Skyrim's Opening - How NOT to Start a Game - Extra Credits
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- Опубликовано: 6 сен 2024
- Skyrim has many good qualities, but an engaging intro sequence is not one of them. It tries to mimic the opening of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare but does a worse job and fails to understand or convey its own unique appeal.
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The opening cart ride should have been a boat ride through the solitude arch
If you want a boat ride beginning, try Morrowind.
Holy shit! That would be amazing!!
+Dragonman0007 the boat ride doesnt show you anything though
Except that would likely mean you'd have to burn solitude to the ground, or take an extra 10 minutes to head off to Dragon Bridge or another such town. No thanks. Great idea, but if you want to keep in the attack by Alduin, it's probably a better idea to keep it in a town that's not as interesting as Solitude or Dragon Bridge
Sometimes the best works start with a crushing defeat of a big, prosperous and potentially interesting town, actually. Burning solitude down to the ground could have changed the story significantly AND set a ground work for a place in which the story changes. Maybe the jarl survives with some of her royal guards/court along some survivors and we were then given an opportunity to see a lighter side of the Legion instead of the imperialistic puppets we got while also dealing with storm cloaks and seeing an ugly side to them. Maybe they could be facing sabotage of the thalmor to, forcing us to accept that the real enemy isn't the Imperial Legion or Rebel Stormcloaks, but the racist, nazi-like elves?
There are actually possabilities with destroying a major town in a game rather than something mundane. It'd change the story to make it clear to everyone dragons were a major problem, and the writing would also have to be careful about the main character being dragon born. You don't want to mary sue a character, afterall. But again, there isn't anything wrong with destroying a major city in a game. Check out Oblivion or Mass Effect 1. Oblivion had Kvach destroyed at the beginning of the game, just the same we get to see a peaceful, symbolic Eden Prime destroyed and both had interesting plots for it. Skyrim just chose a boring town to avoid consequence, in a way, but it was more it wanted to create a feeling of "Oh Crap!" with a smaller section of the game world.
2019:watching a video about skyrims bad opening
me in the next moment:"Hey, you. You're finally awake. You were trying to cross the border, right? Walked right into that Imperial ambush, same as us, and that thief over there."
skyrims intro is not that interesting, but incredebly memorable. outside of those few minutes when youre starting a new game, where youre annoyed af, im pretty sure most ppl think:"yeah, skyrim baby!"
i cant think of a better way for the game to start.
@@firefox30570 also bcs of the memes tho
@@firefox30570 my #1 complaint is the boring ass road they take you through.. i mean, given the tutorial area, i can see “super big” to “super lame” being a little jarring, but there’s like 3 roads into helgen. Why’d they pick by far the worst one?
Keep in mind that Half-Life 1 did this and it took even longer. I thought that tram ride would never end.
Von Neely atleast it was interesting, no intro dialogue or prologue, its just you watching a seemingly ordinary research/experimentation facility, then you did your job, and suddenly aliens and swat units are invading, it really gives you the feel, especially the fact that you can explore the entire facility beforehand
Stephen Rosal True.
It doesn't have characters talking to you though. And, as far as I remember, the environment is not as constantly boring as in Skyrim.
I enjoyed that tram ride a lot more than Skyrim's half-hour of utter shite
Laurence Withey: True, the tram ride was educational. It showed you things that would prove useful later.
One of my favorite mods is one that replaces the opening with one of a few scenarios, most of which dump you in the middle of nowhere with almost no equipment.
A RPG where you start as a nameless person in the middle of nowhere with almos nothing.
Sounds like almost every RPG from around 2000.
It's really the most lazy ass way of opening, right next to "You are the Choosen One, sent to save as from this unsstoppable threat. You are Dragonborn. *roll in orchestra theme*".
Bethesda really sucks at narrative storytelling, animation or cutscenes but are pretty good when it comes to environmental storytelling.
+SirSazu And i agree with you, I wish for once you were not the savior of the universe, stronger than the makers of the all things.
there is a mod that makes you exactly that: not the dragonborn.
You can't use/learn shouts and you don't absorb dragon souls
I don't know if (and how) that mod changes the story since I don't use it but maybe for you it's worth a try
This is why dnd is fun. You can and will die if you get dumb and over extend past your limits and the reason youre a hero and not the townsfolk is that youre dumb enough to start killing the ankle biter monsters like goblins and kololds which in turn helps you get stronger and learn new tricks to survive more potent threats
I can't agree , what the point in fantasy RPG to not be the choosen one? In this case even lotr sucks because of this reason and I can't find one good fantasy book , movie or game which fit that. For a classic medival simulation yes it can be ok but in a fantasy game ? Being a normal person would just be boring as fuck or would lead to inincoherent moments.
