User blog comment:Redexx/Skyrim's many faults and upsides. **My take**/@comment-26474238-20121228043237

My main issue with Skyrim is with the lack of emotion and personality when dealing with the varied settlers and factions. Let me give a few examples of what I find the most annoying:


 * Companions: Fallout 3 was known for having horrible companions, simply because they were a rushed edition right before the game was officially released. With Skyrim, they had no excuse, as the feature was planned right from the beginning, as stated by Todd Howard. (What with how successful the improved companions were in Fallout: New Vegas.) But the whole system is terrible in Skyrim, with most companions following you to their deaths merely because you beat them in a brawl, or fetched something for them. There are very few companions who have any real backstory to them, (There are a few minor exceptions, such as Mjoll and Enthir.) and it's impossible for me to gain any sense of emotional attachment to them; using them mostly as distractions or beasts of burden.


 * Factions: A couple of factions were pretty well made in Skyrim, such as the Dark Brotherhood and the Thieve's Guild. (Dark Brotherhood wasn't as good as Oblivion's, in my opinion, although the Thieves Guild is much better.) But then we get to the rest:


 * Companions: The quest-line involved with this group is a slap in the face to all of us whom are so used to the Fighters Guild. The radiant quests are merely go to x location and kill one of y creatures, with the main questline being unusually short and easy. (The Silver Hand aren't even a threat to the most low leveled players; especially if you're in werewolf form.) The only quest that was even remotely challenging was curing Kodlak, and that's only when you're high enough level where just about every draugr is a deathlord. And even this quest is watered down by using such a generic setting.


 * College of Winterhold: I actually rather liked the main questline once you get further in, as it deals with going through a unique Nordic ruin, along with Ancano being a fairly interesting boss fight. So what is my issue with this quest-line? The same one I had with the Mages Guild in Oblivion... you don't even have to be a magic user to become the arch-mage. In fact, aside from casting a tier one spell to get in and practicing tier one ward magic that one time with the other newbies, the main questline for the College is completely devoid of any intent of ever actually teaching you any form(s) of magic at all. Even the final battle involves you using a staff; not actual magic on your part.


 * Arena: In my own personal experiences, I have found that most people that I know whom play RPG's tend to love fighting in the arena. It seems lately, though, Bethesda/Obsidian have been steering away from this concept. They hardly had an arena in New Vegas, and Skyrim is utterly devoid of one. It seems rather strange to me that they would leave such an important aspect of RPG play out of their most modern title.


 * Blades: This one really really disappointed me. So many options were open for this questline, but it ended up being two quests, (The Wall of Alduin quest was fairly tough, though, fighting such a large Forsworn encampment included with Hagravens and a scripted dragon attack.) and trailing off into the dark afterwards with recruiting a grand total of three more members and then just radiant quests fighting dragons. (This is fun for a while, but they absolutely get massacred on any difficulty once you get to the level where ancient dragons start spawning.)


 * Power-Players: What really kills me about Skyrim is the lack of other important characters that rival the power of the player character. (If not in raw power, then at least in influence.) We have a few, such as General Tulius and Ulfric. (Shouldn't forget that they have added a few such as Miraak and Isran through the DLC's.) But it seems to me that just about everyone in Skyrim is expendable, and of little to no true purpose; even the Jarls. (With the exceptions of Balgruuf the Greater and Maven, possibly.) It just seems to me that the importance is mostly thrown on either the Dragonborn, the Civil War leaders, and Alduin himself. Almost no one else really has a backstory to them, and are easily forgettable. That's not how an RPG should be. :/ (This goes the same for other supposed leaders like the Blades and the GreyBeards. Aside from their minor quest-lines, do we know anything about them? Do they actually do anything important in the game or lore? Not really, no.)