official The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

[neoadorable]

Bland voice acting? Too harsh. Ian McKellan and Max Von Sydow, come on!

[Skyfrog]

the open world only makes things worse imo because there's so much empty exploration for nothing especially when the game itself is very linear story wise.  Oh look its a random bear zzzzzzzzzzzzz.

 

I think that is the first time I've ever heard anyone complain about a game having a large open world to explore. Sounds like this isn't your style of game.

 

 

[ensiform]

I think that is the first time I've ever heard anyone complain about a game having a large open world to explore. Sounds like this isn't your style of game.

Pretty much that.  I'd rather be doing other things than waste hours roaming grinding it out more than necessary.  I fast traveled as much as possible and disabled encumbrance.  The game's combat okay which is why I played it.

 

Yes the voice acting in every single Bethesda game is extremely terrible.  Despite who the actors themselves are, its all monotone.  And they have the same like 10 people in every town which I notice immediately and find quite annoying.  Or things like the same 10 lines from each guard's voice.  Doesn't give the NPCs any personality what-so-ever or characters to actually have a feel for.  This kills the immersion factor for me.  Perhaps I am too spoiled by Mass Effect series but still.

[neoadorable]

Pretty much that.  I'd rather be doing other things than waste hours roaming grinding it out more than necessary.  I fast traveled as much as possible and disabled encumbrance.  The game's combat okay which is why I played it.

 

Yes the voice acting in every single Bethesda game is extremely terrible.  Despite who the actors themselves are, its all monotone.  And they have the same like 10 people in every town which I notice immediately and find quite annoying.  Or things like the same 10 lines from each guard's voice.  Doesn't give the NPCs any personality what-so-ever or characters to actually have a feel for.  This kills the immersion factor for me.  Perhaps I am too spoiled by Mass Effect series but still.

 

It is part of the quirky charm of their games, the Arnold-sounding guards were especially obvious. And yes, the cast is quite limited. You either accept it as part of the world or not, much like the magically appearing brooms and oddly prevelant buckets.

[Shadrack]

I found the voice acting to be on par with other games in the genera.  Not outstanding, but not the worst in a game ever.  I've actually disabled the voices and just read the subtitles now because, yes, after the hundreds of hours I've put into the "10 voice actors" have become annoying.

 

If it were not for all the mods available that really expand the game (perk systems, spells, abilities, even whole new towns) and the quest content in the game I doubt it would still keep my interest.  The mod authors keep the game worth playing for me.

[+Red King Subscriber²]

Here is what I have to say about this game after 80 hours,

 

TLDR,

Gets repetitive quickly.
I simply stopped playing out of disappointment.
Lacks depth of DA / LOTR / Witcher game.
Immersion breakers: all locks are the same lock, cognitive dissonance, 'big' battles pretending to be big due to engine limitations
Dragon fights are disappointing.

You will get 50-80 hours out of it.

 

Review / Comments on the game,

 

Lock picking gets boring quickly.
It is the same lock and the same mini-game over and over again.
I must emphasize that it IS the SAME lock each time.
It doesn't matter what the door's looks like - the mini-game always shows the same lock.
There is no unlock spell or ability to force a door open or bash in a chest's lock.
Tedious!

 

Skyrim's engine is horrible. There are no big fights in Skyrim - the engine can't handle it.
When you participate in the civil war quests, you will realize this.
You will never see an army, just a dozen men or so - and the dead bodies disappear.
Clinging on to technology from 2004, such as DX9 and 32-bit, explains a lot.
Bethesda is living in the past causing performance and graphic quality to suffer.
Devastating immersion breaker.

 

Cognitive dissonance. There is no connection between quests and prestige.
I had to kill a wraith after completing the main quest and becoming archmage to start the civil war quests.
I was given a bad armor even though I was clearly wearing a better armor.
There seems to be no "This khajiit looks strong, let?s avoid mindlessly get our heads caved in with her axe"

 

I just stopped playing. There is no ending.
There is no aging. There is no legacy.
The only winning move is not to play.

Was it really that hard for Bethesda to come up with an ending where my character settles down and dies? Or something? As far as I could tell, no.

 

Dragon battles lack the epic factor. Force/Wait for dragon to land, bash head, repeat.

Everything is leveled and so are quests.
This pretty much results in quest rewards being hyped up to the max followed by a letdown reward.
Static items and static leveling would have given Skyrim a lot more.
Because in the end I want to be insanely powerful (like in Morrowind where, in the end, Vivec could not hurt me).
Morrowind / Gothic II style leveling systems are so much more rewarding.
Getting best gear should be a "where" issue not "at what level"
whereas battles should be "can I kill this enemy at my level?" not "I can kill everything! Yay!"

 

Stop with the "Arrow to the knee thing", the real meme is "You are a prisoner, now you are free and you are the chosen".
Bethesda apparently cannot come up with anything else.

This is not a mature game. I am not its target audience, I am too old now (mid twenties).
Witcher 2, on the other hand, is a mature game.
It does a lot right which Skyrim fails miserably such as engaging storytelling, multidimensional characters, sex and romance, ending, and cut scenes.

Bethesda is driving themselves in a corner with having the player choose a character.
Because Elder Scroll games cannot reference events from one another realistically.
"Unknown hero stopped Dagoth Ur", "Unkown hero closed gates to Oblivion"...

 

Also Shouts are simply more annoying to 'cast' magic spells.

[Shadrack]

--x-snip-x--

 

You will get 50-80 hours out of it.

 

--x-snip-x--

 

Damn.  As bad of a review as you push forward, this alone should make the game an insta-buy for most gamers.  Vast majority of AAA titles give me 12 - 20 hours of gameplay.

 

I agree that the "end game" really falls apart though.  Everyone I've talked to that have invested much in the game have complained about this.  The game feels really immersive and magical in the early levels of the game, but Bethesda could have done a better job at making some kind of an "end game" worth playing. 

 

What bugs me the most about Skyrim is that there really are no factional relations stats of any kind.  Your actions should lead to someone somewhere being ###### off at you and not wanting to help you.  All the quest lines are very linear and few have decisions that lead to consequences larger than the outcome of the specific quest you are working on.  Nobody in the world of Skyrim seems to give a flying #### that you are carrying around a countless number of "evil" Daedra artifacts that you no doubt had to do something slimy to get your hands on (for example). 

 

 

I could pick Skyrim apart bit-by-bit just as you have done here.  My friends and I have sat down and all had this discussion years ago when the game first came out (yes, I'm kinda poking you for a late review of the game).  Despite that though, we have all come to the conclusion that it was a great game that was filled with many hours of enjoyment.

 

A lot (but not all) of my issues with the game have been resolved via modding.