I like how "wolf" and "vampire" are considered different tilesets by your standards

Honestly though, they may look different, but 90% of dungions play exactly the same as each other. That's the big problem. A cave may look like a cave but it plays like Drauger, forts, etc. There's no uniqueness to the actual locations/dungions beyond the visual side of things with only a small handful of exceptions.

Skyrim is some step foward from the linear dungeon of oblivion, but isn't enough good respect to morrowind and in 10 years bethesda can't do anything more?

Generally agree with this. First Dwemer ruin I went through I was stunned
The handplaced unique items in MW were great the first time you found them but there was a danger your game became a tour of the hot treasure pickups on subsequent play throughs

What's wrong with that, in an underground tunnel? (I'll grant you the secret exit damages the credibility somewhat, and this is accumulative IMO.)

*Could make a mod that simply removes most of those secret exits; (and maybe activates a bunch of hidden traps once the final chest is looted.).

I don't understand this concept... Why should there be anything in those at all? (Certainly most of those would have been looted centuries before the PC ever looked in them. )

Mine too. (But I haven't played Skyrim ~Its got hours yet on the download.)

TES dungeons have always been too simplistic, whether they have a confusing layout with lots of paths or not, the main problem is that enemy placement and spawning isn't very well conceived to create a variety of challenge and motivate the player to consider different strategies and approaches depending on the layout and terrain. It's basically run and swing at everything you meet (or blast, shoot or whatever your style of play is). There are no obstacles that you can use for protection, or using shadows to stay hidden, chokepoints to avoid being overwhelmed or other features. Skyrim isn't worse than any other TES game in that regard, and in fact does surprise with a few dungeon battles that involves unique AI behavior that though not really that challenging, at least throws you off your game a little bit at first.

As far as dungeon design goes I have to commend Bethesda on their efforts this time around; dungeons come in various shapes and sizes now as opposed to the one-size-fits-all of Oblivion. There is certainly a lot of wiggle room with regards to the quests one can or can't do in them, but that's really more of a lack of creativity in the quests than in the dungeons themselves.

I like Skyrim's dungeons better overall over Oblivion and some of Morrowind, (though Morrowind had some awesome dungeons.) However, if we had Daggerfall's dungeons with Skyrim's textures / graphics, i'd never leave this chair, lol.

Oblivion dungeons were plagued by random loot and bad level scaling but were grandiose. In Skyrim all the dungeons are more or less embellished corridors with one way from the entrance to the end. I miss the vast Ayelids ruins and I would gladly trade the dwemer dungeons for some elven (snow elf) ruins with similar architectural traits to the dungeons found in Oblivion.

You liked broken dungeons??

I loved Skyrim's dungeons at first, but you do really notice the annoying amount of linear draugr dungeons once the novelty wears off.

Honestly, the dungeons don't bother me. What bothers me is the lack of unique artifacts you gain from quests you undertake in most dungeons. Many artifacts you uncover are just generic weapons and armor with bland enchantments. When I delve into the tomb of a legendary figure only to find out their fabled weapon is simply a generic sword with a flame enchantment, something is wrong.

Well, I disagree. The only special thing about Morrowinds dungeons that they often hold unique items. With maybe a few exceptions I felt like they all blended together, a weakness shared by Oblivion.

They are a street better than the three dungeons in Oblivion. As for Morrowind, well, it's a personal preference (I'm partial to MW).
Daggerfalls were good, but completely different. The dungeons in Arena and Daggerfall had more maze elements than the newer games.

Like the others said, Skyrim's dungeons are at least A LOT better than Oblivion's. Heck, I didn't even bother entering one in Oblivion unless I really needed to, they were just so frigging annoying and boring. I even remember sometimes trying to find the exit of the dungeons, so I could get the thing I needed immediately instead of having to go through the whole dungeon.
I don't remember Morrowind's dungeons anymore, it's been too long since I last played that game, so I can't really say anything about that. But eh, I'm already happy the devs thought about creating more diversity compared to Oblivion, otherwise I still wouldn't have bothered with it.

