Gamer Limit's Bobby Hunter responds to Motherboard's Joshua Kopstein and his views on what Skyrim could have been. Hunter discusses the constraints of the fantasy genre and Skyrim's illusion of freedom. He asserts that the title offers far fewer choices and consequences than it initially appears and these aspects of Skyrim make it a terrible candidate to be game without plot, as is suggested by Kopstein.
Replaying Skyrim after 13 years is a reminder of the progress made in western RPGs over the last decade, but also what's been lost.
RPGs are often huge, sprawling endeavours. With limited playtime, we have to choose wisely, so here's the best western RPGs available today.
"I started playing games yesterday" the List... Meh!
How about a few RPGs that deserve some love instead?
1 - Alpha Protocol - Now on GOG
2 - else Heart.Break()
3 - Shadowrun Trilogy
4 - Wasteland 2
5 - UnderRail
6 - Tyranny
7 - Torment: Tides of Numenera
And for a bonus game that flew under the radar:
8 - Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden
Not only glorious jank, but the idea that the story can completely change depending on what you do, or say, or side with, makes it one of the most forward thinking games ever. The amount of story permutation is the equivalent of a Hitman level but in Story Form. And it wasn't just that the story changed, no, it was that you met completely new characters, or missed them, depending on your choices. Made Mass Effect feel static in comparison.
Alpha Protocol was absolutely glorious, indeed. And it was, and still is, more Next Gen than most anything out there these days. In this regard at least.
Pity.
A new Partner Spotlight Sale is now live on the Switch eShop, including Skyrim, lowest price ever for Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, and more.
I'd say it most certainly is the right vehicle for this type of thing. Consequence of any real meaning outside the still predetermined type is very much limited and frankly old. With such exceptional lush created worlds, ai and interaction is being left behind and it's extremely at odds when things look this good. Hopefully more powerful hardware will allow for an advance here soon as it's getting very dull
Skyrim is great for what it is though but lets not hope the next 10 years sees the very same already tired meaningless limited design used over and over. Devs need a slap regards to how slow things here have developed because even last gen can manage more advanced possibilities than what we curently have
It likely comes down to graphics though and how devs by necessity have to prioritise them- blame us gamers for that. New machines need to account for potential in other areas if we're not to see the same old games rolled out yet in just a prettier form. So much potential and practically zero advance in this area
i put about 134 hours into Skyrim, and i haven't played it for about a week now. because the sense of amazement has slowly worn off (it actually started to wear off about 75 hours in), i can honestly say that a lot of this game is based on illusion (no pun intended).
1. you're given the illusion that you're fighting epic dragons and overcoming insurmountable odds, but they're easy and get boring after the first five or so. and i played my second character on Master difficulty--they were still easy, just like the game as a whole.
2. you're given the illusion that there's some epic man quest about dragons coming back, etc etc, but it's actually a boring main quest that's only a few hours long with a laughably anti-climactic and easy final battle. i enjoyed the Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood and Companions quests a lot more than the main quest.
3. you're given the illusion that it's some massive open world, and it is...but it's pretty empty. bigger doesn't mean better if you're running around in an empty land with the occasionally deer or bear.
4. you're given the illusion that the game is a visual treat, especially on the PC (i played it on max graphics on PC), and it is....from far away. then you get closer, and the textures look horrible.
5. you're given the illusion that the dungeons have been revamped, and they have overall...but once you've done five or so, then you've done them all. all the dungeons have roughly the same feeling, all the caves have roughly the same feeling, all the mines have roughly the same feeling.
i could go on and on. there's the illusion of choice, but there aren't any REAL consequences to your "choices." there's the illusion of a new and exciting combat system with depth, but you either throw spells or swing a weapon. same as Oblivion, and it's still floaty. dual wielding doesn't add depth, and you're hitting paper targets anyways. there's the illusion that there are a bunch of new NPCs, and then you play the game for a while and realize they used about 10 voice actors AGAIN, and none of them even bothered to sound different when going to another character.
the bottom line is that once Skyrim's illusion wears off on, then you can see it's basically just five year old tech spiced up. they gave us a polished Oblivion, but what they really should have given us was a rebuilt engine, revamped combat, more choices that have impacts, better storylines, better quest objectives other than kill this or retrieve that.
Skyrim just finally wore off on me, and once it did, i saw that it didn't really stick with me. Portal 2, for example, will stick with me. Dark Souls will stick with me. Skyrim felt like i played Oblivion again, except five years later and with some updates.
this is the main thing that turned me off about skyrim. too much freedom. i thought id be okay with that, but you can do pretty much anything without there being a consequence for it. there's no morality in your choices, no right or wrong. even if you the player know your doing something wrong the game wouldnt penalize you for it. you even have options to sort of "back talk" certain people or even deadric princes but you end up having to be their champion or doing what they say anyway..you can eventually get away with killing guards as long as your a thane and nothing happens to you. i like a morality system because not only does the game world recognize the good and bad things you do it STAYS with you and shapes you into the character youll be based on the actions and choices t hat you have made. also it is a good template for starting another playthrough (1st time your bad and second time your evil) i guess thats why i like mass effect so much because if you wanna be a goody to shoes you can and if you wanna be a dick head you can but you cant exactly be both its one or the other
I liked Skyrim - ::runs and hides::
Lol people in this thread. If you hate too much freedom then stay away from a sandbox game.