IGN Opinion: Where Skyrim Fails

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is the darling of critics and RPG-lovers. While the game is beautiful, involving, technically impressive, it's a long way away from being the perfect RPG. Indeed, developer Bethesda has a lot to learn from other RPGs and even action games, in terms of creating a convincing narrative experience, tweaking leveling mechanics and generating emotional pull.

[Bioshocking]

Yet you guys still gave the game a 9.5, and a bunch of other critics called it there game of the year even with all these problems...

So why come and say this now, rather than before?

Why should we trust critics if they praise a game, give it GOTY, then bash it a couple months later?

Critics( not just IGN) confuse the living crap out of me with their reviews and opinions.

If the game has problems, say so in the review.... not some opinion piece..

[Emilio_Estevez]

Well the person who reviewed it is different from the person writing this article. I love this game, prolly my GOTY also, but it is very buggy and on the border of completely broken.

[AngryTypingGuy]

Bottom line for me is that I feel compelled to play Skyrim longer in one sitting than any other game out there. Not to mention there is no other series that gives you the absolute freedom like the Elder Scrolls series. Skyrim deserves all of the accolades it gets.

No matter how great a game is, there's always room to do better next time (for Elder Scrolls: improve combat, deeper story, and don't release it until there are far less bugs on all versions!)

Apparently PS3's are affected differently. Mine only runs a little slow near Whiterun and one other city. Other than that works great. Hopefully the new patch will fix everything.

[nveenio]

Skyrim has an appeal to it that comes from this "Oooh, I wonder what's over there," or, "Okay, I'll help this guy real fast," sort of stuff. But that's where the appeal dies. I was so mad after my College of Winterhold quest line broke that I beat the game and haven't touched it since. The game IS broken, horribly buggy and shamefully acted and animated. It's NOT game of the year material no matter how much time or enjoyment I got out of it. If we keep praising Bethesda for releasing such poor technical quality, they'll never try and do better. Their games just get worse and worse.

[MsclMexican]

So true....

I actually agree with most if not all of the problems

(I mean you can not reach a level cap unless you specialize in all skills, but won't have some of the perks associated with some trees)

But, why come out now... two months after the game is released to state these problems?

Why nominate it for GOTY, and in some cases give it to the game with all these problems you guys are finding now?

Reviewers should have taken longer to review this game.

Not just use the dumbass equation that seems to be used with all Bethesda made games.

Big world + lots of content- a few bugs (BS THERE ARE ALOT OF BUGS) - PC and PS3 versions of Skyrim= 9.5-10 + GOTY....

Critics are the strangest and maybe stupidest thing involved in gaming

[danielle007]

Nothing is perfect. They can have major issues with a game, but find the rest of it so enjoyable, that it can be their GOTY.

I would have like for the flaws to be mentioned more in the review, sure, but it might not have even changed the score. The authors are two different people with two different opinions.

All in all, reviews and opinion pieces need to be taken with a grain of salt. Trusting some guy on the internet completely whether or not you pick up a game is just not a good game plan.

[Nintenuendo]

Giving a game a 9.5, or even nominating it your game of the year, does not mean it is without flaws.

No game, no matter how great, is perfect. Being able to recognize those flaws is good for the industry, it provides feedback and perspectives that developers can use to make improvements to their games.

[Bioshocking]

No my problem is that even though there are flaws.... they did not state that they were there in the initial review.

So the fact 2 months after the game comes out, now they talk about the weakpoints of the game..

That is why reviewers should have spent more time with Skyrim, honestly if you read IGN's review, the only flaws they found were broken quests, and a few bugs..

Thats BS... there are so many more problems with this game.

My problem is that they did not talk about these problems before. Im not surprised, just very annoyed that they decided to talk about them now

[Nintenuendo]

I didn't see a lot of flagrant bashing in the article, just pointing out some areas where Skyrim could have done better.

I definitely see where you're coming from, though, and it does give the impression that one hand doesn't know what the other is doing at IGN sometimes. But this is just an opinion piece, and only reflects the thoughts of the author, which explains some of the discrepancies.

