Does Anyone Else Have Trouble Getting Into Bethesda Games?

[OmegaBeamOfficial 622]

Yeah, It's another help forum. Surprise surprise. I must REALLY be annoying the always online users at this point. But yeah, this post was sparked by when I was installing all my games onto my Xbox One (which I can now do much easier thanks to the S's 2TB hard drive, that's my motivation) and eventually reached Fallout 4. I remember getting the game soon after release, trailers and such were honestly really interesting and dragged me into the hype. It was my first Bethesda game, and when I eventually sat and played it, I really struggled to get into the swing of the gameplay. I just can't seem to get used to Bethesda's trademark gameplay style. Since Fallout 4 I've played more of their games and have the same problem every time. Fallout 3 and Skyrim, along with Fallout 4 are all games I have the same issue with: Little to no guidance. It feels like throwing a baby into bathwater the minute after they come out of the womb, that's the best way to describe it. After a very short intro sequence which only quickly glosses over the basics, you're thrust into the fray of the open world with no sense of direction or help. These are key to video games, you need to ease the player into the game and let them get accustomed to It's mechanics before just dropping them into the world and saying "go nuts". On top of that there's always so many cluttered menus, gameplay features and such everywhere that it feels like you can't keep track of anything and will end up spending HOURS cycling through everything constantly inbetween the action. With an open world that's so vast and mazelike to explore, it doesn't teach you half of what you need to know. And the games being sequels isn't an excuse, plenty of sequels get franchise newcomers, and even Fallout 3, the first game in the franchise to use the formula it has today, does a poor job of explaining the mechanics. Every game of theirs I own hasn't got much playtime from me. It pains me because I WANT to love these games, I'm interested in the lore of the worlds Bethesda make and the characters, I wanna explore it and find out more, and the game itself too, I wanna fight dragons, I wanna run around in a badass power suit, but I can't summon the will to get to those parts when I can barely get myself started, and that's not including having to scavenge and search for every item in a room before moving on to stand a chance. Any thoughts?

[cmarston1 5,951]

I have never played one before, and while I am sure they are decent games, they never seem like something that I would want to play.

[SugarCoatxMarblePie 701]

Skyrim even Elder Scrolls fans find similar criticism for like stale repetitive dungeons and similar quests every time, which is visit here gather x come back so annoying. Theres no personal investment.

Then fallout4 the story is meh.

So if you wanna play Fallout get new vegas, if you wanna play an Elder Scrolls get Morrow Wind. Watch some gameplay first like first hour or so.

But fallout and skyrim have TONS of mods, I love it, idk about console tho. I know FO4 had some, Skyrim I doubt has any.

[K.Rool Addict 718]

Only Bethesda games I have been able to truly "get into" were Fallout 3 and Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion.  Spent over 1,000 hours on the both of em combined @_@

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 40,278]

Elder Scrolls games? No. Fallout games? Yes. I personally adore the Elder Scrolls franchise, as it is a totally different world to explore and learn about. Even just walking in the snowy lands of Skyrim makes me feel engrossed in it. Fallout, I cannot get the same sense of awe and wonder. They are in just an apocalyptic version of our world, and that alone makes it less interesting to me. The whole apocalypse thing makes it pretty obvious what all the world in going to be like and then the fact that it is the real world takes a lot of wonder away. For me at least.

[Redeye 399]

1 hour ago, OmegaBeamOfficial said:

Little to no guidance. It feels like throwing a baby into bathwater the minute after they come out of the womb, that's the best way to describe it. After a very short intro sequence which only quickly glosses over the basics, you're thrust into the fray of the open world with no sense of direction or help. These are key to video games, you need to ease the player into the game and let them get accustomed to It's mechanics before just dropping them into the world and saying "go nuts".

I'd like to point out that this is nearly 100% false. While not detailed, the tutorial sections provide a heavy chunk of the mechanics that you need to be able to fight. On being thrown into the open world, the games LITERALLY give you a quest menu that tells you where you can go to continue the main quest, and even provides you with Quest Markers that pinpoint exactly where your next objective is. The games, I believe, also have Help Menus that you can read through if you're ever confused.