New Vegas actually did this really well too. Not to many characters. All are main characters. Brilliant vista. Jargon tells you a lot about the world. Boom dead. That was an awesome intro.
+Stiggandr1 3 did it better I'd say, since its introduction served as the tutorial as well.
+Stiggandr1 Old-school Raynor respect. ♥
Most people dislike Fallout 3's intro/tutorial vault :/
Fallout New Vegas' intro was great because it introduced so many things in such little time. From the time you transition from the Lucky 38 to the streets of Vegas, the cutscene enraptures you. As it pans out to the Ranger, you feel chills of excitement, and then as you follow the bullet, those goosebumps intensify. Almost instantly, you want to get that armor and that weapon.
As we pan out even further, we see a bull banner. Then, these men in football gear looking like legionaries run by, presumably doing something. Finally, we come to a stop high above all of that. We see a man in a checkered suit, a bound and unconscious person, and several others in strange attire. A man is digging a grave, your grave. Suddenly, a voice-over begins, pulling you into a trance as you listen.
You learn your captor's name is Benny, and his associates are Great Khans. He shows you some kind of chip, and then pulls his gun. The music slowly swells as this man says, "Truth is, the game was rigged from the start." A shot rings out, and the screen goes black after bright flash. The player then understands that they were just shot in the head, and that their mission is to get revenge on this bastard.
Later, when you fulfill all these goals, it actually feels satisfying. When you kill Benny with his own gun, it feels satisfying. When you get that beautiful NCR Ranger armor and antimaterial rifle, it feels satisfying. New Vegas' intro is what so many games aspire to live up to, but just can't. New Vegas was a Once in a Blue Moon kind of game.
And most importantly you can skip it if you want to. Also it's a proper cutscene, no fakeout non-gameplay gameplay.
the first ten minutes of skyrim, in the vacuum that i experienced it in, aka, the first time i played, with no prior knowledge of the game. the entire opening cut-scene for me hyped me so far up i felt i could take on the world. it did its job of getting me into the story. after the first time though, it was dull.
it was boring as hell for me. I'm always surprised with how many people it's seemed to have impressed.
Same
i feel the same way
That's how I felt
They have great alternate start mods. Really changes things up
I absolutely hate the Skyrim intro, but for another reason. It takes like 25 to 30 minutes. When I want to create another character I´m like: oh god no
And after that, I still have to go to that damn starting village . I wish they made the intro take around 5 minutes and after that you could choose where to go instead of having just one quest that sends you to the starting village.
+Jozef T.
"Random alternate start"
"Alternate start - live another life"
"Skyrim unbound"
3 mods that let you start the game in 3 minutes
+Jozef T. You also don't HAVE to go to Riverwood if you don't want to. You could just go get lost in the wilderness and stumble across some random bandits or something. Skyrim gives you the freedom to choose what you want to do... You just have to put up with a lenghty intro and tutorial dungeon first.
I see that as a pretty fair trade off. But yes, the intro is quite contrived and could have been done a lot better. At least there's mods that help to fix this and let you start differently.
If you are at the home screen press perispomenom, (wave below escape), and type "cac riverwood" bamn you start immediately with enter.
Edit: not sure is it's cac, but you can look it up
+Jozef T. I appreciate their work, one thing: PLEASE PUT IN SKIP!
In general, the Skyrim main storyline could have had more to it. You only visit a few of the major cities, and very little else.
Thats why everyone who plays the game for a second time got the mod to ignore the intro ;)
Bartoc I know right and the best part is my choice for being surprised set me in a little campsite all by myself right outside the cave entrance so I got to witness Alduin flying overhead after destroying Helgen so I immediately had good cause to go explore what happened. I love that because it just seems so natural and not forced.
The game's already a chore so d rather take part on the intro anyway.
I'm not blaming the game, just the way rpgs are done.
A game shouldn't need mods in order not to be tedious, especially if you simply want to create another character. The very existence of that mod is a testimony to the terrible intro scene Skyrim suffers from.
@Bartoc
Count me out of the "everyone" term then.
well actually the intro is so scripted that when you have 100+ mods you must have a mod to bypass the intro or the game wont start
I think the roughest part of the Skyrim intro scene was the lack of exploration with the fighting mechanics, namely Magic for me. By the time I had walked out of Helgen into true Skyrim, my play style had already developed around a sword, which doesn't suit the high elf i had made AT ALL. I have tried working with magic, but it feels unnatural to me. I actually considered resetting my game and designing a new character better suited to the style I had developed. I think there was an opportunity lost in the first 20 minutes, especially to someone new to the Elder Scrolls universe, where fighting style was first developed. Some introduction to the use of magic in the beginning may have significantly altered how I experience Skyrim. Just my thought on the matter. I might add the "Alternate Opening" mod and start a new character and see where that leads me.
