Friday, June 08, 2012

Skyrim - PS3 first impressions review

I caved in and picked up Skyrim, pretty much because it came with a free guide that included a massive map. Popped it in the console, did the update and watched it install. Over 4Gb of data but went by very quickly; there are multiple ways of installing data and it seems Bethesda has done it the right way.

Started it up and... underwhelmed. Stuck in the back of a cart all I can do is swing my head back and forth to whoever is talking while missing out on all the incidentals that were going on in the background. Arriving at the destination and ordered out of the cart I thought "Oh good I get to take control". More chat and swinging of head and again moved forward for character creation.

Very simple compared to previous games - it hides all the game detail away. Essentially it comes down to picking a race and then tweaking appearance. No making skill decisions or powers, all that gets bundled with the race you pick. Using the guide I discovered a bit more information and made my choice and confirmed it.

The game autosaved and I noted the sound cutting out. I had noticed this before but it seems it's an autosave 'feature' it seems the PS3 can't handle writing to the hard drive and outputting sound at the same time.

Still with no control I was moved to another point for some more talking; then moved again to my position (no spoilers) I was now fixed in position unable to move while the person standing next to me fiddled with their axe... and fiddled with their axe some more; and kept doing it.

The game had stuck at a scripted event and I was unable to proceed.

Into the menu and I loaded up the autosave post-creation and the game locked down so hard I had to reset the console.

Post-reboot another load and it was fine after that. Hardly an auspicious start though.

Game-wise. Graphics are fine; people are a little zombie-textured though. The tutorial taught me how to look, move, duck, jump, use a weapon, block, sneak, search things, and pick locks. What I didn't get was how to run, check my inventory, look at a map, equip spells, or use potions. It seems more orientated towards weapon use.

This proved problematic after leaving the settlement and being told the group should split up and we should meet at some village. The compass bar showed me the direction I should be heading for, but the path I was supposed to be taking heading in off at the wrong angle. For someone new to the genre I suspect this would be a little conflicting.

[Update - the tutorial and the manual really have problems. for example it's possible to dual-wield weapons; of course not the same weapon but two, this is perfectly logical. However it is also possible to dual-wield the same spell, which is never explicitly mentioned. Likewise I tried to use my racial ability (Histskin) that regenerates health and couldn't determine how to do it. Turns out it's equipped and used like a Shout, which you are instructed how to use, but not told this applies to your power which you have available from the game start]

Character interaction was better than previous outings, layout is better and the next thread of conversation are added to the main conversation tree so you don't have to recall the exact line of questioning to re-gain some information. Characters are still a little stilted and when 'leading' you will trail behind or simply stop for no apparent reason.

Some other small points - I make it a habit of turning on subtitles. Acting today seemingly fallen to the mumble style. I thought this was broken as throughout the first act no subtitles appeared. Only at the end of the section did they suddenly start. Given the option for not only subtitles, but general subtitles too pushing towards the deaf and hard of hearing such a person would have no clue as to what was going on during the main opening scene.

If you played others in this series or even the two newer Fallouts this is a highly polished form of those games; if you haven't I think you're going to be left flailing.

As an aside I tried this game with my new Sony 7.1 wireless headset. Much better, definite distinction between left and right and switching on the surround sound option also enhanced the voice clarity putting it above the background noise without having to tweak the in-game volume controls.

[Update - It seems that there is a metagame buried within Skyrim it's called "How long will it run before locking up?". Okay I was trying to hit a necromancer with a Shout and Sparks while she was trying to summon some skeletons, but it's also frozen when I walked through a bush and when I've been trying to simply load a save after dying. Hopefully once the 1.6 update hits the PS3 it might alleviate some of this. As is it's more freezable than Fallout 3]