Skyrim Review (Spoilers will start halfway through)
After going to work for a short while then visiting my grandparent's grave (yes, gorm, I was named after my grandfather) for veteran's day, I returned home to my wife having purchased a hard copy of Skyrim. I got the "Pre-order" map, which Bethesda claims is a burlap-esque map, but in reality it is basically just thick paper. Still neat though! A quick install of about 20 minutes and the game was ready to play.
I had my friends over (I'll upload a pic of that later), we set up our computers in the basement, and began our journey. The guy that thought he was going mage ended up going with a 2hand weapon build (i.e. a single two-handed weapon), the other guy went dual wield, and I went for a more archery-stealth build. Each of these builds were very very unique and admittedly, I was the slowest to level. By the end of the night, the dual wielder was level 9, the 2 hander was 8 and I was 7. Mind you, this was after about 9 hours of play, and the levels do get progressively slower as you go along.
The scenery is absolutely amazing. Each village is laid out uniquely and the background vistas are stunning. Mountains tower on all sides, rivers flow everywhere (including THROUGH towns), and there are events occuring everywhere. A massive improvement over oblivion is that NPCs don't pause the game to talk to you, which to me, was incredibly immersion-breaking. Nothing sucked more than being attacked by a guard only to accidentally click the wrong button and have the guard stop attacking, zoom in on his face, and have him start a conversation. Random events occur all around you.
There are also quite a few puzzles in this game. I won't go into it too much, but I definitely got caught up on two points in the first quest due to this. Granted I was drunk, but it took me about 15 minutes on the first then 30 minutes on the second to figure out what needed to be done.
The one drawback I felt at the beginning of the game was the menu system. Instead of it being controlled via the mouse, it is (almost) purely controlled by WASD. While I was quick to say, "FUCK THIS CONSOLE PORT!", I rather quickly changed my mind and began to love it simply due to the quickness (I said quick 3 times in this sentence) of being able to navigate with one hand. I would have liked to see the number keys mapped to weapons, but there is a "Favorites" list, which allows for quickswapping while in combat. The only other, and this might have been a fluke, drawback was the combat mechanics of outdoor mobs. I was being attacked by something (might be a spoiler, so I'll leave out what exactly), when a bunny happened along the path. The mob I was attacking quickly sprinted off to kill the bunny before refocusing on me.
Spoilers:
One thing I would strongly recommend to all of you; use a ranged attack. Not only will this drastically assist with dragon encounters (they spend most of their time in the air), but many forts have guards along the top who will spot you and "sound the alarm". Next thing you know you have 4 or 5 guys coming down on you instead of just one.
Stealth made the game a lot better for me. But you really need to spend a perk or two on it to make it effective. It also seemed that getting in close enough to damage players with melee while in stealth was impossible due to most mobs moving in groups or turning around too often. I switched my combat technique to focus more on archery than the backstabbing rogue I was wanting to play due to that. One absolutely awesome thing in this game with archery is that mobs will investigate sounds. If you can't get a clear shot on one, shoot an arrow against a wall to make them investigate then pick them off. I discovered this when I was going for a headshot from stealth, missed, and three mobs took off running to check out my arrow. Awesome!
And finally, since it is passing 2am here, I witnessed the absolutely most awesome thing I have ever, ever, witnessed in a video game. My buddy that was using a 2 handed axe was fighting a dragon. With the dragon nearing death, he procced a killing blow animation. This fucking Dovakhiin jumped on top of the dragons back, ran down his neck, did a fucking massive jump and slammed his axe through the skull of the dragon. Amazing.
Alright, I'll upload some SSs or whatever tomorrow. For now, bed.
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Comments
The puzzles are a biatch for sure. I'm stuck at the drawbridge in Shroud Hearth Barrow (Ivarstead). I found the four pillars with Hawk, Whale, and Snake and have matched them to the pillars in the back room, but nothing happens. Not sure what I'm missing... :\
Otherwise, I found that rolling as a Warrior with shield and one-hander is much, much easier than a Mage. ):< So now I am an Orc Warrior with a rockin' mohawk!