EDIT/UPDATE: I made a new character, and uploaded the random start up mod along with the dynamic skills mods. I'm really enjoying it!
That's not true. Right of the bat you can equip flames, healing, fury, and... Something else. Plus as high elf you already have magics at level 20
I didn't find out about that until MUCH later in the game. If the tutorial scene had offered a moment where using magic was needed so you would have to go to the spell list and equip a spell to use, I think the concept could have been introduced better.
VenetianTemper you want a nord to tell you how to use magic?
eh, good point. this entire opening requires some serious improvement. the RAS mod has been a great bonus.
OH NO YOU CN'T LEARN MAGIC IN THE FIRST 5 MINUTES...NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
This was my first Elder Scrolls game ever and I loved the intro. Why? Because I didn't feel like some awesome badass, I felt like a normal person caught up in a bunch of stuff I don't understand and just trying to survive. I found myself just reacting to the world and doing my own thing. I described this game to my friends as a "simulation" because it felt like I was really part of the world. I know there are other ways to start the game with mods now, like being a farmer or huntsman or whatnot but this intro was, IMHO, perfect for the type of game and feel they were going for: start as a no one, become a some one... in your own way.
+Patrick Turc Well said, never thought of it that way. Still, starting as a no-one doesn't have to be an uninspired and dull experience. They could've gone with the naive stranger caught up in a strange and wondrous world right off the bat, without making you wait 20 mins.
+Allan Kant They did that, it's called Daggerfall. You start right in a dungeon and told to find your way out. Or Morrowind where you're given a quick intro to the world and access to a couple quests; where you go from there is your own choice. Or Oblivion where you start out in a random cell being heckled by another prisoner and thrust into a conspiracy against the king within a 10 minute or so tutorial/intro.
ES games always have you start as an unknown prisoner, it's their "A long time ago, in a galaxy far away." You can play as the naive stranger through the questions you ask, to the point that asking obvious questions get you amazed remarks as the people can't understand why you don't know current events.
Skyrim was marketed to a more general crowd, more so than any ES game before it. The reason why the intro was so long is probably because the general crowd needs the hand holding.
+Patrick Turc Did you ever truly feel special as THE dragonborn though? I mean, you can be the biggest badass in the country, but people rarely treat you differently. Royal children even keep disrespecting you.
MarekSVK32 my first RPG was arguably the Original Legend or Zelda or Final Fantasy ; depends on your definition of RPG.
+TinyZu I always felt special as the dragonborn when I was dealing with people who recognized me as such like the Graybeards and the Blades, etc. It's a low tech world and news doesn't travel fast, even when it does it doesn't come with videos or pictures. So how is someone I've never met suppose to know I'm the DragonBorn unless he/she's met me before, knows my name, or sees me shout? Also, just because I shout, doesn't mean I'm the DragonBorn (see Ulfric Stormcloak). Respect is earned through deeds, be it slaying a dragon, becoming aThane (also deeds) or beating the opposition into submission. Then people who should know (like guards) treat me with respect (as a Thane, as the DragonBorn, etc). What can I say, it's more of an experience or "simulation" than a "game"...lol.
8:33 "by then we are 20 minutes into the game."
Me: yeah........only 20 minutes......not 3 hours leveling sneak off the bear or anything like that.....
Hahaha! FYI: if you enchant 3 items with the sneak+ enchantment, you become pretty much invisible all the time.
and another 3 hours spent on character creation making a detailed face that'll never be seen again because of the helmet
Why would you need to use the bear? A few power attacks while sneaking against your NPC ally at the start will get you up to almost 100 in sneak in less than an hour, along with whatever other skills you're boosting.
Hate to be that nitpicking guy, but it's Ulfric Stormcloak, not Ulfred.
***** Riperoni in pepperoni.
Hate to pick all these nits but this video is actively promoted on YT so stop that or quiet down.
Just Moved In in addition it's Thalmor not Dalmore
You mean you haven't heard the tale of Ulfric "Fat Freddy" Stormcloak?
He also said Dalmor instead of thalmor
*CUTSCENES!*
_that's where Call of Duty really shines! xD_
Nobody Lurker Exactly. I remember when Cod used to be good
TheGhost325 God yeah, I remember playing the first one. I'd just been watching Band of Brothers and that level were you have to charge across the field to the train station under artillery fire really reminded me of it. Think it was COD 1 anyway.
+TheGhost325 World at war man. That was a hell of a game. Every time I stumble my way onto a buddies consel to play a new C.O.D. game...
Guys.
