Game Review: Skyrim Makes A Great Game With a Bad UI

  By: Stephen Crane

It's hard to make a sequel that's bigger and better than the original. It's also hard to do this five times over. Did Bethesda pull it off, or will Skyrim ring hollow to fans of the series? Can dragons actually make a game better, or did they jump the shark? Read more to find out what I thought about the game.

Release Date: 11/11/11

Released For: PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

System Played On:  PC

Hours Played: 11

Single Player Progress: I’ve killed six dragons so far.

Overall Thoughts: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has been so anticipated it's hard to imagine a game like this can live up to expectations. There are so many things gamers wanted to see, and The Elder Scrolls is a franchise already defined by scope. Did it actually succeed? Mostly yes, but there are some glaring flaws that make the game fall just short of being perfect.

Let's start with the bad because that is going to be the much shorter list. With this latest entry to the series Bethesda has done a wonderful job of improving the graphics but at the cost of the UI. The menus are tremendously frustrating to navigate, especially if you are on the PC. All too often I would just barely miss a click when shopping or choosing an option in a menu and be forced to exit it entirely. Instead of the charming, character-filled scrolls or parchment of games past we are treated to shaded blocks with grey letters. This normally wouldn't be much of a problem but so much of the game is spent inside the menu it's hard to just ignore the UI.

Perhaps the most frustrating UI feature is the skills and perks system. Each skill is represented by a constellation on a horizontal scrolling list. Each star in that constellation represents a perk you may choose within that class each time you level up. The presentation is quite beautiful, but the functionality is stinted. Getting from one perk to another is tedious and frustrating, especially if there are three branches from one star. Comparing and contrasting the individual perks is also made frustrating and difficult.

The sad thing is the functionality of the UI could easily be fixed simply by making full use of the space on the screen and inserting more for the player to see. There is a lot of unused space in the UI, and it would be much better if players could see their characters' clothes change, or see multiple perks on the screen. Heck, it'd be better if the perks were in a standard like like the equipment and the constellation or the star changed depending on how you manipulated the list.

These faults are really only made more obvious by the fact that Skyrim is such a good game otherwise. Bethesda has done a fantastic job of introducing new features and addressing criticisms from the past game. Level progression is updated nicely. It feels natural now and you aren't punished for using your favorite skills. There is a new crafting system for food, alchemy, and even blacksmithing. They have also improved voice acting and character modeling which makes the world feel much more alive. I'll address those individually in a bit.

Level progression this time around is much more open and you start off with much more of a blank slate. You don't choose a class or primary skills. Instead all of your skills are given equal weight in determining your overall level progress. To replace the individual stats of previous games Bethesda has boiled everything down to the bare minimum. When you level up you can choose to enhance your Magika, Health, or Stamina. The simplicity is welcome in what in the past has been an overwhelming game. It makes the choices much clearer and easier. The tougher decisions are instead reserved for perks. The idea of the perks system is pretty well handled despite the clunky UI. With each level you can choose one perk out of all your skills. Those perks will have the occasional requirement of a specific level in the skill to stop you from advancing too much too soon, but that's good.

The difficulty of the game is also well balanced. It's easily scalable and this time the NPCs don't level up at the same rate you do. Instead, new NPCs and new enemies are introduced to the map the more your progress. These new NPCs will match your level still, but a rat will always be the same level rat as will a wolf or gods forbid an ice troll. Ice trolls are nasty and I will tell you right now: run away when you first see one. This also means that you can focus on your alchemy or smithing skills and the world won't leave you behind. Players don't have to ask if they should level a skill, it just comes organically and that's good.

The crafting system is also well worth the time invested in it. Players are able to craft items starting with the most raw materials. Though it may sound dull, I actually enjoyed the process of chopping the wood, mining for the minerals, and hunting for the leather before taking it back, refining everything, then crafting the individual pieces of armor, weapons of jewelry. It can definitely seem tedious to some but it's a nice, detailed skill to enjoy if that's your thing. There are mines worth exploring just to find new pockets of raw materials for harvesting, and the perks give access to new recipes to use those new materials you may discover.

Alchemy is a bit different this time. Food is no longer and alchemical ingredient, and can only be used in cooking. That means an apple cabbage stew can actually be just as valuable as a health potion on occasion. Potion making now revolves around specific stations in the game instead of always carrying around a mortar and pestle. Combining ingredients ends up being a lot more trial and error as you don't know any of the effects the ingredients have unless you either taste them or combine them with everything you have on hand. If you try the latter you will end up failing at making a lot of potions, but it's a learning process. This also makes potion making much less profitable initially than it was in Oblivion.

