The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Review

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Dott

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ZeppMan217 said:
But the question is - will Yahtzee review it?
If so, the first thing he will nag about will be the mouse controls.
Sensitivity is fucked beyond measure.
 

Pat8u

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ReiverCorrupter said:
I say old chap said:
Steve Butts said:
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Review

Bethesda's latest is a true RPG epic that asks you what you want and then gives it to you.

Read Full Article
So Steve, you were caught in a battle against two sides, wizards dug-into defences and a dragon, and you survived? I thought as much. This game is pretty to be sure, a great solo fantasy adventure, but it sounds way to easy--none can beat your Mary Sue!

I also really don't like that you can get good at everything over time. So your warrior can also be an arch-mage? And a sneaky thief, and a potion-brewer? This is starting to get a bit ridiculous here, verisimilitude shattered. I knew it wouldn't put any restrictions into place, wouldn't want to risk people being offended or having different types of characters, because by the end of the game, we are all going to pretty much be the same--save cosmetic differences. We will all be warrior-mages-stealth-masters and potion-brewers.

Ptah!
This is a common but misguided complaint. There is an ultimate level cap, which means that you can only unlock a limited amount of perks and only have a limited amount of magic, health or stamina because you can only choose to increase one perk and one stat each each time you level up. Thus once you hit the level cap you're stuck with the stats and perks you have, though you can still level up your skills. That means that if you haven't increased your magic much when you hit the cap, you'll never be able to cast the highest level spells no matter how high your skill in magic gets, nor will you be able to unlock the perks that makes certain techniques like fire or ice more cost effective. Or alternatively, if you focus solely on magic before you hit the level cap then your character will always be vulnerable, no matter how much you increase your melee combat skills. Even if you reach 100 with swords you still won't have the powerful finishing moves unlocked by the perks. Or even worse, you won't be able to unlock the perk that decreases the amount of fatigue when you swing your sword, which, when combined with the fact that you haven't increased your stamina or strength and endurance, will keep your character from being effective with swords, even if the skill level is 100.

Also, if it's anything like Oblivion you should be able to scale the difficulty from the menu. Plus, while most creatures are leveled to you, there are bound to be many enemies and areas that will kill low level players.
yea a tip for everyone beware of ice trolls they are very hard for a low-level theif
 

Bravo 21

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well, the one thing I want to know is if they have done something about the way that damage from weapons works, because it just doesn't make sense to be chased by one guy, over several kilometers, when he has 20 something arrows sticking out of his chest. just a little bit of a game breaker for me, although that was oblivion, and this is SKYRIM!
 

walrusaurus

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I Have No Idea said:
Is it wrong that when I saw the review, the first thing I thought was "Thank God, those damn Skyrim threads will FINALLY STOP." ?
lol you are sadly mistaken my friend. It'll get worse before it gets better. Its always darkest before the dawn. You gotta shit before you can get off the pot.
 

Jumwa

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Jun 21, 2010
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ReiverCorrupter said:
No, you didn't get what I was saying.
You're right, sorry about that.

I've apparently just heard the "I can make the game easy if I want to, so therefore it sucks!" complaint too many times.

Also, it took me absurdly long to respond to this because Skyrim has claimed my soul and shoved it in a gem.
 

WaysideMaze

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Apr 25, 2010
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fanklok said:
WaysideMaze said:
The idea of getting lost in the game actually appeals to me. One of the things that I liked about Morrowind.
I remember getting lost in Morrowind too, if only for the direction people gave.

"So I have to go west for about a mile turn right at the rock formation then keep going till I find a tree that looks kind of like your aunt and go south till I find the fork in the road." Then you get hopelessly lost stumble on an ancestral tomb and go looting.
I have memories like that aswell. That game was such fun!
 

Klagermeister

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Cleril said:
The only reasons Dragons didn't exist in Morrowind or Cyrodil (oblivion) is because of cliffracers. Morrowind in fact has so many cliffracers because of them exterminating the dragons. Of course the Dark Elf Juib led the cliffracers out of Morrowind and either he did so in Cyrodil too or they just had another person clean them out.

