Maybe my perspective is a little different from most people here. Played Oblivion twice, enjoyed the hell out of it, never played Morrowind. And from my point of view, Skyrim has tons of flexibility and doesn't seem repetitive, because I had just come off playing Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2. They're absolutely great games - and some of the best sci-fi in decades, particularly in games - but play the first Mass Effect through and tell me what you think of the quests. If you haven't played it, I'll go ahead and tell you: the main story missions are absolutely awesome and atmospheric, and real substantive choices are made. The side missions, though, are not only pointless, they're mind-numbingly boring.

Pointless because you don't need to do them for cash - the cash you gain in the game is essentially useless, as you'll always find enough weapons out there in the galaxy. I don't think I ever bought a single weapon or armor the whole way through. And they're boring because, unlike the story missions, the side missions are generally pretty cookie-cutter. Sometimes the mission itself is okay, but the map is just cut-and-paste of hallway sections and rooms you've seen a zillion times and which you'll see a zillion times again. Apparently people complained about that and the developers took note - the side missions in Mass Effect 2 are pretty damn awesome, to the point that you want to do them all before you bother with the main story mission, despite the fact that THE WHOLE GALAXY is at stake.

So yeah, Skyrim seems very flexible and not repetitive to me. Yeah, some underground places look similar, but hell, underground places are rock and dirt, pretty much the same in one place as another. But at least they do vary visually, more than they did in Oblivion for sure.

I will venture to say that anything will start to feel mind-numbingly dull if you overdo it all at once. Don't spend 40 hours playing the game in one week. It isn't a chore, it isn't work, it isn't something you should feel obliged to grind through and get done. If you get tired at half past midnight, go to bed instead of playing another hour and a half; computer games are not a good outlet for a diehard work ethic.

this old trope is so tired I had to lay down next to it to read it.


in a game, where you mostly kill things, there are only so many ways to interact.

1) talk --learn stuff, persuade, etc.
2) kill!
3) sneak/steal
4) gather or leave something
5) observe / report

what other kinds of quests would there be? I HATE escort quests (here, try to keep this poorly scripted AI / NPC alive while things attack !)

i really would love to hear concrete examples of WHAT kind of quests would be better.

Stopped reading after 70 hours. How many games can you say that you've played it that long? Not very many.

And there is plenty of replay value. Infinite value if using mods.

I stumbled apon a random quest in an ice cave at the outskirts of the map and it has been one of the most epic. I was completly blown away at how well this quest was done, given the fact that it is a side quest. Not only did it have an interestign story, but it was backed by amazing visuals and twists. Its value could have made it an easy integration to somethign on the scale of a main story line but no, it was a side quest. Ive had this experience other times as well, 70 hours through. I have stayed true to my assasin and only participated in theifs guild and dark brotherhood, and rarely picked up sidequests around town, and have only completed random side quests that i encountered. I imagen there are 100's of unique and exciting side quests to be done, which i will save for another play through. I still have 4-6 more characters to make, more guilds to complete and quests to and terrain to explore. To say there is no replay value is a massive overstatement.

1) The quest in Riverwood involving Sven and that Elf fighting over the woman.

2) The DB quest to assassinate the emperor (the first time).

3) The Thieves' Guild quest to get Calcemo's research notes.

4) The MQ quest to retrieve the Elder Scroll.

5) The quest to steal the Dibella statue from the shrine in Markarth.

Have fun not having cookies or cake this Christmas. :disguise:

I was thinking the same thing. Most games I'm done with after a few hours never to be touched again.

Mods are what give this game a lot of replay value as well. If you got it for the console, then there's your mistake.

Radiant quests count as 1 quest to me, since that's what they are until you repeat the repeatable ones. With all of the guilds, MQ civil war, side quests, miscellaneous quests, people quests etc. It has to be more than NV. Since a lot of NV quests just did a different perspective. Although I could see how hardware and graphical limitations with Skyrim could limit the overall quests number to just below NV, in terms of pure numbers. Id still give the edge to ES for replayability though. Which is what the topic is getting at.

My only real repetitiveness complaint is the draugr. I have probably seen around 20 dungeons, 15+ of these have been tiresome draugr marches. Even if a corridor twists around to a second floor I can see, I'm just not thrilled. Every 30 feet, another coffin is going to pop open and two draugr shamble towards me. I was excited when I heard about 100+ "unique" dungeons in the game. Different floor plans does not actually make them unique.

Honestly everything else still feels very fresh and interesting after many hours invested, so I don't agree with the complaint on the whole

But that's exactly how they feel. They're fetch quests. "Go to this cave, kill Bandit chief, come back." That's it. That's exactly what you can expect from an MMORPG.

What people want is choice and dynamic quests. For example, following in line with OP's example of New Vegas, if I save the town of Primm in New Vegas, I have the choice of giving it three seperate sheriffs. One may properly defend the town but raise taxes quite high, another may lower crime to the point where the town has a healthier economy and can give you cheaper prices, but the sheriff himself is corrupt and often shoots first and asks questions later, whereas the third is a compromise who doesn't really affect the economy or have any corruption/lack thereof. In another quest, if someone asks me to deliver a drug package, I can either deliver it for pay or I can turn it into the authorities and report them.

