Why is Skyrim so liked and what is there even to do?

[DeadHill]

This question's been bugging me since I bought the damn game during 2016's summer sales. And I've yet to find out. That said, I have not played previous Elder Scrolls titles and tried playing Skyrim only because of all the praise, both from the typical MrMattyPlays viewers and from the more objective audience. So, I'd like to hear from you what is so captive about the game? Asking here, since finding the latter kind of people is much easier here, rather than on Reddit (at least, I hope so).

My biggest problem with the game is about quests. 70% of the quests follow the same profile of "Go to this dungeon which takes only an hour of your life and kill the big baddy there". And I'd have no problems if the dungeons were unique and memorable, rather than grey stonewalls and the same enemies. The other problem that I have is the fact that people call this an Action RPG, which, in my opinion, it does not follow either of the paths. The action here ends with the spam of light attacks and the RPG elements... well. Let's just begin from the fact that if it was a good RPG, you would not be able to become a leader of all major factions in the end. Also, the scaling of the world is very lame. And those who made unique item scaling should really be fired from Bethesda. People go on and on about the exploration, yet the game punishes you for doing it too early.

And I know that there are mods fixing some of these issues but as far as I remember the Bethesda gets the praise, not the mod authors.

I'm eager to hear your thoughts. I'm very sorry if I was a bit too salty on this thread.

 

[0wing]

Skyrim is a great game for casuals and great 'entry level' title. The ability to just sit and play is undervalued when the market is full of pseudohardcore crap like Soulsborne, Darkest Dungeon or Underrail (@Black Angel I suggest you play coinflip for half and hour, it's also pretty hardcore with it's punishing RNG /s)and wildly praised as pinnacle of gamedesign, so this little factor is often overlooked. The other side is modding, of course. I don't know why but people just obsessed with customization mods provide.
But don't be too grim, though. People get tired from Skyrim and often moving on with other titles. Sometimes even Soulsborne.

Let's just begin from the fact that if it was a good RPG, you would not be able to become a leader of all major factions in the end.

Many RPG developers tend to stroke player's ego. In Fallout 2 player often himself starts a quest with cleverly written dialogues. At the end of many RPGs player always gifted with some supercool artifacts, supernatural abilities or high faction position rank. Bethesda just went too far with ego stroking. But yeah, Skyrim's wide audience like that too, even when this ego stroking is so insultingly obvious.

...That's pretty much it. Skyrim also has nice visuals from time to time, but that's not a main factor to consider since the engine is outdated and the actual graphics is horseshit barely better than Oblivion. And you know the actual quality of this game is very low already.

 

[Hassknecht]

Personally, I kinda like Skyrim because it's an easy-going, shallow power phantasy. The mechanics are super simple, the graphics and settings are pretty, and all in all the game is very accessible. I don't really have the time and motivation to really get invested in video games these days, so Skyrim kinda fit me. It's casual.
It does get boring quite quickly, though, although not as hard as Fallout 4 did.
So yeah, while Skyrim really isn't the greatest RPG at all, it does one thing well: Entertain me for a short while and give me the opportunity to run around in a cool pseudoviking world without worrying too much about character building and mechanics and learning the game and whatnot. Sure, games like Darklands are muuuuuch more involved and immersive in a certain sense, but damnit, I have too many hobbies already and a fulltime job. If I'm going to play games in my spare time it's going to be PnP sessions with friends.

 

[Risewild]

I would love to help you with this but... I never liked Skyrim.
I always get bored after playing 30 minutes in a row.

The Elder Scrolls was one of my favorite cRPG series ever since I played Daggerfall, I even liked Arena although the controls made me never finish that game. Morrowind was great and one of my all time favorite games, while Oblivion was already starting to be more "consolized" and simplified but it was still enjoyable if you let it grow on you.
Skyrim was always boring for me. The only playthrough I actually had fun playing was when I modded it a lot and removed all the Dragonborn and dragons stuff and added mods to allow me to have a nice house after spending a lot of money to buy the land and house and fix it up, then I also added some mods that allow me to grab many static objects from all over the world (you select the object and you can make it disappear from where it is and you get it added to your inventory, after that you can use that object from your inventory and place it wherever you want) so I was going into Dwemer ruins and get Dwemer objects like chairs and tables and all of that, and then place it in my house. Basically I only had fun playing Skyrim when I removed the main thing about Skyrim and played it as a "explore linear dungeons" to get objects for my house.

