Some people might hate me for writing this, but that doesn't matter. I feel it's important to point out both great things, and bad things about Skyrim, and what they could have done different to make it a better game.

Let me just start of by saying that Skyrim is a great game, I've sunk about 100 hours into the game, all in one character and I've enjoyed myself alot. There is much in Skyrim that are simply great, but I also feel it has a few flaws, just asking to be revieled. I have been stalking these forums for a couple of days, looking for a thread that covered most of my points, but I have been so far short on luck. They are probably around though, but hard to find (I want to go in this rather deep, so a search doesn't really help me that much).

So, without further notes, let's begin with what I think is great about Skyrim:

I see that some people have been complaining on Skyrims graphics, and even though the resolutions aren't the greatest, all in all, Skyrim really, really looks fantastic. Vast landscapes, variating scenery, huge variety in colors, great lighting and great models, both creatures, weapons and armor. It also runs quite smoothly. I remember when I got Skyrim at release, I was worried that my computer would have trouble with it as it was close to two years old. Been running on ultra ever since. Compared to alot of other modern games, Skyrim is far from demanding.

Performance wize, there was a few problems on release, with sudden lag spikes and so forth, but when I play now, most of that are gone. I also consider the amount of bugs to be quite few, related to how large the game is. I only have crashes when I alt+tab back and forth as I tend to do that alot. Sometimes when I do that, I get the regular mouse cursor from windows in addition to the in-game one, but other than that, I find it to be quite stable and technicaly well built.


Combat animations, sound track and all of the "in the moment" immersive stuff also works great in Skyrim. I really feel like firing my bow, or stabbing with my knife. The enourmous map, and the countless dungeons (with the exeption that most of then are a bit too long and booring for me, and feels abit more like a chore than a challange) offer a huge game world with an insane level of detail. I don't know where they found their team of artists, but those guys are REALLY doing a great job. Skyrim is in many ways one of the most imersive games I've played to date when it comes to gameplay.


That being said, what is it I feel is missing in Skyrim? What breaks the immersion? What makes me feel dissappointed, and even feel like Skyrim, despice it's marvel, is hyped and massively over rated?

Well, quite simple. I feel they have tried to do too much at the same time, and in the process, they have missed alot of oportunities. I've been playing computer games religiously for close to twenty years, so I've played my decent share of them, and Skyrim is sadly far from the top of my list. For a simple comparison, Might and Magic VI from 1998 manages to pull of alot that Skyrim don't, and that's a game thats allmost 15 years old, with alot less tools available to the developers than Beth had.

I feel that Skyrim lacks a focal point. It offers a grand and enourmous world with alot of "things" in it, but somehow manages to lack content. I feel that Skyrim has gone quantity above quality, and that is why I feel it's hyped. I mean, I can't name one main character from the main quest line, while at the same time, I can name several characters from games I've played 10 years ago without problems. The most memorable moment I've had from Skyrim, was the side quest "A night to remember" (quite ironic to have that name, as it's one of the few moments that have stuck), and that's a side quest!

The vast amount of characters, leave you without the oportunity to invest anything in any of them. As a result, most of the characters are shallow and forgettable, thus, at the same time, rendering most of the quests to be the same. At the same time, the main quest line was over way to fast, and all of a sudden I had fixed the world and fullfilled my destiny as dragonborn. Characters I've hardly spoken too, trusted me well enough to hand over the fate of the entire world to my hands. Not very believable to be frank. And as other has pointed out, you have very little choice in how to do things, and there isn't much room for actually role play in this role playing game.

The thing I really don't understand though, Is how they managed to mess this one up. The hundreds of books you'll come over in your journeys in Skyrim must have taken ages to write, while most players read more than maybe a couple. And don't missunderstand me, I really love these books, but I really think that some of that effort could have been directed towards the quest lines instead, so that more people could enjoy the skill these authors provide.

Allthough I realize that creating fantasy characters is really difficult, becouse the line between believable and cheesy is very thin when dealing with elves, mages, magic and the liking. It's very easy to end up having your characters sound like they are from a fairy tale, rather than from a world meant to be taken seriously and that is meant to be belieavable. But it is possible, I need to mention one name to prove my point, George RR Martin.

