Skyrim: I think it's overrated. Or am I totally missing the point?

[kurupt87]

PC. Mods.

Without them I wouldn't have liked it that much. With them, sweet bejeesus.

There are mods for almost anything. You can make it a gloriously detailed artistic wonder where you can explore and admire the crafted world. Or you make it an absolutely depraved porn game. Shit, you can make it a gloriously detailed and artistic, depraved porn game.

Go to the Skyrim Nexus and spend a day having a nose about.

 

[Qvar]

The fact that people are playing and talking about it years after it came out only proves that it's popular, which overrated games tend to be.

I don't think you understand the meaning of the word "overrated".

 

[RJ 17]

The problem with asking if a game is overrated or not is that you're basically just asking "Did you really like the game or not?" That's pretty much all it boils down to. If you really enjoyed the game, you're going to say "I wouldn't call it overrated, I had a lot of fun with it!" and if you didn't like the game you're going to say "Yeah, it's pretty overrated. I never really saw what all the hype was about."

The wording may be different, but the responses are going to boil down to one of those two answers. This is partially why I really don't believe in review scores and such, because they're just opinions like everyone else's opinions. The only difference between a game critic and a random jackass on the internet is that the critic is getting paid to express their opinion. Does that somehow mean their opinions are more valid than the random jackasses' opinions? Not really.

I bought the game when it first came out, I was completely engrossed with it for about a month, and then I never touched the game until the Dawnguard DLC came out. I picked that up, played through the questline once, then I was again done with the game completely. I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of the game but when I went to start my 2nd character after having done all the main stuff there is to do with my first character, I just kinda...stopped playing it. That said, I'd still say the game is worthy of the praise it gets because I personally enjoyed the game a whole lot. Just recently I've started playing it again, in fact.

So in the end, it just seems like Skyrim wasn't a game to match your tastes. Where you see hours of tedious and often repetitive tasks, others see hours of fun content and places to explore. Is the glass of water half empty or half full?

 

[YunakoTheWitch]

I actually didn't care for skyrim at all, I'm not being a jerk here, I have been playing since Daggerfall but I still believe the best was morrowind, second being oblivion, third being daggerfall, And skyrim I just don't enjoy. I find the world to be too small (please don't tell me its huge... theres just not enough change in the environment for me to enjoy) I did not like the new combat nor the cinematic finishers because I always end up attacking my followers with spells, I also do not enjoy the whole Theme of it. What I enjoyed most about morrowind was how Diverse it was, That's what kept me glued to it, here was an entire world before me, and it was great. Skyrim just didn't leave that impression on me, however I did recently buy Dragonborn DLC so hopefully that changes my opinion as did Shivering isles with oblivion (SI really really Made Oblivion)
oh how could I forget, the other massive upset for me was how the Dunmer looked in Skyrim, I was not happy about that at all.

 

[OpticalJunction]

skyrim is a great game, one of the only ones that I can pick up after years and find something completely new and different. I think it's underrated if anything.

 

[WeepingAngels]

The problem with asking if a game is overrated or not is that you're basically just asking "Did you really like the game or not?"

No, that's not what over-rated means. It means that the game didn't love up to the hype. Skyrim had the most hype of any game I can remember and there is no way that bugfest lived up to the hype.

 

[RJ 17]

The problem with asking if a game is overrated or not is that you're basically just asking "Did you really like the game or not?"

No, that's not what over-rated means. It means that the game didn't love up to the hype. Skyrim had the most hype of any game I can remember and there is no way that bugfest lived up to the hype.

Spoiler: I think The Dude can handle this one:

Who decides if it lives up to the hype? Do you decide if I think it lived up to the hype? Does Metacritic decide if you think it lives up to the hype? Or do you decide for yourself "This bugfest of a game wasn't anywhere near what it was hyped up to be!" while others have massive nerdgasms every time they hear the Skyrim theme song?

Is CoD overrated? Ask a CoD fan and they'll say "No! I'm looking forward to the next one!" Ask someone who's not a CoD fan and they'll say "Yeah, I don't see what's so great about it."

So what's it boil down to? *GASP!* If you like the game you'll say it's not overrated, if you don't like the game you'll say it is overrated. Just as I said in my previous post.

 

[Olas]

The fact that people are playing and talking about it years after it came out only proves that it's popular, which overrated games tend to be.

I don't think you understand the meaning of the word "overrated".

Umm... I'm pretty sure I do. Something that is given more credit and praise than it deserves. Please don't turn this into a lame semantic argument.

 

[WeepingAngels]

The problem with asking if a game is overrated or not is that you're basically just asking "Did you really like the game or not?"

No, that's not what over-rated means. It means that the game didn't love up to the hype. Skyrim had the most hype of any game I can remember and there is no way that bugfest lived up to the hype.

