I love ESO - should I try Skyrim ?

woufff

I started TESO six months ago (only my second MMO) because I have always been attracted to fantasy games in general (I was playing D&D already 35 years ago with pencil & paper in my pub ) and the Elder Scrolls in particular, having often read the advertising for Morrowind and Skyrim the last years (and also because the other MMO I was mostly playing is slowly but surely dying).

As I really like the MMO-Feeling having other players around me even though I'm mostly playing solo, I was looking for a good MMO and ESO was (and still is) for me the best choice available. It has a great story, a lot to explore, a good crafting system, (mostly) nice players and helpfull guilds.

And now, becoming more and more aquinted with the Elder Scrolls lore, I feel attracted to try out Skyrim next to ESO, what would be in your opinion the reasons to play it and also reasons not to play it? I understood from the threads in this forum that most ESO players know or have played Skyrim.

Thanks in advance for all comments

WillhelmBlack

Yeah but you won't come back to ESO. The amount of mods is ridiculous!

Sevalaricgirl

I just started playing Skyrim again. Oh my gosh, I had forgotten how much I loved it, and it's the regular Skyrim, not the special edition. It's a beautiful game with tons of mods. I even got a friend who up until now only played MMOs into it.

I had over 700 hours when it came out. I'm adding to it now. And WillhelmBlacK is right. I haven't been back to ESO for a while.

Aliyavana

It's ok but not as good as eso. If you mod it it is a different story though

Doctordarkspawn

Go to Skyrim, it is a much better game, bugs and all.

VaranisArano

In many ways, ESO is Skyrim with friends. It's an MMO-RPG.

Skyrim is a RPG. In Skyrim, you'll level up and experience the world by doing. There's no need to rush to level, no need to grind for gear or experience (crafting still requires grinding, but that always does). I suggest you just follow the story and see where it leads you. You'll find quest-lines with interesting characters and you'll change the world around you by your choices.

Major differences.
1. Its a role-playing game where you are the protagonist. There is no multiplayer mode, so if you want back-up you'll want to hire or get a quest companion. These guys and gals are awesome - like having a friend who's sworn to carry your burdens.
2. Everything will level with you to a certain point. Some enemies have a level cap (that can be removed with mods) others spawn more advanced versions the higher you get in level. There's a stronger sense of progression as you both outlevel the early "easy" enemies and take on harder enemies as you level up. The gear you loot will also level with you, enabling you to pick up gear appropriate to your level as you quest and fight enemies. This is a change from Morrowind (loot didn't all scale to level) and Oblivion (all loot scaled, so by level 20 or so, all bandits were wearing expensive glass armor).
3. There is no end game. Once you've completed the quests (there are tons, it'll take awhile), and done the DLCs, Skyrim is your sandbox but aside from random repeatable faction quests there are no dungeons or "end-game" activities to do. That's about the point I make a new character.
4. Mods. Where to begin? Addons in ESO can't change anything fundamental about the game, but they can change how stuff is displayed or show info a player otherwise wouldn't have. In Skyrim, mods can change anything in the game, including fundamental parts of the game design. I personally did my first playthrough up to the then level cap of 80 without mods, and for subsequent playthroughs added mods that I thought enhanced the way I played the game. When I switched to the new computer, I only used the mods I thought were essential to how I like to play Skyrim.

My first Elder Scrolls game (and my first video game, really) was Skyrim. From there, I played Oblivion, then ESO. Recently I played through Morrowind.
I really enjoyed Skyrim, I still do, though I play it less now because I know it like the back of my hand now. The stories in the game are captivating, the situations the player has to grapple with are complex, and its a really fun roleplaying experience. However, unlike ESO, Skyrim does not require any sort of grinding for levels or gear in order to be effective, and indeed doing so would likely diminish the roleplaying experience found in the Skyrim RPG.

olsborg

Skyrim is one of the best singleplayer games ive played. Now, however, I find the combat pretty bland unless you play a pure wizard with many spells, then its alright. But for its time, back in 2011, it was so great. There are alot of mods out there that will make the game alot more fun then it is on vanilla, but I highly recommend you play skyrim regardless.

Dracofyre

go ahead and have fun playing Skyrim, lot different, but remember, ESO storyline take you back by a thousand years in past, any character you playing in Skyrim has a soul of ancient dragon came back reborn to end risen dead dragons by necromancers.
they have lot of mods, but becareful because some are not compatable and can crash, make sure you have back up files, and test one at a time, and i think they have 4 DCL packs.
bugs are plenty, and most are playable. watch out for Ebony Armor chest piece when doing one of daedric quests, if you did other quest and completed before armor quest, part of cave got sealed off bugged.
recommended to start sneaking from the beginning, you need that bonus damage, and when you finally get Blackreach, make sure you explore and search completely and lot of empty bag space

forgot to add, (edit for omit), hold off on werewolves with fighter guild until you are strong and prepare for tough dungeon and do thieves quest series to gain special ability very early, but you would need helm of water-breathing before conclusion on lost "Eyes of Snow Elves" gem, potions of water breathing dont help, too slow and dont last long.

