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ysobelThings wot I am liking about Skyrim:
+ Visuals. Including little details.
+ Rivers have current. Not just visually; items, including the player, will drift at current speed, which is variable between places. This is serious omgness.
+ Armor is not specifically restricted by "class"; you can be a magic user in heavy armor, or (if you're suicidal or something) a hand-to-hand fighter in light armor, or whatever. But there are reasonable tradeoffs - heavier armor protects more but also has more weight and makes more noise, so a sneaky thief type would not want to clank around in steel armor.
+/- While there is a main storyline questline thing, there is very little linearity to the side quests. You can take them or not as you choose, and there is absolutely no sense of "quest X is good at level P, then move on to this other quest area when you hit level Q", and very little "I, an NPC, am strongly encouraging you, the PC, to go to City Foobar now, Hint Hint &c."
+/- Combat, including bow aiming, does not involve setting a target; you swing/fire/etc at the space in front of you. This makes archery (enjoyably) tricky, because it is quite possible to miss. (And an arrow hitting something will attract the attention of nearby enemies.) It's a bit of a pain sometimes, but again kind of closer to reality.
#
Things I am not liking as much:
- identifying targets, or rather the lack thereof. If I am engaged in combat with someone or something I will get an identifier (e.g. "Bandit" or "Moose" or whatnot) along with the health bar. But from a distance I can't really distinguish friend from enemy, let alone specifics - is that animal a wolf or a goat? is that person a bandit or a normal fisherman or a frost giant that will stomp me into next tuesday? - and since the character I am playing right now is distance-stealth (preferred attack being an arrow fired while sneaking), I kind of lose the advantages I have if I try to get within range.
- the weird amalgam of reality logic and game logic. (though it can occasionally be amusing, e.g. the fact that you can put a basket over a shopkeeper's head and blithely rob from them without penalty. And then sell them their own stuff back.)
- starting a new game or new character. you have to sit through the whole opening cinematic each time; there's no option to skip through it. There is a way around some of that -- the game autosaves right before character customization, so you can load that to skip half of it -- but only half.
(why yes, I have startitis; I hope no one is surprised ;D)
+ Visuals. Including little details.
+ Rivers have current. Not just visually; items, including the player, will drift at current speed, which is variable between places. This is serious omgness.
+ Armor is not specifically restricted by "class"; you can be a magic user in heavy armor, or (if you're suicidal or something) a hand-to-hand fighter in light armor, or whatever. But there are reasonable tradeoffs - heavier armor protects more but also has more weight and makes more noise, so a sneaky thief type would not want to clank around in steel armor.
+/- While there is a main storyline questline thing, there is very little linearity to the side quests. You can take them or not as you choose, and there is absolutely no sense of "quest X is good at level P, then move on to this other quest area when you hit level Q", and very little "I, an NPC, am strongly encouraging you, the PC, to go to City Foobar now, Hint Hint &c."
+/- Combat, including bow aiming, does not involve setting a target; you swing/fire/etc at the space in front of you. This makes archery (enjoyably) tricky, because it is quite possible to miss. (And an arrow hitting something will attract the attention of nearby enemies.) It's a bit of a pain sometimes, but again kind of closer to reality.
#
Things I am not liking as much:
- identifying targets, or rather the lack thereof. If I am engaged in combat with someone or something I will get an identifier (e.g. "Bandit" or "Moose" or whatnot) along with the health bar. But from a distance I can't really distinguish friend from enemy, let alone specifics - is that animal a wolf or a goat? is that person a bandit or a normal fisherman or a frost giant that will stomp me into next tuesday? - and since the character I am playing right now is distance-stealth (preferred attack being an arrow fired while sneaking), I kind of lose the advantages I have if I try to get within range.
- the weird amalgam of reality logic and game logic. (though it can occasionally be amusing, e.g. the fact that you can put a basket over a shopkeeper's head and blithely rob from them without penalty. And then sell them their own stuff back.)
- starting a new game or new character. you have to sit through the whole opening cinematic each time; there's no option to skip through it. There is a way around some of that -- the game autosaves right before character customization, so you can load that to skip half of it -- but only half.
(why yes, I have startitis; I hope no one is surprised ;D)