In Skyrim? If I do a certain quest where someone suggests turning me into a werewolf to make me stronger and I say "thanks but no thanks," what's their response. "Ok that's fine. COME BACK WHEN YOU CHANGE YOUR MIND." I'm then forced to accept his offer to continue on with his quest. If I do the main quest and get to the "optional" parts where I can ask the Greybeards or the Blades for advice, I can choose the Greybeards, reload the game and ask the Blades and then realize it doesn't make ANY difference at all who I choose. They react exactly the same and send me on the same task. EVENTUALLY they give me a true choice where they disagree, but again, the path I choose has no real effect on the game.

Or if I'm stuck in a room and told to figure out which of these three people need to die, it doesn't matter which one I end up killing. I'm rewarded all the same.


The game has no choice, no rewards and consequences and thus no replay value.

this isnt a bioware game so dont expect to be able to make decisions that impact the world

Do you know how few quests we would have got if Skyrim adhered to Fallout's choices, with the choices actually having ramifications? Half.

I don't even expect that from Bioware anymore.

Oh dear God, don't give anybody any ideas. Remember the games X-Wing and its successor Tie Fighter? Absolutely classic games, but man, those escort missions...

me neither, not since star wars the biggest let down in the old republic crushed my little heart.

Which is why I still prefer story-driven games over gameplay-oriented games like Skyrim.

I would prefer fifty high-quality, replayable quests over two hundred quests that tell me to kill someone and report back.

That is Skyrim's problem. Most of the quests do not particularly lend well to roleplaying because there is very little room to make moral choices. You either do it or you don't. There is no middle ground, and I can't see myself returning to Skyrim until decent mods come out.

From Bethesda, perhaps. Fallout 3 had like ~20 quests. Fallout New Vegas on the other hand could go toe-to-toe with Skyrim on the quest count, but New Vegas only had one year production time compared to Skyrim's five. That's where I just don't understand how the factions and quests could fall so short. Yeah the world design probably takes time, the UI and items had to be designed, but surely quests and factions are just as important as those.

ES choices have always been about, throw as many quests at you as we can, and let you choose what or what not to do based on build type, or "class" in the older games. This allowed for lots of replay value, but made you the responsible party on what to do, or not to do. With choices and story driven RPGs, your given less quests on the whole, but to see all outcomes, over different build types, your not told to be responsible. The game doesn't allow all endings. Its a compromise of control and build limitation, over parts of the game that are cut out because of choice.

There have been quests in ES that gave choice. Daggerfall was so bad they had to have a dragon break, but its obviously not as much as the games designed around that philosophy in the first place.

Well, at least it's not as bad as Oblivion where some dungeons were exact copies in every way. I think they've done a good job with the dungeons, although they might just be randomly generated? What do I know..
I agree on the draugr point though, those guys are getting tedious.

i agree ive played all of the elder scrolls and this one is the best out of all of them but the replay value just isnt there for me for some reason. i logged over 1000 hours on both morrowind and oblivion with multiple characters. but this game just feels meh after one play through (but it was the def the best yet). i think alot of my feelings for this game come from the guild quests being so average and there only being like maybe 8-10 quests per guild. in oblivion i could beat the thieves guild an dark brotherhood repeatedly and never get bored but i can beat the guilds in maybe 5-6 hours with fast travel and after i beat it i would rather do it again

Its the limitations. Lets see NV have that many quests on the Skyrim engine, in this gen. With NV Obsidian had an old, updated, proven though faulty, but highly optimized to run on hardware, engine that had to stay relevant through a consoles lifespan. And thats with Beth giving support, guiding Obsidian along. Skyrim was on an updated gamebryo that all the rest used, but its obviously pushing the consoles to the max. Give Obsidian a year or two for optimization and more compression and they could probably make Skyrim with more quests.

I use different play styles, so I guess that's one reason I'm not getting bored with the game. Though I don't think it's boring at all, just some quests don't tickle my fancy. Go from Arch-Mage magic to warrior/shield/axe play-styles. I love it.

Why do all you idiots keep saying to stop fast traveling? Or stop saying well you've played 70 hours, blah blah blah. What does that have to do with the point of the topic, which is that the linear quests keep the game from being AS replayable as it could be? I agree with the OP the quests lack any real decision making. That won't stop me from replaying it, but it does stifle the fun a little bit, and Bethesda needs to hear it so the next elder scrolls won't be linear.

Sure there are ways to replay the game and get more out of it, but that isn't the topic, it's the lack of choice during the quests, and really there is only one final destination for most the quests, where there should be more.

But why should every quest have a moral choice within the quest, as opposed to just doing the quest or not? That isn't real life either; that would make every quest be about moral choices, when for lots of people "role-playing" means taking their thief out to snatch some Benjamins, or whatever. The whole thing can't be one big constant barrage of tests of the character's morality.

No one forces your character to Smith or enchant =o you can get some decent gear if you don't craft at all especially from Daedric quests and becoming a Thane, and no one is rushing you to do the MQ you can take all the time in the world before starting the actual MQ... My mage character(4th) is level 25 and still hasn't delivered the dragon stone, and Daedric quests don't kick in until level 10, And there is tons of reason to go exploring! There are certain quests you can pick up while exploring that give you permanent Active effects.