What made Skyrim so good?

[King Aragorn]

I think I'll drop a quote from a very good friend of mine on the game, since I agree with him completely on it:

"Hm. Skyrim. Where to begin? It's fun at first, no doubt. The new engine is pretty well designed. The magick system got a huge overhaul, and is now actually fun and easy to use. Smithing your own gear is a fun idea, and it had me digging in the mines for hours. However, the novelty of "OMGTESV" quickly fades, leaving behind quite a few problems. The majority of the quests are boring as hell. "Go here, kill/retrieve/destroy X, return for reward". There was not nearly enough done with werewolves, and being a vampire no longer has real consequences. There is no Fighter's Guild, no Mages Guild, and the Thieves Guild is pathetically easy, even if you're an orc clunking around in heavy armor. There's no attributes anymore, which means that every character starts the same. This means that anyone can do any number of jobs effectively. In short, it's oversimplified, and suffers for it. Morrowind was better, Oblivion was better. Great for the dude-bro crowd, though. That's why it sold so well."

So that's my answer as it why it wasn't amazing or...really any good.

I almost forgot about that, too. Most of the quests are really boring, there are a few great ones *Daedric Quests, DBH Assassinations are always fun*, but for most of the time it's fetch quests. And not the fun kind of way, like in Darksiders II, just...boring fetch quests.
And the radiant quests are the most worthless thing ever. They should have added more variety in it if they wanted it to be the main driving force behind ''playing the game forever''.

And oh, as for combat, Dishonored did it right, really, REALLY right. The combat was smooth, it was fun, and it encouraged using everything at your disposal and different strategies.

 

[Rickin10]

I always buy Bethesda games, because they seem to offer so many things I admire in games i.e. freedom, sense of progression in ability, customization, and of course huge fascinating worlds. But i'm always left feeling rather flat. Why? Well I can never get past how incredibly dull and uninteresting the characters are.

Whether it's the dry, robotic voice acting, hearing the same voice actor every 5th person I speak to, or the repetitive character models and their poor posture and animation, or the painfully earnest and uninspired dialogue, I never feel like I'm existing in a real world, talking to real people, and as a result feel that nothing that I do really matters.

As it was for Skyrim. I kept trying to play it, to invest in this beautiful world. Alas I could never care about it.

 

[endtherapture]

The fact that you can dump your murder victim in rivers:

 

[VoidWanderer]

It feels big and diverse...

But I got bored of it way too fast...

Stupid storylines...

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

What made it good was the hype created by any new release through clever marketing and obsessive fanboys/fangirls. You'll notice it didn't take long for threads of "Omg Skyrim Best game EVARR!!" to disappear from forums.

What makes it so good is well, nothing, because it isn't.

 

[Casual Shinji]

As a dungeon crawler it's great. The best times I had with Skyrim was when I was simply exploring a cave system, stealth-killing dudes with my bow and looting their shit.

As an actual RPG it was pretty flacid. No matter how gritty and rustic everything looked the world itself didn't feel alive at all. This was mainly due to the NPCs seemingly not being aware of the goings on in the world. The fact that I was the leader of the Dark Brotherhood, yet still treated like a damn novice when joining the Thieves Guild - these two factions having extremely close ties - was freaking ridiculous.

The quests didn't contain of much except "go there and do that, or don't". New Vegas had numerous quests where the objective changed part way through, or you could change your allegiance. None of that in Skyrim, which is another thing that was detriment to establishing a fleshed out setting.

The ability to level falls dead in its tracks the moment your prefered skills are at 100, because the game only awards you XP for performing actions, not killing enemies and finishing quests. This means the only way to continue leveling is by using skills that you don't want to, and are pathetically weak at since you never used them. Again the role playing element in this game shoots itself in the foot.

And the dragons really lose their shine and impact when they're dropping out of the sky like flies.

 

[CannibalCorpses]

I didn't really enjoy Skyrim and i'm quite a big fan of fantasy RPGs. The problem for me was the levelling system was too easy to abuse and too easy to get everything upto max level without really trying. The combat is pathetically simple and the crafting system is broken. The story wasn't bad and some of the level designs were great but shiny graphics and good story do not make a good game.

I don't look at the mantlepiece when i'm poking the fire!

 

[BreakdownBoy]

What I loved about Skyrim was the exploration, I have not played any other RPG that had the environments that Bethesda can create. Every cave was unique so exploring was made so much fun.

I have grown bored with the game, but that is to be expected whith a game with combat gameplay as a secondary feature. It is a RPG through and through. Only thing lacking was a solid story and better animations.

I would say that the game deserved all it's praise. One should never review a game after playing it more than once.

 

[blink]

The choices.