Where they really seemed to have surpassed Oblivion is in trying to turn Skyrim into much more of a living, breathing world. Character models are much more detailed and a lot less... let's call it doughy. The facial features are a lot more realistic, but still fall a little into that uncanny valley. The voice acting for the NPCs in the world of Skyrim is much better with a wide variety of accents and also actors behind the characters. You can tell what region a character is from just by listening to them speak, and that's a refreshing detail I enjoyed.

The gameplay is still incredibly tight. Sure, there are a lot of glitches graphically in the game, but all in all it feels very fluid and organic. The combat can be a little cut and dry on occasion, though. It boils down to running up, swinging your sword, then backing up, or casting a spell where you point. There isn't much more to it than that. The ability to individually set what each hand is doing is long overdue, but that doesn't make the mechanics that much deeper. If you enjoyed the combat in Oblivion you won't find it all that different, and that's not a bad thing.

Skyrim also has spent much more time on the cinematography of gameplay. Occasionally you will be greeted with critical hit kills which are in third person and look pretty impressive.The introduction of dragons adds to that, and when you get a critical hit kill on a dragon it is absolutely beautiful. The kill animations are fluid and I have yet to feel like gameplay was interrupted by them. Other developers should take note of this. Skyrim managed to create a more immersive, more cinematic game while striking a balance with player agency.

With so many sequels whose single player modes have felt like rehashes of their previous games, it’s refreshing to see a sequel that continues to push its bounds and still feel so wonderfully new. Bethesda and The Elder Scrolls continues to hold the title of the definitive American RPG.  There is so much to explore and so much to find. This is a game that really has no end, and I am okay with that. I have so many open quests, and actually want to finish all of them just to progress and discover new parts of Skyrim. The world starts off as a blank map and the story is an empty book. So much is up to you to fill as you choose.

 

Recommendations:  This game is a time sink. You will find yourself coming back over and over ready to accomplish something amazing in this new world, or even just to work on your crafting.  Get this game only if you want to a thoroughly enjoyable, long single player experience. In a play time:price ratio, Skyrim is possibly the best value around. It’s easy to imagine that a few hundred hours can be spent playing Skyrim without even coming close to finishing all the quests or finding everything on the map. If you have played any of Bethesda’s previous games, get it. If you enjoy beautiful, cinematic games, get it. If you are curious about how an American RPG plays, definitely get it. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim could very easily be game of the year material in any category, but it is definitely the definitive RPG of the year and its only rival for single player so far is Batman: Arkham City. Even then, I am leaning towards Skyrim.

The clunky UI is doubly frustrating on the PC, but that's okay because there is a strong modding scene around all of The Elder Scrolls games, and I guarantee that it won't be much longer before the community fixes most of the problems I mentioned. Bethesda is also going to be releasing editing tools to make modding easier for PC players. If you can't wait that long, check out Gamefront's recommended tweaks to make the game that much more enjoyable. Long story short: get this game. What it does right outweighs what it does wrong by far. You will not be disappointed.

Comments

[Stan Lee]

Not sure what problems you are having with the UI, as a PC gamer I haven't noticed anything frustrating about the UI.

[Stan Lee]

Just adding that I finished the single player story line quite a while ago and I've played more than triple what whoever did this review has.

[Armed Gamer]

It makes frustratingly little use of the screen. A list that has nine items requires scrolling. You can't see your character's outfit change as you equip the items. With a mouse, it isn't actually all that accurate to click on the options and if you miss it's not uncommon to be brought out of the menu. In short, I am shown remarkably little. There are so many better ways they could have designed the UI, but it fell short.

[Stan Lee]

Eh, I use the keyboard for navigating menus...and are you sure it doesn't show your outfit change as you equip/unequip? It definitely changes when I throw on spells/a sword/etc?

[Armed Gamer]

Not in any significant way, no. You don't see your character and you can't rotate it around. Compare the information on one screen of Oblivion, or even Morrowind. Those games had a UI that was intuitive, easy to read, and had all the information at hand with aesthetics that added character to the game. Skyrim, on the other hand, is grey text over black shading that shows comparatively little information. Remember when you could quickly change a weapon or spell by pressing 1 or 2? That's been replaced by a menu that pauses the action and gets in the way of itself.

