I have played Skyrim for nearly 70 hours now, and while it's the best Elder Scrolls to date, Bethesda's incredibly formulaic approach to the design of Skyrim keeps it from being the best open-world RPG ever.

For example, 70% of the quests are fetch/kill quests. For the remaining 30% of the quests, linearity is the order of the day. There are few choices to make, nor is there much of a way for the player to take alternate paths to solving a problem or reaching the objective. The result is often a reward, and the player has a very small impact on how the gameworld changes depending on his or her actions. The repetition of quest structure also saps Skyrim of the replay value that games like Fallout New Vegas had.

While the game gives you a ton of leeway in how you play the game (by brute force, magic, stealth, etc.), it lacks the freedom of choice that Fallout New Vegas and many other RPGs have. To Bethesda, there are only two choices: Do the quest, or refuse the quest. While this might have been fine back during the 1990s, I would have liked to see a more freeform quest structure that takes into account a number of choices that a player can make.

There's a lot of quests. Some better than others. I recommend the Dark Brotherhood + Stormcloaks + Daedric quests.

they are only fetch quests because they are designed to push the player towards exploring dungeons which are actually interesting this time
and there are some quests that do have some pretty dramatic choices like

I think the replay for me was trying to figure out what type of character I want to build. I also like the combat system and trying new things. Like now I'm using alteration and resto more.

I've finished six quest lines and there were only a few memorable quests:

1. "Diplomatic Immunity" from the main quest was pretty awesome.
2. "Escape from Cindha Mine" was a great relief from the repetitious dungeon crawling that the game forces you to do.

But most of the quests are fetch/kill quests. No amount of fancy window dressing in the form of voicework can disguise that.

Play 70 hours on any game. Starts to seem repetitive. Most games only take a few hours to beat.

I think every game could be simplified down to "Do the quest or not to do the quest" there is a ton of quests in Skyrim that has multiple choices as to how to get a quest done

Maybe, but the fun in most other games will expire long before 70 hours.

I bet part of the problem here is using fast travel too much.

It's a sandbox game. Replay value comes in droves; just not from the quests.

Lol you say it's repitive and lacks replay value yet you've played for 70 hrs. No wonder you think that.

Also if you're bored with the game just stop playing. No one here will be offended. I mean we wouldn't even know if you didn't tell us.

I however can't put this game down and I've put well over 100 hours into. No game has ever kept my attention this long.

Your first sentence makes no sense. Its the best ES to date, but not the best sandbox RPG to date? Er, what?

Yeah, if you've been using FT, try a playthrough without it.

80+ hours here. Doesn't feel repetitive. It also depends on the way you play. I always explore a lot on my own and I'm not a big fan of all those fetch/kill quests.
Do all the non-miscellaneous quests and explore everything on your own.

That title goes to Fallout: New Vegas.

I agree that BGS could do a much better job of providing actual _choice_ in their quests. And that it's pretty funny that freedom is one of the big features--with most of the marketing centered around it--yet we're more constrained than probably ever before in a BGS game. I'd like to see that change in the future.

But I also think you're talking about an RPG, and TES is moving further away from that with each release. I think they're heading into interactive action-adventure territory, whether or not they're conscious of it.

OTOH, you've got 70 hours, will probably get a fair amount more, and probably had a great time, right? So, as disappointing as it is, look to BGS for open-world adventure games, and other companies for RPGs. You'll be a lot more satisfied that way.

the reason i think they didn't make leveling longer is people would begin to complain that the game is too long. One thing I did notice at this 4th character, and no I haven't beat the game or even come close, one thing I noticed with the companions for instance is that I got different quests.

Try fast traveling less. It will enhance your experience a lot.

I feel it's for different reasons -

-Combat svcks, as usual
-Less in depth guilds, too much focus on main quest
-Found gear is vendor trash

If the combat were more interesting, and we weren't sort of rushed into the main quest, there'd be a lot more replay value. Doing the main quest gets old, but the factions are short and you're not given a "get some experience and gear up" quest as a good excuse to leave the main quest hanging like you could in Morrowind. You can still do it of course, it's just a little more weird. There's also less incentive to explore, as player smithed and enchanted gear is superior to everything else pretty much, especially since you can tailor it's enchants to your needs.

Buddy, you've played 70 hours, most other games nowadays don't even have enough content to allow such a feat.

Name five and I will not eat a single baked good during the week that X-mas falls into.

in my time of need is a good quest.
you actually get a choice.
unlike some quest in solitude given by a certain argonian

Now it makes sense. I don't agree, but I see now. I didnt register the sentence at first, because it would never even occur to me to compare the Fallout games, to ES. Or putting them in competition for best sandbox RPG. When F3 came out I was expecting more than Oblivion. I effectively got less. Purely content wise, I'm talking. When NV came out it was a lot deeper than F3 and more on par with the level of depth you'd see in an ES. Still wasn't close though. As for left/right/middle dialogue choices. They come with a price, and you saw this in NV. The whole MQ was basically just all of the faction, or "guild" quests, which would be their equivalent in an ES. This made everything but side and miscellaneous quests, short. There were more side quests and miscellaneous in NV than in F3 though, but Its not close to a Beth made RPG. Id use Morrowind as the hallmark for the ES series, personally.

Yea with a title like that its quite clear you meant to start an attention hate thread.

Needless to say, you are wrong about the quests, the problem is you, and the people who will never be satisfied with any kind of game no matter how good it is. Some people even compare the quests of Skyrim to those of WOW, which is absolute nonsense. What exactly is it that you want? An option to approach the target from left or right? They give you options to do certain actions, like kill certain npc, or try to talk him into persuasion, or let him live, etc. They give you quests to get a certain item into another persons pocket, the option to turn in a fugitive hiding in an inn or eliminate the band of thugs after her. What more do people want from NPC's other than them keeping in touch with your questline? "Hey, I know you, Hail Sithis!" What do you want them to congratulate you for getting a certain item? I dont see how quests can get any better or more elaborate than they already are. Please enlighten me. They will always involve an item or a person, what else is there to quests?

Personally I was disappointed that when I did the Legion campaign after completing the Stormcloaks one, not only were the quests often the same, but the damn dialog was the same too.



I'm not entirely sure, but depending on how you treat the radiant quests (as in, if you bother counting and including them), Fallout New Vegas might have more quests than Skyrim.