Skyrim has no cliffracers, therefore dragons. As to why they start showing up again, well, you're dragonborne, and due to game spoilers I can't say much else.

Basically think of it like a competition as to why they have returned. At least, that's what I've learned for now.
My theory:
Skyrim is the first province of Tamriel occupied by humanoids, right? So the dragons saw fit to begin the extermination of humans at the very heart of their beginning. Having been around so long, the humanoids here have lived long past due.

I mean, it's a simple theory, but if you ask me, it works. Plus, Alduin is said to create and destroy all of Nirn from the Throat of the World (The biggest mountain in- you guessed it- Skyrim). Therefore, it only seems fitting that he destroy everything immediately adjacent his place of- how would I put this- coming to existence?
 

Withard

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Feb 4, 2010
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Welcome to Skyrim....sorry....Sky Rum

We have 780180472592 lines of dialogue more than Fallout 3!!!

Sadly delivered by 4 people. Seriously its been a few towns now and the same bloody voices. For a company thats all about immersion they know how to completely shatter that dont they and alongside having TERRIBLE animation on character and those bloody awful shaking shadows as the day goes on.

Surely someone in development when "Hey...those shadows are a bit annoying", "lol what? your playing the game we make?"

And one thing thats bugging the absolute balls off me is....No quick spell like Oblivion. I have to put all weapons away...cast spell....get weapons back out. Tedious and mind numbingly boring. You find yourself playing on Very Easy so you have to do this less.

GODDAMN BETHESDA TEST YOUR FUN FACTOR PLEASE!!!
 

KillerRabbit

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Jan 3, 2009
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Skyweir said:
See, I really want to like these games...but I just can't get through the fact that there is no story or world that feels alive. Oblivion had that problem in spades, and it looks like Skyrim has it too.

Your character is completely detached from the world, and seeing as you know very little about the world before the game begins, there is no sense of history or personality to it. You don't care about any of the characters, for they are mostly cardboard cut outs.

What is the point of being able to do anything, if nothing really matters? Sure, you can kill nearly anyone, but why would you want or need to? They have no real impact on you character, and you know nothing about them, they do not feel like real people.
The games of Bethesda allows you to do anything you want by removing anything that might make choices meaningful. Your character can be anyone, but who he is does not matter so it is irrelevant. Story, world and gameplay is completely seperate.
Are you serious? The Elder Scrolls series has more depth than 99% of other games out there, and the characted detached from the game world? Compared to again whatever other game, the character is very far from that. But again I assume you really don't know what you are talking about here so I will just walk away slowly now instead.
 

Andy of Comix Inc

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KillerRabbit said:
Skyweir said:
See, I really want to like these games...but I just can't get through the fact that there is no story or world that feels alive. Oblivion had that problem in spades, and it looks like Skyrim has it too.

Your character is completely detached from the world, and seeing as you know very little about the world before the game begins, there is no sense of history or personality to it. You don't care about any of the characters, for they are mostly cardboard cut outs.

What is the point of being able to do anything, if nothing really matters? Sure, you can kill nearly anyone, but why would you want or need to? They have no real impact on you character, and you know nothing about them, they do not feel like real people.
The games of Bethesda allows you to do anything you want by removing anything that might make choices meaningful. Your character can be anyone, but who he is does not matter so it is irrelevant. Story, world and gameplay is completely seperate.
Are you serious? The Elder Scrolls series has more depth than 99% of other games out there, and the characted detached from the game world? Compared to again whatever other game, the character is very far from that. But again I assume you really don't know what you are talking about here so I will just walk away slowly now instead.
I completely agree with this above poster. Saying that it has more depth than 99% of other games out there is all well and good, but it's what Elder Scrolls shares that 1% with that makes it feel an inferior experience, even compared to its previous incarnations. For example, everything Skyweir has raised is fixed in other hybrid open-world RPGs like S.T.A.L.K.E.R., and The Witcher 2...

