Searched and there was another thread about first impressions but that was more of a "i hate the controls" thread that quickly got derailed.

So I'm looking to get everybody's first impressions so far, since it's safe to assume probably 80 percent of us at least have played by now.

Please try to post your impressions, the good and the bad, and try not to derail this thread.


My first impression...

I played for three hours.

So far, the map seems a little weird, hoping I'll get the hang of it soon though. I love the new character creator, my dark elf looks like a dark elf should instead of like a cartoon posed onto a human body. The dual wielding is a little odd, I think it's just that there's no way to parry, which I feel like there should be. I've done a little bit of exploring, which has been fun and I'm in the middle of my first dungeon. I love the dungeon layout. It's a lot more varied than the Oblivion ones were. This is just based off of my first dungeon though, which is part of a quest. The perks are kind of overwhelming right now, so many trees that I'd like to spend them in...

My first character is a neutral-ish stealth, dual wield type, but I might start a Sword and shield fighter instead, to see how that works.

Played for 15 or so hours.

First 2: The game felt really weird, unlike any other TES game in my opinion. Was pleasantly suprised by the children in the game. The accidental dragging of items and minor conversation glitches were a bit annoying.
Hours 2-5: Finally got into the game, got a hold of it, did some main quest, killed my first dragon.
5-15: Really going smoothly, explored roughly 15% of the map by now, suppressing the need to fast travel. (Especially traveling down from High Hrothgar, jeeeeesus.)

As for perks, I only got like 2-3 trees I want to spend them in... And I can't yet.

I absoloutely love it, sure there are a few bits that are a bit out of kilter with my expectations but thats just because i have overly high expectations.

My only annoyance is that you can't duel cast different spells to make a 3rd uber spell like a frost/fire beam I can live with casting them seperately on each hand though.

I love the amount of freedom and time wasting i get in skyrim. Spent about 2 hours just mucking around with cooking and smithing and stuff

Im loving the mountain climbing... I went exploring randomly up a mountain and stumbled across a dwemer ruin!

however.. the 3rd person finishers are TOTALLY killing the game for me right now. Moreso the fact that they didnt include a freakin toggle option.

I forgot to mention that. I did notice they're happening more than I expected. (They've happened once per battle during all but one or two fights and I've fought like ... 7 groups of enemies so far). So far, they've been a welcome addition to me though.

So far so good!

I have been playing for 3 or 4 hours and have yet to leave Riverwood or the surrounding area. I cannot for the life of me figure out how to repair/enhance a weapon with the steel or iron ingots!

My first impression so far is the game is absolutely incredible. I spent an hour or so up on a cliff rock looking at the scenery and my jaw was on the floor. Then came the waterfalls, and jumping salmon and holy smokes! I have been thinking to myself where does it end! Initially, I was on my way to bypassing Riverwood simply for the thrill. However, I crested a small road and came upon and encampment which began shooting arrows at my bootie: I ran like the wind back to Riverwood:)

I have ran across a few texture bugs but no big deal..

I installed using steam late last night and had the game ready this morning. After reading some posts about how bad the game was, I really began to worry.. However, upon loading the game, disabling the XBOX control check mark, I have yet to have a single problem ie no crashes of any kind and I hope that does not change:). My system was auto detected as "High" and I left it that way but reduced the AA to 2x and ansio to 4x. The other thing I did was disable all of the "reflect" options under the advanced menu: the glare from everything was bugging the crapola out of me. I sure wish Bethesda would have included a pair of Costa Del Mar polarized sunglasses with your character because I sure could have used them! LOL..

The one thing that blew my mind was the rain shower that built up.. The way the distant world became slightly blurred was amazing!

Lastly, for those that do not wish to have steam open while playing the game, simply exit steam and use the TESV.exe to launch and it will place you directly into the main menu. The Skyrim Launcher will open Steam.


Here are my system specs just for giggles.

Asus Maximus III Formula
I7 860@3.6 ghz
Corsair Vengeance 8GB (4gbx2)
(2) HD 5770's Xfired ( 35-60 fps)
Crucial 64gb SSD for Skyrim
Couple of 150gb Raptors in Raid
Windows 7 Ultimate


Enjoy the game!

