Couple criticisms

Post » Fri Dec 16, 2011 12:40 pm

Ok so I am obviously a TES fan so there is no need for me to point out positives of these games, so I will just ask if you agree with some things I find bad in Skyrim:

WARNING: I am not a native speaker or a scholar so please excuse my bad english.

1. Shouts:
I was very excited to find out about this feature, but when I got into the game I have never actually found myself using any shout but the dragonrend (or bend?). I dunno, but to me it seems like the shouts are somewhat useless :/ Stormcall is pretty cool, but other than that they arent all that great. Maybe if the recharge was faster?
Sorry, but there is just something about the shouts that make me feel like they are a useless part of the game. I never really use them :/ (I tried already stealth, spellcaster and a full on warrior characters to make sure its not because how I play my stealth)

2. Dark Brotherhood Questline:
I am a big fan of dark brotherhood, but the questline in Skyrim was... well, meh? Compared to how I felt in Oblivion about the quest line its somewhat dissapointing really. When I started the quests and saw in what state the DB was I tought- "great! i will have to get DB back on top!", but that was not the case to my dissapointment. At the end of the questline the db seemed in a even more desperate state then before :( I mean there were 5 of us left including the night mother and the jester. Also the ghost of LL was a pretty cool feature, but why did you give him the new db clothing? What he wore in Oblivion was much better.
I do have to say however, that I am very sattisfied with the thieves guild quest line.

3. Too few perk points?
I think that they should have given like 2 perk points every other level? Why? well because to me it seems like it takes too long to level up certain skills- for example:
I am usually a stealth class- for that I have to choose weather I want to be thief or an assassin. Getting to level 50+ takes really long and by that time I will have all of thieves guild and dark brotherhood completed. And there will be no reason for me to attempt to level up pickpocket, because I always seem to have enough money since the mix of db and thieves armor is a perfect for my class-->no money spent on armor and I use the blade of woe--- to money spent on weapons.
I do however have to say, that if you go with Stealth melee only you are very underpowered against dragons, because putting a perk point into leather armor would be a waste for me, because I just almost never get to direct combat and so I get killed almost as soon as I get close to the dragon, which just forces me to spend perk points on archery, because that seems to be the only working way for me to slay a dragon with a stealth class- what am I supposed to do with a dagger?
User avatar
Robert
 
Posts: 3394
Joined: Sun Sep 02, 2007 5:58 am

Post » Fri Dec 16, 2011 8:15 pm

1. With the shouts I guess it depends on your play style. I have used numerous shouts. As a stealth type character who mainly uses a bow I was having trouble in dungeons for awhile until I started using the detect life and throw voice shouts. Unrelenting force has always been useful in my opinion. Become ethereal is useful for avoiding damage during long spell casts. The sprint is good for running away (when I met dragons out in the wild that I could not defeat on my own). Marked for Death I used on dragons before Dragonrend and other bosses and still use it on dragons when they loose their ability to fly after so much damage.

2. Agreed, I like the DB quest line but it seemed so short and the motivations for the characters in it were shallow at best.

3. I think they should have increased the amount of perk points. If it was double then I feel like there should have been 1.5* the number of perks now. Something they could have done was what one game I played did with attribute points or something where they gave two every three levels.
User avatar
sw1ss
 
Posts: 3461
Joined: Wed Nov 28, 2007 8:02 pm

Post » Fri Dec 16, 2011 11:18 pm

WARNING: I am not a native speaker or a scholar so please excuse my bad english.


The sad truth is, for someone who does not use English as their first language, your grammar and diction far exceeded that of too many English-speaking people. You have no reason to apologize. If you had not included that warning, I would have never known English isn't your native language! Kudos.