Lawl, I figured out the drawbridge. Just so happened that a sneaky little Draugr had dropped his sword on top of the switch, so once I kicked it off and stood there down came the drawbridge. :]
Hehe... Stupid things like that are incredibly infuriating, yet hilarious in aftersight. ^_^
I've also managed to haul home Skyrim, and completely forgot the time last night. Bedtime aproximately at 3AM. At that point I had followed the storyline to the first dragon by the west watchtower and had died twice without even making a dent in the dragon's hide.
A new go this morning and the dragon was a poshover. Kinda helps to stand inside the tower and pelt arrows at it instead of standing out in the open. ^_^
I just quitted the game after taking the trip over the mountain to Ivarstead. On the way I had dropped by a cavern with some bloodtraces outside and had slain a dozen or two of vampires. No big deal, except for one big caveat...
I got out, did a little hunting for deer when the screen finally flashed red and a message pops up: "You feel a strange kind of thirst as the night approaches."
Um, not good? Guess I won't be friends with Buffy anytime soon.
Anyway, got to Ivarstead, and just for fun I used my shout on some rabbits just for fun. As I crossed the bridge a guard stops me and tells me that the locals are getting a little restless by all my noise. Love little touches like that. ^_^
So why did I quit? Hadn't planned to, but I swam over the river to talk to a lunatic (Narfi?), and decided that was the best way to reurn too. I swam a little close to the rocks near the waterfall, though, and got stuck. Couldn't budge myself a millimeter no matter what I tried.
I believe my companion, the one the Jarl gave me, fared better with her mobility, despite being washed over the rim of the waterfall. ^_^
That is awesome. And something that made having three screens such a joy. By the time we quit, all three of us were either on our way, just arrived, or just finished Ivarstead. And in that time, each of us had discovered different forts, caves, etc. Somehow both of those guys got NPC companions, but they were different companions.
I dunno, I just find it amazing how, even by the second quest line, each of us had barely crossed paths.
I got this too! Not sure how to cure it...
Also, whenever I walk around outside (this was before the vampire attack), people tell me I'm looking under the weather. Any idea what this is about, or is it because of my lovely Orcish complexion?
Go to Falkreath, and then seek out Valga Vinicia at the Dead Man's Drink.
Or find the Vigilant of Stendarr who can be found at times around Ivanstead.
Third option, become a Werewolf.
Then again, that'll also give you some problems, with folks wanting to kill you on sight. :P
I went for option 3... Lol. :D The Companions are a fun bunch!
Lo. 1:17am and I'm logging out, thought I'd check what everyone is up to and ... guess it's the same. I went for a full mage. I've only played 2.4 hours, but it's a blast.
/me sighs.
I was trying to resist Skyrim until it got cheaper... this makes it slightly more difficult.
Resistance is futile.
You WILL be assimilated!
Weee I found a sticking point, it's a damn games for windows game. I can't stand games for windows games... mostly because every time I get one(usually on steam and don't realize it's games for windows until it's too goddamn late) I have to install games for windows patches for an hour, then remember a password/username combo for an account I avoid like the plague.
That should help keep me away for a week a least!
It's Games for Windows, but not Games for Windows LIVE. It doesn't use the XBOX-like thing of true GFWL titles, it's just a normal Steam game.
Damn you for putting me back at wanting it.
I unlocked the game at midnight on friday morning and played for a few hours against my better judgement. Haven't had time to play since then but I really like it so far. It's MUCH more atmospheric than Oblivion, which is awesome.
I went with a Dunmer and I'm not really sure where I'm headed as far as skills go, which is kind of neat. I'm mostly using a one-handed + magic combo, but I like to open up with a bow + sneak backstab. So I guess I'll end up with some sort of crazy hybrid guy, but so far the game really seems to allow you to build up your character as you play so I think their new system works well.
I'm not a big fan of the menu system though. You get used to it eventually, but the fact remains that they put a big fat 0 effort into porting it. What annoys me is that the HUD doesn't seem to reflect the changes you make to the controls. I changed some of the keybindings to make them more like Morrowind and Oblivion, but the HUD doesn't seem to reflect these changes. So I end up dropping items instead of tagging them as favourite and stuff like that. Or perhaps my brain was just shutting down at 3 AM.