[DragonKnight]

I'd say the problem is the precedent that Bethesda sets with their games. That as long as the games are long enough or large enough, any developer can release a near unplayable game and still be praised with wave after wave of accolades and awards. Not to mention never having to actually fix the game in a timely manner because either the fans will do it (in the case of PC versions) or they'll take their sweet time until their next game or a GOTY version comes out.

THAT'S the REAL problem with Bethesda's games.

[frostypants]

Dark Souls was robbed by hype and Bethesda gift baskets to critics...

(and I like Skyrim, aside from the idiotic bugs...)

[humbleopinion]

I thinks you're missing the point Bioshocking: While Skyrim is not a perfect game and it could obviously use more interesting combat mechanics (like in the Witcher) or better narrative (like in Bioware games), it is still head and shoulder above any other game released this year - be it RPG or anything else.

Skyrim is a single games triumphs in scale and ambitions what other developers attempt to do over the course of multiple games and franchises, with a world more believable than anything else available (and that includes even Rockstar games). That's why it's GOTY and that's why it deserves all the praise.

[Tdmd]

Yes, that is enraging poor professionalism, right there! A LOT o people buy their games trusting in a reviewer's opinion, so there should be NO room for ambiguity! If the game have such terrible issues to get comments like "technically it's like they're living in an bubble", it should be reflected on it's final score and talked about extensively on it's review.

[Captain Qwark 9]

pretty much everywhere but graphics if your a real fan of ES, the previous games were miles ahead of skyrim in terms of gameplay

[Nintenuendo]

I would agree in the case of Morrowind. It is by far my favorite ES game, and one of my top games of all time if I'm honest.

Having said that, I still enjoyed Skyrim more than I did Oblivion.

[Captain Qwark 9]

they just cut too much out of skyrim and i didnt find the story as interesting. when somebody creates a sequel i expect more of the same and additional features, with skyrim we got duel weilding, better graphics and that about sums up the additions, i dont have the time to write what was cut. skyrim is a decent game it just didnt live up to the oblivion and doesnt even come close to morrowind, i guess for me they peaked at morrowind and just keep getting worse, hopefully kingdom of amalur will fill my void ( judging from the demo i will say it will :) )

[frostypants]

Qwark is right. Daggerfall was far, FAAAAAAAAAAAR deeper that Skyrim. Sure, it was also buggy as hell, but given how old it is, it's baffling how comparatively watered down Skyrim (and all modern Bethesda games) feels compared to it **sometimes**.

Also, the Daggerfall map was hundreds of times bigger. Yeah, a lot of repetition, but also more freedom (more houses and what not).

Story isn't a problem for me. I like these games for the freedom and immersion.

[Captain Qwark 9]

agreed

[dinkeldinkse]

At working properly.

[Zha1tan]

Where has all this Skyrim Bashing come from?

Its like people have went out on a whim to put the game down recently.

[Detoxx]

Its N4G man

[admiralthrawn87]

maybe people have gotten over the media hype. I bought the game at midnight off of steam being a morrowind and oblivion fan. The game overall disappointed me but there was some enjoyment to be had. Why it was praised so much i don't know.

[Zha1tan]

Ive yet to hear as to why its a bad game apart from some retarded comments about the game being "dumbed down" with no explanation as to why.

And not to mention for the first month it was everybodys darling game and its like because its become popular, very popular its cool to hate Skyrim.

[Kakihara]

One good thing you can say about Skyrim, apparently it made Oblivion really good. Not sure how that's even possible but before Skyrim Oblivion was the one the 'real ES fans' hated. Now most of them seem to love it.

[Zha1tan]

THe main argument seems to be people moaning about how they took out useless aspects of the previous games which nobody used like spears etc

People moan about the interface being terrible and clustered in oblivion yet as soon as Skyrim comes out they want the Oblivion one back?

People NEVER used acrobatics and hand/hand combat in oblivion yet as soon as that is taken out its dumbed down?

I dont know lol just "gamer logic" I guess.

[iamgoatman]

Pretty simple, the majority of the members on this site are PS3 fans and therefore the most vocal. Couple this with the fact that the PS3 version is also the most broken and it's pretty obvious where all the hatred is coming from.