Back on topic, while I do love the Elder Scrolls series, and am really hoping that ES6 comes out within the next few years, Fallout is boring. Something about it doesn't give me the same feel as Elder Scrolls does. I had more fun exploring Skyrim than I did Massachusetts. I'd much rather get ahold of Skyrim VR than Fallout 4 VR.

[Celli 4,332]

Yes, they are overrated games that I have never understood the appeal of. I played Skyrim for an hour and it got boring fast. Fallout is okay but still overrated. Todd  Howard is a sham who overhypes his games and they run like shit, and Skyrim is basically as big as an ocean but as deep as a kiddie pool. If you want a good open world action RPG, Witcher 3 trumps Skyrim in every way.

[GeekySonic 1,150]

Not really? I played a lot of Fallout 3, New Vegas, and 4. I never had much difficulty adapting to them, they just kinda clicked (though it probably helped that I often watched my dad play Fallout 3 when it first came out). Skyrim? I dunno why, but I couldn't get into that game at all. It was kinda boring.

[Twilight Dirac 720]

Its not just you Omega.  Bethesda games have always been like this.  Vast open worlds with little direction or focus.  People play them for the shear size and scale of the games, but the design of the games themselves isn't very tight and the environments definitely get repetitive and samey after a while.  And these games get constantly interrupted by crappy minigames like lockpicking and hacking as well as the constant inventory management (which the various crafting systems tend to contribute to).  They're passable exploration games and the combat in the Fallout versions can be a lot of fun, but they do tend to wear on you after a while.  Of these types of games, I have only ever managed to complete Fallout 3 (no expansions), the others I always got bored with after a while.    

Edited June 21, 2017 by Twilight Dirac

[OmegaBeamOfficial 622]

7 hours ago, Redeye said:

I'd like to point out that this is nearly 100% false. While not detailed, the tutorial sections provide a heavy chunk of the mechanics that you need to be able to fight. On being thrown into the open world, the games LITERALLY give you a quest menu that tells you where you can go to continue the main quest, and even provides you with Quest Markers that pinpoint exactly where your next objective is. The games, I believe, also have Help Menus that you can read through if you're ever confused.

Back on topic, while I do love the Elder Scrolls series, and am really hoping that ES6 comes out within the next few years, Fallout is boring. Something about it doesn't give me the same feel as Elder Scrolls does. I had more fun exploring Skyrim than I did Massachusetts. I'd much rather get ahold of Skyrim VR than Fallout 4 VR.

Well, It's been a while since I've played, so maybe I didn't remember it right I guess, I dunno. I just remember feeling lost and not having a clue what to do, because of issues I mentioned in the original post. And giving me a quest menu is fine, but I haven't seen many waypoint markers as I've been playing, or at least don't remember seeing them, nor have I seen any help menus. I'm not saying you don't have a valid point however, I'm just saying it feels like you're trying to make what I'm saying seem completely invalid.

Oh, and yeah, I don't think ES6 is happening yet, most games have a 2 year production span or around that time, and Bethesda usually don't seem to make sequels quickly one after another. I believe there were around 7-8 years between Fallout 3 and 4, so if we go by the same logic and you cross your fingers it should be out by 2018 or 2019, though I'd bet more on 2019 since we didn't see it at E3 this year. Just a prediction though.

6 hours ago, Celli said:

Yes, they are overrated games that I have never understood the appeal of. I played Skyrim for an hour and it got boring fast. Fallout is okay but still overrated. Todd  Howard is a sham who overhypes his games and they run like shit, and Skyrim is basically as big as an ocean but as deep as a kiddie pool. If you want a good open world action RPG, Witcher 3 trumps Skyrim in every way.

Well, It's like I said, I'm interested in the world and characters but when you can't really get the hang of the game after the tutorial you won't see any of the cooler stuff, or in my experience with Skyrim, I'll just get bored and stop playing. I wouldn't really touch any Witcher games since the art style Isn't my thing, but I'm sure there's better stuff out there.

5 hours ago, GeekySonic said:

Not really? I played a lot of Fallout 3, New Vegas, and 4. I never had much difficulty adapting to them, they just kinda clicked (though it probably helped that I often watched my dad play Fallout 3 when it first came out). Skyrim? I dunno why, but I couldn't get into that game at all. It was kinda boring.