You could literally just go anywhere pretty much right from the start. It made it really easy to talk to your friends about it and I found it really interesting to find out what they did compared to all my dumb decisions. I enjoyed the fact that you could basically fuck everything up in a quest and it would (most of the time) act accordingly. I remember not listening to a quest and just read the requirements "BURN DOWN" so I went and burnt the place to the ground only to find out I was just meant to burn 2 or 3 huts. They didn't give me much money for that mission which made me pay more attention and become more immersed later on

I never finished the main quest or any of the sidequest sidelines but MY WORD did I have fun when I was playing it

 

[PeterMerkin69]

Skyrim wasn't good. In fact it was very, very bad. Subjectively and objectively. Objectively, because it was broken for so many people at release.

Subjectively, well, if you compare it to the closest obvious competitor, Fallout, you realize how few features it has, and how shallow its existing features are. There was nothing good or interesting about the writing or the dialogue--Fallout rocked its socks off. Fallout had two distinct combat systems. Fallout had great lore. Fallout offered multiple approaches to completing quests. Fallout was Fallout, the game Skyrim wanted to be when it grew up before it discovered boys and teen pregnancy and a job as a McDonald's cashier.

Skyrim had bad graphics(the world geometry was out of scale with the player, and even old, weathered matte wood was lousy with... hot spots from light reflecting off of them. Bwuh?), atrocious character models, boring, tedious, vapid gameplay, monotonous dungeon design, shallow dialogue, very, very few actual choices to make, puzzles for which the answers were literally written on the walls above them, vacuous companions, a fantasy story as generic as all get out... *shudder*

I've only traded in one game in my twenty three years as a video gamer, and it was Skyrim.

 

[nignonymous]

Porn mods.

I would not play Skyrim nearly as much as I do if it weren't for the porn.

 

[Two Bears]

What I would like to see is a return of meaningful consequences like we saw in Morrowind and, more recently, New Vegas. I should not be able to have my vampire Listener don his Shrouded Armor, ride up to Whiterun on the back of his demon horse, walk into the city with impunity, head to Jorrvaskr and apply for a job with the Companions. You should have to choose, and those choices should close off certain paths while opening others. Completionists won't be happy, but this is a role playing game; we have to play a role.

Why do you have to have the game slap you on the hand and say no? Tell yourself no. Also in Morrowind you could still join all of the factions. I mean come on, I barely even roleplay but I still don't let my Listener join the companions.

Because life has consequences. For example, in New Vegas, siding with faction A makes faction B shoot you on sight, causes faction C to stop talking to you and forces you to eliminate faction D entirely. It makes sense, makes the world feel alive and contributes to the suspension of disbelief, if you're into that.

Not exactly true about Morrowind. Vampirism, for example, resticts your options to having to kill Vivec or forgo the main quest entirely. Decisions have consequences. Hand slapping has nothing to do with it.

 

[KingDragonlord]

This was the first game I played in ten years and it made me a gamer again. I can't really compare it to everything out there and certainly couldn't when it first came out, but the game just has a ton of everything. Its a great big living breathing world. Oblivion was big too (I went back and played it after Skyrim) but in Oblivion the wide open landscape was sorely lacking in variation making travel nothing but a chore.

I'll just have to take your word that Morrowind was better, but honestly I suspect that most of the people who played Skyrim have not played Morrowind. I guess if it is better, then I can see why you aren't impressed with Skyrim. Oh well.

If what you want is a great set of game mechanics, I agree Skyrim falls short there but plenty of gamers enjoy other aspects of games, from narrative to exploration and Skyrim pays off the exploration angle in spades. It fact, if you read books on game markets, the market for exploration in games is much greater than the market for shooters. So what we have is a case of a somewhat starved gamer demographic suddenly getting a feast. Almost an all you can eat buffet.

I'm not interested in killing stuff or being better than other gamers. I want a rich world to devour and Skyrim delivers, as far as I can tell, better than any game out there.

 

[KingDragonlord]

What I would like to see is a return of meaningful consequences like we saw in Morrowind and, more recently, New Vegas. I should not be able to have my vampire Listener don his Shrouded Armor, ride up to Whiterun on the back of his demon horse, walk into the city with impunity, head to Jorrvaskr and apply for a job with the Companions. You should have to choose, and those choices should close off certain paths while opening others. Completionists won't be happy, but this is a role playing game; we have to play a role.

Why do you have to have the game slap you on the hand and say no? Tell yourself no. Also in Morrowind you could still join all of the factions. I mean come on, I barely even roleplay but I still don't let my Listener join the companions.

Because life has consequences. For example, in New Vegas, siding with faction A makes faction B shoot you on sight, causes faction C to stop talking to you and forces you to eliminate faction D entirely. It makes sense, makes the world feel alive and contributes to the suspension of disbelief, if you're into that.

