so, after more than 150 very enjoyable hours, I′ve finished the game. Despite this being the umptheenth `opinion′ thread , I′m still going to go ahead and post my views on this game and how it relates to other TES games I have played (Morrowind and Oblivion). Mind you I've just finished the game so I'm suffering from "TES deflation" which I always experience after I finish a grand (in the literal sense of the word) game.
I'll try to keep this post structured as I have the tendency to go all over the place once things pop into my mind. I tend to endlessly and needlessly compare TES games to each other as well so prepared for that too.

Let me start off by saying that of all three TES games I played, I put more hours into this one on the first playthrough by far. I played as a Dunmer with emphasis on one handed, block, heavy armor and to a lesser degree, destruction. Finished the game at level 38, which is the highest I have ever been in any TES game.

I also rate it as the best TES game to date. This is why: (the "pros" section of this post, if you will)
- improvement content-wise, obviously not in quantity but in quality such as better, more believable voice acting and far more engaging-to-the-eye objects, NPCs and monsters than ever before. I am not solely talking graphic wise but art-wise as well
- best gameplay to date in the series. travelling, levelling, combat are the best they have ever been as far as i'm concerned. This is huge and shapes the game experience to a very large extent.
- obviously the graphics, animations, magic system and combat are once again improved. I for one do not ignore these things which are often looked-upon as shallow.
- action, interaction and epicness in and of the game world are simply jaw dropping in my eyes. I literally stopped and stared many a times at the scenery at hand.
- unlike Oblivion, two very important "intangibles" have returned since Morrowind: atmosphere and a compelling (I know many will disagree with me) story that revolves around the player. Regarding atmosphere I really welcome the fact that NPCs are edgier, in some cases racist and generally make you feel unwelcome in places. It recreates some of the "alien" feel many of us felt when playing Morrowind.
- I like the new stuff that has been introduced to combat, levelling and completely new stuff such as crafting and companions (new for TES, mind you)

- And finally, a very important one that I have set aside because I feel this changed the entire feel of the TES series going from Morrowind to Oblivion: variety.

Warning: I'm probably going to get long-winded here.

Generally when playing a new version of TES I tend to compare it to previous versions. I catch myself thinking while playing: hey OB did this better or worse, this was more interesting in Morrowind, etc. A very annoying trait I wish I didn't have but there ya go. As many who have played Morrowind as their first TES, I tend to compare all that is TES to that, mostly. Morrowind gave me a very distinct "feel" when playing, Oblivion did not (it was great for other reasons) and Skyrim brought that back to a large extent. So that got me thinking; why is that and what was / is it that Morrowind did for me that was so special, that Oblivion lacked and that Skyrim brought back, so to speak?

Sure, Morrowind has more content on many levels, but that's not it, as I feel I can still do everything I could in Morrowind and OB and Skyrim, with the exception of some things I do not miss (persuasion, weapon and armor repair) and some things I do but which are easily replaced by future mods (certain magic effect, most notably).
Is it the atmosphere then? Could be, as I did not feel anything lacking in Skyrim in that regard but very much so in Oblivion. However atmosphere is very subjective and many prefer OB's over other TES games. So that was pretty much out.

THen it hit me; what was a very significant change in the series? A number of things really, that relate to each other:
- the decision to implement scheduling for NPCs (the whole "radiant" business) to attempt to breathe more life into the game
- the decision to implement full voice acting in lieu of text conversations
- the consequence of the above point was that quest markers and fast travel were suddenly REQUIRED, as the amount of voice acting it would take to provide Morrowind-like quest directions and descriptions would quite literally be insane.

This is (aside from the wonderfully fixed levelling and travelling systems if you were on PC, think OOO and Fran's) what damaged Oblivion the most I think. The reasons for this are:
- too little dialog recorded to actually make voice acting do what it seemed to promise in the build up to OB
- radiant AI still feels very experimental and not fleshed out (think of all the mudcrab-conversations)
- there is not enough variety in landmarks, events and ....everything really to make the game memorable with fast travel and quest markers in place.

This brings me back to Skyrim and the most important things it DOES do right in the path the series has took, namely:
- much more dialog recorded. Not between NPCs and the PC per se, but between NPCs. It just makes the world that much more lively.
- radiant Story is more fleshed out and there is more character interaction between NPCs that makes more sense.
- there is now enough variety in the game to give it a distinct feel (hooray for the return of hand-crafted everything), which is a requirement if you ask me when mechanics as fast travel and quest markers are in place. This last one is key if you ask me.

That also about sums up the most important positive part of the game to me. I honestly did not miss the removed item types, skills, magic spells (though i probably will when i play an Altmer mage on my next playthrough), birthsigns, classes and stats for one second. I clearly remember going for certain equipment types on Morrowind on subsequent playthroughs and loathing the high number of useless or obsolete items, skills, magic effect and enchantments, etcetera.