I guess you're just really good at it then, more power to you.

Edited June 20, 2017 by OmegaBeamOfficial

[Celli 4,332]

10 minutes ago, OmegaBeamOfficial said:

Well, It's like I said, I'm interested in the world and characters but when you can't really get the hang of the game after the tutorial you won't see any of the cooler stuff, or in my experience with Skyrim, I'll just get bored and stop playing. I wouldn't really touch any Witcher games since the art style Isn't my thing, but I'm sure there's better stuff out there

Can I ask why you don't like the art style? 

Also, Witcher does a fantastic job with immersing you with it's characters and gameplay, and sidequests. There's just so much to do.

[OmegaBeamOfficial 622]

5 hours ago, Twilight Dirac said:

Its not just you Omega.  Bethesda games have always been like this.  Vast open worlds with little direction or focus.  People play them for the shear size and scale of the games, but the design of the games themselves isn't very tight and the environments definitely get repetitive and samey after a while.  And these games get constantly interrupted by crappy minigames like lockpicking and hacking as well as the constant inventory management (which the various crafting systems tend to contribute to).  They're passable exploration games and the combat in the Fallout versions can be a lot of fun, but they do tend to wear on you after a while.  Of these types of games, I have only ever managed to complete Fallout 3 (no expansions), the others I always got board with after a while.    

I can't comment on the lockpicking stuff or the minigames, but I think the crafting system thing might as well be the worst part of it, I haven't been able to craft anything, but from the pure amount of items you have to run around picking up just within the first hour and the cluttered menus I mentioned before, I think that might be the main issue here.

1 minute ago, Celli said:

Can I ask why you don't like the art style? 

Also, Witcher does a fantastic job with immersing you with it's characters and gameplay, and sidequests. There's just so much to do.

I'm not sure really, It's hard to explain or put it into words. Now take what I'm saying with a LOT of salt because apart from the box art and some gameplay videos/trailers and whatnot I've barely seen that much of Witcher 3, but from what I have seen, it just doesn't have anything that sticks out to me, while I've complained about Bethesda in this post, I wouldn't have bought there games if there wasn't something that attracted me to them, Fallout has the idea of exploring a post apocalypse nuclear wasteland, and Skyrim has all the dragons and dudes with really cool armour, but what does Witcher 3 have? It's not just that either, I feel like the color palette from what I've seen is really bland, I've only seen a lot of browns and murky colors that make it look kind of boring and uninteresting, a game can have the most advanced graphics in the world but if the art style doesn't look appealing in the first place how am I supposed to get invested in the world I'm gonna be exploring for the next 8-10 hours?

[Celli 4,332]

6 minutes ago, OmegaBeamOfficial said:

I'm not sure really, It's hard to explain or put it into words. Now take what I'm saying with a LOT of salt because apart from the box art and some gameplay videos/trailers and whatnot I've barely seen that much of Witcher 3, but from what I have seen, it just doesn't have anything that sticks out to me, while I've complained about Bethesda in this post, I wouldn't have bought there games if there wasn't something that attracted me to them, Fallout has the idea of exploring a post apocalypse nuclear wasteland, and Skyrim has all the dragons and dudes with really cool armour, but what does Witcher 3 have? It's not just that either, I feel like the color palette from what I've seen is really bland, I've only seen a lot of browns and murky colors that make it look kind of boring and uninteresting, a game can have the most advanced graphics in the world but if the art style doesn't look appealing in the first place how am I supposed to get invested in the world I'm gonna be exploring for the next 8-10 hours?

Have we seen the same game? I've sunk hours into Witcher 3 and the visuals are very colorful and vibrant, I'm not sure where you're getting this brown and murky color from.

You really need to look deep into it more, at first glance it might seem generic but it's not. I'd highly recommend watching some extensive gameplay.

Also, if you ask me Skyrim's visuals are much more grey and murky, and just doesn't look good.

[OmegaBeamOfficial 622]

Just now, Celli said:

Have we seen the same game? I've sunk hours into Witcher 3 and the visuals are very colorful and vibrant, I'm not sure where you're getting this brown and murky color from.