[Ree]

I'm surprised you didn't mention the horrendous button controls either. Then again this may be more of a console issue, but I found the complete lack of any hotkeying or "weapon swap on the fly" completely ruined the immersion factor in combat. Maybe I'm not use to it because its my first elder scrolls game, but having to pause the fight just to switch between bow/magic/melee really ruins the combat.

Also, weapon swings are wildly inconsistent, with no aim assistance at all. Maybe I'm use to being able to lock-on in other hacknslashes, but I hate when I am directly in front of a target my character swings only to brush off the side of the target and the swing missing.
And as you pointed out, it becomes monotonous. (and personally frustrating)

And the difficulty is incredibly inconsistent, I have the easiest time killing dragons, yet if I run into a troll or 2 bears, I find myself struggling to survive their onslaught. Partially because bad dragon AI, when they fly they will attack random wildlife sometimes, letting the wildlife to do free damage to the dragon for you, as well as, letting you rest or get free hits in.

[DK]

yes i will agree no slot based inventory is a bummer for pc users, hopefully since we are awesome and can has mods we will see a overhaul on the inventory system soon until then i play on the 360 controller

its not a fashion show please don't make it one I'm wearing the archmage poncho but I'm a god so shush if you play the real way(1st person) you SHOULDN'T CARE

lastly REE there are 2 hotkeys for console users and a favorites button that quickly pops up your favorite spells and weapons and pots that would be the D pad left and right being your quick keys I'm sure this was explained in your instruction pamphlet if you had erm read it

and yes the level is inconsistent but its an immersion value the "easy" dragons are just baby dragons hatchlings almost at level 10 i HATE scaled leveling systems and you should too because scaled leveling kills games and by scaling i mean I level up OH he levels up to what a coincidence whats that mr. bunny I'm level 50 *THWACK. . . so are you... what?

tl;dr?

mods for better UI on PC (go pc w00t)

power will always be better than fashion

there are hotkeys/buttons read for once in your life

bunnies shouldn't be as hard as dragons creature levels are set and they do NOT scale for good reason

[The REAL gamer]

I got this game for PC when it came out... and 1. you're a noob... you only killed 6 dragons in 11 hours? what the hell are you doing? alchemy? and 2. this is a better UI and menu system than any bethesda game to date. Your butt must be jealous of the shit coming out of your mouth.

[keruD]

http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/5679/skyriminterface.jpg

CYA

[keruD]

Yo real gamer why so mad? Its not better than the other systems, not even a little. Hows open treating you? I hear after 7 seasons there they eventually move you up.

[kulakian]

why are they complaining about the u.i.? seriously you have to be a retard to suck at it

[keruD]

If you have a shitty UI, it interrupts the gameplay. Has nothing to do with sucking at navigation, its just a waste of time. I dont want to scroll through 4 menus and then scroll another 360 to see my skills, it should be clean and laid out for me.

[Armed Gamer]

I am complaining about the UI because from a design perspective it is very lazily designed. It's technically functional in the sense that you can get accomplished what you aim to, but it isn't efficient or as informative as we have seen in previous iterations of The Elder Scrolls. It slows the game down way too much for PC users, especially PC users who are trying to click through the menu. This wouldn't be quite as big of a deal if the game didn't spend so much time actually in a menu. It isn't a gamebreaker, just vaguely frustrating which is why I still feel it is a strong contender for game of the year.

[Kentiah]

The sad part is that you guys are seriously bitching about no hotkeys, when there are in fact hotkeys, hit q to open your favorites, then go to what you want to hotkey, and hit whichever number you want it to be, 1,2,3, etc etc. It'll set it to that one. You have to set hotkeys from your favorites. Now stop crying.

[Ree]

First, Sorry DK, but I didn't get skyrim for the PC. there are no hotkeys for console. Also, I Redbox-ed it, there was is no manual.

Second, Don't put a game on the console if you aren't going to make it play as well there. Dark Souls did an infinitely better job at that. Cycling between spells/items/secondary weapons on the fly makes combat way more interesting.

Third, I couldn't even comprehend what the hell you were trying to say about the leveling difficulty, but what I will say is this. I have finished the game since my last post. Dragons got even easier to fight later, Dragonrend shout made every fight with a dragon a joke. Even Alduin himself was a laugh. No mechanical difference in the fight, other than the little rain of fire attack.

