The Elder Scrolls Series

Morrowind >> Skyrim > Oblivion.

From the perspective of an adventure gamer, Morrowind gave you a world to explore and “geographical puzzles” to solve. In Skyrim, you follow the quest arrow.

I heard that complaint a lot, still managed to get lost more often than not! :sweat_smile:

(also there are unmarked quests too, until a while ago I didn´t know what Kaarstag was and I´m officially dead now)

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I know, I know! faux German for candle day. :smiley:

(In actual Low Saxon it’d be something like keersdag, and of course in Dutch kaarsdag, but who’s counting.)

So this Skyrim thing is like fantasy GTA?

You would in dungeons or rough terrain. However, it really changed the way I approached the game. (And of course, it was but a single, extremely exaggerated example for the many ways in which Morrowind is the more exceptional experience)

Never played GTA, but isn’t that more story focused?

Well, yeah there is one main story usually that is quite complex and usually you´d better get on with it to access all of the map. I usually play through the story with any GTA/RDR game before I do anything else. With Elder Scrolls the main story is usually very short and there aren´t pre rendered cut scenes (and the main story of Skyrim is way way shorter than the one of GTAIV).

Kinda depends on your view of what defines story focused I guess.

well not if you play with mods, no fast travel & no hud are a must imo :slight_smile:

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I’d call it mission (or “quest”) based, but there’s a lot of fun in just driving by the coast, breaking into the airport and stealing a plane, being a taxi driver, a truck driver, etc. Basically just being in the game world is fun, regardless whether you’re doing any (side) quests or not.

Also I don’t recall the story of any of the GTA games. Just some generic diamond in the rough gangster with a heart of gold stuff.

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Can’t comment on this… I really didn’t play Morrowind (will do when Skywind is out!). But this is not the first time I heard that, long time fans of the series seems to be in agreement with your order.

No fast travel is usually a constraint I set to myself, no mods required. The HUD is a different thing, though, because a lot of times the game relies on the fact that it can pinpoint you to the precise location you need to visit, and doesn’t provide alternative directions. But yes, without it you really view the game world with different eyes!

It’s really one of those games where the stars aligned, so to speak. It has this meticulously crafted world that feels like a real place, with all these distinct and characteristic locations to get lost in, a rather good (if, somewhat artificially protracted) main story and great game systems.

Of course, it also had the advantage that the internet was still in its infancy, and you would not be tempted so much to look at guides, hints or spoilers and could experience the game in a much more intimate fashion.

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Well just as you can avoid fast travel you can switch the Questmarker and the HUD off too.

Doesn´t sound like a bad challange tbh…maybe I play as a Khajiit next time…yes this one looks like it would do that…may your roads lead you to warm sands! :cat:

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forgot to mention “Better Quest Objectives” mod helps with that. Maybe we should start an Elder Scrolls Thread? :thinking:

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I don’t recall the story of Skyrim and Oblivion either. It’s all the usual “you’re the chosen one” thing. I don’t think I will play any of these games soon (the new ones I mean). It’s the same theme over and over.

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Not opposed to that :smile:. Would give me the opportunity to drop links to fun things such as Carved Brink or The Senile Scribbles. (Both related to Skyrim)

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Back in '06 or '07 I played the Oblivion demo and iirc the bloom effects had me almost literally rofling. :slight_smile:

LOL brilliant. I didn’t know about it!

Compared to many high fantasy plots I find the Elder Scrolls games actually pretty interesting storywise.

First of all there is the way the topic of racism is treated with the way the Stormcloacks view the Dark Elves and when you visit them in their Ghetto you find out they´re actually kinda nice people who don´t deserve to be treated that way.

Women are everything, hero, enemy, warrior there are females in every role not just reduced to outsider positions.

The relationship between Dragons and humans are way more complicated than the simple good vs evil plot. So you have to make some difficult decisions along the way. Same for the Civil War, where the Empire isn´t what it may seem.

Orks are part of society instead of just a whole race of evildoers. For example the librarian of Winterhold college. Although they are still very much connected to their tribal roots. In a way they´re the Klingons of the Elder Scrolls, which is way more differentiated as it was during Tolkien´s days.

So I´d say the approach the world building is pretty interesting, and as with most open world games they are really neat side stories that you can find, which are often way more interesting than the classic hero´s journey main plot (that still works well for main plots, however clicheed it is by this point).

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Indeed, the thing I liked most from Oblivion was some nasty, dark guild. They had more interesting quests than the main one. I’m sure Skyrim had something similar but at some point I asked myself why am I playing this game and couldn’t come up with a good answer, so I gave up on it. I just like good stories, rich world is not enough. I played Loom once decades ago and still remember what it’s about. Same thing Plane Scape Torment. Both of these are fantasy, so it can be done in such setting. I’ve surely spent more time with Elder Scrolls than with those two games and yet it’s all a blur to me. I can’t remember a single character.

I think some of the guild quests are super fun and the Vampire add-on Dawnguard is super cool.

But I can see way sou feel that way. The dungeons are often super repetative, pull chain, do that claw puzzle, do that whale, snake, eagle puzzle .get past the swinging blades, etc and especially the Dwemer Ruins are often overly long.

Also the thiefguild questline has one of the worst redundantly repetative quests I´ve ever seen in any game. That might have been the part I disliked about it the most by far.

I think the dungeons may be the weakest part. But try becoming a master thief for instance and it feels like you´re playing a wholly different game already.

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@discourse Time to split the thread! Skyrim was mentioned and then this happened…

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image

that’s just great