The fuck happened?
+Jan Škopek Well fifty thousand people used to live here.... Now it's a ghost town.
It would probably have been best if the intro to this was the way it is, but the player was executed. Then, the player is asked to make a character, who is totally unrelated, but much later in the game, the death of the first player character becomes really important to the story somehow.
φ First-order logic
That is quite a great idea for a intro, and Skyrim would benefit much more from it.
then again... is a Bethesda Game, Mods to skip the intro are already made and perfected to such a level that people just remember the intro because it was so annoying...
It's sad, really. I would love being a video game writer to be honest. There just aren't good stories out there unless you dig in the visual novel section or go read a book...
φ First-order logic I dunno if I agree with that. There are a lot of non-VN games games out there with good writing and narratives. Have you seriously not played a game with a good story before?
pf I have, but they are a depressing minority
Oh. Well I don't know exactly what you've been playing, but that minority of well written games is a part of a much, much larger group that's out there.
Been playing games a long time, and not once have I tasted a shortage of well-written games to jump into. 's why I have pretty strong feelings about gaming being a very capable storytelling medium, about as capable as any other one.
For the person who makes many characters but hates going through 15 minutes of already known exposition like me: save the game right before the character customization menu. IT REALLY HELPS.
you are a genius.
I have to agree. It'd suck to watch the opening EVERY SINGLE TIME.
better if you have the PC version. Save after you've done the whole intro, then just type a command to make a new character on the spot.
Doesn't the game already automatically save the game right before the character customization starts?
Yes, but it's the whole helgen sequence that is annoying,
The reason I enjoyed the beginning of Skyrim so much is that it began worldbuilding right there. I became immediately invested. It also draws a stark contrast to what is about to happen. It's the calm before the storm. Quiet, serene, and foreboding. I felt unsure of what was about to occur. I was anxious to see where the cart took me. I truly felt like a prisoner on the way to my execution. I think it was well done, but I can see why some people may not enjoy it. I'm reminded of the beginning of the first Half-Life. There was so much tedium and mundanity we were forced to endure before the action kicked in. This allowed for a more jarring contrast. That is, at least in my opinion, what Skyrim did here.
August Break I just don't think skyrim does it as well, and for an execution, particularly the execution of someone as important as ulfric, everyone seems almost bored. Also the music feels wrong
I actually loved the opening of skyrim a lot. I lot and I played both game and I would say skyrim effected much more then call of duty. With music and environment. It's not builded to impress me it's a part of living place and I was a prisoner there who is trying to understand what's going on. I see no problem there. Well in other hand I know not everyone like me. People tend to skip cutscenes which I feel is the biggest sins of rpg playing. But given option to skip at at least 2nd character creation would work.
Agree, Morrowind and Oblivion also started you out as a prisoner of sorts
Ikr! People are just haters
@@isaacluna6556 not really
6:13
"Savvengard" --> "Sovngarde"
"Ulfred Stormcloak" --> "Ulfric Stormcloak"
"Rorickstead" --> "Rorikstead"
"General Tuleous" --> "General Tullius"
"Dalmoore" --> "Thalmor"
"Helgan" --> "Helgen"
ericph9 Elod --> Vilod
It's the person that apparently made mead with juniper berries, which I found a very touching detail.
shinjinobrave Mede->mead
Dagda Mor Woopsie, that's the word for it in my language, it has been corrected.
ericph9 He can't even pronounce Khajiit properly in other videos and they refer to themselves in the third person. I don't think anyone at EC has ever played an elder scrolls title.
ericph9 Methinks you fanboys missed the point.
How games work for me:
I play the tutorial.
I get into the real game.
I get scared of my character dying.
I never play the game again.
A Bird Lover more like:
I play the real game
I don't know what to do and how
I play the tutorial
But the tutorial is boring
I play another game
Or you could do this:
Load up the game
Start the tutorial
Get bored
Screw the tutorial I'm gonna play the real game
Get mad at not knowing the controls
Angrily play the tutorial complaining the entire time
A Bird Lover you gotta face darkness and death,play dark souls you'll understand that life has no pity.
Personally I recommend:
-Download mods.
-Craft the best possible Skyrim experience yourself.
-Get sidetracked and suddenly there are flying trains everywhere trying to kill you.
Many have the following
Skip the tutorial
Get rekt/can't advance
-What a shitty game.
Never touch the title again.
"Hey you, you're finally awake."
The opening just need a *"skip button"* to the character creation.