Spoiler: I think The Dude can handle this one:

Who decides if it lives up to the hype? Do you decide if I think it lived up to the hype? Does Metacritic decide if you think it lives up to the hype? Or do you decide for yourself "This bugfest of a game wasn't anywhere near what it was hyped up to be!" while others have massive nerdgasms every time they hear the Skyrim theme song?

Is CoD overrated? Ask a CoD fan and they'll say "No! I'm looking forward to the next one!" Ask someone who's not a CoD fan and they'll say "Yeah, I don't see what's so great about it."

So what's it boil down to? *GASP!* If you like the game you'll say it's not overrated, if you don't like the game you'll say it is overrated. Just as I said in my previous post.

Skyrim was being called the Game of the Year before it even came out. That amount of hype is just fuckin stupid and no way did the game live up to it. No game could live up to that level of hype.

On November 11, 2011 I popped it into my PS3 for the first time and after a 20 minute update, the game still looked ugly as shit and ran like shit, eventually getting to the point of being unplayable. This is not an opinion, it's a fact.

Finally getting to play it on PC, I found it to be a boring, colorless world and the quests to be inferior to those in Oblivion and Morrowind, also a fact.

So no, Skyrim did not live up to the hype and lets face it, the only reason people were excited for Skyrim was because of the poorly executed dragons.

 

[littlealicewhite]

You forgot to mention that the combat is actually terrible, you don't have to level up, and people forget who you are - even after you go through a traumatic ordeal and they invite you to sleep in their house overnight. LOL the combat is "tense" because melee combat is awful. I'm talking about the 360.
You're assuming that we don't have the same taste because I hate Skyrim, but I'll bet we like some of the same games. My taste is quite broad.

I'm old school. I could put up with broken aspects of a game if it was a decent game. The focus of Skyrim is not combat, nor is it the story, nor is it the interaction between you and NPCs. It's about getting lost in a huge world without linear restrictions...and I really believe that it's better served on PC. The keyboard and mouse would be infinitely better than a console controller. I wouldn't recommend Skyrim to anyone. I see the appeal of most games that are popular, but Skyrim actually makes me angry that it's so bad. And I've played my fair share of bad games.

As to the fish, fungi, and animal species, that's all wonderful. Seriously. I like games that offer a lot to interact with. But Skyrim makes me feel like I'm a spastic tank, with two diseased arms that can't hit their intended target. Even if there were 10 thousand things to interact with, I can't stand the way your character feels in that world. In 2013, there's no excuse for a game that actually needs mods to be decent. It's a very strong, polarized stance I'm taking, but there you go.
I'm like this with no other game, except Metal Gear Solid (which is way better than Skyrim, but I still hate it).

See, I disagree with you on the subject of combat and levelling. I feel like levelling is necessary. Yes, in Oblivion levelling was atrocious and counterproductive, but in Skyrim it feels like my character is becoming more proficient. And I don't have a hard time hitting things. In fact it feels ridiculously easy at times. (Though that might be because I tend to play magicians/archers and don't swing swords a lot.) I've played a good few games too, and I *enjoy* Skyrim more than most of them. More than Dragon's Dogma or Dragon Age, which are great on their own merits.

So, you don't like Skyrim. Okay. But just please respect the fact that I do, and that I *can* like for legitimate reasons.

 

[NiPah]

The fact that people are playing and talking about it years after it came out only proves that it's popular, which overrated games tend to be.

I don't think you understand the meaning of the word "overrated".

Umm... I'm pretty sure I do. Something that is given more credit and praise than it deserves. Please don't turn this into a lame semantic argument.

Well you have the definition down, now you'll just have to explain your argument better.
As the guy you quoted said, if it's still popular years after it came out wouldn't the initial ratings be correct then?
I will agree with you though, most games that are popular over several years garner the label "overrated" because more people come out of their holes to say so.
But the thing is, just because a lot of people say it's overrated doesn't mean it's overrated. Looking over the crap arguments most of the posters have used here to explain why Skyrim is bad puts IGN reviews to shame, lets just accept people have different opinions.
And that most people here are less credible then review sites handing out 9/10 reviews.
Because let's face it, they are.

 

[DoPo]

I don't get it at all. The Elder Scrolls games are just so bland.

Yeah, all of them, right?

Dead-eyed characters with awful writing and voice-acting

Yes - the acting of Morrowind and Daggerfall especially was like it wasn't there, I might say.

the lore pretty much entirely ripped off from Tolkein

If you say so - haven't really read Tolkien to be honest. Say, if I wanted to read some of it, which book of his has the giant mecha?

And the whole quest structure is essentially just 'pick one of these several linear series of quests which have no impact on one another'.

Yes - especially easy to observe in Morrowind.

esrever ni taht dias I ebyam ro

 

[RJ 17]

On November 11, 2011 I popped it into my PS3 for the first time and after a 20 minute update, the game still looked ugly as shit and ran like shit, eventually getting to the point of being unplayable. This is not an opinion, it's a fact.

True as that may be, what is an opinion is whether or not you liked the game despite these failings. There were plenty, like you, who said "screw this game" just as there were plenty of others who absolutely loved the game. There-in lies my point.