Then, there is the obvious focus on combat. I do think combat in Skyrim is awsome, but there isn't much option to avoid it. There is two exeptions though, the Thieves guild and Dark Brotherhood has a few missions who are very fun to play as a rogue/hunter like character (the only style I play). Most missions are pure hack and slash, and offer little options on how to proceed. It's mostly either sneak or kill, and killing is much easier than the other option. And not to mention the endless stream of random encounters with dragons. I have so many dragon bones in my home now, I can open a museum with a complete skeleton of all the different types of dragons in all of Skyrim. Hell, I could even build two of each type if I cared for it. Fighting dragons has gone from exciting in the biggining, to becoming a chore late game. Everytime I encounter a dragon in a city, I crank down the difficulty and pray to Mara that no one dies but guards before I manage to get rid of the beast (then collect the dragon bones and scales, carry them home to whiterun, and then continuing what I was originally doing), it really destroys flow, and that's not exactly a good thing.

Do not missunderstand me, Skyrim is in many ways a very good game. It just pains me too think about what it could have been if given more attention on some areas.

- aLmAnZo

Short version: ten miles wide, one foot deep. Yeah, we heard that before. You came at a bad time, we've recently had many discussions on the matter and I'm afraid you're not going to get many replies, it's just that the forum is going through a little transition at the moment and people have nothing particularly exciting to talk about, so complaint threads are opened on a daily basis. Actually most people [me included] would agree with most of your points, it's just that there's nothing really new to discuss. Anyway, welcome to the forum.

Burn 'em alive!!!

Agree completely with the OP. Skyrim does some things well but in other areas, it completely falls flat on it's face.

100 hours on 1 character?? You have barely begun to play Skyrim my friend.

Well OP, sad to say with all the precautions you took to not look like a "whiner" or "entitled" or "hater" will fall flat. and I'd agree with you, but like others said, this has been talked to death and not much of anything new can be discussed. the horse has been beaten dead, resurrected, beaten deader than dead again, embalmed, put up for display, ran through a parade, caught on fire , turned to dust, poisoned a small town with the fumes, killed the river fish and drove all the birds away. leave a desolate landscape where not even tumble weed will tumble.

Salted land too. Just like Carthage.

Great read, there were a Lot of good points made that I firmly agree with, though nothing new that hasn't been brought ten-bagillion times before

I was kind of afraid that this might have been debated before, but from the response I get from the few who took their time, I gather a few points:

First of all, as it seems this has been debated at length before, and that a fair amount of you seem to give merit to my complaints, Beth must have taken note of them. That reassures me, and even though it might render my thread somewhat useless, it seems my goal has already been acquired. It's a shame that none of the reviews I've read about Skyrim seem to mention any of these short comings, and that most of the established review sites threat Skyrim as if it was forged by the nine devines themselves.

The second point I take note of, is how my thread was received. More often than not, official forums tend to be on the edge of secteric. If someone as much as imply that their game of choice has flaws, their blood starts to boil, and they go into nerd rage. It really seems like a fair portion of the members here are mature above what I usually experience on game forums, with the exception of Bohemia Interactives forum. That was a nice surprise. Thank you for not flaming me, and recognizing my points and reacting on them, rather than raging. It is one of the warmest welcomes I've had on a forum, I might even stick around for a bit. I do really enjoy the Elder Scrolls games, though I am not fanatic about it. My favorite RPG series will always be Might & Magic, but the franchise is sadly dead forever, and if it get's resurrected, it won't last... The last attempt was far from good at least...

As I said, we have those folks who will curb stomp you for those thoughts. there is this misguided notion on the forum that those outside this forum -Love the game and have zero complaints- and that anyone who's on the forum is a vocal minority that nitpicks and has nothing better to do. yet day by day we have folks like you that come here and share your thoughts. you aren't the first to give a day one forum critic, and you won't be the last.

Welcome to the Forums sir, and http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r105/Enoil/DarkFishyStick.jpg