PigLick on 11/11/2011 at 03:26

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Ok I have played through about an hours worth, and thought I would post my impressions so far. The game autoset my graphics at medium, and it runs well with no problems so far, but I am actually a little underwhelmed by the visuals, still very Oblivion/Fallout, so I may crank up the settings to high and see what happens.
Dont get me wrong though, the game looks amazing still, and the water effects are jaw dropping.
The intro is excellent, and its then that you realize this game actually has good voice acting. So I got through the intro 'dungeon', made it to the first town and am pretty much at the point where I can now go and do whatever I like. Already have at least a dozen quests and locations of interest to check out, so obviously there is gonna be huge amount of content in the game.
Combat is better than Oblivion, feels more visceral and bloody, but its still essentially click to attack. Having said that it doesnt feel like you are rolling a dice everytime you attack as much as previous elder scrolls, feels a lot more real.
The interface is probably the worst thing, it looks very un-fantasy like, and you have to click through lists of stuff like in Oblivion. I still think the Morrowind interface was much better, you could see everything on one screen, and just mouse over items for stats. So yeh, very consoley, which I guess is to be expected.
All in all I am very impressed and can see myself spending a whole lot of hours on this one.

Firefreak on 11/11/2011 at 16:28

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My first impressions are mixed. PC here and also at a 'free to go' point. Only about one hour of game time.

Good:
- Pretty much anything about sound. From the atmosphere over music to the spoken word. I went up to Dragons... -reach?... -whatsitsname' high point and wondered: "You're eating up here? It's darn freezing!" just because of the 'sound' of the cold.
- NPC interaction (beyond their wooden movement) feels more lifelike. Sitting at the table with the two men was awesome to follow the conversation. After talking with the first, the second was looking at me hinting 'talk to me'.

Not so Good:
- I was missing an intro video like in the previous two games. Such things get me more into the lore than just a ride in the woods. Interesting resolution though :)
- The interface. I yet haven't get used to the controls using the mouse - it's not doing what I'd expect it to. The perk selection is... tedious. Have to try the cursor keys next time.
- Also, then and again I managed not to ready an arrow. (Didn't go as fluently) Have to check that.

Oh - and: Not being able to set the keyboard or sound or any vital settings (subtitles?) before starting a game is not very nice. ("Run to me!" - /me runs backwards)

Hanse on 11/11/2011 at 17:15

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I played for about four hours last night, and am trying to get some writing done this morning before I waste the rest of the day playing it. ;)

My graphics card unfortunately barely meets the minimum requirements, so the game set all my settings at "Low", but it still looks pretty good. I may mess with the settings to see what it can handle, though it appears the only things I can mess with are various filters.

So far I'm liking it, particularly the free form leveling, and not having to game the system by leveling skills you don't use in order to avoid breaking your character by leveling too fast/slow.

Some of the voice acting has been good, but others have been pretty terrible. I haven't yet heard anyone say "I saw a mudcrab the other day" so that's a win. ;)

I'm not a real fan of the UI either, but I can't quite put my finger on why. It seems cumbersome to use a potion mid combat, for example, even if you've marked it as a 'favorite'. Maybe I'm missing something. I'm also not a fan of the star chart skill trees. The screen looks really cool, without a doubt, but it's a hassle to navigate and explore everything.

These are all minor complaints though. I enjoyed the first "real" dungeon I explored, doing the claw quest. It was pretty big and had a lot of variety in it. I haven't done any other caves or anything yet, so I can't comment on whether or not they did any copy/pasting a la Oblivion.

I haven't quite been gripped by the story yet, but it's still early. When I quit last night, I had only just arrived at the first main city, Whiterun, so haven't explored it thoroughly and haven't seen the guy I need to see about the main quest.

I'm sure I will be playing many more hours of this in the coming days.

Painman on 11/11/2011 at 19:22

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They're supposedly much more hand-polished and varied. Beth had a whole team devoted to dungeon design this time, as opposed to one dude for all of Oblivion.

Haven't been in any of them yet, though. I haven't even got much past character creation, thanks to Bethesda making the numpad keys 1-8 non-bindable (I'm left handed). :mad:

I just installed Autohotkey, which appears to be a viable workaround. But they really need to fix this. There's a shitstorm raging over @ their forum about it.

henke on 11/11/2011 at 20:32

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Keep the impressions coming guys, love reading em. :)

I might wait a bit with getting this game. Dark Souls is giving me my fill of medieval fantasy RPGing right now, and besides Bethesda's games have been a bit hit and miss for me. Loved Fallout 3, but Morrowind, Oblivion and FO:NV I never really could get into. They seem great on paper but somehow just don't click for me.