Everstorm

Dracofyre wrote: »

go ahead and have fun playing Skyrim, lot different, but remember, ESO storyline take you back by a thousand years in past, any character you playing in Skyrim has a soul of ancient dragon came back reborn to end risen dead dragons by necromancers.

I haven't played Skyrim but this kindda sounds like a major spoiler?

Enemy-of-Coldharbour

Skyrim is a much better game that ESO. You'll get hooked fast!

grizzledcroc

I play it now and again and I do recomend trying it. Granted Its hard to get into after eso since eso has a lot of stuff that sratches my itch skyrim doesnt.

Colecovision

Do you want to loot dungeons and have fun with other people or shut the world out and be immersed in a fantasy by yourself?

Both are good at what they do imo.

Yolokin_Swagonborn

Yes, you should see what a real TES game actually developed by Bethesda and not a shell company actually feels like.

Greifenherz

I'd recommend Oblivion over Skyrim! In comparison Skyrim was a huge letdown for many (though to be fair, before Oblivion was a huge letdown for many coming from Morrowind [As far as I know. It's like the series can only go downhill! For me, Oblivion is on top of the hill, and it goes downhill both ways {ESO is soaring high above.}.].).

phairdon

Greifenherz wrote: »

I'd recommend Oblivion over Skyrim! In comparison Skyrim was a huge letdown for many (though to be fair, before Oblivion was a huge letdown for many coming from Morrowind [As far as I know. It's like the series can only go downhill! For me, Oblivion is on top of the hill, and it goes downhill both ways {ESO is soaring high above.}.].).

Also thinks Oblivion is a lot better. Another game in the series you can mod to your hearts content. I'd recommend ESO over Skyrim. Of course this is just my personal opinion.

Smasherx74

I'd suggest you get into Oblivion first.

Rainraven

Yes!

And after you try it vanilla, go to the Nexus and get some mods and play it again.

VaranisArano

Everstorm wrote: »

Dracofyre wrote: »

go ahead and have fun playing Skyrim, lot different, but remember, ESO storyline take you back by a thousand years in past, any character you playing in Skyrim has a soul of ancient dragon came back reborn to end risen dead dragons by necromancers.

I haven't played Skyrim but this kindda sounds like a major spoiler?

Its not. That's actually a terrible misrepresentation of what the Dragonborn actually is. Your character is actually (major spoilers ahead)

made Dragonborn by Akatosh in order to deal with the dragon Alduin the World-Eater who is going to eat the world if you don't stop him. Alduin is of course raising his dragon friends from the dead to stop you, hence why Akatosh needs a Dragonborn who can absorb dragon souls in order to deal with the dragons and stop Alduin.

Still, I suspect that the OP and any other players looking at Skyrim would prefer to discover the story on their own, so let's leave off with potential spoilers, mmkay?

Shardaxx

Skyrim is a brilliant game I played it through about 5 times. But there's no pvp like eso!

SirMewser

Skyrim is great and as said... You probably won't come back with all the mods.
Also give Oblivion a shot! It has pretty fun quests.
Also give Morrowind a shot!
Maybe Daggerfall (on the Unity engine in 2018).

Morrowind has multiplayer (TES3MP) so bring a friend along!
Make sure to install OpenMW, it's a new game engine that works on all distros.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=vfh-FcxHSHA

As for Skyrim I would post my mod list in a spoiler, but I am not on my Windows machine atm.

Jayman1000

Skyrim has the shittiest of combat systems, just like the rest of the singleplayer Elder Scrolls games. Skyrim did improve a tiny bit on the combat, but only a tiny bit. And it's still ***.

Vanilla Skyrim cannot be recommended, it's ugly and boring (imo): But through dedication, knowledge, time and patience you can install a number of mods (probably a lot) that you may transform Skyrim into something wonderful. (Not it's combat system, I don't think any mods fix that). The Skyrim vanilla quests are sadly not very interesting either, but sort of ok, average stuff imo. I think there are some community quests that are cool though? And the dungeons are a joke mostly and all look much the same Im afraid. What you can really get from Skyrim is amazing atmosphere and beautiful scenery (but only with a ton off mods). Oh and all the books are super awesome too to read in dungeons for example or in your home etc, but I think you can already get that without playing Skyrim....

In all honesty I can recommend Oblivion and Morrowind (though not for it's combat though as mentioned earlier); though the graphics are pretty outdated now, but if you don't mind that....