Sawacs

I have this game for PC and Xbox 360. Overall, it's an amazing game that might even be on Morrowinds caliber, but I think each platform (haven't play on PS3) has it's minor problems.

Graphics:

To put short, they are AMAZING on pc and quite good on xbox. The textures aren't the greatest, but the character models and lighting are amazing. I thought the lighting could be a bit better on xbox 360, but I guess I'm just spoiled by looking at Skyrim on ultra high on my pc.

World:

Simply put, amazing again. The world is immaculate and very detailed. This might just be the most lifelike world in a video game ever created. The scripting is very smart for the fact that NPC's react differently in SO many different ways based on your actions/what you're wearing/etc.

Gameplay:

I found the difficulty unstable. Most enemies have been easy (on 'adept' difficulty) but it's always easy to run into an enemy that is far too strong for you. Sometimes they are bosses in a dungeon you need to clear and you might end up using one too many potions. Otherwise, the gameplay is great. I'm not too far in but the combat is great (very similar to Oblivion but more polished and with a new left/right hand system) the horse riding is great, dialogue, everything is generally very fun.

Storyline:

The story line isn't going to break any literary bounds, but so far the story line has been exciting (how can dragons NOT be exciting?) The characters are very well written. They aren't static and predictable like most games, and it feels like talking to real people in this game, seriously.

Sound:

This is the area that was a bit flaky for me (maybe because I work in audio as a profession). The music I have to admit, is phenomenal, and definitely adds a LOT to the already great atmosphere of Skyrim. But, the voice acting - oh it's bad. Not only is the recording quality subpar (sibilance!!!), the voice actors themselves sound like an elementary class trying to dictate Shakespeare. Some did a great job (can't remember the name but that older dude that is a well known voice actor was great) but many of the guards/lesser characters spoke very strangely (and yes I am aware of the nordic accent).

One last point, the interface. Though I LOVE the skill tree constellations, I find the map very strange to use (I prefer a simple 2d map like in oblivion or morrowind) and sometimes getting through menus are a bit tedious on both platforms.

Overall, skyrim gets a 9-9.5/10. Not perfect, but still a very very good game. I'm not very far in (about 4 hours) so I'm sure my opinion will change, but I can't see myself hating this game any time soon.

It is looking like it will shape up to be a good game. All the fun parts from Morrowind and Oblivion seem to be there. The story seems good. I had planned on doing all the side quests, but the main story is engaging, so I find myself saying "Well I can't stop here, I have to to just one more main quest to find out what happens next."

I like that you can at least move a little when you are over encumbered.
The combat it sort of vanilla, but that is what I expected from Bethesda. (Ideally, some day some company will make a sandbox RPG with a combat system not less sophisticated than the ones like in fighters like Soul Calibur/Tekken/etc...)

My only gripe is the perk system. I was happy to hear that there would be "280 perks", and you would never be able to get them all on one character. I had happy images of a huge network of perks, and spending hours trying to find the best synergy between them. I imagined countless good, and vastly different builds if people got creative with what perks they chose. But it's really not like that at all. you just pick the attributes you want to level, and then stick with the perks within that small list of attributes. There is maybe only one or two choices in each tree. And even that isn't much of a choice because you only pick between [get A this time and B next time] or [get B this time and A next time] So you pretty much are forced to min/max within the matrix that they designed. There is not the freedom that I was expecting.

Hmm...

The good: It's FRICKEN AWESOME AND I CAN'T WAIT TO GO BACK TO PLAYING!
I love the animations.

I want to add more positive but...


The bad I want to get off my chest because I screwed up my first character:
1. Two-handed weapons aren't as fun as one-handed weapons. With a one-handed weapon, I can block, dual-wield, use a shield, or cast spells. Trying to focus on Two-handed weapons made me a one-trick kitty.
2. Even at maximum "weight", female Khajiit are still too thin. And they have weird necks.
3. No ability to side-strafe effectively in 3rd-person.
4. Lack of evasion really hurt my attempt to play a lightly-armored skirmisher. I was hoping for the Legend Of Zelda-style evasive maneuvers from Oblivion to return.
5. Fixed jump height is disappointing.
6. The males wear less than the females.
7. the FOV gives me motion sickness, unless I'm sitting too far from my TV to make out any details.

