In a lot of ways yea. I’m actually in the middle of replaying it for the first time in years and doing a survival mode play through, trying to engage with mechanics I never did before
And it’s funny bc every single element of it, every mechanic, is totally half baked and yet idk it just has a certain je nais se quoi about it. Idk if it’s just the vibe or I just really like exploring or something but despite every part of the game being pretty weak, as a whole I find it pretty enjoyable in a junk food-y kind of way
I definitely don’t know what kind of drugs I’d have to be on to hold it up as a blueprint for “strong story telling” or “awesome combat” tho lol
I always skipped over the Alternate Start mod but it absolutely slaaaaaps not only do you skip the fucking intro and the fucking generic character generation process from the beginning, the starting points and back stories are genuinely incredible. They have race specific starting places such as the Grey Quarter and a whole lot of different shit from a simple hunter to a necromancer's thrall
It would have been so easy in Morrowind, but since Oblivion and especially Skyrim they decided they need a big intro setpiece for the trailers.
Fallout 4's 2nd mission is a horrendous overdramatized carnival ride that sets you up with a crew of utterly shallow characters, and it was was clearly tacked onto the game specifically for their early gameplay feature demo. It's designed to make you think most of the game has a lot of scripted scenes and multiple NPCs and interesting missions, and when you're done with this one mission everyone turns into extremely bland NPCs with 5 super simple chore quests each.
The Skyrim Alternate Start mod is so cool because in most of them they give you the main story mission but it's to travel to Helgen, and the dragon is just leaving as you get there. In at least one of the alternate starts, you are camping in the woods just a couple hundred yards past Helgen and wake up to the roars of the dragon. They changed a bunch of characters and made them say only their generic stuff if you haven't been to Helgen yet. So you can visit whiterun, meet people, go to Helgen, then go back to Whiterun and they've locked the city because of the dragon.
Very cool.
Oblivion also has an alternate start mod, and it gives you a vision of the emperor, begging you to find Jauffre. He's then killed in the sewer unbeknownst to you, and the Amulet of Kings is stolen off his corpse by a rat that then dies by the entrance to the sewer.
It's one of my favorite games of all time (modded esp.), and it's undercooked in every way. It's honestly pretty fuckin bad, but playing a modded wilderness survival playthrough or making a wizard tower or smth just captures a certain vibe I haven't found in many games.
![[CW: enbyphobia ] This is either bait or made by a tourist.](https://hexbear.net/pictrs/image/ab4638a4-095b-479a-ab01-9bc27b03a2fa.webp){kind=link}
In a lot of ways yea. I’m actually in the middle of replaying it for the first time in years and doing a survival mode play through, trying to engage with mechanics I never did before
And it’s funny bc every single element of it, every mechanic, is totally half baked and yet idk it just has a certain je nais se quoi about it. Idk if it’s just the vibe or I just really like exploring or something but despite every part of the game being pretty weak, as a whole I find it pretty enjoyable in a junk food-y kind of way
I definitely don’t know what kind of drugs I’d have to be on to hold it up as a blueprint for “strong story telling” or “awesome combat” tho lol
Its definitely one of those 'the whole is greater than it's parts' games
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I always skipped over the Alternate Start mod but it absolutely slaaaaaps not only do you skip the fucking intro and the fucking generic character generation process from the beginning, the starting points and back stories are genuinely incredible. They have race specific starting places such as the Grey Quarter and a whole lot of different shit from a simple hunter to a necromancer's thrall
deleted by creator
deleted by creator
It would have been so easy in Morrowind, but since Oblivion and especially Skyrim they decided they need a big intro setpiece for the trailers.
Fallout 4's 2nd mission is a horrendous overdramatized carnival ride that sets you up with a crew of utterly shallow characters, and it was was clearly tacked onto the game specifically for their early gameplay feature demo. It's designed to make you think most of the game has a lot of scripted scenes and multiple NPCs and interesting missions, and when you're done with this one mission everyone turns into extremely bland NPCs with 5 super simple chore quests each.
The Skyrim Alternate Start mod is so cool because in most of them they give you the main story mission but it's to travel to Helgen, and the dragon is just leaving as you get there. In at least one of the alternate starts, you are camping in the woods just a couple hundred yards past Helgen and wake up to the roars of the dragon. They changed a bunch of characters and made them say only their generic stuff if you haven't been to Helgen yet. So you can visit whiterun, meet people, go to Helgen, then go back to Whiterun and they've locked the city because of the dragon.
Very cool.
Oblivion also has an alternate start mod, and it gives you a vision of the emperor, begging you to find Jauffre. He's then killed in the sewer unbeknownst to you, and the Amulet of Kings is stolen off his corpse by a rat that then dies by the entrance to the sewer.
Forgotten City was really fun. It was a bit opaque in a couple places, but the finale was very amusing.
It's one of my favorite games of all time (modded esp.), and it's undercooked in every way. It's honestly pretty fuckin bad, but playing a modded wilderness survival playthrough or making a wizard tower or smth just captures a certain vibe I haven't found in many games.