This, so much I can't possibly express it in words. SK is so devoid of unique special worth while loot its depressing. Really discourages me from wanting to bother with the next dungeon since I know the only reward is gonna be randomly generated enchanted garbage vendors can't afford to buy off me and another word for Kyne's Peace lol.

@OP I sort of mostly agree with you. Skyrim has some of the most amazing dungeons that obviously took a lot of work to craft. Then it has 100 dragr dungeons that are the exact same elements from the last jumbled around a bit.

Really the saddest part is the dungeons I consider the best were all ones o stumbled in while exploring as quests just tend to beat those Dragr dungeons to death. E.g., Liar's Retreat is awesome go there now enjoy, Frostmere Crypt is a Dragr dungeon with bandits and no Dragr (cheer!) A quest you get at the front door and a final room that is one of the most beautiful locales in SK.

That is all.

One area doesn't make up for a world full of linear dungeons.

I agree that there are too many draugr dungeons (seriously, there are no other undead in skyrim?), and Morrowind is by far my favorite game in the TES series but I have to disagree with you. As much as I love Morrowind, its dungeons were crap, not fun, and hideously ugly (especially caves). Skyrim has the best dungeons in the TES series, but that really isn't saying much.

This.

Also, I used to be a caver/potholer/spelunker (till I took an arroww...etc), and I love how much more natural feeling the dungeons are, especially the passages with streams running along the floor, passages with shale covered ledges and big caverns with daylight streaming in from above and waterfalls.

Obviously the potholes of North Yorkshire and Derbyshire had fewer Draugh and not as many treasure chests.

Yeah Skyrims dungeons is way better tham Oblivions, but Morrowind had the best.

I think that the reason is that Morriwnd didn't actually have any dungeons. Sure there were tombs, caves, and telvanni temples, but there compared to Oblivion and Skyrim, there wasnt a "traditional" dungen like the last 2 TES games.

I just think people are getting tired of cliche dungeons in general.

Actually I found Skyrim`s dyngeons very good to my surprise.

Also, unlike previous games like Oblivion, some bandits always saying something different if you stealthily enter a dungeon and listen. They all seem to have a little story.

Of course, if you just run through it on easy you`ll probably notice nothing.

And amazingly, they all have the SAME story.

"Dad told me to join the college, he never said which one."
"She told me she'd wait for me, but they never wait...."

At least they have something, it's better then having them only asking who's there all the time.

Personally I think the dungeons are a step up above oblivion in terms of how repetitive individual dungeons are.
But they are just like oblivion a bore when you do all of them since they don't differ that much.
They are also a lot more linear and usually shorter, but I find myself not to be bothered by that much tough.

I miss unique loot tough, a generic sword of fire damage is not going to satisfy me.

The fact that there are so many unique designed dungeons, makes the game already better than Oblivion dungeon wise to me. But unique in design does not mean unique in enemy diversity or loot, sadly. Also, some dungeons that are "harder" than others gives the same random chest loot as any other "normal" ones, which is a bit disapointing. As a whole package Skyrim is a fantastic game, but if you break it down and focus on smaller areas, it is easy to spot the flaws.

Still loving the game though

Hm, the dungeons in Skyrim could be less linear, true.

But the design is nice. Much better than Oblivions. More personality, more interesting. Also better loot than in Oblivion, although it's rare.
Morrowind still wins for me, due to more interesting loot and usage of 3rd dimension (remember the days when we had a levitate spell?).
I haven't played Daggerfall, so I can't commend on the (afaik randomly generated?) dungeons there.

So for me:
Morrowind>Skyrim>Oblivion.

I`ve not heard the one about dad, but I heard several others, so no, it`s not all the same.

Also why not just appreciate that NOW we have bandits that actually have a little life to them rather than before when they had, let me see... Nothing?