You really need to look deep into it more, at first glance it might seem generic but it's not. I'd highly recommend watching some extensive gameplay.

Perhaps I will, I should probably give it a closer look before trying to say what I think of It's art.

[Celli 4,332]

Just now, OmegaBeamOfficial said:

Perhaps I will, I should probably give it a closer look before trying to say what I think of It's art.

I will also show a random screenshot of the game running on a PC, I think this really shows how good the game looks, at least imo:

[Snow Frostflame 3,567]

As a kid, no... I had more hours on Skyrim, Fallout 3, and Fallout New Vegas than I'm willing to admit. Now a days I still own all 3 games (plus Fallout 4) I have them downloaded, and ready to play on my Xbox One, but they just sit there collecting dust. I dunno why I just seem to of lost all interest in the games, despite being some of my favorite games.

[Steve Piranha 28,778]

Only have experience with Fallout 3, at least in the open world RPG department. Yeah, the beginning it's tough, but you will get used to the mechanics and they'll get better as you improve your character. What frustrated me however, is that the game becomes increasingly unplayable as you continue due to the  savefile becoming heavier and Bethesda doesn't have the best trackrecord in the technical department . I think I'll stop playing Fallout 3 altogether in my PS3, and start from scratch years later when I join the master race 

[K.Rool Addict 718]

On June 19, 2017 at 6:47 PM, Celli said:

Skyrim is basically as big as an ocean but as deep as a kiddie pool.

^I would say Fallout 4 fits that description far more snugly than Skyrim. Of course, Skyrim was rather disappointing too, just not completely devoid of any redeeming qualities.             

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Nerdy Luigi 2,064]

On ‎6‎/‎19‎/‎2017 at 4:02 PM, Kyoshi said:

Elder Scrolls games? No. Fallout games? Yes. I personally adore the Elder Scrolls franchise, as it is a totally different world to explore and learn about. Even just walking in the snowy lands of Skyrim makes me feel engrossed in it. Fallout, I cannot get the same sense of awe and wonder. They are in just an apocalyptic version of our world, and that alone makes it less interesting to me. The whole apocalypse thing makes it pretty obvious what all the world in going to be like and then the fact that it is the real world takes a lot of wonder away. For me at least.

Actually the exact opposite of this in my case. XD

I can get into Fallout, but I can't really get into Elder Scrolls at all. Part of it is that I really prefer a post-apocalyptic setting over a medieval one. Part of it is that most of the time I end up finding the games to either have one spot that's so difficult I just stop trying or have a weird problem with my save file (Only explanation of how I couldn't get past the Frost Troll in Skyrim. Literally the only one I can think of. If it's my character build, than yeah it makes it worse to be honest). I never really had such issues with Fallout games at all, I've beaten Fallout 3 and all of the DLC as well as Fallout 4 and all of the DLC (except for Old World Blues, because I bought the DLC separately like a moron). But, I've only played about 2 hours of Morrowind (Yeah, I only got two hours in and ALREADY had trouble with something absurdly cheap), and got to the Frost Troll in Skyrim (Seriously, that was TOTALLY ridiculous. Heck, I even killed a DRAGON grinding (I didn't even die ONCE doing it either). How does that freaking work?) To me comparing my immersion in the two would be like comparing Grand Theft Auto (Which in my opinion is totally BORING and gets old after 45 minutes. I'm not big into sandbox games with no linearity) and Borderlands (Which I really, REALLY like and can binge. I binged BL2 after I lost my internet and I don't regret even one minute of doing it honestly :P)

 

 

 

 

 

[Sir Hugsalot 8,621]

As much as I always managed to spend lots of time with Bethesda's games I can point out real issues most of them have to me.

Little to no interesting NPCs - come on, Bethesda, look on how the rest of open world games look like. NPCs that just talk with no sign of emotion or background are not working anymore. Skyrim is a shining beacon here. Wedding in Skyrim is so awkward I felt uncomfortable during it and the afternath of it.... I have no words for it lol. I failed to find any interesting NPC, I cared far more about dog You find while randomly roaming around the world (I loved it so much I literally cheated to prevent it from dying and I regret nothing, nobody hurts the doggy). It was just typical Bethesda trying to reflect real world interactions so hard it eventually becomes awkward to watch.  I really hope they paid more attention to it. I mean, look at New Vegas. Obsidian managed to do it right in an open world game, Bethesda must be capable of doing it as well. 

