» Fri May 11, 2012 7:06 pm I started as an assassin / illusionist / rune master. And good lord, is it incredible. I know it's not the fastest way to kill things, but I'll be damned if it's not the coolest. Props to Skyrim... neither Morrowind or Oblivion supported such... satisfying stealth gameplay. I can sneak around, turn enemies against each other with Quiet Casting + Fury, lay double-casted, shock-augmented rune traps for my enemies to walk into, one-shot my victims with x3 damage time-slowed, zoomed-in Power Shots from my bow (dat ragdoll effect!) or a x15 dagger power attack in the back, lure enemies where you want them to go with a well-aimed arrow-down-the-hallway shot ("What was that? I'm sure I heard something...") and just generally Thief / Spliter Cell / Arkham City it up.
If you have not tried a pure-stealth character yet, do so. If you at all enjoy "stealth gameplay," roll up a stealthy mage and play it for just a dungeon or two (the elemental rune spells are a must, for the full experience - nothing says "I'm Batman" like watching your enemies blunder into your traps while they search for that strange clattering sound they heard down this hallway...); you'll thank yourself for it.
Granted, Skyrim is no Metal Gear when it comes to stealth gameplay, (and it's not meant to be), but it's easily five times more satisfying in the "I'm Batman" department. Try it, if you haven't.
Now, those of you that opened this thread up just to see what I was talking about, go back to playing Skyrim! For the rest of you, a brief (I promise) dialogue about the Morrowind-to-Oblivion-to-Skyrim direction that the Elder Scrolls games have taken, as it relates to the thread topic:
For me, Morrowind will always be Morrowind. Nothing will ever replace the atmosphere or the nerdtastic "number-crunchy, obtuse pen and paper tabletop game translated into a sandbox RPG" butterfly-flutters that Morrowind still gives me... but not even Morrowind can touch Skyrim in this respect. Oblivion - while better than the average RPG in it's scope, lore, and size - was overall a huge disappointment to me after having experienced Morrowind first, and I was sad to see the Elder Scrolls series turn away from it's delightfully bulky, tabletop-inspired roots. I like a game with too much going on. I like a game that only appeals to hardcoe nerds who enjoy spreadsheet gameplay and "invisible die roll" combat. I like games that leave me hopelessly, uselessly lost if I don't read the NPC dialogue and consult my journal. I like games that throw walls of lore-rich, well-written text at me, and make me work harder than the hack-and-slash player to achieve the nonviolent / Speechcraft resolution to a quest or objective. Most of all, I like games that have multiple solutions to every objective to begin with.
I do hope that the Elder Scrolls will return to that approach sometime, although sometimes I fear that it will not, now that the mass-appeal titles (Oblivion and Skyrim) have become so successful and profitable. However, to everyone that shares my opinions on the matter, I have this to say: there are (excellent) elements of Skyrim that we would never have been able to experience without the mainstream-appeal of Oblivion hooking the mainstream audience. The satisfying stealth gameplay, for example. In Morrowind, the satisfaction of completing any task came from having succeeded at all - because the game was f_cking hard, and refused to hold your hand. In Skyrim, the satisfaction comes from holy sh_t did you see that guy go flying ass-over-end when I sneak attacked him with my bow? Did you see that guy explode when he ran into my rune trap? Holy sh_t, I'm awesome! Sure, anyone could do it, and it's not really an accomplishment, but it's awfully easy to forget that in-the-moment.
I don't really have a point here except maybe to suggest that both varieties of player-satisfaction have a value... and - food for thought - that wouldn't it be nice if the generation that grew up with Oblivion (an easy game that required you to make no character choices and held your hand everywhere), then graduated to Skyrim (a harder game that requires you to make character-choices at every level - starting at level 1, no character class for you! - and holds your hand considerably less than it's predecessor), later moved on to an even deeper game - Elder Scrolls VI, perhaps. Maybe the "mass appeal" of the latest two titles can begin nudging the next generation of gamers toward the deep end of the RPG pool. The only problem with games like Morrowind, really, is that very few people can really appreciate a game so deliberately lacking in user-friendliness. Satisfaction for a job well done, after all, is more of an acquired taste by comparison to the good-old-fashioned instant-gratification of the mainstream RPG. I, for one, will be keeping a close eye on the series for exactly that reason. Every generation deserves a Morrowind to call their own, and everyone deserves a chance to really appreciate that sort of experience - even if they need a little direction to learn how.