If you haven't already look up the mod: alternate start live another life
Had a save file at the char. creation but nearly every game I started after that started to glitch. Ugh annoying
There is an auto save generated that begins at character creation. Just load that up. I use that every time I made a character.
and then you start the game as every elder scrolls game starts, as a prisoner.
wow your looking at a different game, instead of looking at the forgoing game, elder scrolls 4 Oblivion or Elder scrolls 3 morrowind. in boith you start as a prisoner. shows how much you know about the series... nothing!
+Bjørn Friedrichsen what are you on about? The last three games start with you as a prisoner. so what?
silentlamb21
what im on about, is that they are comparing it to call of duty instead of comparing it to how the series normally start. if they had taken a look at the other elder scrolls games start, they would have seen that the protagonist (you) *always* starts as a prisoner.
+Bjørn Friedrichsen You are severely missing the point.
Morrowind was a 5 minute intro. "leave boat, create character, explore"
Oblivion and skyrim had painfully long, unskippable tutorial-like intro's.
+Bjørn Friedrichsen In Daggerfall you start as a free man/woman that was shipwrecked on their way to Daggerfall, but it's pretty similar to the other openings.
Oblivion intro had a camera flying around showing a big chunk of the entire map. And I was still excited to explore it
Kenneth Donnelly and that Patrick Stewart narration with the stirring soundtrack swelling as the camera pans
'Ulfred'? 'Tuleous'? 'Savvengard'? 'Helgan'? 'Dalmoore'?
You're joking, right?
+Denny Chen Maybe they intentionally misspelled to show the felling that a newcomer to the series will feel like
Dalmoore omfg
+Denny Chen You can't expect him to research his shit. He's got videos to make!
+JarlDraggmond m8, ever heard of subtitles?
Alfred Stormclock: yarl of windhome vs General Tilliest: commander of the Empirical Lesion
Fight me, that opening is one of the most recognizable and iconic openings of gaming history!
"Hey, you. You're finally awake."
That doesn't mean it's good
Yes but because it is th worst and most boring opening ever made
@@tekken.universal2343 It's not the worst or most boring but it is bad and boring xD
mostly famous for the amount of memes you can make with a line "Hey,you. You're finally awake"
5:57
Someone didn't have their subtitles on...
+Rory Connolly I do it, just so I don't mishear someone. LIKE HE did
+Rory Connolly yeah, not to mention that the game doesn't blatantly tell you what those words mean, giving you (if skyrim is your first game) a great curiosity about the game, thing that dark souls completely fails to do with it's much more horrible intro... and they praise dark souls as if it's perfect in game designing.
+Slowpoke
Skyrim was my first game and no. Just like it was said in the video, it goes from one ear and right out of the other. Lots of things are said in the prayer so quickly that you can't even sort out what's a town name or the name of a god.
As for Dark Souls? Right after character creation, you're shown an ugly jerky-skin version of your character which makes you wonder "What the f*ck happened to me?". Some guy throws a dead body at you, you loot it for keys and walk out a cell. Did he want to help you? Why didn't he just throw the keys? Also, as you walk through the first hall, you can look to your right to see a giant demon.
I don't know about you, but that game already had me hooked at that point.
Dark souls actually did the exact opposite for me, after staying like half an hour at trying to make my character look decent then I discover that the whole game i'm gonna see shit? no thanks. also, the dark souls intro that tries to give lore? useless dumb crap that has little to nothing with the game.
In skyrim there is a civil war and there are dragons, and you can see it in the intro.
In dark souls they talk about fire, disparity and a lot of characters that have little to nothing with the actual game.
Basically dark souls tricks you thinking into having a great story while all it has is trying to survive to ring 2 bells.
the best intro is one that represents the freaking game to me.
+Slowpoke The intro your talking about is just the two-minute cinematic that's there to set the foundation for understanding the kind of world you're stepping into as well as the mystery surrounding souls. The other twenty minutes of the intro consists of establishing everything else through gameplay. You learn of what's been going on in your absence and your importance involving it. Then, you quickly figure out the difficulty, the death penalties, everything you really need to know so that when you actually get to the meat of the game there's nothing holding you back from victory but your own limitations. I don't see much of anything wrong with it. Also, your description of the story consisting of little more than ringing 2 bells tells me you don't actually know much of the story at all.
Despite this, I still find Skyrim's opening one of the most memorable I've played. Probably because it was my first AAA game. But that music at the start, with the drums and trumpet the moment the title fades in, it gets me excited.
Eh, I liked the opening of Skyrim.
L. Wolf
After watching it so much, of course you liked it... anyone can be brainwashed to liking something when they are forced to watch it.
Sir Tobias
Hmm, maybe.
Sir Tobias I like it the fist time and the second time and so on and so forth
L. Wolf I disliked it the very first time. I was like "Why is this so frigging long?" Oblivion's was better. As in, being the same with similar faults, but shorter, so it was less painful.
