From one point of view, Blackreach is an amazing display of artwork and design that easily makes the top ten in terms of gameplay experiences when you first behold the size and beauty of the area. From the other point of view, it is completely void of encounters, puzzles, danger, challenge or anything else that might make this awesome area more memorable.

It has the scope and feel of a MMO raid zone which has been cleared out by your local guild and left for you to safety sight-see.

This is the major flaw with Skyrim in general though. The game is too simple in terms of difficulty. I play on Expert, and I guess maybe I should play on hardcoe or whatever the highest level is so I get one shot by traps and mages.

In any event, Blackreach while amazing to look at is a complete dud to play through.

Not everywhere in skyrim is dangerous and chock-a-block full of monsters?

Boycott!

Blackreach - my favorite area! It's the awe and beauty and the other worldliness that appeals to me. I don't need to dodge hundreds of monsters. The few I encounter add to the eeriness, because they are unexpected at times.

http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/4369/elevatoriswaiting.jpg

http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/7430/magickshrooms.jpg

Did you perchance summon the Dragon that's down there? Do any other exploring?

I mean, it's not wall-to-wall, endledd armies of enemies, but Blackreach was by far the largest dungeon I have ever played in. It had challenges, puzzles, and enemies at the worst times.

There doesn't have to be hundreds or thousands of enemies to make it a challenge.

OP is is simply convinced that his personal play style should be what everyone should want in a game. Screw individuality.

Sorry OP but you got it wrong. There are plenty of enemies in Blackreach which included but are not limited to DwemerWorker Bots, Dwemer Centurians, Various classes of Falmer and their pets, a Falmer worshipping mage cult, 2 very mean Ice Trolls hidden away near the bottom of a waterfall, and a Dragon. Those are the ones I can remember off hand. It's a huge place and although not every step is life threatening there's more than enough to keep you on your toes.

There is also a giant or 2 along with a nest of spiders around a tower near the entrance. If you proceed into that tower, youll find even more spiders to hack away at with your preferred combat style

This. ^

And it will keep you busy for a while. I've been working on it slowly for three days now, and I'm not sure that I have the whole place explored/mapped out yet...

Blackreach is just flat out amazing.

I was blown away by the sheer spectacle of Dwemer history ingenuity that it represented. That was good enough for me. Not every place in the game needs to be jam packed full of monsters to be cool, though Blackreach had its fair share IMO.

I didn't know it had a dragon down there. That's probably where one of my missing words are. I guess I will have to pull Skyrim up again and head back down there.

You have to use a Shout on some kind of Brass Orb on one of the buildings down there. It will sound a chime/booming bell toll, and it will then summon a Dragon that you get to fight.

Blackreach is just freaky.

Cheers

Im currently in blackreach at the moment, doing the part of the main questline seeking the elder scroll, its so big! Ive been down there for feels like days, beginning to wonder if Ill ever see daylight again.

Yes it's gigantic, monster population is higher than outdoor, Blackreach is basically and outdoor area, if it had monsters as thigh as an normal dungeon it would be an nightmare as you could easy draw agro from loads of them since it's open.
The monsters are in areas and in the various buildings.
It takes days to fully explore and is worth it because all the soul gems you can mine.

who knows they might make an expantsion out of it

Anyone who says that Blackreach is 'disappointing' is a nutjob.

My only dissapointment is that most other dungeons aren't like it. Not by visuals (Sightless Pit and the Temple of Xyr come close) but in the sense of scope. It's like, the only really non-linear dungeon I've found.

It was cool, but not as OMGWTF AWESOME like people made it out to be. It is big, but most of it is empty. I was surprised at how quickly I was able to travel from one end to the other, despite having traveled a long distance on the Skyrim map.

I guess the hype sort of ruined the experience a bit for me.

I'm not sure about the devoid of encounters. You perhaps missed the giant, dragon, three centurion dynamo's, chaurus repearers, a legion of falmer and their servants, and a smattering of trolls and spiders. Though if you run past the zone right to the marker I bet you'd only see a few falmer. If you stop in Sindaron's House and start his quest and collect the red nirnroot for the permanent bonus you'd be fighting your way through the hordes of crap protecting it. Not to mention figuring out there is a dragon down there and how to get the dragon to show up.

I'm not sure what your expectation is playing on Expert. You should only be playing on Master if this stuff matters to you. If you are on the PC you should be downloading PISE and other difficulty increasing mods. Because Skyrim doesn't have rails you can reach many areas at different levels of power. If you hit Blackreach at level 10, you should be prepared to fight for your life to get through it. If you get there at 35, it'll probably be just another stroll through a ruin.

I have to admit, after the hype that was built around it by other players, I was somewhat disappointed myself.

It's not a bad area, but based on what lots of people were saying, I guess I was expecting.. I don't know, better. To me, your average Dwemer ruin (like Mzulft) is more exciting, fun to play, and even better looking.

I actually really appreciated the contrast of Blackreach. It's SUPPOSED to feel sort of big and empty. It's a deserted ruin, after all. So, after crawling through a lot of Dwarven architecture battling spheres, spiders and traps, to step out into this giant, open expanse of calm was a real "Whooooa" moment.

And hey...like a lot of stuff, it's totally optional. There's nothing down there that's necessarily related to the MQ. So if it's disappointing, catch a lift out, and go and poke around somewhere that's more to your taste.

Thanks, I found it, shouted at it, kill it, then went on with my day

I just ran from point A to point B...there was a dragon???

The level I visited Blackreach it was the right difficulty for me, slightly too hard even.

I should have betted money when I anticipated a thread like this.

Yup. See my above posts to learn how to find it.