So... I guess my biggest problem is they took out Acrobatics - the skill which has defined my character for the past four Elder Scrolls games. I died to the first dragon twice because of my underwhelming jumping and dodging abilities.

After playing it for a few hours, creating a character from every race...

I'm overwhelmed, and in a good way. 8D I don't even know where to start! Right now, I'm just messing around with my Argonian.

I don't know what to do. Which character is going to beat the MQ? Who shall do the guilds?

This game has a lot more to offer than Oblivion ever did. I think I shall spend YEARS playing this game.

Glad to hear everybody's enjoying it so far.


You might want to check out Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, it looks very promising and is coming out in February.

27 hours played right now... I have a feeling this could very well be the best game I′ve ever played. I′m so impressed!

I think the game is amazing so far the only thing that has bugged me is the texture glitch on the 360 but that is a minor problem in an amazing game. It's absolutely epic.

Been playing for about 20 hours now. First couple hours I thought it was the greatest thing ever. Then I hit a bit of a snag when I realized that my pure destruction build wasn't as viable as I'd hoped for on max difficulty, and then found that my no fast travel playthrough was going to svck since you have to snake around to everywhere, unlike Oblivion, where you could usually just cut cross-country. But I got the former sorted out by changing my mage into an archer, and I sorted the latter out by saying "screw it" on the no fast travel...and now I'm having a blast. Funny, since abandoning fast travel was one of the things that increased Oblivion's enjoyment value for me.

But anyway...on the plus side: the world is just gorgeous. Best-looking game I've ever seen (and I don't mean that it's the best looking because it's the most technically advanced...just a combination of solid technology and fantastic art direction). The side-quests are much better written than Oblivion's, and are genuinely involving. Dungeon design is a huge leap forward from Oblivion as well. Voice acting is a big improvement, although there are some lemons in there. Same thing with main quest writing.

On the minus side: I hate that my followers keep hanging out in doorways without an easy way for me to push past them. Horses in this game are awful -- terrible AI, buggy, and fragile at high difficulty levels. Also, destruction magic was really disappointing on high difficulty -- it feels good and is fun to play, but is really underpowered compared to archery and melee. My guess is that this isn't a problem on Normal difficulty, though. Last complaint: the trees look worse than Oblivion's. Weird, since everything else looks fantastic.

On the whole though, it's a rockin' game. I can't wait for the Oscuro's/FWE/Project Nevada equivalent to make it even better.

Try not to cry too hard now.

Playing a caster character is horrible for me. Between the limited keybinds, and the number of spells I use.

I'm a fairly short person, with small hands, and I can only reach the 1-4 hotkeys comfortably. Between the several destro spells I use, conjure magic spells, heals, absorbs, weapons, potions... it's just too much of going through the Q inventory.

May not be an issue for some people, but I used to play wow with 50+ keybinds. Only having 4 is hard for me.

Hello pure melee character!

Oh, forgot to mention: this is the best game ever to be a flower-picker. You can pull the wings off of everything! Seriously, next playthrough, I'm going to make a pure alchemist. I'm not sure how he's going to kill anything, but he's gonna have a heck of a time filling up his pockets.

-Having problems with popping up in random spots when I go through a door (in NPCs, in walls, stuck behind objects, oriented back towards the door i just went through...)
-The magic system is childishly simplistic - such a let down - (to be fair, it does look pretty awesome)
-The skills/perks menu is even worse than I thought it would be
-The alchemy/enchant tables are a joke - (no risk, little thought, little challenge)
-The lack of a paper doll is a huge annoyance
-The majority of perks are a joke


While I am having fun questing in the tes fashion, overall, this is shaping up to be a fairly lame vanilla installment as it seems like there is zero depth to the game mechanics. The crappy UI and annoying random transports when I go through doors just adds to the svck. Debating whether to stop now and wait for mods or just slog through and hope it gets better.

Oh yeah, shadows look like they are from the early 1990s...

I've played about 5.5 hours so far (started six hours ago haha) and I absolutely love it. Graphics and audio are leagues ahead of Oblivion (screenshots/videos just don't do the real thing justice). The voice-acting is much, much better. The dungeons I've seen are designed better and the world itself just looks much more natural.

They only "complaints" I have so far is that the map seems a bit awkward to use. I wish I could rotate it... Oh, and the finishers just happen way too often. They're cool, but I'd like them to happen no more than 10% of the time.