Enormous world with no sense of direction - You get the short intro and then... You're on Your own, literally. Of course not everyone likes that, because it means You have to walk around for literal no reason before finding quests to participate in. And... speaking of quests

Some of them are boring. In Skyrim particulary there are endless go there, grab stuff, come back quests and then we have legendary Fallout 4 meme ANOTHER SETTLEMENT NEEDS OUR HELP. Come on, Bethesda. Get more creative, at least give better background story to quests so I can feel like I want to do this chore and enjoy it. 

Story is generally rather generic and boring. Skyrim says enough. Played almost 200 hours. Never finished the game. Never gave a damn about finishing it lol. Oblivion has similiar problem, only that time I finished main story, because I hated Oblivion Gates being spawned all over the place and annoying me with monsters spamming from them. 

 

Bethesda is not a bad developer. But it really needs to work on the way it writes story or characters. Witcher 3 already showed how big masterpiece can a game become if it combines open world with deep characters. Time for Bethesda to do the same. 

[Halberd 88]

Bethesda is one of the few publishers that makes content that I regularly don't get bored with. I'm still playing The Elder Scrolls IV: Skyrim and it's been out for nearly six years at this point. Same goes for Fallout 4 and previous Fallout titles. I remember some years after its release I picked up The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and played the hell out of it because there was just so much content in it. This would have been in 2008....and keep in mind that the game came out back in 2002. Like Rockstar and Bioware, Bethesda are on a totally different class from other publishers/developers. It's why I keep buying their games.

[Guest]

I've never found them interesting either, to be honest, though most of my friends played them.

[KatonRyu 1,026]

In Oblivion and Skyrim I had no problems whatsoever getting into them, but from what I've seen and heard of Fallout 4 it's just not an RPG anymore since the new dialogue system makes it pretty much impossible to project yourself onto the character and reduces the amount of options you get. I really don't think I'd be able to get into that game based on that. In Skyrim, there's a lot of repetition and overall you don't really have that much impact on the world, but because everything's such a blank slate you can still have a lot of fun with some imagination. Fallout 4 seems to lack that. I hope that when Elder Scrolls 6 eventually comes out Bethesda will go back to their normal dialogue system, though I don't have much hope for it.

[Discordian 6,013]

It should be noted that not every game is required to keep the training wheels on for very long. A game can be hindered by trying to cater to gamers who want easier games. Some games even deliberately avoid going the easy path to force players to learn how to play well on their own.

 

My suggestion is to keep playing games like this until you get good at them. Until you learn to be able to direct yourself. It's not a sin for the game to expect initiative of its players.

[SONICchaos 824]

I love Bathesda games. Just wish I had the time and attention span for them. I really tired to get into Oblivion but absolutely couldnt get past the first few story quests past into the portal before losing interest. The combat was clunky as hell as I was never sure if I was hitting or not and there didnt seem to be any real difference other than damage between most weapons. I never liked playing a mage as I died too often to get far enough to matter.

I was absolutely engrossed in Fallout 3 putting in over 200 hours over several characters and even finishing all the expansions. Yeah the game felt super easy except when you run into random OP monsters somewhere and yeah there's almost no difference in location landscape on the overworld but still had alot of fun trying out all the different weapons. I never felt like it was the original Fallout (which for me is a good thing) so I never felt like there was a "wrong" way to spec my character. Sometimes I just want to make a brass knuckle fist character that tanks super mutants with gut punches.

After that I havent had the opportunity to play more as my PC has been limited by its lack of upgraded hardware. I basically told myself that i'd build a new PC when this one dies which isnt far off as everything inside except for the Graphics Card is mediocre at best coming from a prebuilt. I doubt I would be able to play Fallout 4 or Skyrim at an enjoyable framerate.

How I have to enjoy Skyrim

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Edited July 3, 2017 by SONICchaos