Not exactly true about Morrowind. Vampirism, for example, resticts your options to having to kill Vivec or forgo the main quest entirely. Decisions have consequences. Hand slapping has nothing to do with it.

Why would the Companions turn away the Listener? They aren't the good guys. They're a bunch of mercenaries with some literal monsters in their ranks.

Both groups kill for money, both groups treat their members like family, both groups have standards and they're both neutral in the world's larger conflicts. The Companions actually endorse undergoing a blood ritual to become a werewolf and then get into a long blood feud with werewolf hunters. These are not nice people. The real good guys are the leaders of the Imperials and Ulfric Stormcloak. Both are actually fighting for good causes. Also, the Blades and the Elders.

And your choices there do have consequences. If you choose Imperials or Stormcloaks, the other side becomes your enemy, the Thalmor see more open opposition from Stormcloaks (if you win the war for the Stormcloaks, they'll actually help you when you attack Thalmor in town). You're also forced to choose between the Blades and the Elders. Neither side will attack you because you're the Dragonborn and than still counts but they'll no longer aid you if you side with their opposite number.

 

[Two Bears]

Why would the Companions turn away the Listener? They aren't the good guys. They're a bunch of mercenaries with some literal monsters in their ranks

Both groups kill for money, both groups treat their members like family, both groups have standards and they're both neutral in the world's larger conflicts. The Companions actually endorse undergoing a blood ritual to become a werewolf and then get into a long blood feud with werewolf hunters. These are not nice people. The real good guys are the leaders of the Imperials and Ulfric Stormcloak. Both are actually fighting for good causes. Also, the Blades and the Elders.

Companions favor honor; a straight-up fight. Kodlak even goes to admonish the sneaky-stabby types as dishonorable individuals that cannot compete. Furthermore, the Companions are a legal organization. Both the Dark Brotherhood and Theives Guild are illegal by nature, but even that doesn't matter. I can walk around in their armor and nothing happens. "Hey guys, I'm just here to murder some people and steal some stuff, but I'll be around later to join your guild of honor. Maybe talk the jarl. It's cool if I get real close to him right? Don't let the outfit put your off, nor the fact that people end up face down in the gutter and stuff goes missing when I'm around put you off; I'm totally legit."

And your choices there do have consequences. If you choose Imperials or Stormcloaks, the other side becomes your enemy, the Thalmor see more open opposition from Stormcloaks (if you win the war for the Stormcloaks, they'll actually help you when you attack Thalmor in town). You're also forced to choose between the Blades and the Elders. Neither side will attack you because you're the Dragonborn and than still counts but they'll no longer aid you if you side with their opposite number.

There's another great example of what is wrong. I can don my legion armor and stroll the streets of Windhelm with impunity. It is evidently practice to let enemy soldiers hang out in the opposing faction's capital. The Greybeards and Blades also is pretty lame. I can walk away without making a choice, and if I do make a choice, the game world remains unchanged. Two guilds with zero influence are vying for the support of a guy who evidently has even less influence. All that changes is what meaningless ability I can use. Not exactly a role playing experience, is it?

 

[OpticalJunction]

It's the sequel to oblivion, and is a huge open world game with impressive graphics. Gameplay is decent. Unfortunately it gets boring rather quickly.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

Now, before someone goes ahead and says ''Another one of X thread talking about popular AAA title...'' I do not hate Skyrim. I like Skyrim, it's a good game, but am I the only one that finds it overrated?
The game has many glaring issues. From horrible clunky combat, tons of bugs, lack of impact and choices on the world *I give a Stormcloak city to the Empire...what I get are different colored guards. Even bloody Talos statues are still around*.
The game also suffers from pretty bad characters and storyline. But even then, I still enjoy it. The world they crafted is pretty awesome, and I enjoyed the new UI, and also the new organic skill system. Also, the dungeons were a much needed improvement over Oblivion, even if they still are a bit repetitive at times.

So, I ask, what do people enjoy so much about Skyrim? what makes it so good to deserve those 9's and 10's?

I think it just released in the perfect time. People were growing tired of the FPS, Call of Duty, Battlefield, what have you dominating the gaming in every sense. Out came Skyrim, something so radically different. A game where you could go in any direction, fight with bow and swords, removed (most) of the problems that have plagued it's own series. Oblivion had came out five years earlier, and there were just so many problems with it ("Stop there criminal scum!"), it was the perfect time to make a high fantasy sandbox for people to play in.

 

[RedDeadFred]

Awesome exploration in an incredible world.
Roleplaying
Best combat of TES series (not saying much but it's actually pretty good IMO)
Some really great quests and quest lines (The Staff of Magnus was one of my favourite quests ever)
Mods to increase its already insane replay value