Motherball

I tried to go back to Skyrim when my internet was down. After a couple months of ESO, I actually couldn’t play Skyrim because of how much I disliked the combat and UI.

Hanzus

If your a PVE person, Skyrim is hands down probably the most AWESOME game you'll ever play(get all the DLC, Dawnguard, etc) I still play it(SE) .

With mods the characters look 1000x's better then here on ESO, and modded right the scenery looks 100x's better then ESO. The scenery/charaters in my game are just slap stunning, I mean jaw dropping AWESOME. I wonder why the modder's that have done fantastic work on Skyrim don't work for Bethesda? Skyrim is old yet with the right mods it totally blows ESO right off the map .

ANYWAYS, if playing alone is your thing for the love of Talos go buy SKYRIM NOW, and join Nexus mods .

See you back here in a couple years!

Betsararie

Not a fan of Skyrim. The good ES single player games were oblivion and Morrowind. Skyrim is an unfun casual fest where they gutted much of what made ES great.

If you're looking for a single player game look into Morrowind or oblivion, skip Skyrim. It's not good.

SydneyGrey

That was my favorite game of all time. Oblivion and the original Morrowind were great, too.

AcadianPaladin

I've played Oblivion for 4K hours and several years before moving to Skyrim for also 4K hours but over only about 2 years. Than to ESO about a year ago which is currently my elf's home. All three are good games and what is important to me may or may not be important to others. So, with heavy disclaimers about subjectivity, here are some random ramblings...

Oblivion was an excellent game but feels too plastic/cartoonish/dated now compared to the other two. I was unable to go back after Skyrim even though many features are better than Skyrim (smooth integration of spell and bow in my case, spellcrafting, I enjoyed the storyline and NPC personalities more).

Skyrim was attractive and I loved how well bows worked - they just 'felt' good and had fabulous range (unlike ESO). I also loved the horses for their realistic presence, mounted combat and that they didn't evaporated when you dismounted. Now, I will quickly admit that without mods, the horses are more trouble than they were worth. My biggest complaint with Skyrim was the vanilla 'hand micromanagement' required to incorporate a bow with spells. Were it not for the ability to fix that via mods I would have early on assigned an epic fail to Skyrim and moved on. For me, Skyrim absolutely required mods - but with the right mods it was a great game.

I didn't want a multiplayer game. I consider that ESO is MP to be a drawback that I willingly live with to embrace its beauty, smooth combat and massive scale. I was also delighted that staves are, for the first time in Elder Scrolls history, good weapons. That all said, it is ironic that my elf has found her natural 'niche' in ESO as a healer - a role that requires other players to support. So it is a love hate thing. I love healing but don't like trying to coordinate my schedule with other players to carve out dedicated pieces of time for things like group dungeon crawls. Indeed, my healer is happiest when only loosely aligned (same way/same day) as other players tossing out support to ungrouped players doing, say, a WB or dolmen. Sometimes a public dungeon.


Short answer: In my subjective opinion, Skyrim is a good game to look at if you can mod it.

ArchMikem

If youre going to play Skyrim, which is pretty damn good. Then i'd suggest buying Oblivion as well. You'll need that copy when the mod team behind Skyblivion finally releases that overhaul.

Malic

Skyrim is one of the best games ever made (in many, many peoples top 3), really no reason not to try it if you got the money.

Dracofyre

i also played Oblivion, it just a different story, and Morrowwind was just harder to adjust due to pure RNG luck in combat, no matter how much you leveled, they hit harder or face multiple hostiles spawn when you going to bed.

oh yeah, you might hate Morrowwind much later in advanced levels you would be running from "Horde of Cliffracers", gosh, i hate those and very annoying spawn of all. those can kill the guards if you ran to towns. it is just one of the bad code by devs, cliffracers wont let you chances to loot if you got carpet-layered dead cliffracers. ugh!

SilverIce58

Skyrim was what started me into the the Elder Scrolls series, and tbh I cannot go back to playing it, no matter what. I always come back to ESO. I have lots of mods, and everytime I play I make a new character, or use the one I made from the session from before, but always, and I do mean always, I find myself bored of it within 20-30 minutes of playing. There's not much else to discover in Skyrim once you've played it soooo many times (I played it on the 360 when it came out, and then on PC when I got the ES: Anthology). I think you should play it if you love the Elder Scrolls series, but you should also play Oblivion (I know it has terribad graphics but it's super fun), and then Morrowind (even worse graphics and a combat system where you have a chance to hit the enemy). And maybe Daggerfall if you want/can. (Arena however had the hardest tutorial dgn ever so it's pretty hard, and I haven't even tried it).

teiselaise

You should 100% try it! Don't get the special edition tho, the original is much more mod friendly. Maybe don't mod anything else than graphics in the first playthrough, maybe don't mod it at all I don't know have a great time and stay immersive!