» Wed Jun 20, 2012 7:23 am Things I like:
1) The world: This should be a given with Bethesda games anymore, but it's still worth saying. The game is gorgeous and there's nothing I enjoy more ingame than to just run around and absorb the sights. I feel that the quality of the world is an improvement over Oblivion, but then again that could be my bias towards snowy regions. Then you've got the huge improvement in how NPCs looks, particularly the face. The balloon faces was one of the things I grew to hate most about Oblivion. Kinda silly? Yes. But it's gone now and I love you for it.
2) More interesting combat: I love Morrowind but I'd say the thing I disliked most about it was the "combat," and it was a pretty heavy dislike. Specifically, how reliant it was on dice rolls for everyone. The only input reliant on the player was just clicking the button, other things like where you actually hit? Miss? If you can actually use that shield you're holding that covers practically your entire body? All reliant on the dreaded random number generator. There's nothing more boring and infuriating to be click spamming someone and watching 4 out of 5 swings miss.
Oblivion took a step in the right direction but it still felt lacking in areas, mainly that spell casting still felt boring (although it was more convenient to use now) and it still didn't feel my input was particularly important. But a hit was a hit and blocking was manual, so it was a start. Skyrim's continued moving in what I feel is the right direction. Spell casting feels awesome now (I'm talking about the look, feel, and the importance of the player's input in combat, not balance). You can have separate spells in each hand and you can combine spells for stronger versions. Rad.
I feel archery has been in a pretty good place for the most part, and to my knowledge I don't think it's changed much here. I think the main thing I'd request is that damage took into account where on the body you're hit. Melee would probably be my biggest gripe, it still feels like all I'm doing is running up to someone and click spamming until they're dead. I honestly don't know how to improve this without having to build the game almost entirely around the 3rd person view, though, so maybe I'm just being picky.
3) Perks: Perks are awesome. Leveling use to feel boring; all I really got was more health, mana, and stamina, plus more attribute points that primarily just did what my skills already did. Useful? Yes. Interesting? No. My gameplay or character never really changed much as I leveled, I just got higher numbers. Now every level I get to choose between a health, mana, or stamina increase, and a perk; an actual form of character customization? Yes please!
[As a side note, I've seen people arguing that the new system offers less character uniqueness than before which I'm honestly not getting. All your choices in the beginning of Morrowind and Oblivion did was give you a starting boost in those attributes/skills. In the end, your choices didn't mean much because you and everyone else would (assuming you played long enough) just max everything out and you'd be exactly the same except for slight differences in health and such. Here everyone can still max out all of the skills, but you don't have enough perks to get everything. Our characters are more customizable and potentially unique than they were in the previous two games]
I do think there are some perks that are a bit redundant and should just be baked into the skills itself in exchange for more interesting choices, particularly the flat damage increase ones. Presumably increasing my one handed skill already increases the damage I do, do we really need a 5 point perk that does the exact same thing? Heck, I figured that the primary reason attributes were removed was because having two separate systems that did the same thing (weapon skill and strength affecting damage. Speed and athletics affecting running ability. Personality and Speechcraft/Mercantile affecting how you interact with people, and so on) was largely redundant, didn't serve much purpose other than stat bloat, and was only kept around originally because of the game's D&D roots. I'm sort of surprised they'd then bring back some of that redundancy with their new system.
But I digress. Having more choices (or any choices at all) is great.
4) Crafting: Personally, I never use the spell/item creation systems in Elder Scrolls just because I'm afraid of breaking the game. I'm perfectly happy using the items already in the game. But there are lots of people not me, and giving them a way to make their own loot is awesome. Blacksmiths are among the manliest of the manly, who am I to not appreciate?
5) No more conversation pie: I love the new Speechcraft. Who's idea was it? Give them a hug for me. The pie game was dumb and I hated it. Heck, Speechcraft in Morrowind was dumb and I hated it. There wasn't much worse than to need to grind my ability to talk by quick saving, spamming admire and reloading every couple of seconds because the person's disposition went straight to zero. in fact, also give a hug to whoever's idea it was to ditch disposition.
What I don't like:
1) The Compass: Now I'm not going to say that the pointers should be removed outright, but after how many people were asking just for the option to turn them off in Oblivion I'm really confused why a toggle wasn't added. I understand why they're there, and there are even times when I appreciate them. Sometimes I want to just get in for a few minutes and knock out a quest; being able to just see where I should go and run there is great for those times. Or maybe I just want to explore a new dungeon and don't want to spend an hour checking every nook and cranny. Having the option to use these things is great, but why isn't it an option? Going back to my first like of the game, I love exploring. I love just walking around and seeing what's across the next mountain. There's no greater experience than looking over a hill and finding a cave entrance or something hidden that maybe no one else has seen. I can't get that feeling anymore because the game is robbing me of that sense of discovery. The compass tells me where the nearby dungeons are before I even know they're there, and I get no say in the matter.
2) No recognition: Or not enough. Even those racist pricks over at Morrowind eventually recognized how rad I was and adjusted their greetings to suit. Why are the guards still acting like I'm a new Companion even though I finished the questline? Why don't the Imperials care that I'm walking around in Stormcloak armor, or vice versa? Why doesn't anyone react to a non-Norn Dragonborn, or heck even a Khajit walking around inside city walls? It seems like you're working so hard to tell us a good story, but then you don't get around to showing it to us.
3) No spellcrafting: Like I said about crafting, this isn't something I even use, but a lot of people do and removing options is bad. That's pretty much all I have to say on this
4) Resource Management: Everything regenerates on its own so fast now, it's almost like I'm playing a FPS like Halo with auto regen shields or something. Does health really need to auto regen on its own, in addition to the free healing spell everyone gets? Managing your inventory of healing/restorative items when exploring long dungeons is usually one of the few sources of genuine challenge to be found in a RPG, and there's practically none here. There isn't much to spend money on, mana regens so fast that there's pretty much no need for mana potions, which also means there's pretty much no need for health potions since you can just backtrack and heal yourself all the time. I think I've used 5 healing potions all together.
I feel like there are some things I'm forgetting here, but I've spent enough time typing this. I may edit in more as I remember.
