridge, NONE of them have a general store where i can sell my goods which makes them pretty damn useless. Riverwood is great because it at least has a general store. Oh, and Falkreath is terribly small. I laughed pretty hard when i was talking to someone there and one of my dialogue options was "Why does Falkreath have such a large cemetery?" Every time i chose that option, i pretended my character was saying it sarcastically. The Jarl is the most useless and lazy piece of falmer dung ever, as well and he makes deals with bandits and asks you to bring him some mead when you ask for work.

Falkreath. The birthplace of Emperor Zero's empire, a tiny hamlet.

Morthal

ONE QUEST... REALLY BETHESDA

Never been to Morthal or Winterhold i guess, those are evn smaller than Falkreath.

Winterhold. Total cop out with the collapse imo.

Dawnstar. For it twas supposed to be a wealthy shipping and trading town. More like a little village of sticks on the water..... Imagination comes in handy for a console player.

I think both Winterhold and Dawnstar are a bit of a dissapointment. I can live with Morthal and Falkreath being relatively small, as they haven't really buildt up any reputation around them in the lore. However Dawnstar, as the post above me says, is supposed to be a wealthy trading town with a big natural harbor. There was even a small game that took place there. I think people were expecting a bit more. As for Winterhold, we're talking about one of the previous CAPITALS of Skyrim. I think a lot of fans were expecting it to be filled with more lore and history at the very least. The Great Collapse is interesting enough, but I don't think it justifies the size of the town and the effort put into it.

I was disappointed by Winterhold, but I like the College a lot, so I ignore the size of the city.

Seeing the size of the bridge to the college of Winterhold i doubt it was that much bigger than it is now (unless they build down to the water edge or something.) Besides that it once was the capitol, where are the walls? Even Riverwood has a small wall on 1 side of the town.