I don't know if there are other topics directly like this but I felt a need to thank Bethesda for this game. I love every aspect of it, but there's one in particular I think they did an especially good job on, the 'dungeon' environments. You know, keeps, mines, caves, cairns. In Oblivion we obviously had more of these but beyond a handful almost all of them were quite generic, their layouts, traps, monster locations beyond predictable. For that first dozen or two hours of playing they were awesome, but before long you realized just how 'generic' they were most the time and just how many there were. Anyone who has tried to play a character that did 'every' one of these the moment you discover them, knows that it was an impossibility because you could never get anything else done.

With Skyrim I am both excited and intrigued every time I find a new explorable local. First of all they aren't placed every 20 meters (that helps) and second they all feel hand crafted. Sure they repeat in the texture 'package', but each and every one I've explored (about 50 of them by now) has been different in some way. The environments in every single one were beautiful or haunting and I just loved every second of it.

So Bravo Bethesda on the 'dungeons' of Skyrim! They are just one of dozens of examples of how much time and effort you put into Skyrim to truly make it the best Elder Scrolls yet!

Total agreement here. The dungeons are excellent.

I really should do some more dungeon diving... 50 hours and only done about 5 dungeons... and 2 of those were bleak falls. Havent seen any dwemer ruins yet.. the one I came across was locked

The dungeons are one of the strongest points in Skyrim, IMO. So far, I haven't come across any two similar dungeons, and dungeon-delving is essentially all I've been doing. I haven't done many quests.

I didn't think Bethesda could do dungeons any better than Fallout 3, but they did.

Oh wow, you're really missing out.

Truer words have never been spoken.

So far their good but they're too bright. IMO if they where like http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=22819 they would be much more fun.

Agree, the dungeons are one of the best parts of the game. I've only just now gone up the 7000 steps on my main character simply because of how excellent they are, it's about all I do!

Glad to see some agreement in here. There are just so many complaint posts here I just had to remind everyone what one of the best parts of the game is!

I love the dungeons as well... I might go and do a random one soon... But now i'm off to the Dark Brotherhood.

I LOVE dwemer dungeons, the whole places has that feel that a once powerful race ruled those tunnels. but now, they are only ruins and home of the discusting creatures that live there. Also the ocassional appearence of a old machinery of them, wich defends the place even tough their masters are dead

I'm up to 71 locations discovered, 31 dungeons cleared... not as many as some here, but I've been doing this more than anything else.

I'm following the MQ, but doing everything along the roadside as I made my way to Ivarstead, etc. I'm heading up towards Morthal now and doing the same thing.

I've only been in a handful of dungeons so far, but two of those took hours to clear out. One of them was a huge, twisted barrow that I finally completed late last night. It was a huge relief to reach the surface and breathe the outside air again after that one lol.

It's almost like Daggerfall's dungeons all over again, with better graphics and sfx! I agree that they did a great job on the dungeons in Skyrim!

I agree, the dungeons are excellent - atmospheric, interesting traps and puzzles, and haven't yet come across any that weren't unique. Superb job

I find the dungeons creepy. Probably the desired effect?

They're very well made and very atmospheric - but I find some of them too long.

Some may look locked but you just have to look around.

Dungeons are amazing. I love the dwemer ruins.

Indeed. They are SO much better than Oblivion's. I've been in about 20 so far, and almost each one has been dramatically different. If not in tileset or type, definitly in structure and atmosphere. They did a marvelous job this time around! Great work Bethesda!!!!

Yeah dungeons are absolutely pheonomenal, love exploring them, hell i even love caves and i hated those in Oblivion.
It's a very nice touch how some have quests inside them or some sort of story going on.

Agreed. I love the dungeons. The dwemer ruins especially are a weak point of mine, I simply cannot resist the urge to explore them when I find them.

Agreed

I am one of the ones that has been very critical of aspects of Skyrim, but the dungeons so far are wonderful. Exploring and plain old adventuring is pretty good in this game.

IMO< Its the single biggest improvement. Oblivion was a chore the dungeons were terrible, So much of the game is dungeon crawling, it was better in Skyrim and that alone is a major improvement. Its actually fun to dungeon crawl in Skyrim, and the bosses, better loot only make it even better. If they jujst upgraded dungeons I would have been happy, skyrim has its own faults but its way better then OB, largely because of dungeon diversity.

I'm not too far into the game yet, but one thing I noticed is that, for example, Bleak Falls Barrow was pretty cut-and-dried - start here, end here, and don't worry, you won't get lost, there's pretty much only one pathway and you won't be led too far off it at any time. I'm hoping this is just because I haven't been in any larger dungeon areas yet; sometime it's fun to be in the middle of a dungeon and feel like "Where the heck am I? Where am I going? How do I get out of here?"

The big difference I find here is that the dungeons may be grouped into certain "types" based on superfluous appearances, such as Barrows, Dwemer Ruins, Caves, and Forts, but despite the textures being similar in each type, Bethesda will mix it up by combining two or more together. The also, contrary to Oblivion, use every item available to them in Skyrim and cities within Dungeons as well. I've been in more than one where the Dungeon opens up to the sky, and trees grow inside, and a waterfall rains down. I've been in a dungeon where an entire tower was inside of a cavern. One of my favorite dungeons was a Dwemer city, where you stepped out into a huge cavern that you could not see the cieling of, and water flowed underneath the walkways. If you looked up, you;d see massive Stalactites growing form the ceiling. I, after very close inspection, diserned them to be the same render for mountains outside, but shrunken, colored differently, and shrouded din mist. This versatility, and creativeness towards what they have access to is extremely impressive.

They build dungeons to look different, rather than paint them to look different, which is really cool, and makes sense too. For instance, Barrows, it makes sense for in Skyrim, any random dungeon under ground to be a Nordic family crypt. What else would they be? But they're designed to maximize space and utilize other objects. Then there's caves, which they are able to alter based on environment. Dwemer Dungeons, which are structured as Steampunk cities to get you lost in. Why would two Dwemer dungeons have a different tile set? There are reasons for these dungeons to be there, it isn't random ass Aeylid Ruins and Forts thrown around with no context.

So true, I wish there were some dungeons where it made sense to use the torch. Other than that the dungeons are great.