My problem is that, despite being crammed with limitless content, choices... there's very little relevancy for doing any of it. To quote our Yahtzee, "I can, but why would I want to". This is combined with the fact that the world tends to lack any grit; it's all very just there, the characters that populate it feeling like they could populate just about any other relevant world and they'd be write at home. Both Oblivion and Skyrim are "deep without being deep", they're accessible to the layman but not inaccessible to hardcore RPG enthusiasts. But once you start saying it's the "deepest, most immersive RPG ever made" it starts to share space with true PC RPGs. The Witcher series, the STALKER series, games like the original Deus Ex. They have found a true home on RPG, and recent Elder Scrolls games, that focus on working on both console and PC, frankly, have no right slotting in there alongside. They may be deeper than whatever passes for "average" nowadays, but that does not make them truly masterpieces that can go toe to toe with ACTUALLY deep, expansive, PC-exclusive RPGs.

Alas, I truly think its inherent popularity lies in that the "average" experience is so dull and scripted that anything that comes along offering captivating fantasy open-worlds presented in a non-linear fashion feels like a step up, but strip away the hype, the paint and the fanbase and you've got a slightly middling deep-ish experience that has been matched and frequently surpassed by on countless occasions from whatever it wants to consider its "peers".
 

Talux

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Apr 9, 2008
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I've played about 15 or 20 hours of it so far.

It's obviously a Bethesda game, which is both good and bad. You kind of have freedom of choice but it's a very certain kind. You can choose from a really good variety of races, customise the hell out of your particular character and give them a name. Afterwards you can completely nail down how you want your character to fight, what gear they have and the way in which you want to explore the world. The crafting system is pretty nice, too.

The world is believable now, too. As in cities and towns are dotted about with farmland, water mills and little villages around them in a way the makes sense, instead of being like fallout 3 where was random garbage just thrown about everywhere.

But it's only a role playing game in the sense that you choose how to fight stuff. You don't get to make many choices with regards to the quests, the quest text itself is often just one or two lines and your character is basically a cardboard cutout to project on. I also never felt like I was really impacting the world at all. I'd finish this big quest and nothing would change, people would just wander around the same way and everything would look the same, as if nothing had ever occurred.

A lot of the NPC's just felt... I don't know, empty, like in a lot of Bethesda games. It's just a series of sights to see but doesn't have an impact in the same way as say the Witcher or Dragon Age 1 did.

It's a good game, don't get me wrong, but it has a lot of the same problems as Oblivion and Morrowind.
 

Norix596

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Nov 2, 2010
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Doesn't really seem like my cup of tea - I think it's neat how the styles and skills you use the most are automatically leveled. But I think it's possible for a game to simply be too big and open.
 

sinn3r

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Apr 23, 2011
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Deviate said:
I just wonder, with all the dragons in the game, will a sneaky archer still be viable, or will it be gimped in such fights?
So far i am playing a wood elf sneaky archer and dragon fights pretty much suck.

"Lucky" the Base Stats got streamlined and i got everything i wanted to unlock for the archer/dagger/sneaky/pickpocketing build and now throw all my points into magic and destruction.

Maybe that'll make the dragon fights more fun or else i have to restart as heavy armor 2h warrior.

We'll see, untill then i avoid dragons as much as i can.
 

Brawndo

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Skyweir said:
See, I really want to like these games...but I just can't get through the fact that there is no story or world that feels alive. Oblivion had that problem in spades, and it looks like Skyrim has it too.

Your character is completely detached from the world, and seeing as you know very little about the world before the game begins, there is no sense of history or personality to it. You don't care about any of the characters, for they are mostly cardboard cut outs.

What is the point of being able to do anything, if nothing really matters? Sure, you can kill nearly anyone, but why would you want or need to? They have no real impact on you character, and you know nothing about them, they do not feel like real people.
The games of Bethesda allows you to do anything you want by removing anything that might make choices meaningful. Your character can be anyone, but who he is does not matter so it is irrelevant. Story, world and gameplay is completely seperate.
I share your sentiment 100%. If only the spell casting, exploration, and character building wasn't so addictive.
 

Shavon513

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Apr 5, 2010
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Escapist gave DA2 five stars? There is a reason why I love this site so much! A site that rates Skyrim and DA2 the same way has good taste indeed :)