Faerindel
Yea, I can see a problem with the length.
Note: after your first playthrough there's always a file marked "Prisoner" use that to skip the cutscene and jump into the action early on
Sorry, you're flat out wrong. I think the muted low key beginning of Skyrim is ENTIRELY intentional. It IS to put the later freedom and opening beautiful vistas in contrast. Instead of flashy landscape and cheap spectacle, the intro begins with characters talking about themselves. You meet your temporary companions, the nostalgic Stormcloak talking about a girl he fancied, the pesimistic and unlucky thief and the silent Jarl. You get spectacle LATER, with the dragon attack, because you build up to it. Having a scale of intensity of events is good, you can build up from something, you have reference for the epicness that comes later. Overloading the player with intense and WOW moments from the start is certainly an approach, but I'd not say it's necessarily great, or better than what Skyrim did.
And if a may add, You feel isolated in the opening because you're supposed to, You're a prisoner! Then you escape your execution and with the help of the NPCs you met in the opening sequence (who i must add were there purposely to give you an idea of who you're going to side with when your first decision of the game comes up within 5 minutes) you will slowly go from a prisoner without even the use of your hands to being unshackled, led through the burning village, armed to fight for yourself and then led through the cave where you settle in to your new role as a protagonist who's goal is your own survival and a need to take care of yourself... Then you step out of that cave and you're immediately struck with that incredible feeling of freedom (just as you would if you had actually gone through those events), You see the vast mountains off into the distance and you now realize you're on you're own, FREE to do as you please in this giant world for the first time.
Shaun Davies and may i add CoD might have a good opening but it creates a feeling that will disappear as you play because the game isn't everything that the intro showed you.
Skyrim's intro was meant to give you two sides of two forces fighting. So its giving you a chance to hear each side of their story from their foot soldiers, notice how Ulfric's mouth is gagged. (more so to keep him from shouting) but it also puts another element into the gameplay and your decision on what side you are going to feel like choosing. The same people that are going to kill the leader of the resistance that is fighting against it, is right there with you on his way to be executed just right along with you, so naturally you would want to help him, to help yourself. Why would you turn around and try to help the same people that just tried to kill you? The main plot of the game is choosing which side you want to fight for, red, or blue. I chose Stormcloaks because they are fighting for what they precive to be right because a foreign force has told them that their ways are wrong, and their ways are right. The basic conflict between humans, trying to force their beliefs onto others even if its not their place to do so. So that is what Skyrim's intro is trying to get across.
It did fail slightly, first time through I followed the imperial because I couldn't know there was another choice.
Slightlybored First time I didnt know theres an imperial option. You know, they're trying to execute you, then you join the "resistance", help them a bit, so why would you join imperial after that?
I didn't know he was an imperial, I just followed the only guy I could find quickly and later sided with the stormcloaks (because every time I went to solitude everyone attacked me due to a misunderstanding about a pile of guards in the town square)
***** Very well said. It's all up to personal preference basically.
Natasel I like the way you think. I wouldn't mind a 3rd option like that......
Thalmor not Dalmor.. though I think that's part of the problem.
Jagar Alagoria If this had been made in April I might have passed it off as a joke. No such luck unfortunately.
Jagar Alagoria It's also General Tullius, Ulfric Stormcloak, Sovngarde, Helgen and Vilod. So yeah, C- for effort.
SARCASM!
I don't know. I really enjoyed the intro, and I honestly wish more games made their intros like Skyrim. Rather than shoving the different "strong points" of the game down your throat, you will eventually discover them yourself. That way the intro doesn't feel cheesy and unrealistic.
You lose many potential players if you don't get them hooked in the first minutes of the game. That's their first impression of the game - if they find it boring they may quit mid-tutorial and never come back
Marco I honestly value a better game experience over amount of players.
I want my game to be a unique fine high quality dish and not a Big Mac anyone can chew down without any doubts.
Harald Kanin well then skip the intro and start the game from the get-go.
Did the intro presented on Skyrim introduce any value to the game? Any quality? 5 minutes stuck in a carriage panning the camera left and right, looking at 3 guys faces while they talk a bunch of nonsense gibberish. Even no intro is better than that.
Marco It wasn't gibberish. The player is supposed to be someone crossing the border from somewhere else, and the people in the cart are talking about something the player /character was unfamiliar with.
Did it make me go "ugh this is shit" when I first played it? No, it made me (likely how the designer wanted) go "This is weird. What is going on? Who are these people?"
Rather than just shoving everything deep down your throat making the product absolutely sterile from personality (Fallout 4 intro) Skyrim introduces you rather slowly. When the player is actually free, he or she has been wanting to explore for a while so when the player exits the cave and see Skyrim, he or she will most likely set off exploring right away.