The more I play it, the more I love it.

First half hour, escaped the beginning bit and I was "yeah this is similar to Oblivion, a bit grittier and a bit prettier"

More and more in, I'm staggered by the detail.

I came across a lumber mill, near Falkreath. Girl who giggled at me. All. ALL the trappings you'd expect at a lumber mill, and I could use some of them myself. The grindstone that sharpens the felling axes, I can use that. I could take this chopped wood, or chop some myself and sell it somewhere. There's a house for the worker to live in, the door is locked, but it's a simple lock that I can pick if I wanted to. She has a couple of chickens, and a chicken house, with eggs I could harvest, if I wanted. This is a real, detailled and believable world. And it's everywhere.

I love it, it's amazing. I don't care about some lacklustre textures on some fort walls, they are there to be perceived, not inspected. And I don't care that that guy's sword goes through his chair at the inn when I'm talking to him, when there's a bard singing a record I requested in the background, on a fr￡$^ lute.

And it's actually making me play more realistically as well, I'm not looting armour or weapons, unless they are better than mine in which case I'll drop the inferior. Just feels right that way.

Take the gold, a few ingredients maybe, that'll do. A book, spell tome I'll sell (my current guy is a pure warrior) but a normal book, if its expensive I'll take, if it's cheap and more than a couple of pages I'll take it to read, and read it before I go to sleep that day.

I feel like I'm behaving more like I would if it were really me there (minus [censored]ting myself and running away)

It looks like you're in luck. The first mod I've seen does just what you want in eliminating the finishers.
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1259242-relz-no-kill-moves/

I read most of the posts so far on this thread.

Many mentioned pretty much what I would have said.

So, overall I'll just say thumbs up (playing on PC at ultra) after playing about 15 hours worth of actual game play.

However, this game will require massive modding to make it really right. There are lots of issues.
Texture improvements and actual game play mechanics need tweaking. But that is why we tend to love Beth games
despite the core game issues. Most of the issues can be fixed or addressed by the community and the game made what YOu want.

I've not really had anything happen yet to cause me to want to shelve the game until it is 'fixed'.. I find
it very playable so far and it is warming up to me as I go on.

No crashing for my system and none of the other ugly performance with PC issues I've seen others post about.

The is the most difficult transfer from one TES game to another since Daggerfaull than Morrowind. It is MUCH MUCH different than Oblivion but in a good way. The graphics on PC are great, nothing that has not been seen before but the world is BEAUTIFUL. The combat is awesome to say the least and the size seems intimidating. So much of Oblivion was wide open and in Skyrim it is met with hills and lakes and you feel danger always. The NPCs are suburb and rather than being talking props they literally make the towns feel ALIVE. This is the first time ever I have seen such an alive world with Things happening regardless of what you do. The interface is a little clunky at times but not terrible.

I have not seen rain effect the ground like I wanted yet but I have seen a FRACTION of a huge game.Gears or MGS can get 10s all they want for lacking flaws but so far even with a few flaws this massive master piece has brought more addiction and fun th an Gears( which I love) ever did. TES is the best games series ever.

Some will complain but they will ruin there own fun by LOOKING for things to complain about or just endlessly whining, Some people get more out of that than the fun of the game.

So far it a MASSIVELY different TES game that is a masterpiece.

"A healing spell? Are you a priest?" "A healing spell? Are you a priest?" "A healing spell? Are you a priest?" "A healing spell? Are you a priest?" "A healing spell? Are you a priest?" "A healing spell? Are you a priest?" "A healing spell? Are you a priest?" "A healing spell? Are you a priest?""A healing spell? Are you a priest?""A healing spell? Are you a priest?""A healing spell? Are you a priest?""A healing spell? Are you a priest?" "A healing spell? Are you a priest?" "A healing spell? Are you a priest?" "A healing spell? Are you a priest?" "A healing spell? Are you a priest?" "A healing spell? Are you a priest?" "A healing spell? Are you a priest?"

You can see where I'm going with this.

Everything else that I've seen about the game is really incredible, but don't give me a follower if every single passing minute makes me want to increasingly cast flames instead of healing hands on them. If I want to cause way more pain to my ally than to all of my enemies combined, there's something wrong. Please shut Lydia up after the first couple times or so.