Finally getting to play it on PC, I found it to be a boring, colorless world and the quests to be inferior to those in Oblivion and Morrowind, also a fact.

Actually that one's your opinion, lets try to keep the two separate. The key-phrase that marks it as your opinion is "I found it to be".

So no, Skyrim did not live up to the hype

In your eyes, it certainly didn't, which goes back to my original point in my original post.

and lets face it, the only reason people were excited for Skyrim was because of the poorly executed dragons.

While that certainly was a major selling point, I'd imagine more people were excited for it simply because it was the next Elder Scrolls game.

 

[WeepingAngels]

On November 11, 2011 I popped it into my PS3 for the first time and after a 20 minute update, the game still looked ugly as shit and ran like shit, eventually getting to the point of being unplayable. This is not an opinion, it's a fact.

True as that may be, what is an opinion is whether or not you liked the game despite these failings. There were plenty, like you, who said "screw this game" just as there were plenty of others who absolutely loved the game. There-in lies my point.

Finally getting to play it on PC, I found it to be a boring, colorless world and the quests to be inferior to those in Oblivion and Morrowind, also a fact.

Actually that one's your opinion, lets try to keep the two separate. The key-phrase that marks it as your opinion is "I found it to be".

So no, Skyrim did not live up to the hype

In your eyes, it certainly didn't, which goes back to my original point in my original post.

and lets face it, the only reason people were excited for Skyrim was because of the poorly executed dragons.

While that certainly was a major selling point, I'd imagine more people were excited for it simply because it was the next Elder Scrolls game.

Fine, it is my opinion that Skyrim did not live up to the hype. In short, I think it was over-rated.

 

[likalaruku]

Any popular game outside of your preferred genres will FEEL overrated, as will any popular game you actually played & disliked. That's how I feel about Naruto & Psychonauts & Justin Bieber & Peggle. In the end, there is clearly SOMETHING to these IPs that make them shine in the spotlight with others.

 

[RJ 17]

Snip.

And that, my friend, brings us back to my point: asking "is the game overrated" is the same as asking "did you like the game"? It's purely an opinion-based question, and neither side will ever be able to prove the other is wrong. The question essentially has the same value as "Is chocolate cake overrated?"

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

I agree with everything you said and found the game boring and repetitive myself after a similar amount of time, and in retrospect was running on completionism for the latter half of my playing experience until a bug in the main quest put me out of my misery. However I still think it deserves its scores for being an excellent exploratory open-world game that was great fun and catered to a number of combat styles. I may have given it a 7 or 7.5 personally but considering what passes for a 7 most places, I can see it being a 9.

EDIT: PS3 btw. Can't speak for mods.

 

[Olas]

The fact that people are playing and talking about it years after it came out only proves that it's popular, which overrated games tend to be.

I don't think you understand the meaning of the word "overrated".

Umm... I'm pretty sure I do. Something that is given more credit and praise than it deserves. Please don't turn this into a lame semantic argument.

Well you have the definition down, now you'll just have to explain your argument better.
As the guy you quoted said, if it's still popular years after it came out wouldn't the initial ratings be correct then?

I didn't really think my "argument" needed much explanation. Saying that something can't be overrated because it's still popular seems like saying someone can't be overpayed because they're still wealthy.

If the 'rated' part of overrated strictly means reviews from professional critics then there's no, or very little connection between a game's current popularity and how overrated it is.

If the 'rated' part of overrated means the opinions of players and people in general then it's easier for a game to be overrated if it's popular, not harder.

It sounds to me like the initial post I was replying to was associating how high a game is rated with hype, and then supposing that if a game is overrated its hype would have worn off by now making it drop in popularity. However the OP is asking if Skyrim IS overrated, not if it WAS overrated!

 

[Kanova]

If you don't like it, you don't like it. Simple as that. There is no magical 'point' that will make you love it.

 

[Alarien]

To be short:

Yes, it's "overrated."

That said, it's still an absolutely FANTASTIC game.

The combat is bleh. The graphics need some serious mods to make high-end. The story is short.

However, the game is one thing that a lot of games miss: it's VERY, VERY organic. It, like a lot of other "good" sandbox games, allows you to just go out and have an adventure, whatever it ends up being. You are not funneled along. You can come upon a dungeon, get mauled by a pack of trolls, or have a Legendary dragon drop on your face. You can then have your insanely overpowered and aggressive uberhorse (Shadowmere) tank said legendary dragon while you kill a harmless deer for its pelt.

Skyrim is basically the game you make it, just like most Bethesda games. Personally, I was disappointed by Fallout 3 and found Oblivion to be outstanding only after I modded into Oblivion (Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul for the win). However, it's easily the best organic sandbox since Morrowind and, based on my personal interest in the locale and characters, exceeds that stellar game.

Is it overrated? Sure.

Is it still better than it's contemporaries? By a sound margin.