» Wed Sep 25, 2013 4:29 pm After playing Skyrim quite a bit, as I have every elder scrolls game, its made me think and wonder to the future of the series. Where its going to go, and if I am going to stay interested or not. Lately the trend with new games is steering more towards action than role playing.
Take for example, the Mass Effect series. Mass Effect 1, could only be classified as a roleplaying game. There was decent combat but, it was a classic rpg first and foremost. Mass Effect 2 took the series right into the land of action/rpg. Not really a bad thing, the characters were still well done, and the decisions from the last game really mattered. Mass Effect 3 was mostly an action game. It really didn't appeal to me at all, and I hated what they did with the reapers, and the stereotypical "humanity pulls it off against all odds with the super sayian 5 device".
Morrowind had some glaring issues, and although its my favorite game in the series, there were things Oblivion and Skyrim did a lot better. Without getting into an enormous amount of text, I feel Skyrim really cheapened and shortened the overall feel of the game. Sure its fun to play, especially in short stretches, but I am left with the feeling everything was handed to me.
Examples? You learn the big secret about the companions guild on the very first mission. Your practically given the archmage position, and the dark brotherhood position. There are no ranks in between, put it on easy difficulty and you could complete everything at level 1. That would be completely impossible to do in Morrowind for example, what were the requirements for archmage in that? 1 skill at at least 90? There were no rising through the ranks, no sense of real progression, it felt like a michael bay storyline. Oblivion overall might be my least favorite game in the series thus far, but its guilds didn't let you leapfrog through everything lickity split like Skyrim does.
Another thing is the lack of any strong characters in the game, male or female. Serana was really well done, had a great voice actress (kid trunks ftw!), and the character was believable and at the same time not so cliched. I actually loved the fact you couldn't marry her, because it really fit the character. Besides Serana, and agreeing with everything Dagoth Ur had said (perhaps not his methods), there really isn't a single character in the elder scrolls universe that I'll remember. There is a enormous shallowness to Skyrim and Oblivion that you don't really get in other RPG's.
Then we come to the last big issue for me, and that's the dumbing down of the level progression and no stats besides health stam and magicka. The perk system is great, that should stay. But the stats need to come back. They need more skills and need to stop over simplifying things. It makes me feel like I am playing a game I might have enjoyed as a 10 year old, not 24. Theres a big reason why I enjoyed and still enjoy playing through Dark Souls more than skyrim
Another few annoyances would be that Bethesda still cannot fix the crappy animations. They have improved, but I feel like at this point there games scores should get progressively lower for not fixing long time series faults. Every new game releases with a plethora of bugs, many game breaking or immersion ruining. Sometimes it leaves you wondering if Bethesda even playtests their games. The PS3 issues are inexcusable, even though I don't even own one. Look at GTA 5, have any of you played it? Much larger than Skyrim, yet somehow releases with barely any bugs. Also look at Rockstars animations compared with a Bethesda game. I don't see any reason why Bethesdas animations have to look as artificial as they always have.
Personally, I really hope they go back to their roots with the next game. Some things really work well in Skyrim, but overall, I've played Skyrim the least out of their big 3. What do you guys think they will do with the next game, and depending on the direction they go, will you be happy or unhappy with it?