Fair points, and I largely agree, though I could have done with a spoiler tag for the Dark Brotherhood paragraph. C'est la vie.
User avatar
Kayleigh Mcneil
 
Posts: 3352
Joined: Thu Jun 29, 2006 7:32 am

Post » Fri Dec 16, 2011 10:07 am

The sad truth is, for someone who does not use English as their first language, your grammar and diction far exceeded that of too many English-speaking people. You have no reason to apologize. If you had not included that warning, I would have never known English isn't your native language! Kudos.


Kudos on you for saying one of the nicest and most thoughtful things i've seen on here for a long time. :happy:

***

I disagree with your first point. Theres a lot of useful shouts like become ethereal, project voice and whirl wind dash. Whether they're useful to you really depends on how you play, if you use a class, etc.

As for your second point. I couldn't agree more but I have a bit more to add. I've played through the mainquest and the imperial legion quests and although there's some questing mechanics that are fun (like taking over forts) I can't help but feel like theres no sense of accomplishment. I feel like Skyrim's greatest asset by far is exploring and without the construction set to create user generated dungeons..Skyrim has ended up back on the shelf.

I also agree with your third point. I found that it was very difficult making a ranger class and specializing in sneak, light armor and archery as I found better perks opening up by the time I had made my way through the cycle of leveling a perk. Maybe thats the way the game is supposed to play -- who knows.. :shrug:
User avatar
Stu Clarke
 
Posts: 3326
Joined: Fri Jun 22, 2007 1:45 pm

Post » Fri Dec 16, 2011 9:58 am

The damage shouts are so lacking in the damage department.
User avatar
Star Dunkels Macmillan
 
Posts: 3421
Joined: Thu Aug 31, 2006 4:00 pm

Post » Fri Dec 16, 2011 12:40 pm

I definitely thought that the Dark Brotherhood was lacking a bit in characterization compared to the last installment.

Cicero was a very neat character, but Astrid wasn't memorable except for that dumb plot twist near the end. Arnbjolf or whatever her husband's name was just acted mean, while the Argonian and Dark Elf female were both very generic, so that I can't even remember their names. At least Babette was an interesting idea (we have a problem killing children, but not making them bloodthirsty, stone-cold killers who brag about their exploits of luring pedophiles to their deaths?), and Festus was okay I guess. I actually did think the quest line was one of the stronger ones, out of the factions in Skyrim, though the ending did sort of svck.

Spoiler
Astrid betraying you was so silly. And I didn't like having to kill my 'Dark Family' in Oblivion, I didn't particularly enjoy watching the die in Skyrim either. Why does Beth feel the need to kill so many people off?

User avatar
Jessica Stokes
 
Posts: 3315
Joined: Fri Jul 28, 2006 11:01 am

Post » Fri Dec 16, 2011 9:11 pm

I have to agree with that. I did not feel like I am losing anything. I actually really wanted to purify the sanctuary like in oblivion, because this time they deserved it. They abandoned the code and were all [censored]s. I actually only remember Babbete from this batch of Skyrim assassins and her voice annoys me alot too. Where did all the memorable characters like Vicente Valtieri or Tajnaava go? Or the cute furry bastard who would call me "Foul smelling ape" on several occasions? I worked hard on getting his love, but he starts to respect me just as I have to kill them all :(
And the ghost of Lucius Lechance is fairly wierd too. Why did they put him into the new assassin clothes? He looks like santas little helper >.<
User avatar
Ezekiel Macallister
 
Posts: 3493
Joined: Fri Jun 22, 2007 12:08 pm

Post » Fri Dec 16, 2011 8:46 am

DB questline spoilers anyone?
User avatar
Clea Jamerson
 
Posts: 3376
Joined: Tue Jun 20, 2006 3:23 pm

Post » Fri Dec 16, 2011 10:58 am

1-
I dunno, I think this depends on the person. I can see why some people might not be into them, but I find that they can be a big supplement to your playing style, depending on what it is. Become Ethereal is good for sneaky types who accidentally get caught, if you haven't put much into Health. Same for the Throw Voice shout. Unrelenting Force is good for any play style, in my opinion. It's one of the more amusing, and useful shouts. Who doesn't like being able to toss people around, and off cliffs and other high places?
Then there are the ones that seem to be purely for Roleplaying purposes that don't generally have a hugely useful benefit, or that fit a very specific kind of playing style.

