I have a weird love-hate thing going with Skyrim.
It's undeniably compelling on some level and I still get the occasional urge to play it. Bethesda games do exploration like nobody else. I can wander around the map and reliably find interesting things to poke my nose in. Plus, sneaking around with a knife, a bow and a bunch of poisons can be fun.
On the other hand, it's janky as fuck. The writing is a joke. The animation is another joke with the stiff puppet motions robbing the game of the slightest sense of verisimilitude. Direct combat is a chore that boils down to chipping away at a procession of health bars while chugging the overly plentiful healing items. Stealth is just outright broken. Lastly, while there are a ton of interesting things to find in the world there is also a ton of cookie-cutter chaff. Seen one cave-o-draugr, seen 'em all.
The argument that mods fix the game is rubbish. They can improve the UI and that's about it. There's no non-shit combat mod and no non-shit animation mod. Just a whole lot of gear add-ons, inconsequential graphics fiddling and vaguely creepy waifu bait.
It's undeniably compelling on some level and I still get the occasional urge to play it. Bethesda games do exploration like nobody else. I can wander around the map and reliably find interesting things to poke my nose in. Plus, sneaking around with a knife, a bow and a bunch of poisons can be fun.
On the other hand, it's janky as fuck. The writing is a joke. The animation is another joke with the stiff puppet motions robbing the game of the slightest sense of verisimilitude. Direct combat is a chore that boils down to chipping away at a procession of health bars while chugging the overly plentiful healing items. Stealth is just outright broken. Lastly, while there are a ton of interesting things to find in the world there is also a ton of cookie-cutter chaff. Seen one cave-o-draugr, seen 'em all.
The argument that mods fix the game is rubbish. They can improve the UI and that's about it. There's no non-shit combat mod and no non-shit animation mod. Just a whole lot of gear add-ons, inconsequential graphics fiddling and vaguely creepy waifu bait.