I'm not try to justify Bethesda for obviously releasing an unfinished product, but a lot of people here seem to forget that the game also released on 2 other platforms, both of which run the game a hell of a lot better than the PS3. Sure they all have there bugs, but after putting many hours into the PC version and not encountering any game braking bugs, anyone claiming that the gaming media was completely wrong to give it GOTY awards etc even though they may have only played the other 2 versions, sounds a bit like a whining idiot.

Oh and it's cool to hate anything that's popular.

[BitbyDeath]

Skyrim is my second favourite game of the year.
First was inFamous 2.
Skyrim is awesome even with the bugs.

[Kakihara]

I can't even describe how much I love Skyrim but to me it's absolute most glaring flaw is it's failure to get you emotionally invested in the characters. I have a blast sneaking around with my bow and am frequently awed by some big epic scripted or random moment but ultimately I feel like a psychopath even though I'm playing as a good guy because if I'm honest, I don't care who lives or dies beyond how it ruins my feeling of being a hero.

Take a game like Half-life 2. As original and inovative as the gameplay was, the one reason I consider it possibly the best game of all time is the fact that it broke my heart at certain points and at others charmed the pants off of me. I wasn't just fighting through each level to see the next cool scripted event, I was fighting through because I was completely invested in the story and honestly wanted things to turn out best for the characters I cared for. I don't see any reason why Skyrim couldn't have pulled off the same thing, at least in the main quest.

Like I said, I love Skyrim and have a blast experiencing this epic world. I find the story of each of the countless quests to be packed with 'wow' moments that definitely excite me but for a game about choice and affecting the world I just wish it did a little more than excite me now and then. As cool as the game is I wish it affected me beyond, 'whoa, that was cool' every now and then.

[iamgoatman]

I feel the exact same way, at least in terms of the games biggest flaw. There are very few characters I feel emotionally attached to, hell I think I care more about one of the merchants in Whiterun than I do about anyone in the main storyline. That's not to say there aren't that many interesting characters, but I couldn't really give a damn if they accidentally got set on fire by a stray fireball.

I think Oblivion, and to a lesser extent Fallout 3 did a better job with this, maybe not so much in the main quest line but I still remember even the most insignificant NPC in Oblivion. This could be because I played that game to death and simply added interesting stories of my own to certain characters, but It could also be a combination of overly similar voice acting and character models in Skyrim. At least in Oblivion the 5 voice actors sounded different from one another or put on a range of stupid accents to cover up the fact there were only 5 of them. But I swear they got 1 guy to play half the male characters in Skyrim, or 2 people from the same Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonating Austrian village. The character creator also feels far more restrictive than Oblivion, and maybe that's a good thing is some respects, but you don't get the wild variety of ugly people anymore.

What I'd love to see in the next Elder Scrolls game is character depth to the level of Mass Effect, although in such a large game with so many interactive NPCs it may be rather difficult, but even a couple would be nice.

[josephayal]

OMG leave skyrim alone! Is the best game of this GEN (maybe uc2)

[Kinger8938]

I only disagree as i think uncharted as a series is the best for me this generation :) plating U3 atm!

[I_Guts_I]

The only fault with Skyrim is its gameplay. The combat just doesn't feel right. Fallouts combat worked beautifully with the Vat system and i myself would be curious to see how this would work. Mod anyone?

[BitbyDeath]

I'd like Fallout a lot more if it didn't have guns.

[susanto1228]

Nobody cares about your "opinions" IGN and these comments here reaffirm that.

[Akiba96]

I think people are just making excuses to hate on IGN :/

[Kinger8938]

Totally agree!

[GraveLord]

................on PS3?
Yet you guys at IGN gave it the same score as the 360 version.

[Kinger8938]

Isnt that because they review the game based on like 30hours of play as its unrealistic to expect someone to complete a game like this in time for a review, and the ps3 lag issue and others appear after like 60-80 hours right?

Either way enjoyed it for about 30 hours on pc and have stopped now so feel i got my moneys worth but cant see any reason to continue and i havent finished the main quest! Maybe someday! I have tried to play since but as soon as i get on i just feel like urrrghh but each to there own, on to something else for me!

[SaffronCurse]

This game definitely deserved a 7 at the very most. Great game but it was released prematurely.

[Venjense]

I find the quest stories aren't as compelling as Oblivion's, in fact, most of them are not really interesting at all.

Graphics are amazing but the stories lack a certain magic I find.