Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Thread #2

[AGX-17]

Personally I didn't like it because... you don't need to be Thief-like in the least to play through it. Plus, it's not hard to see the "plot-twist" in the actual story of it, and of course, you are powerless to act upon it in any way until the story decides it's time to do so.

 

There's hardly any thievery involved, the writing is terrible, the story is terrible (it even contradicts established lore that the TG is hated and cursed by Nocturnal in Oblivion, not to mention NPCs selling your character's soul to her and your only dialogue option is to agree or exit the dialogue and not finish the questline,) the characters are terrible, and there is no roleplaying involved. Bethesda's idea of RPing is a binary choice between doing the quest/line and not doing it.

 

Of course, the concept of a thieves' guild is fundamentally stupid to begin with.

Edited December 9, 2012 by AGX-17

[IcyDeadPeople]

On the whole, I vastly prefer Skyrim to Oblivion but I must say that I generally found the DB and TG questlines a lot more enjoyable in Oblivion. Especially the TG one.

 

Loved Oblivion's DB quests, but something about the Oblivion Thieves' Guild really rubbed me the wrong way. They were too much Robin Hood and didn't seem like a believable gang of criminals.

 

Haven't finished Skyrim's TG quest yet, probably did a little more than half and so far I absolutely love it. Above all, the voice actor playing Devlin is absolutely brilliant, he's channeling a Michael Caine type of ****ney accent and it's wonderful. They seem like a much more believable group of thieves compared to the goody two shoes Oblivion TG.

[GhostofAnakin]

 

Problem with guild questlines in Oblivion and Skyrim is that they're completely separated from the world and overall storyline (happening in a vacuum), unlike Morrowind.

 

More than the writing issues, I think this is the biggest reason I found the faction sidequests lacking in Skyrim. After completing them, they didn't seem to matter in the grand scheme of the world.

[Humanoid]

The unique thing about the Dark Brotherhood questline in Skyrim is that you can totally short-circuit it and take it in another direction right from the outset. Sure, the alternate path is not nearly as engaging as the 'intended' path, but it's a welcome addition. All the more baffling then, that the same approach isn't taken with the other major non-plot questlines. All it takes is removing the plot armour and a simple trigger to activate the fallback questline when you get all stabby.

[AGX-17]

The unique thing about the Dark Brotherhood questline in Skyrim is that you can totally short-circuit it and take it in another direction right from the outset. Sure, the alternate path is not nearly as engaging as the 'intended' path, but it's a welcome addition. All the more baffling then, that the same approach isn't taken with the other major non-plot questlines. All it takes is removing the plot armour and a simple trigger to activate the fallback questline when you get all stabby.

 

It's the only one that actually allows for any form of roleplaying, as it gives players the option of killing the whole lot of them, for justice, for revenge, or just for fun, y'know, whatevs. It doesn't even matter that it denies you access to the master alchemy and light armor trainers, since alchemy and smithing (thus giving access to light armor that reaches the DR cap,) are the easiest skills to grind.

 

But the fact that it's unique in that way is telling about Bethesda's quest design principles and their idea of an RPG.

Edited December 9, 2012 by AGX-17