It took me about 3 hours to fully realize the fluidness of the controls. There are still a few fuckups in the menu where it switches from purely a WASD style to a mouse click, but otherwise, I am enjoying it. With the sheer number of options in the menu, navigating with button clicks has made it a much better experience (for me at least).
How well have you been able to sneak up on people to stab them? I am pretty damn high in stealth and it still is about 50-50 I can get close enough to stab.
Not well at all. Though in hindsight, I think having autorun on doesn't help. I don't have any perks in sneak either.
I've gotten more proficient at it and am trying to decide whether or not to invest perks into the 15x dagger sneak perk. I probably will... once I find a dagger better than orc.
I went back to the beginning and started a new character, an imperial. I'm not really sure what to specc him as yet, but I want at least a LITTLE magit, and enough combat skills to not utterly suck.
This time around I played using my PS3 controller, and while the aiming is slightly slower the game plays much smoother. It shows that the interface is designed for a console first and PC added as an afterthough.
I've not even bothered, prefering to sneak only when I plan on surprising them with an arrow through their ears.
Wow. Just wow. This game is by far the best I have ever played. I just got into a fight with two dragons.... got the killing blow on one flying by with my bow, then immediately got a killing blow animation on the second that landed right next to me. Now I just need to find more shouts to use their souls on!
How do you do the second shout word in the monastery? I have done it but I think I cheated somehow as I cant replicate it.
I was there for fucking ages pressing Z and blowing that monk over, then the other one saying "too bad, try again", then I tried combinations of keys, and finally hit upon C + Z (or maybe Z + C). It just didnt seem like a zoom kind of run that I did but he said "well done now piss off and get the third word".
By the way that Yeti was a sod. I eventually gave up and ran through him. Maybe level 4 is too low to kill him.
I still had to run past the Ice Troll/Yeti dude at 7 or 8. :\ He's a beast!
Hold down Z. The longer you hold Z, the more words you say.
Yes I got that covered, but the running fast bit is the thing I dont get. Just holding down the z key doesnt make you run so I hit c + z and I ran once but cant do it again. I guess it will be in a forum somewhere.
What running fast thing? The dragon shout? You have to "equip" your dragon shout (under magic) then you can use Z.
Nonono, you miscombobulate me.
You travel to the monastery, see the smelly monks in the foyer at the front and one of them teaches you to say a word, which you prove you've learnt by pressing z and blowing the other monk over.
Then the monk says that this was just one of the "Three Words" you need to learn & to "follow Friar Tuck out the back door" where he will teach you the next word.
Once out on the patio area the monk teaches you the word, then you all go over to a gate. He demonstrates its use by speed running over to through the gate and you then have to copy him.
I cant do the speed running thing i.e the 2nd word. I did it once after 20 attempts but cant seem to get down how its done right. I think the time I did it was fluke mashing of keys, but its not just z.
(Then you have to go get a horn to learn the third word which is miles away).
I think I understand your problem... They are teaching you two completely different dragon shouts. The first is Unrelenting Force, which is the Fus (first word)-Roh (second word) -Dah (third word). You should learn Fus and Roh at the monastary and the third will come, as you said, later.
The sprint shout (which is the one this monk wants you to use) is called something like "Whirlwind". It is an entirely different shout than Fus-Roh-Dah, and you will need to "equip" the shout via menus. Magic -> Shouts -> Whirlwind. That will make Whirlwind active and you should be able to simply use Z to use the shout.
I am not sure what you pressed to be able to do it once, perhaps you randomly stumbled upon a hotkey shout-swap.
Ahhhhh. Now that sounds plausible. I didnt check my spells to see if I had it as I thought it was linked to the z key.
Im looking forward to learning the word "Pie-and-Chips" as I keep running out of food.
I, umm, have a shout that (in a round about way) always makes sure you have plenty of food. True story.
And as you learn more shouts, you will need to unlock them via dragon souls. So if you discover more shouts, find a dragon, kill it, consume its soul, then you can activate the shouts by going to Magic -> Shouts, select the one you want to activate, then press "R". Took me a long while to figure that out as well...
What's that shout you have then? "Oi, you woman, gimme mah grub!"?
