Poll: Which TES game hit the sweet spot?

joshuaayt

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Nov 15, 2009
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Love me some Morrowind.

Yeah, showing its age by now, of course- but there's something about a world that, after YEARS of exploration, I still haven't seen all of.

I've finished Oblivion and Skyrim- I mean, FINISHED. Nothing else I want to do, and I likely won't play them again. I loved every minute, but I can say they're done.

I've spent more time than both of them together in Morrowind, and I'm STILL regularly rolling a new mage- or maybe a thief this time- and exploring. I find something new every run; even though I know it'll be in the Wiki, I still feel like it was *my* discovery.
 

Signa

Noisy Lurker
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Jul 16, 2008
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Sweet spot between a good world, accessibility, story, and enjoyability? None of them. Each has one so far out of balance that I can't even nominate my favorite of the series. Morrowind hits 3 of the 4 really well, but damn that accessibility. The game was made for the FPS/Tabletop crowd (which I fall into :) ).
 

aozgolo

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Mar 15, 2011
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I want to say Morrowind, I so badly want to say that, every time I gush about the Elder Scrolls, Morrowind comes pouring out, I talk on and on and on about what great things it had that the other games lost, the features that redeemed it, the world, the story, the dialogue, the factions...

Then I play the damn thing and betray every one of my words by quickly boring myself to death to the point of constantly daydreaming about Skyrim has this, Skyrim has that.

So to be honest with myself and others, Skyrim IS the sweet spot. There's a lot of things I miss about Morrowind, but even a heavily modded Morrowind is still... Morrowind, which isn't entirely a bad thing but I have to be honest with myself and say that the game has not aged gracefully at all despite still being a treasure, it lacks that timeless quality to keep it alive even for someone such as myself who considers himself a diehard TES gamer.
 
Dec 10, 2012
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It's weird...The first time I played Oblivion, I didn't really like it that much. It was pretty cool to have so many options in such a large open world, but the combat mechanics were lacking, the sandbox of Cyrodiil was repetitive, and the presentation of the game was just godawful. Seriously, hire more than 4 voice actors. I did play it for many hours, but it rarely gave me a great deal of enjoyment all at once. It was more like a kinda fun experience that took a while to really get boring.

Skyrim is awesome, and despite having a very shallow world without consequences, once you get down to it, is presented much better, is more varied, and has combat that feels better enough to be reasonable. I spent a lot of time in Skyrim, and had a blast for the most part, but once I tried all the skills once, I got rather tired of making the same 3 character archetypes and exploring dungeons that all felt the same.

So the weird part is, years after playing both these games for dozens or hundreds of hours, the one I think about replaying more often is Oblivion. I shouldn't like it more, and I don't like it more, but somehow I feel like I would get more enjoyment out of playing it.

So, this is not much of an answer to the thread.
 

Cerebrawl

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Feb 19, 2014
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None of them.

Skyrim is probably the closest, but I miss some of the lost complexity, and the world isn't as interesting as Morrowind(far better than Oblivion though).

Morrowind was a masterpiece... for its time. It's aged, and I'm not just talking graphics here.

Skyrim felt the most like a living breathing world, while Morrowind had the best scenery, and the best quests. But the NPCs were dull and lifeless. Oh and Morrowind combat was a broken exploitable mess, all three games have exploitable crafting, but less for each iteration, Oblivion slightly less broken, Skyrim almost not broken.

Oblivion is the middle ground that is neither as lifelike as Skyrim, or as fantastic as Morrowind, it's just generic, oh and the bloom! Bloom bloom bloom! It looks plastic. Oh and the levelup system is still the same old broken one from Morrowind, thank goodness for mods right. At least Skyrim got rid of that, when it got rid of most of the complexity, and at least the skill-tree system makes up for some of it.

None of them have really nailed combat. Morrowind was a step up from Daggerfall and it's abomination of a spin-off that is Battlespire. (I actually bought that full price back in the day, felt so ripped off). But it hasn't made much progress since Morrowind, even in Skyrim it's still floaty and awkward. They need to have a look at other titles that did first person combat well, like Might & Magic: Dark Messiah.

What I really want is a gritty, believable and immersive world, good quests, good combat, and for it to be a really big sandbox... I'm hoping Witcher 3 will deliver.

I miss the golden days of Gothic 1&2(heck I'd rather play Gothic 3 again than Oblivion). Shame neither the Risen games nor Arcania ("Gothic" 4) really delivered.
 

Ihateregistering1

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Mar 30, 2011
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Skyrim definitely, I don't play TES games for their plotlines, I play them for the sheer content and 'wander around and have fun exploring' factor. Skyrim got rid of the terrible 'conversation pie' and I loved the Norse/Viking setting.

If we're being 100% honest though, I don't really care that much about any TES games until the mods start coming out.
 

Tanis

The Last Albino
Aug 30, 2010
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It depends on the mods.

While I love TES game, I just don't like the vanilla.
Without the community, they're kind dull.
 

The Random Critic

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Jul 2, 2011
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They are all pretty different so... none of them

Daggerfall is pretty big, really big, huge. And it's very challenging, everything wise

Morrowind is eh... Morrowind

Oblivion, while banal as it is, has some really good mod. And since Beth basically mess up their own lore/game-play integration after this point I feel I can install some really really ridiculous shit.

Skyrim seems to be a mix between Oblivion and Morrowind, though I wish they should've just went one way, but heh. Game needs to sell to make money

Personally I really think the Elder Scrolls combat is fine the way it is (or was fine the way it is, depending on my nostalgia), what they really need after this point onward is for their world to make more sense (in other word: learn from some of their own modders). This game will never be like Gothic, or Dark Souls, in terms of combat related challenges. But it does very well at what it already does.
 

duwenbasden

King of the Celery people
Jan 18, 2012
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(I've only played TES4/5/O-beta)
>a good world
All three have good worlds.

>accessibility
4: It's on Steam.
5: It's on Steam.
O: not for $15/month, period.

>enjoyability
4/5 with mods: Maybe I need to overhaul the combat on Oblivion a little more, but currently it is a game of rock'em sock'em robots on every enemy in TES4 (why do I need to swing 30 times to kill a giant rat?). At least on 5 it is a little more fluid.
O: see below
TES without mods: I rather eat a raw paper basket than play without mods.

Verdict: Skyrim on PC. If you gift me the console version I'll sell it and get it for PC.
 

Liberaliter

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Sep 17, 2008
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If I was recommending an Elder Scrolls game to a new player, I'd probably say Skyrim due to how it stands in the middle ground of complexity and simplicity, with Morrowind at the former end and Oblivion at the latter. But the one that hit the sweet spot for me is definitely Morrowind, it may seem a bit old and janky now, but with the overhaul mod the graphics can look as good as Skyrim's and better than Oblivion's, Morrowind is also fleshed out the best, with a complex plot and in depth mechanics/stats.

I hope the next ES game keeps moving back to Morrowind level complexity. Skyrim was nice, but I feel like they can go further in offering a more realised and meaningful world like Morrowind did.