I also I agree though, that the time between shouts should be lowered. It would make them much more fun to use, if a little bit unbalanced.

2-
I like what was there, it was a very fun questline, but I agree that it felt too short, and the end of it left a lot to be desired. In the end, I feel as if it ends with the feeling that things are pretty shaky, as if everything could crumble at any moment. You don't... really get a sense that 'Hey, things are improving. You're the Listener, so we'll be back on top in no time!' It's more of an empty feeling.

And really, factions as a whole just feel too short. So it's not just the Dark Brotherhood. It's especially like this with the Companions too. I can agree that the Thieves Guild was pretty good. But to someone who doesn't know how to become the true leader of the guild, it can feel short like all the others. It took some digging for me to realize I had to do several sidequests from Delvin before I could really become the guild leader. After that, it felt like I had actually accomplished something.

3-
Hmm. It really depends on the play style I think. On some of my characters, I'm left with too many perk points and having no idea what I even want to put them in, as it would stray too far out of my build. Then there are the others that I wish I had more perks, more quickly. So I can't really say anything either way.

And off the topic, as someone else pointed out in the thread, you have no reason to apologize for your English! It's pretty much native-level, at least from what I can tell!
User avatar
trisha punch
 
Posts: 3410
Joined: Thu Jul 13, 2006 5:38 am

Post » Sat Dec 17, 2011 12:13 am

1: Shouts arent really an integral part of the game i suppose? But shouts like unrelenting force are good for a kind of "mini paralysis" effect in that the enemies cant do anything but get blown away :D

2: Skyrim's questlines are generally worse than oblivion's, but i think the DB questline was much better than that of the companions and the college of winterhold; the plotlines for those 2 were flat. And rather moronic, for the winterhold questline (and they claim to be knowledgeable mages :glare:)

3: Having a warrior/assassin character is very useful :) with smithing the shrouded armor can reach max armor, and with enchanting you can get lots of magic resistance. Smithing and enchanting helped my assassin character deal with dragons lol.
User avatar
STEVI INQUE
 
Posts: 3441
Joined: Thu Nov 02, 2006 8:19 pm

Post » Fri Dec 16, 2011 10:34 am

My main gripe is all the unrefrigerated raw chicken and meat lying around in my house. :sick:
User avatar
Alisha Clarke
 
Posts: 3461
Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2007 2:53 am

Post » Fri Dec 16, 2011 9:22 am

I tend to disagree about the shouts. My characters use a variety of them. My thief/assassin uses the throw voice one quite frequently as an example. My current character has used the slow time one on several occasions in order to survive during boss attacks. And I've used Fus Roh Dah on a lot of occasions especially in tight quarters to slow down multiple targets or on really high ground to throw enemies off of cliffs and towers. Always a good time :)

While I enjoy the various quest lines, I agree they could stand to be longer. I have finished (between all characters) the Mage, Thief, and DB lines. Of the three becoming the leader of the DB is such a short time is the most believable thanks to the Night Mother. The others are far too rushed. There is no feasible way I should have been able to become the Archmage on my latest character at like level 8. That is one thing I find I miss about Morrowind, although it was a bit annoying at the time... You can join and take a couple of quests, but need to level up and gain more faction rank to take the more difficult or rewarding quests. You should need to be at least lvl 20 or so before even getting close to a leadership role, imho.

I could go either way on the perk points, but I suppose it would be nice to have a way to get some extras. Maybe something along the lines of getting a bonus perk point for some specific faction quest or for actually training a certain amount to get a skill tree specific perk point or something. Maybe a mod will address this one.
User avatar
Kaylee Campbell
 
Posts: 3463
Joined: Mon Mar 05, 2007 11:17 am


Return to V - Skyrim