So I've never played Skyrim before, but contemplating giving it a go. What's it really like? Bear in mind I'm not one for stories, and walking from one village to another in boring fetch/kill quests and mostly just want to hack the sh*t out of everything in the games I play. However, it's meant to be really good right? For the record, I struggled to get into Fallout. So is Skyrim the same but with trolls and dragon?
No more than any other RPG, but that (without the comedy faceplant) is essentially what happens yes It's a great game though, and I'm not a massive RPG lover. I put about 120 hours into it but many have invested ten times that or more.
If you're looking for almost instant gratification with a hack and slash random enemies type of system, then vanilla Skyrim probably isn't the right fit for you as the Elder Scrolls tends to be more about exploration and discovering stories rather than kill simply kill anything bad. That said, you can tweak it with mods to create a very combat heavy experience with projects like the Civil War Overhaul, Warzones Civil Unrest and the dragon combat & frequency mods... plus you can add a mod that lets you kill absolutely anyone if you don't care much for the story. That's one of the major benefits of Elder Scrolls games, they have such a massive modding community that you can often fully customise the games... but if you're not keen on installing mods to cater your experience then they sometimes fall short on what people want out of a game. From the sounds of it, you're after more of a heavy action game so you might prefer something around the lines of Metal Gear Rising, Darksiders or Shadow of Mordor. Those tend to have a fair bit of melee combat... they've got equally well done stories, but the combat is often right there so you don't have to go looking far for someone to fight. Edit On the over-encumbrance topic; yeah, sadly that is a true thing that constantly happens throughout Skyrim. You'll constantly be picking up loot as you travel around the lands, along with loot from the enemies you kill so it stacks up insanely fast... You could constantly be looking at your inventory and chucking things out as you go along to the point where you might even contemplate using the console commands to change your carry weight limit to something silly and unreachable.
Unlike Shirty I have put thousands of hours into Skyrim and will go back to it again and again but, given what you say, I don't think it is the game for you as I suspect you may get bored soon. PS, On the over-encumbrance issue, it is easy, without using cheats, to increase carrying capacity as you level.
I struggled to get into both Skyrim and Fallout 3 multiple times until I actually forced myself to play them. Not completed either but I did end up enjoying my time on both. Took several attempts though, and years. But yes, skyrim and fallout are the same 'style' game. If you didn't like Fallout because you weren't constantly shooting stuff, you won't like Skyrim because you're not constantly fighting stuff.
For me, it was a mistake to buy. I don't like fantasy games as a rule but still decided to give it a go: it still couldn't make me like the genre. I did bother to install a lot of mods and boy did it look good though! I can't wait for Fallout 4 to be released on the same engine though, whenever that happens.
I loved Skyrim, played it over and over again and modified it a lot. However, because you said this: I wouldn't recommend it. Have you played Middle-Earth: Shadows of Mordor? That truly is a 'hack the sh*t out of everything' kind of game.
^ This. Skyrim, being an Elder Scrolls game, is about levelling and building stats; out of the first gate, you can't kill much, and the satisfaction is in finally getting your character beefed enough to handle anything. But that takes many repetitions of smacking a Lesser Cave Scrote, Lv.1 in the face and nearly dying. I actually haven't played much Skyrim because (shallowest complaint ever incoming) I found the colour palette and setting too drab and grey. I prefer lush environments if I'm gonna be hoofing it across the countryside discovering things; I've never felt a burning desire to explore the Scottish highlands on foot, which is basically what Skyrim is like. So I just went back to playing Oblivion. Also both Oblivion and Skyrim are defined by their bugginess, visual incoherence, weird effects and strange glitches, which some people love but which I find really frustrating and immersion-breaking. YMMV.
They're also known for the huge modding communities, mainly as you need the mods to deal with the above...
If you're open to modding your game and you're after more of a lush & vibrant environment rather than the drab and grey atmosphere of the cold mountains of Skyrim, then you may benefit from using the Tropical Skyrim Overhaul, Claralux (More & Brighter Lights) and the Animallica Wildlife Overhaul on the Skyrim Nexus website.
Whilst Skyrim is not perfect, it is not as buggy as some would have you believe. Many so-called bugs are in-fact problems generated by mods. Some people use large numbers of mods, then blame problems on game bugs.
There are some serious game-breaking bugs though, not all of them apparent right away. My last playthrough ended when I could not enter one of the main cities anymore because the savegame got corrupted. Unfortunately I didn't notice before the four or five autosave games got overwritten. That's twenty-something hours down the drain. This is not modding-related mind you, console gamers have had the same problem. Skyrim is extremely buggy. If you don't love the game right away don't bother to be honest. Many problems are due to the age of the Gamebryo engine dating back to Oblivion and the heavy constraints on the scripting engine due to the tiny 256mb RAM of the PS3. May I recommend Dark Souls instead? The game has a deep story but it won't force it one you. If you want to you can just ignore the story and go for the killing.
I've got over 400 hours on Skyrim and consider it one of my favorite games of all time. That said, based on your first post and what you're looking for, play Dark Souls instead.
Never got into an RPG before Skyrim in my life, hated every single one I ever tried. Saw it in the Steam sale and all my friends raved about it so I thought I would have a go. Sunk the best part of 100 hours into it. Loved it. Give it a chance
It is terrible and it is all about walking miles from place to place, talking to 100 boring NPC's and listening to their generic story to convince you that their fed ex quest isn't boring, and the rest of the time you spend fighting with the worst combat in an 'RPG' ever. It is neither good action combat nor tactical RPG combat.
