Guilds. Worst in the history of Elder scrolls. Well, only as bad as Daggerfall, but Daggerfall had quantity to make up for it's lack of quality. I've written a lot about what's wrong with them already, so I'll spare everyone another venting rant.

I do like the simple but surprisingly nuanced combat though. Much more fitting for TES games than some heavy handed "Complex" fighting systems that rely on artificial and arbitrary combos. And it's much better than Dark souls/Demon Souls Hold-block-for-20-minutes-or-die multiple-on-one encounters. Contrary to some people, I don't think the combat is mechanically shallow(Though it has exploits, like every game). Things like Weapon Impact Weight, Damage Per Second, Stamina use, Blocking, Bashing, Poison, elemental Weakness, Mana-per-damage, evasion, flanking, funneling... I could keep going on. But all these tactical variances have to take place in real-time. It's not as arbitrarily complex as say, Might and Magic, but I think it's a better fit for Elder Scrolls.

#1 is the lack of previous TES attributes that I loved to manipulate and that it matters less and less what race you play

@ Criminal Scum

I agree with you. In all of the TES games I've experienced I have found the combat to be simple, yet each oddly compelling in their own ways. In Skyrim this is the subtle stratagem of conserving your fatigue bar, and deciding whether you'd rather shield bash to interrupt a power attack, or do one of your own as well as the 'visceral' feel of getting a first person kill cam where you perform a coup de grace in some believable fashion. Obviously Oblivion combat is just a less refined Skyrim combat, but I still enjoyed it. As for Morrowind, I even liked that. The uncertainty of whether or not your next strike, or your opponent's next strike would connect is always interesting, plus as you're both flailing away at each other you start thinking to yourself 'Oh gosh, stagger him just one more time...just one more time and I'll probably get the last hit before he finishes me off!'. In a way it's a very cheap adrenaline rush that you wouldn't expect from such a 'technical' oriented game like Morrowind.

Not really much more to say... The #1 worst thing about Skyrim is it's epic shallowness.

From character development, to quests, to basic UI layout, to city size, to NPC/AI interactions..... a lot of good things.....none of it amazing.

Skyrim has a lot more depth as a Province than Oblivion did, but a lot less depth of characters (Including the player character).


The best, and perhaps worst thing I can say about Skyrim is, the game is at it's prime the further you stay away from "Guided" content (Quests). Some of the Radiant Story quests do help though, ones that specifically exist to "Get you away from everyone" Like Bounty Hunting, or Treasure Hunter's notes.

For people like me (and maybe you too) this is almost deadly though. In Morrowind I'm so caught up in the length, variety, and quality of the factions available to join that virtually all of my characters are defined at least in part by which factions they join, and how they complete them. With Skyrim it's pretty hard to do that, or make each character different. If I want to be a warrior and a part of an organization I pretty much have to join the Companions, and then I have to become a Werewolf, and it's just all so drab and under-realized compared to even Oblivion, but especially compared to Morrowind.

And all in all I feel like the radiant quests are a little bit of a failure. Especially as to how they related to guilds - it's just not the same when there isn't at least a cursory back story to what's going on. And the Thieves Guild is the worst, their radiant quests boil down to 'Hey, we need you to steal an item that we've implanted a GPS chip in. Here are the coordinates, go pick it up and bring it back. Nah, I doubt anyone will catch you - so easy a caveman could do it, am I right guys?'

At least the Jarls bounty quests are okay, they give you a little note. It's just too bad the rewards aren't more substantial/varied and the people you're sent out after aren't a little bit more unique/varied too.

@The Flying Dutchman

OMG, is that Tuco the Rat on the gallows? Where'd you find that?

Exactly what I was going for. I do feel the Radiant stuff can be good though. The Companion's quests make great use out of Radiant story to fill out misc objectives, which if you were to put that in the context of the standard Fighter's Guild (Oblivion, Morrowind) would have been a match made in heaven. (Since almost all of those are Go here, and kill this, or Find this, and bring it back).

Radiant doesn't work so well on say... The Dark Brotherhood though. Which actually dodged a bullet in Skyrim by making the Radiant quests active only after completing the main story (Thus entirely optional). To elaborate, I just feel "Random NPCs" really undermines the idea of "Murder" as in taking another life. This is probably why I don't like Respawning Bandits/unamed humans too. They have no Identity, might as well be a wolf with armor.

Reward quality is a problem though. Gold is okay, but eventually it does become pointless. I'd rather see more Long-term rewards for Radiant questing, similar to what the Thieves guild does. Trophy Items, and improving the Guild. For example, doing a lot of Bounty Quests in say, Whiterun hold could improve (Slightly) the Merchants available gold, and they might carry rarer items more frequently, since the roads are being cleared. Then, as a coup de grace, after many bounty Missions, a Courier gives you a letter to meet the Captain of the Guard, who has a very important, and very difficult hand-drawn (Not radiant) bounty contract for a particularly nasty enemy. Stuff not "Normally" encountered in game (Unleveled, extremely hard). For example, Whiterun Hold: Armored Giant Warchief. (See; Torfang, Horror of Castle Xyr). Rift Hold: Comonna Tong Kingpin. (Orvas Dren, except lore doesn't state if the Neravarine killed him as of the events of Morrowind, similar to the fate of Vivec)

Oh well, no point in waxing on about missed opportunities.

There is only one thing, and only this one thing that I find even vaguely irritating - (and it is just a little niggle, really) - when Niamh comes to an area that's too steep, I would like to see a specific animation, rather than just the endless walk/run one.
That's it though, I'm into triple figures now and I seriously have not found one single other thing with it that even niggles.

Humblest apologies, but I love it.

The very short guilds.

The leveled loot.

Dialogue and storytelling.

NPC Reaction to whats happening in world

Level Scaling
Doesn't matter if it is for loot which is lame as hell. Enemies which creates awkward difficulty situations. Level scaling is just a cheap and a cop out mechanic.

Too simplified

Cant turn JUST the compass off .... It would be so incredibly easy for beth to give the option.

This. Why does everybody feel so entitled on this forum

essential npc's

Only one thing ? are you serious ?

Well,read my signature then and you will find my answer.

because this isn't a communist forum where you aren't alowed to share your opinions

Lack of depth in story, choices and dialogue. If it were anything like Dragon Age: Origins, I wouldn't be complaining.

(But I do love Skyrim anyway.)

Oh my god... there really are communist forums over there ?


Have you ever tried to fight an Elder Dragon without shield and naked ? (well,almost naked 'cause we have no genitals in Skyrim despite the Mature Rating and even worst the Dovakhin is forced to wear the same panties for ages )

But it is Bethesda's game and their design decisions are their own. It's strange that so many people think that they know game design better than actual developers with years of experience behind them.

Actually,human being is convinced by its "stupid" nature to be "better" at everything in relation to others it's not easy trying to be objective sometimes.

Speak for yourself.