Harald Kanin well I think it's up to personal preference then, I was pretty frustrated at some parts of the intro and tutorial. Mainly the carriage, and the first Alduin 'battle' and 'chase' scenes which felt pretty forced and totally not what I was used to since I was a long time TES fan. I think that stuff was crammed in there just give this 'action movie' feel which doesn't really match the mood of the game IMO.
Then the dungeon part of the tutorial was alright I guess. I still liked the Oblivion dungeon a bit better, it felt more mysterious and I liked being able to explore at my own pace whereas Skyrim felt a bit rushed with all the Alduin shit going on and walls busting and soldiers all around which pressure the player to go a bit faster unless he gives absolutely 0 fucks (and then you lose all the immersion).
And when you finally get out of the tutorial and you're ready to explore, there's a bit more handholding with the soldier telling you where to go and stuff like that. Of course, you can just ignore him if you want to.
Ahh CoD4. The game that skyrocketed Call Of Duty's massive popularity and imo probably the best game in the series. Seriously the campaign mode in that was amazing. I know everyone talks about the multiplayer but 4 had the best story of all of them. And let's not forget the best CoD mission ever. "All Ghillied Up"
+Epic stuffs yeah world at war was brilliant
So far, I'm enjoying the newest BO3 one. Had a rough start, though.
+Oden667 IMO Cod4 has the best story and MW2 has the most fun multiplayer. But seriosuly after MW2 (argubly black ops 1) it all went downhill.. Fucking futuristic bullcrap. From cod we want modern or old wars, not halo!
+TechniLog (DafaqVidz) Pfft, it all went to hell when it got popular. Fucking modern bullcrap. CoD is about WW2, not all this other bullshit!
See? I can make up meaningless opinions too.
Also, the stuff in AW and BLOPS3 is stuff the army is actually working on today, so... yeah. I think you're wrong even based on your own logic. The exosuits in AW were a bit over the top though. The ones in BLOPS3 are much more realistic.
Patience is a virtue, dude. Don't look at it from such a cynical commercial perspective, Skyrim is meant to be immersive, it's meant for players who aren't impatient and know to sit through a dialogue.
And about all the names and concepts being thrown, again it's MEANT to invoke immersion and realism.
This isn't a channel about being cynical, its about a lot of the core aspects of game development and learning from mistakes made. And here let me throw you an explain of how "immersed" you can be with the amount of concepts and names being thrown at you. So there is this dragon name Auldin, and a prophecy from The Elder Scrolls- "What are the Elders Scrolls?' Shut up! And he will enslave all of humanity if the Dragon born doesn't stop him- "What is a Dragon Born?" -Didn't I tell you to shut up this is MY story! Anyway you should decide between which faction of army do you want to side with. The imperials- "..."- Don't you even dare player! I will insta-kill you if don't stop harassing me! or the storm cloaks.
xxjermxx70 ... Okay, look here. Usually, I don't go about calling other people idiots, but in your case I feel like making an exception - I am going to restrain myself, though, because I'm not looking to start any sort of internet "fight" here. Instead I'm going to gently explain to you why you are wrong.
While I now agree that my original comment ignored the intent of the channel and continued on its merry way to explain why you're not supposed to directly compare Skyrim with a game like Call of Duty - durrrrr? - I still feel the need to shed some light on the fact that you attempted to describe Skyrim's lore through a two-person-based dialogue that clearly COMPLETELY disregards the way you learn about core game items (like the elder scrolls) and are answered questions like "What is the dragonborn?" and "What is a Stormcloak/Imperial?"
Basically, what I'm trying to inform you here, is that your point is just.. moot. I'm not going to assume that you haven't bothered to play Skyrim, but it certainly makes me feel this way, but then again, you might be the type of person to judge games and many other things by the cover - which I, of course, have no idea whether or not that is the case.
I don't want to end this reply on a negative "BURR-YOU-SUCK"-note, so I'm going to admit that you really do seem to have knowledge about this channel's intent, so you definitely win in that prospect, and for ignoring this in my comment, I am sorry.
KTHXBAI
DasNeueFeuer But that is the point, the way the plot is set in a way to where you can't be new to the series or the game. They throw in the true lore five hours after the game's intro. You don't have anything but references to things that the player needs to know. I have played Skyrim for hours. The whole idea of having the two way conversation was to show how closed off the plot is in the intro and how the game refuses to give us knowledge of the lore.
xxjermxx70 I can totally get behind your point, but from my standpoint, I actually like the way you are thrown into the lore. I've been introduced to Elder Scrolls lore through Skyrim, and to me it's not that badly done. They may have marketed to Elder Scrolls fans rather than new players, but to me that's totally fine.
