Pretty much any game developer can tell you that making a title for virtual reality isn't as simple as "hitting the VR button." A lot of work goes into making a VR title—especially one worth actually playing. That makes it all the more annoying that it really does feel like Bethesda just hit the "make it VR" button when porting The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition to VR. Aside from half-baked hand tracking and a custom starting area, very little care was put into making Skyrim an interesting VR game. While it's neat to explore Tamriel in a more immersive way, the game lacks the physicality that VR promises. There's very little in the way of physics interactions—your hands barely interact with the environment, either phasing through people and items or sending them flying erratically. Without collision, melee combat feels like whiffing at the air. Congratulations, you're playing Skyrim again, but this time, you're doing it standing up. To add insult to injury, players are expected to purchase this rush-job separately from the desktop version of Special Edition—which I still don't even own. If they were going to put so little effort into it, it should have been a free update to Special Edition and not a full-price standalone purchase.
As my score suggests, however, not all is lost. I had quite a good time playing Skyrim in virtual reality, but that's despite Bethesda—not thanks to them. If you're willing to spend half a day modding the game and learning how to correctly apply confusing shit like DynDOLOD, Skyrim VR is more than just a salvageable experience—it's one worth getting into. The Elder Scrolls fan community has done an amazing job of making this port worth playing. With a handy guide and a bit of patience on the player's part, it's possible to make the world of Tamriel a beautiful, jaw-dropping experience worth exploring for the visuals alone. The combat and gameplay... well, it's still Skyrim. That said, I feel like the notoriously same-y combat is made a bit more interesting when the swings of your sword, the drawing of your bow, and the casting of your spells are done with your own hands' movements. There's an additional layer of immersion there that makes the combat feel more worthwhile than the one-button-mashing of the desktop version. If you have a headset, an attachment to Skyrim, and some time to burn, I think it's worth trying out the game after modding it. Just... don't buy it. Bethesda could do without the encouragement.
Body
tips
Formatting [b]text[/b] - bold [i]text[/i] - italic [s]strikethrough[/s] - strikethrough [tt]text[/tt] - fixed-width type [color red]text[/color] - colored text (full list) [spoiler]text[/spoiler] - Text hidden with spoiler cover [https://www.example.com/page/,Link to another site] - Link to another site
Linking When you mention an album, artist, film, game, label, etc - it's recommended to link to the item the first time you mention it. Doing so will make it easier to search for your post and give it more visibility. To link an item, use the search box above, or find the shortcut that appears on the page that you want to link. You can customize the link name of shortcuts by using the format [Artist12345,Custom Name].
Formatting [b]text[/b] - bold [i]text[/i] - italic [s]strikethrough[/s] - strikethrough [tt]text[/tt] - fixed-width type [color red]text[/color] - colored text (full list) [spoiler]text[/spoiler] - Text hidden with spoiler cover [https://www.example.com/page/,Link to another site] - Link to another site
Linking When you mention an album, artist, film, game, label, etc - it's recommended to link to the item the first time you mention it. Doing so will make it easier to search for your post and give it more visibility. To link an item, use the search box above, or find the shortcut that appears on the page that you want to link. You can customize the link name of shortcuts by using the format [Artist12345,Custom Name].
This mf has probably become the quintessential build-your-own-game mod base. I don't think there is a single subgenre of rpg or sim (hell, video game) that I haven't seen Skyrim get modded into. The base game, with it's stunning map and blueballing lore implications, induces the fattest Stockholm Syndrome known to man in 90% of players, and the mods (made by fellow victims obviously) make it actually worth your time. Human ingenuity at its finest. If only the new "update" didn't fill me with disdain to the point I decided to cut this game out of my life entirely.
I mean, this thing gave us Enderal. That alone makes it worthy of praise.
I see so many people who don’t get the appeal of Elder Scrolls and other BGS titles. These games have lots of things worth criticizing, but there is one thing that virtually no other games offer. BGS titles, especially TES, are basically fantasy life sims. Yeah the writing is usually somewhat weak but the reason that doesn’t matter so much is because the real “story” in these games is the one you make up in your head for your character as you play.
Is that somewhat of a cop-out? Probably. Is that an excuse for BGS to never improve in the writing department? Definitely not. But I promise it’s integral to the experience for those who really truly love these games. The world building and design here is excellent, the soundtrack is brilliant, and the quest writing is just good enough to serve as a foundation for your character’s story.
This goes for other aspects of the game too, like the combat. It is obviously not great and pretty simple. However, it’s responsive and diverse, and it allows for a ton of variety in how you express your characters abilities as an extension of their story. Combined with a great skill progression system, it’s way better than it gets credit for.
In this regard, TES is a “roleplaying” experience in the truest sense and there are only a small handful of comparable games. There is also something to be said for how this design approach (if it is actually deliberate) lends itself to mods as a natural part of the game. This game is all about using your imagination to live a fantasy life in a fantasy world. If you’re not into it then there’s nothing wrong with that but it really is the main appeal and the reason why fans can be quick to dismiss valid criticism.
You make some good points. I went from loving this game as a teenager to loudly declaring it mediocre as an adult, especially after playing other RPGs with actually decent writing. But the more I step away from the game the more I realize that there are vibes here that I'm really glad to have experienced. The feeling of exiting a dungeon and hearing the music start to play is pretty special. That soundtrack goes such a long way.
I think you overstate the quality of the combat though. It's certainly responsive, which is all it really needs to be, but I would hardly call it diverse. And I guess I disagree too that it's a great roleplaying experience. It's a great game to take the world in, but the game doesn't really let you make any interesting choices, and it restricts your freedom quite a bit (i.e. unkillable NPCs).
like playing it unlocks that "saturday morning cartoon" gene of comfort in my mind. maybe its gaming chicken nuggets but i honestly cant be mad at it or any of the times todd howard resells us it
Good game but gets stupid easy once you max smithing and enchanting out. Even early game is piss easy unless you're playing on legendary, but that's only difficult because the enemies' HP is artificially pumped up to give the illusion that the game is "harder". Half the skill trees are fucking useless too (who the fuck actually uses perks on lockpicking??). But with that said, I still play this game annually. Looting, magic and exploring are too fun to pass up.
I mean, this thing gave us Enderal. That alone makes it worthy of praise.
Is that somewhat of a cop-out? Probably. Is that an excuse for BGS to never improve in the writing department? Definitely not. But I promise it’s integral to the experience for those who really truly love these games. The world building and design here is excellent, the soundtrack is brilliant, and the quest writing is just good enough to serve as a foundation for your character’s story.
This goes for other aspects of the game too, like the combat. It is obviously not great and pretty simple. However, it’s responsive and diverse, and it allows for a ton of variety in how you express your characters abilities as an extension of their story. Combined with a great skill progression system, it’s way better than it gets credit for.
In this regard, TES is a “roleplaying” experience in the truest sense and there are only a small handful of comparable games. There is also something to be said for how this design approach (if it is actually deliberate) lends itself to mods as a natural part of the game. This game is all about using your imagination to live a fantasy life in a fantasy world. If you’re not into it then there’s nothing wrong with that but it really is the main appeal and the reason why fans can be quick to dismiss valid criticism.
I think you overstate the quality of the combat though. It's certainly responsive, which is all it really needs to be, but I would hardly call it diverse. And I guess I disagree too that it's a great roleplaying experience. It's a great game to take the world in, but the game doesn't really let you make any interesting choices, and it restricts your freedom quite a bit (i.e. unkillable NPCs).