Oh yeah , the cons too of course:
- SKyrim ruined Oblivion for me, as these games are too similar and apart from the game setting and some magic spells, there is nothing of interest anymore to me as everything that Oblivion set out to do, Skyrim does better by a large margin.
- FInishing the game has now forced the idea upon me that I have to have another go at Morrowind to see how it feels like after not having played it for 7 years (consistently of course, I have jumped in and out of it so to speak). Though this is not really a con
- Slightly short guild quests. I like lenghty guilds that clearly denote what rank you are. This is highly personal of course.
- Not much and random recognition of your deeds. A common pet peeve but very much in line with BGS' general MO.


Sorry for the long-winded post, but I had to get this off my chest after 150 hours of play! I also never saw any mention of some of the points I came across so I thought I'd share that.

Let me close by saying that games like Morrowind and Skyrim being somewhat similar but still quite different to each other is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because they are part of a universe I've come to appreciate a great deal, and if I tire of one, I can always play the other. A curse, because it makes me always compare them to each other and think; what if there was a TES game that had everything we wanted, without slimming the game down? I know I said I did not miss the cut-out content, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't appreciate it if it were in. Then I had least would have the choice to ignore all that stuff



Phew....thanks for reading

Skyrim is my favorite TES game to date, although if a modder ever fixed morrowind's combat that game would become number one again. If im out exploring caves and the wilderness or just hunting for Thalmor or killing random bandits then Skyrim is an amazing game that only STALKER games and FO3 can match. Even though i like FNV more than Skyrim it doesnt do exploration nearly as good as Skyrim does. Unfortunately whenever i have to interact with npcs or do quests etc., that is when I'm reminded of Skyrim's many, many shortcomings. This is the area where games like FO3 and especially FNV beat the snot out of skryim.

I'm just hoping that modders can fix most of these issues.

I would be willing to bet, that if you started another character, took a different path, and did things differently in Skyrim,
you would get a new feel for the game.

I read your entire post. Good read. Too long. But it's cool

The one thing i like is that you are "going back" to Morrowind. There are several references in Skyrim to Morrowind.

And because I won't spoil anything, I won't mention any of them.

But there are quite a few.

So for you, going back is a good thing...

Great post, have fun.

I liked your post. As someone who started the series with Oblivion and then went back to play Morrowind, your post helps me understand why those of you who started with Morrowind were disappointed with Oblivion. I did not notice the things you found disappointing about Oblivion without the Morrowind background, but now that I have played Morrowind, I find that Skyrim gives me some of the same dissapointments that you had about Oblivion, namely that the decision to go with full voice acting necessitates use of the quest arrow. Skyrim may have improved this issue over Oblivion by the use of many more voice actors, but there are still a great many quests that require the use of the quest arrow because there is just not enough information available from the NPC's. I wish Bethesda could implement an Advanced Roleplaying Options submenu that would allow you to turn off quest arrows and get additional dialog options from NPCs that were text based, so you could figure out where you are supposed to go to complete quests without having to peek at the quest arrow.

You that his post was long?

I think the the smaller details, like the improved dungeon designs in Skyrim, the more varied, and to me slightly more believable voice acting, do make for a better experience overall.

Good Game, looks good.

Quests horrible, too many bugs.
Need pc to play the game properly with the "iwinyoulose" commands that allow you to skip eveything the console players are stuck with

It's a good read, I liked Oblivion but Skyrim puts the series on a whole new pedastal in terms of what it does.

I've played TES III, IV and V now. With each new game, the developers seem to take steps to further simplify the game play for a wider range of gamers. I miss summoning multiple creatures like I did in Morrowind. Two summoned creatures at a time is ok I guess but I remember summoning a group of Golden Saints or Dremoras to fight along side me. Poisons introduced in Oblivion was wonderful because nobody knew what to do with the negative effect potions they made in Morrowind.

I can only hope that with TES VI, we will have spell making back along with the ability to summon multiple creatures and not just two. I'd also like to see Bethesda get rid of the perk system unless you can get enough points to get every perk in the game. What set TES apart from the rest of the rabble is that you can become only has powerful as the effort you put into your character. I don't like a lot of limitation imposed in the spirit of "balance." If I bust my butt leveling my character, I wanna be able to kick ass without breaking a sweat.

glad it wasn't TOO long and at least readable.

@ penumbras thanks, I already picked up some references such as Ulfgar the Unending. Minor really, but subconciously I remembered his name. Looked him up on UESP, that brought a smile on my face

One more thing to add to my rant: this is the first TES game that makes me want to replay it instantly, which I WILL do. (at a slower pace while playing Morrowind on the side )
@Malohta this kind of ties in with what you dislike about the perks. I see it as a double edged sword as usually I started out as warrior or mage and eventually evolved into a god-like character. While I certainly appreciate that and enjoy that, I also like that this time a warrior was all I was going to be (atleast when not levelling to say, level 60 or something). Which makes me want to replay as a mage immediately. Pros and cons and all that I guess.