Is there anything interesting that's not tied to a dungeon? Too much dungeon crawling. If that's the way it was going to be, they needed more dungeon variety.

Explore man, thats what I do, look at scenery and pick flowers lol

Too bad this is supposed to be an RPG, albeit a terrible one, not a hiking simulator.

You can play the game as a merchant, and rarely if ever go underground.

You`re right, it dosn`t compare with Oblivion or Morrowind

Caves, castles, and dungeons -- that seems to be where most of the action takes place. However, I do find the dungeons to be well-crafted, and a lot of them even have their own little stories if you're willing to look around a bit.

Caves and dungeons here are one in the same.

I find irony in that the guy with a daggerfall avatar for his forum handle says too much of the game is in the dungeons, and that the dungeons all look alike.

Skyrim dungeons are by far the most detailed and unique of the series so far, as a whole in relation to one another within the game- many with their own stories or legends as it were.

well there's many types of caves
normal- usually spider infested or Falmer
drauger- obviously these look like ancient nord ruins
dwemer- very shiney and golden, these are more open then the others
blackreach- coolest dungeon in any game ever, great scenery
ruins- like towers, forts, or castles

then on the surface you got
falkreath woods- stalking through misty forests are fun and this one might be haunted (woodcutters wife/cabin in the woods)
Riften woods- always fall time here, and i love fall colors
Whiterun tundra- very expansive with slight rock formations and rivers, you can see a long ways away
Markarth/the reach- very rocky terrain, easy to change elevation by hundreds of feet fast in this area, hard to tell what around the corner.
Morthal- creepy swamp area, i wish there had been more/thicker tree cover to make it a little more dark and creepy
Windhelm- south of it reminds me of national park.
Winterhold- not much here i like, just cold
North Skyrim glacier region- more then i thought is up there, and i actually have been scared when its stormy about falling under the ice and drowning, or a giant monster from the deep killing me.

then you got all the random encounters
-bandit attacks
-thieves
-evil mages in the woods
-dragons (i have two playthroughs, one with main quest and one without incase i dont want to be bothered by dragons)
-random cabins
-stormcloaks imperials moving about
-Khajiit caravans
-etc.


Personally im very happy and surprised with Skyrim, when i heard were it was going to be set i was afraid it would all look like winterhold, cold, snowy, icy, windy, boring. but there are cool forests and way better underground regions then oblivion.

plus the general rule with DLC is to take you somewere different then the main game. Cyrodill was your clasic white stone cities, so Shivering isles was crazy and colorfull (loved the mania side, and the sky was awsome)


EDIT: also how fast people seem to forget the oblivion gate grind? nothing but red gloom and evil towers, cant recall how many times i zerg'd my way through those things, and ran way around them in the wilderness.

I feel like that last part is you trolling for arguments. One thing that impressed me the most about Skyrim when I first started playing was the huge diversity of interior locations. Every cave, fort, dungeon, ruin, ect that I entered was unique. Yes they reused resources. That is a given with gaming and there's no way around it. But the overall design and look was unique and I didn't feel like I was walking into a bunch of carbon copies where I knew exactly where I was at any given moment. There are also many locations that are totally unique with excellent features and beautiful design that absolutely amazed me when I first entered them. So I have to totally disagree with you on both complaints. If you don't like dungeon crawling then maybe this isn't the game for you. But you are certainly just plain wrong on the complaint about variety. It's not going to get any better than this any time soon.

I was shocked to see the unique-ness of Bleak Falls Barrow at level 22. After 21 levels of other ordinary dungeons, I was blown away by that one. It seems the level of creativity dropped off somewhat after the 'starter' dungeon.

I felt like Oblivion and Morrowind's lacking dungeon designs weren't a huge problem, because there weren't as many quests that forced you to go into them. With Skyrim, it seems like roughly half of all quests (if not more) send you into dungeons. Obviously, the dungeons are designed better, but they are far too linear and you get sent into them too often.

Exactly my thoughts Broseph.

All the dungeons are nothing more then a corridor grind after a while. They ALL have an exit and the far end of the dungeon every single major dungeon.

Not sure why the exit at the end is an issue with some people with the alternative being trudging back through an emptied out dungeon with nothing really to do. If you don't like it just turn around and walk back the way you came in. 've done that before just to pick up loot I left behind.

Also quite a few of the dungeons have alternative paths and side routes. The Dwemer ruins in particular often have several different paths to take.

I guess the developers' logic would be that they spent more time on Skyrim's dungeons following complaints about Oblivion, therefore the player should be sent into them a lot more.

Personally, I don't have a problem with dungeon crawling. It's always been a big part of the series, and when done right, it's very enjoyable. Nor do I have a problem with dungeons in Skyrim looking and feeling the same. I think Bethesda have done a really good job of making them more unique. The problem I have, is all these linear, brightly lit dungeons with level-scaled loot at the end that take 20 minutes to complete really don't excite me at all. It just feels like i'm grinding my way from A to B to proceed further in a questline and maybe find some loot Bethesda feel is appropriate for my character's level, without ever really feeling challenged, lost, confused, curious to explore, etc. . I'd much rather they had fewer dungeon crawling quests, but made the ones that are there a lot more epic - like a 2-3 hour journey through a dark, maze-like dungeon. And loot should be randomly placed around the gameworld when the game starts, but not level-scaled at all - so I actually have some incentive to delve into dungeons outside of quests and explore them thoroughly... without knowing X item will be in Y dungeon on my 2nd or 3rd playthrough.

I don't mind the dungeons and caves. I'm just bored to tears with draugr.

For all intents and purposes, Skyrim is an action game, with minor roleplaying elements. Sure, it has skills, and levelling up, and such. But I would compare Skyrim more with, say, Deus Ex.

Anyway, compared to Skyrim's predecessors, the dungeons in this game are a lot more detailed and varied. Even though forts and caves get old after a while, I think they manage to keep them consistently interesting in one way or another. I do agree that they send us into dungeons way too often, though.

If you spend some time exploring the world, you'll find there are a lot of interesting things to see and find, even if there is a serious lack of questing above ground. It's one of those things where you have to make your own adventure, rather than go with what the game gives you.

Personally, I love mixing imagination and video games, but I grew up with games that featured lines and blocks for characters, and you really had to be able to make believe to get the most out of it. Easy, when you're a kid. But I haven't stopped as I've grown up and graphics have gotten better.

I take it you fast travel a lot op, I never do, I walk all the paths, horseless and its great exploring.

someone seems ungrateful, go hunt dragons then....

Yes! And I love that! I always look for bodies/Journals/books and other stuff that tells stories within caves! Such minor things in detail really boost the fun for me by A TON. Just today I found 2 awesome caves each with a story. I won't spoil but One was a bandits tavern invaded by Falmer the other was a mine which involved a note from an obviously pissed off dude and his friend. Turns out he was angry for the wrong reason when you explore more and pay attention to the stuff inside.