So I only had fun playing Skyrim when i removed most of what makes Skyrim Skyrim and played it as a big theme park to collect objects to decorate my house... I think I managed to play that game for 20 or 30 hours before I got bored again.

 

[0wing]

So I only had fun playing Skyrim when i removed most of what makes Skyrim Skyrim and played it as a big theme park to collect objects to decorate my house...

Bethesda sure listens to it's fans, can't deny that, with Fallout 4 they made one step further to that. Thanks, @Risewild ! /s

 

[Risewild]

Bethesda sure listens to it's fans, can't deny that, with Fallout 4 they made one step further to that. Thanks,Risewild! /s

You're welcome.
The problem was that FO4 bored me even faster than Skyrim ever did.

 

[DeadHill]

Actually, I kinda enjoyed Fallout 4. Not as much as New Vegas or classics, but it was interesting to get back out into the Wastes. But it really is not an RPG anymore. And seeing how Skyrim and Fallout 4 share many traits, I'd say they just want to make Skyrim with guns and Fallout 4 with swords just for the sake of merging the communities' fans

 

[Hassknecht]

Basically I only had fun playing Skyrim when I removed the main thing about Skyrim and played it as a "explore linear dungeons" to get objects for my house.

So I only had fun playing Skyrim when i removed most of what makes Skyrim Skyrim and played it as a big theme park to collect objects to decorate my house... I think I managed to play that game for 20 or 30 hours before I got bored again.

Isn't that the quintessence of Skyrim? Explore linear dungeons to get fancy decorations?

 

[lolpop109]

Well i guess its enjoy to see the main holds and their is houses to get and stuff to buy. It also allows you do anything like mine or craft witch is pretty cool. The landscape looks great for back then not so much now. There are some okay quests too but many are very linear as pointed out. There is also many dungeon crawl and kill that dragons ! So yeah can get very very boring. I ended up selling the game for ps3. I then re brought the game for pc for mods really. I played oblivion and found that game alot better quest wise.

 

[Risewild]

Isn't that the quintessence of Skyrim? Explore linear dungeons to get fancy decorations?

No, you still have main and side quests getting in the way, stupid NPCs, almost non existing RPG mechanics and all of that stuff that bores the hell out of me. I got rid of all of that.

I was basically playing TES Indiana Jones!

I was having fun because I didn't talk to any NPCs except to sell junk and didn't care to do or get any quests. So not getting bored by shallow characters, writing, stupid quests and conflicts I wasn't interested in. I was also playing it as an easy and accessible adventure game and not a RPG.

But even then, I got bored after 30 or so hours and I don't think I will be able to play it again like that and still have fun.

 

[Black Angel]

Soulsborne, Darkest Dungeon or Underrail (@Black Angel I suggest you play coinflip for half and hour, it's also pretty hardcore with it's punishing RNG /s)

I've heard, and seen with my own eyes my friend playing it, how RNG-fest Dankest Dungeon is, but really? Underrail? RNG-fest?

And Soulsborne games, pseudohardcore? What do you mean by that?

 

[joevonzombie]

Because it's as wide as an ocean, but as shallow as a puddle. Perfect for baby's first RPG and the mainstream gaming audience of the last decade.

 

[Jogre]

when the market is full of pseudohardcore crap like Soulsborne, Darkest Dungeon or Underrail

What's crap about Underrail?

 

[0wing]

What's crap about Underrail?

Not an RPG.

And Soulsborne games, pseudohardcore? What do you mean by that?

Look up a word "pseudo" in a dictonary.

Underrail? RNG-fest?

Well, to hit chances aren't really represanting player character's accuracy but X-Com 2012 at highest difficulty (where 99% transforms into 33% "under the hood"), which is strange since Age of Decadence works the same but my hits are a lot more common in AoD at lower THC.

