Why I do not like 'Skyrim', but spent 65 hours in there:
Although It Seems That Everybody has enormous fun with this game, here is my polemic comment about Skyrim.
/// Skyrim. Schmyrim.
After All Those minigames, Facebook time killers and iPhone Apps I Played The Last months occasionally Because of lack of time, I longed for a real game. We finished TUMBLOX and finally there was enough of spare time to stay all day in a huge and epic adventure world. Right time, right release 'Skyrim came out. Plus I loved 'Morrowind'! It's Still one of my most admired and still inspiring games. So a great time is yet to come '
And indeed! Skyrim is soooo beautiful. Walking through the autumn woods along a river, riding a horse through ice and snow (and up to walls) or just walking alone meeting snow foxes can be so ruminant.
But I have to confess I did distrusted the design of Skyrim from the beginning. Dragons (what a cliché after Drakensang, Dragon Age and Divinity II 'Ego Draconis!), The stupid and stinky north, winter, snow, cold and the second-boring race in whole Tamriel after the Imperials. But the sandbox style allured me so much! 'You can do just everything!'
But after playing 65 hours I'm bored. What I am missing so much is STORY! When I think of Morrowind there where conflicts everywhere, little stories people had, surprises, funny experiment of character interaction, naked barbarians and more over: irony. Not just two Households hating eachother. Or the stupid North versus the stupid Imperials.
Skyrim lacks wits, creativity and cool characters you want to remember. In every town you have the same structure of people: the smith, the merchant, the magician, the Jarl, the alchemist, etc. and some people telling you They want to see the world leaving this place or love their home country. And of course the guards with the arrow in Their knee. The game is so well structured and sandboxed, They can not think out of the box creating Things That are out of Their perfect little system. No chaos. No surprises.
Tell me just one cool character! And do not say Sheogorath as he is the add-on joke laughed out a long prequel ago.
Where are the funny little moments Morrowind used to give me so many times?
Like the magician floating miles over the ground testing his MegaJump magic scroll.
The end boss Dagoth-Ur and his personal point of view about the main story.
Vivec, the half-god, having his own town, sitting and levitating in his temple.
The drunken, messed-up guy Blade That is briefing you in the main quest.
The imp That is selling stuff in one of the towns.
The last dwarf in Morrowind, fat, with legs like a spider and made immortal by the mysterious blight.
The Telvanni Magicians' One age old, the other one hating men and having a male Khajit sex slave.
The silk striders You Could TravelWithPaula.
Even the setting was a character! The Telvanni towns. The floating city of Vivec. The Redorans living in huge shells. And the monsters were not just wolves, trolls and whatever skeletons did every fantasy game has.
I loved the surprises Morrowind gave me with every step I Took in this world.
Looking at Skyrim I see at impressively beautiful maiden presenting her long and shiny hair, but if you talking to her she is just blabbering stiff, boring and stupid shit. Why is the whole world seeking a boring cliche? Even the hugely advertised DRAGONS become dull runaways did go on my nerves Because of Their inflationary appearance.
/// Never again a sandbox game with 'story'
It is a problem the whole world has: There is nothing special about it. Those thin stories in every town: 'Hey, we have vampires'' You walk into a dungeon, problem solved. You become Thane. Next Town. 'Hey, we have bad dreams'. Dungeon. Cleared. Problem solved. Thane. Next Town.
There is nothing a visit in a dungeon can not solve. Everything happens in the dungeons. Accept the dragons of cause, They are spawned When it's time for them in the next place you appear. You fight them. 'Woah, you killed the dragon'. Next Town. Next quest.
At this point the sand box system really emerges as something That is charging the stupidity. Okay, Skyrim is a huge open world, but what for, if nothing happens there. Here are some virgin just for killing. Here are some dragons. Some towns. Some points of interest. But most points are unconnected. The people (like the story writers?) Inhabiting Their cities Do not Think Beyond Borders (They just know the next dungeon to send you through).
The quest marker system is another 'improvement' making things worse and Those little landing places seeming more like spots on otherwise on white map. While in Morrowind people had long dialogues explaining Themselves and giving you explicit (well mostly) directions like in real life, people Skyrim 'greet' with you 'My bow is stolen!'. After Telling You That thieves from the near city did it, the dialogue is finished. No explaining who he is, where the bow is or whatever one Could write about a character to make him more interesting, a quest marker is added and you have to go to your map and look up where the marker is Placed. Dungeon. Cleared. Nice. Here is your money. See you. Never. Again.
It does not matter how much helmets you take back from dungeons, how much you save daughters, how many prisoners you help to escape. The world is full of thesis generic quests. Nobody wants to acknowledge your deeds.
/// Dungeon. Dungeon. Dungeon.
Everything is fighting and killing. No creative solving. Even the third path of character development 'The Thief' can not be used in all Consequences. Most quests can be finished just with the death of your dungeon boss draugr-whatever-bad-guy-final kill.
Most people did not criticize this game for being unambitious and stupid. They love it. And it inspires many people out there. How many 'Fus Roh Dah' and 'I got an arrow in my knee' videos, comics and pictures are out there?
But I must admit: I do not understand the fascination for this game. Maybe I had too much adventures in a fantasy world. If this would be my first roleplaying game and I never would have Played 'Gothic', 'The Witcher', 'Morrowind' or 'Planescape Torment' I would love it. Skyrim has an awesome way to introduce you to this world and its gameplay.
But I Played much of thesis games and it might be hard to surprise me. I think this will be The Last Epic Game That tries to tell a story and advertises with a huge open world. Because you can not have both. Not in These Times.