The combat was not compelling, shallow, and repetitive. Esp since if you weren't using a shield, you were just running in attacking, backing out and healing. Or pausing and popping 5 health potions at once from the pause menu (lol) and continue mindlessly slashing.

The game wasn't all bad, yes it was a beautiful game. The story telling was excellent, and plenty of content. But it seems like such a waste to have so much content with the combat being so dry. I feel like instead of making combat interesting, they just added a lot of side shit to do to distract you from it.

[Wladi]

Taken from some guy on Beth forums. ok, so since I buy halrdy any games these days, and I have been looking forward to ES V for a long time, and I have both consoles, I decided to buy a copy for both systems. I was original just going for xbox 360, but I have been concerned by some of the texture reports, so bizarrely spent more money on Beth products!This is a quick overview based on only an hour on each system. Strangely, on the 360, there do appear to be some texture issues from time to time, even playing from disc, which seems to support Bethesda's update that this is not a HDD issue. When the textures look fully loaded, the quality is excellent, but in some instances (I noticed 1st person weapons and a table in one instance), the colour looks slightly washed out and almost missing a top layer of detail. Landscape/environment details are absolutely fine for me and look great.On to PS3. The colours seem slightly brighter to me overall, and I don't think it's a tv issue. I have not seen any texture issues at all, and no lag, although I do have one of the newer slimmer 320g consoles. One point I will make, is that the water effects, such as streams/rivers on the PS3 are outstanding . I would say they are someway ahead of the xbox in this (admittedly) small area, but they must be close to a very good setting on the PC.Overall, I do feel the PS3 looks slightly better at the moment, but I have not played it anywhere near long enough to know if we will get some more bugs on this platform over xbox 360. My gut feel is that when fixed, there will be little between the two systems when I compare what appear to be fully complete and loaded textures (apart from that water!). Given I have the luxury of both consoles, I am going to do a first play through on the PS3 and join the Stormcloakes, then a second playthough on the Xbox and join the Empire. At some point in the future I will do a much more detailed comparison. VN:R_U [1.9.12_1141](from 5 votes)

[Lallu]

I am a 19 year old girl and I believe I have had on-off depiossren since I was 14 or so. I never have had any friends, I never go anywhere on weekends, and I feel like I grew up too fast. I work full time at a cafe and it wears me out. I noticed my depiossren became worse after I made 's with a nice young man then he suddenly stopped talking to me. It was the last straw I suppose. Ever since, I feel like I'm stuck in a box. I lost all hope for a future. I always longed for and dreamed of being someone's lover, homemaker, and most of all a mother. I didn't want to be anything else, just that. Now I don't see that anymore. I give up on my dream. Because it isn't happening. If I cannot and never have had friends how the hell can I have a or much less someone to love me?I just want to die. I feel very lonely and hopeless. I have turned to suicidal thoughts. I also cannot drive due to being a loser and scardy cat of driving, I have no plans of college because I never wanted school, just to be a mom, and no money.I do have a wonderful family and parents. I told them today that I am so depressed I want to die, and admitted I was selfish and wrong. They agreed. I feel like a terrible person. I don't think they realize why exactly and just how sad I am.Please, how can I express it to them and show them I really need them so much? They're all I have.

[Alex]

SourLime 1. You guys are bitchy.2. You all must not play PC games that often.3. You can click on items you are just a idiot.I say this besauce the UI is flawless, nothing wrong with it, feel natural everything is easy to find and its not cluttered, only thing I don't like about is there is no item description (as in origin of the item or common use bla bla bla.)I say that you all must not play PC games often besauce a real PC gamer does these things first:1. Mess with the graphic settings.2. Play/Watch the opening of the game.3. Mess with the in game options.4. Once at a safe zone mess with the most common keys used in most PC games.P.S. Most PC games use the keyboard over the mouse dumb asses.

[Armed Gamer]

Wow this came out of nowhere! I play a lot of PC games. You -can- click on items, but it has a very low error threshold and instead of missing by going to a different item, it would close the entire menu for me: that's a problem. Keyboards are fine, but I don't like moving my hand away from the mouse. I think that's a waste of my time.

I did mess with graphics, watch the opening of the game and messed with all the keys. I'm not quite certain of what you're getting at, though.

[Wodianig]

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