 

[Jogre]

Not an RPG.

I could not disagree more. It's one of the closest things we've got to an RPG in recent years.

 

[0wing]

I could not disagree more. Dungeon Rats meets Metro 2033 is one of the closest things we've got to an RPG in recent years.

Yeah, right.

 

[Black Angel]

Look up a word "pseudo" in a dictonary.

I know what "pseudo" means, but what did you really mean with Soulsborne games being 'pseudohardcore'? I won't argue those games being 'hardcore' or anything because I don't think of them that way, but I want to hear what do you really think about them.

Well, to hit chances aren't really represanting player character's accuracy but X-Com 2012 at highest difficulty (where 99% transforms into 33% "under the hood"), which is strange since Age of Decadence works the same but my hits are a lot more common in AoD at lower THC.

You probably didn't play Underrail as much as you've played AoD. Besides, there are a lot more types of attack in AoD, since special shots and attacks in Underrail needed perk points before you can use them all. On top of that, there are two types of defense in AoD (Dodge and Block) that worked better than the Underrail's version (Dodge and Evasion, which should have just been one tbh but I don't really know Styg's mind) and because you can understand it better, you know how to deal with them better.

Anyway, I also don't understand why would you brought up these games to a discussion about why Skyrim is so liked. I don't see the correlation between the games you mentioned and the game currently discussed in the thread, let alone mentioning me too.

 

[0wing]

but I want to hear what do you really think about them.

The fact that Soulsborne is basically an anti-Devil May Cry game in a vast world with supplies more than necessary to survive, easy shield blocking and easy enough attack evading (everything is slow as fuck and enemies telegraph their attack obvious enough to react) is not enough then I don't know. Bloodborne is faster and more on dodge but still can't compete with an ordinary action game like mentioned DMC.

Anyway, I also don't understand why would you brought up these games to a discussion about why Skyrim is so liked.

Read again then. They're "hardcore". People play them on regular basis and then forget why games like Skyrim are so popular, it's piss poor and easy (no brainer/casual/you name it) shit (and I agree), right? Well, it's a feature.

Well, I haven't played any of the DMC games, but does DMC games has level designs, environmental storytelling, and lore (and how said lore was handled) that can rival or even better than any of the Soulsborne games?

That's below top 10 of importance question, since it's not why Soulsborne has a reputation of hardcore games.

You probably didn't play Underrail as much as you've played AoD.

That's true, can't deny that.

 

[Black Angel]

Well shit, I deleted my post because I wanted to call it a day and agreed to disagree, but...

That's below top 10 of importance question, since it's not why Soulsborne has a reputation of hardcore games.

I disagree. I was going to elaborate from the quality I've mentioned (level designs, environmental storytelling, and lore) is actually what makes Soulsborne games 'hardcore' aside from the combat, but since your definition of 'hardcore' is different from the majority of Soulsborne fanbase's definition in terms of Soulsborne games, and since you're more of a combatfag than anything else, I guess we should just agree to disagree.

Have you really tried to play any of the Soulsborne games? At least Dark Souls 1? You should know the merits of Soulsborne games didn't only lies in the combat. It might have been the major gameplay elements, but there are a lot of things you ought to consider when judging Soulsborne games, and combat isn't the only thing to consider.

 

[0wing]

I disagree. I was going to elaborate from the quality I've mentioned (level designs, environmental storytelling, and lore) is actually what makes Soulsborne games 'hardcore' aside from the combat, but since your definition of 'hardcore' is different from the majority of Soulsborne fanbase's definition in terms of Soulsborne games, and since you're more of a combatfag than anything else, I guess we should just agree to disagree.

The audio-visual aesthetics and lore also makes game harder to complete on the same level as gameplay mechanics? Yeah, I'll just disagree.

Have you really tried to play any of the Soulsborne games? At least Dark Souls 1? You should know the merits of Soulsborne games didn't only lies in the combat. It might have been the major gameplay elements, but there are a lot of things you ought to consider when judging Soulsborne games, and combat isn't the only thing to consider.

Yes, definitely not just combat. There's also netcode to consider. Well, I played on a friend's console, so can't comment on that.