If you haven’t already guessed by the title, prepare
yourself for some heretical words; I don’t really care for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
Trust me; I’m as surprised as you are. Since its release
back in 2011, I’ve heard nothing but praise from the huge following who adore
the game, through the numerous Game of the Year awards, critical acclaim, or
tales told by friends when they’ve installed new mods.
Above is one of many glowing reviews for Skyrim, this particular one by IGN. It's safe to say, while it does mention some flaws, the majority of the review is droning on about the beauty and creativity behind the game. It's something I'm still not sure about, even after a few years.
I’m fairly certain I stand alone on this matter. Surely,
countless reviewers, fans and gamers in general can’t be wrong, but I’ve tried
time and time again to enjoy this game, but to no avail. So, here’s why I’m not
too keen on the arguably overrated pinnacle of the action-RPG genre.
The Beginning
I understand that this is a
running convention in Elder Scrolls games, but the inception of my grand
adventure in the land of Skyrim really didn’t compel me. Being a prisoner in a
horse-drawn cart and forced to listen to the info-dump taking place around me?
Not my idea of fun.
The rail section has you simply
sat around doing nothing with only the ability to move your head. And while
it’s hardly the worst opening to a game, there’s so much wasted opportunity in
this introduction. Instead of the expansive vistas of the snow-frosted region,
you get a few trees, dull rock faces and enough grey to give Cormac McCarthy’s The Road a good run for its money. For a
game which relies on your desire to explore, the opening conveys the exact
opposite.
The opening does little to
immerse or involve you in the world of Skyrim, something which isn’t aided by
exposition dump taking which completely locks out noobs like me. While the
lexis of ‘Savvengard’ and ‘Hammerfell’ is great for fans of the series who know
about the lore of The Elder Scrolls series, it does nothing but make me lose
interest. People filter jargon like that, and I’m no exception.
If you compare it to a similar
opening, such as that in Call of Duty 4:
Modern Warfare, Skyrim’s introduction is travelling at a snail’s pace. In
Modern Warfare, no specific terminology is used, and the setting nails the
feeling of being in a foreign place on the brink of change. Even little things,
such as having to turn to face fellow prisoners in Skyrim’s intro, are enough
to partially alienate you from the clunky expositional conversations.
All this led to a sub-par first
impression of Skyrim, and that may have been why I didn’t like it; it set the
mood to one of disinterest. If it were a person, for me, Skyrim would have been
one of the most uninteresting people out there.
The Combat
The reason I’m so surprised that
I didn’t enjoy Skyrim was that it appeared that Bethesda broke down a lot of
traditional RPG game elements in order to appeal to the masses. But despite
their efforts, I still don’t really care for the game.
While I could blame my displeasure on the questing system or the copious amounts of lore within the game, I'd have to say that it was the combat which hammered one of the bigger nails into Skyrim's coffin for me...
Noobs and pros alike
simply tend to stick to one or two of the skill trees, rendering their new
approach somewhat useless. What's the point of all these options and tiny upgrades when the majority of them won't be used?
The combat was almost as clunky
as the initial exposition dump. Sure, it was fun to swing a sword and shoot
fire out of your hands, but when it becomes commonplace, there’s just no more
fun to be had.
Granted, it is notoriously difficult to make a competent, and
even enjoyable first person melee combat system but with such a budget and
experienced development team behind it, everyone realistically expected a
little bit more from Bethesda when it came to punching glitching mammoths all
day long.
The Characters
This is another Bethesda thing
which isn’t just restricted to Skyrim. Maybe it’s because I can’t involve
myself in the virtual wonderland of the latest Elder Scrolls game, but the
characters and NPCs do very little to add to the immersion of the world. Basic
and unfortunately underdeveloped fetch quests do very little to increase interest
of characters, just as with the Fallout series.
The emotionless and restricted
conversations only add to the issue, but this is a flaw which is out of any
developer’s control. Any multiple choice discussion with an NPC will feel a bit
false, but for a game which was so heavily promoted before its release, people
expected Bethesda to at very least have a go at the issue.
There's only so much modding you can do to fix such issues, and a game shouldn't really it's fans to fix it. You're there for a reason, developers. It's a tad scary that videos like the one below are needed for games like this.
If the blank residents of Skyrim
aren’t an issue for you, have you seen their hair? Luckily for us, helmets exist.
The Gameplay Issues
The critically acclaimed game of
2011 is burdened with seemingly countless glitches, bugs and other programming
mishaps.
The aforementioned mammoths have
a tendency of spawning in mid-air and immediately falling to their deaths, your
horse can climb almost vertical surfaces, and some areas of the lovingly
crafted world simply get you stuck with no chance of escape. In my experience,
these glitches and occasionally game-breaking issues were very rare, but the
fact that they exist is still a bit dodgy for a game on such a big budget. And
scarily, there are still a worryingly large amount of issues which still remain
unpatched and open for exploitation.
If one of these problematic (but
mostly hilarious) bugs doesn’t get you, the excessive amount of loading screens
and lag probably will. With large save files, the PS3 version of the came
becomes almost unplayable, as you encounter frequent moments when the gameplay
drops to a minimal frame rate. Unavoidable fantasy and action RPG tropes are
understandable, but elementary gameplay and mechanical issues are not.
For me, Skyrim did nothing to
invite me into the supposedly epic world that everyone loves, and even when I
tried to enjoy it, the bugs, barebones gameplay and generic characters made it impossibility.
I can appreciate it for what it is, but I can’t help but feel like Skyrim is a
tiny bit overrated.
But after all, that’s just an
opinion. If you enjoy a game, then enjoy it regardless of what others think. I
didn’t mean to sound like I was simply slating an award-winning game, but
imagine how good it could be if these issues were resolved.
Then we’d have a
game that everyone can get into.
