@Spoony_Tech I know that, and it makes sense, I'm just saying that the lack of variety was disappointing for me. I would feel the same about Skyrim if the whole map was tundra and nothing else.
It's not all generic brown wasteland (satellite map under spoiler tag), they put effort into varying up the terrain, it's just not as diverse as Skyrim. The noticeable thing is that wasteland entirely replaces the forest biome as trees presumably all died in Fallout lore (plus Boston is an urban area), so the world is just inherently a lot less beautiful. The setting is so anthropocentric that the natural areas are a lot less interesting than the developed ones. For example, the Boston metropolitan area wouldn't just be riddled with caves so the game uses various buildings as dungeons. Instead of Blackreach it has the Fallen Skybridge, etc. I appreciated Fallout 4 as a series outsider, I just like guns and reality much less than monsters, swords, and magic.
We don't have a Switch yet, but my girlfriend and I are thinking about double-dipping for Skyrim (already got the Platinum Trophy on the PS3 version) when we get a system. However, if Bethesda ever released a Fallout game (preferably New Vegas), I'd get that and a Switch in a heartbeat.
"The only Zen you find on tops of mountains is the Zen you bring there." -Robert Pirsig
SKYRIM ON SWITCH IS EVERYTHING YOU HOPED IT WOULD BE It's Skyrim. On the Switch.
Nintendo’s behind-closed-doors appointments at PAX West always happen in the same tiny room. Well above the bustling show floor, down a very clinical hallway, tucked behind a door that simply reads “Nintendo”, we get to spend about an hour here each year, and get a sneak peek at the Nintendo games that are just over the horizon.
This year, we waited in that beige hallway for an extra 10 minutes before we were allowed entry. Our Nintendo rep opened the door just enough to pop his head out.
“Give us a minute,” he said, “Skyrim is broken.”
There it was. All my fears for this game realized in a brief update. You see, I love Skyrim. Like, 300+ hours, multiple completions, different character classes on different systems, love it. And I love my Nintendo Switch, but since Skyrim was announced for Switch, I’ve been perplexed. How? How could I take this entire sprawling kingdom with me in my back pocket?
As it turns out, I can do it with relative ease. Skryim on Nintendo Switch is all the snowy mountain peaks and necromancer packed dungeons you’ve come to know and love, crammed into a tiny Switch cartridge.
My demo dropped me into the forests outside of Riverwood, just after the tutorial area. Rather than invest too much time into working my way through the initial main story quests, I decided to do what I do best in Skyrim and just wander.
Striking out across the river, I headed west, away from the mountains and into countryside. There, I encountered the following:
A fortress with some bandits. Burnt them up.
An old lady who said she was a “simple old woman” but was actually a sorceress. Chopped her pretty good.
A cave full of murderous skeletons and an evil Ice Mage. Took an arrow or two to the knee, but eventually prevailed.
You know, Skyrim stuff.
I’m sure that saying that Skyrim on Switch feels just like Skyrim sounds like I’m being reductive, but it’s actually genuine praise. The game runs well, with a smooth framerate and generally crisp textures, and even the historically epic load times seemed shorter. But what’s more impressive is undocking the game and playing in handheld mode.
Skyrim really pops on the Switch’s screen, and the novelty of taking its massive world on the go is sort of incredible. When it first launched back in 2011, the idea of putting Skyrim on a portable device seemed laughable, but it makes a lot of sense on Switch.
New to this version is amiibo functionality. Players can use amiibo to randomly generate loot in the form of treasure chests that drop from sky, not unlike in Breath of the Wild. I used the original Link amiibo to summon a chest full of gauntlets and fruit, but was assured by Nintendo that the Link armor from this year’s E3 demo was in the game and is pretty common in loot drops. So, for those of you looking to play this version of Skyrim as a gritty Zelda reboot, it shouldn’t prove too difficult. Motion controls are also added to this version and while aiming a bow and arrow works well enough, flicking your wrists to perform different melee attacks felt clunky and unnecessary.
Everything indicates that Bethesda is taking the Switch seriously so I have faith they will do Nintendo right. After all BotW used Skyrim as somewhat of a template and I think Bethesda is quite taken a back by that.
John 8:7 He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone.
MERG said:
If I was only ever able to have Monster Hunter and EO games in the future, I would be a happy man.
I made the mistake of checking out the comments section of that IGN article. Big mistake; its like people acquired internet access just to be angry, whiney, self-absorbed rodents.
@Tsurii I know that better than most people, haha. I've probably put well over 1000 hours into it. What I was trying to get across was that I appreciate Skyrim's environmental variety, but if it didn't have that variety, I would probably feel the same way about Skyrim's aesthetic that I do Fallout's.
I honestly went into the game expecting just tundra and some pine forests and little else, but I was surprised at the amount of variety that there actually is.
@Haru17 I definitely appreciate it as a well-crafted series as well, I'm just saying that from the perspective of an outsider, the idea of a giant map with little to break up the nuclear wasteland aesthetic isn't very appealing. Not every game needs to have a ton of variety in its environment though, and I'm sure it becomes very immersive once you get into the sidequests and lore and whatnot.
@Tsurii It's all mountains and snow as far as I'm aware..
Kidding of course. Haven't played a lot of Skyrim, just a couple of hours here and there. Too much jank in Bethesda games for me I didn't play it until two or three years ago, so that may explain it too. I dunno, I've also played TW3, and Skyrim looks a bit dated after that game. I'll give TES6 a go whenever that comes out, and I'll be sure to play it near launch!
I made the mistake of checking out the comments section of that IGN article. Big mistake; its like people acquired internet access just to be angry, whiney, self-absorbed rodents.
That's the case for nearly every article that they run these days, unfortunately. I still click into the occasional article there, but I don't bother with the comment sections anymore; I felt like I lost a couple of brain cells each time I read them. For every decent comment, you had 50+ idiots, trolls, etc. on the flipside.
I have faith in this Skyrim port; there have been multiple first impressions articles by this point that have been positive, and the footage I have watched (not everything since I haven't played the game) looks very promising.
Skyrim is a great game. In many ways you can argue its better that Zelda: BOTW. Its a gem for every system. I don't want to pay 65 euro for a 6 year old game i already own on pc though no matter how great it is.
I would love to see more modern classics like Grand theft Auto V, Diablo 3, Persona 5 on Switch as well.
They went with one overall "theme" for the geography/setting, but they really managed to get a lot out of that setting to cover a lot of different "tropes" without anything of it feeling weird or out of place and it all comes together really organically imo.
Also, dwarf ruins rock.
God help me for saying this, but Skyrim is kind of like Wrath of the Lich King in that it has a norse setting (which they call Nordic in-universe) with 8 or 9 different zones which have different environments and types of dungeons and overworld locations. Of course the level design's better, the environments and enemy placements are more thought out, and there are multiple actual towns to go to. I think Skyrim's expansions added 3-4 new open world biomes and two brand new dungeon settings (with a lot of prop & design variation added into the new cave, mines, and Nordic ruins which don't feature new settings). The dwemer ruins (base game) definitely have a unique vibe and lore.
Here's a top-down map to give you an idea of the different regions. It shouldn't be too spoilery unless you actively study it.
@Tibob By the way, Skyrim's not a hard game really. It's just an ARPG with level scaling — get enough combat skills and armor and you should be fine. You can also change the difficulty or retreat from a dungeon / camp at any time, so it's very customizable.
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