Haha. Hover over the link and read url if you actually want to know: Hover over me!
Thats mean. Almost as mean as eating the recipe for dog
While true, it sure as hell does beat shooting a zillion arrows at a fucking rabbit.
How to get visuals above Ultra? Try here. Also, I read that disabling the X-Box controller functionality scores 7FPS; but I haven't tested either of those tips!
I can confirm the disabling of the X-Box controller. It allowed me to up my graphics settings a bit too!
I'd also highly recommend this mod, which ups the native 2gb max ram usage to unlimited (or 4gb... I can't recall). Saw an increase in performance from that, even with my 4gb ram.
Stiggly, I hear you can pickup pots and things. Apparently you can put them over the heads of NPCs to hide their view; then you can rob them blind :)
Haha nice.
I find myself vaguely disappointed by this. I don't know why though.
Zomg how OP, yet clever. Never thought of that...
Also, you can farm gold by going through "instances," looting every last item in view, then running out the door and dropping it on the ground. Rinse, repeat. It's boring and tedious, but if you're in need of some cash it's pretty efficient.
Yes its clever, and so is the way to buy a house for free that I saw, but I 100% definitely won't be doing either of them. I mean, way to spoil a game or what!
The only "cheat" I have considered doing is when in the first stages of a dungeon, and getting a bit overloaded with loot, I have thought of going back out of the front door, dropping the loot and then going back in again, but I have presumed that it would reset the dungeon so when I went back in it would be repopulated. That would also spoil the effect and the game.
Im not saying there wont come a time when Im desperate enough for money that I wouldnt do any tricks, its just I couldnt comprehend doing it right now.
Agreed. I tried it once to see if it worked and it did without resetting the instance or having mobs respawn. Don't think I'll do it again, though. Such a hassle! :P
I am sitting on over 15k gold, two horses, and about 30k worth of items in my house. I can't find anything worth purchasing.
That'll probably be fixed in a patch once the developers get a whif of it. :P
Just bought myself a house today. The one you buy in Dragonreach. Ugly little hovel, but it's MINE!
I was a bit surprised, though, opening the door for the first time and etering the living room, where I found a young kid saying something about apples and then exiting through the door that I just came in... Y'know, the one that was recently locked?
Figured I'll specialize in three areas: One-handed weapons, Destruction and Light armors. I'll have a tiny bit in resto and archery, just enough to get by, and I try myself at all locks I can find to train my lockpicking skill.
On the side, and not Skyrim related, I'm creating characters for a Talislanta campaing that I want to start up. I love this setting, and the character development and skill system there feels rather similiar to how Skyrim works. I sit down and write characters and think of Skyrim, then I play Skyrim and think about the Talislanta campaign. ^_^
Not familiar with Talislanta? Not surprised, even if it's over 20 years since it first surfaced. It's been released in 5 editions (I'm using the last one), and is now free for all to use. Check it out if you're interrested in things like that. :P
I had a guy follow me into my house one time... He muttered something then left. Make sure you buy some of the upgrades! The chests are worth it!
Talislanta looks interesting, I'll peruse later on!
I LOVE THIS GAME!
Really started playing it tonight, got to level 5 (wood elf archer btw) and it's awesome. :D Getting the hang of it (smithing, mining, herbalism, alchemy etc)
Only thing I don't get is enchanting.... I know you disenchant things, but how do you apply the enchants?
You need soul gems which can be found randomly around the world or bought from the stores. You then need to fill them with the souls of slain enemies, which requires you to have a weapon or ability to capture the souls.
Yeah, just been reading up on it.
I'll post a picture of my character later on :)
Any hints on finding ore? I wander around aimlessly and can't seem to find any. :S It blends in so well...
I found some once, but had no pick axe, so went back to town, bought a pick axe, then couldnt find the ore again.
Later on I was somewhere else and saw some more ore, so I went to mine it and realised that I had needed the weight so I had got rid of the pick axe.
I think I'll stick to chopping wood.
There are mines scattered around which have tons of veins in them. Otherwise, random spawns in the world and/or dungeons. But they do blend in extremely well.
There's usually more of them inside caves and mines than out on the surface.