In this prospects, I think we share different views on the matter.
xxjermxx70
A lot of the stuff mentioned in the intro wasn't present in the previous games. If you didn't know what something was, you would eventually find out by *exploring*, which is the game's main aspect, as explained in this video. The intro sequence serves as a tutorial of sorts, so that _new_ players could get used to the mechanics and controls. Honestly, it does what it's meant to do well.
I liked the intro of Skyrim. It gave me that feeling of rags to riches. The feeling of anticipation. It didn't have to sell me anything, because I, and probably everyone else on this planet, already knew, that Skyrim is frickin' epic. Skyrim was about progression, and in that regards the intro was perfect. Call of Duty was about nonstop-hypermasculine-lock'n'load-action - and the intro demonstrated that pretty well. I enjoyed both immensely.
Yes...the voice acting is unforgivable.
like 20 guys did all the voices lol
The first time I ever played Skyrim, I didn't know what to expect. Don't hate me for this but I'd never heard of it and my parents just got it for me for Christmas because they thought it looked like something I would like. And I have to say, that opening nailed it for me. The gradual reveal of the world, the slow, steady build up of tension which results in the dragon arrival and then the epic struggle of feeling trapped but ever so free as you're running from the fire that rains from the sky. Idk, I thought it was brilliant
Skyrim was a great game for exploration and adventure.
But honestly the quests...seriously?...seems like they are written by a 4 year old.
And the dragon mechanics? Dragons are the most underwhelming part of the entire game...all it takes is a tree or a sloping hill to beat a dragon...
Waterpae That's also a bit extreme...but much closer to what it should be :/
Fucking bears owning dragons in Skyrim...
lol or just install deadly dragons mod
Waterpae play any of the Playstation 2 or psp monster hunter games.
***** dude...all you need is a big tree or rock and alot of arrows and the might of the dragon is nullified.
Harder difficulties just makes it take longer times to kill the flying meatbag
BrutusAlbion Fuck if you know how to stam manage you don't even need the rocks and trees, its just super easy dragon slaying every time. The only time dragons ever killed me is when I got pulled from 10 feet back with animation mind powers to get 1-shotted with a bite I was nowhere near, because
CINEMATICS, EXPLOSIONS, EXCITEMENT!
I am legitimately surprised that Half-Life's opening sequence was not mentioned even once in this video.
The environment in Skyrim is dull because they were wanting you to feel like your future is bleak. Because you know, being led to your execution.
6:07Yeah, yeah, wait, did he just say UlfRED Stormcloak?!?! UlfRed? He's not a fantasy butler!
+GamerGuy03 The one true High King Ulfric defaced!
+GamerGuy03 Dalmore? DALMORE????
+GamerGuy03 I think he messed up the names on purpose to demonstrate how a new player wouldn't care about all the exposition getting dumped on them in the span of a few minutes.
+GamerGuy03 Or the way he spells 'Sovngarde' Savvengard wth
No, he's just one hell of a butler.
I have to disagree. While I know this channel is more dedicated towards showing how a developing game brings gamers into a more subtle idealistic of the overall product in quality and quantity. I just really need to point this out.
Skyrim's story takes place during the Civil War where the Storm Cloaks and Imperials are fighting against one another in a hellish combat when dragons push their way into the middle of the war. I feel like judging the game's intro by itself is not really a fair stance. Granted CoD:MW1's intro was very impressive for an FPS. Let's keep in mind that Skyrim and CoD are two seperate genres. Where Skyrim is a roleplaying, and adventure game, CoD is a shooter, and multiplayer game.
With this being said, the game is more direct in the shooter genre because it needs to be more fast paced to keep the player moving and more directed in the way of the action. Where as with Skyrim being a RPG, the game is more based on the 'What's the Lore?' sorta situation. Where throughout the intro, while slow, is meant to incorporate you into the idea of this war as you see the Stormcloaks sent to their death with almost little reason, or maybe the reason (if you side with the Imperials) that the imperials are bringing good upon Skyrim.
Like I said, both games I find have amazing intros, but it's like comparing Apples to Oranges. One is meant for a slower style of gameplay where you can take your time, while the other is meant for quicker, much faster gameplay. Therefore, taking your time in Skyrim is a must have in order for the full immersion of an adventurer, while in a shooter you need to be quick for the full immersion of a military solider.
I completely agree with you. This video was made by someone who loves overly dramatic action-filled shooters. I'm not saying Skyrim had a great intro, but it did the job. Not every gamer likes the CoD approach to things.
ps0705
I am by far _no_ fan of CoD. But even I can admit when I see it, that that intro was better than Skyrim's. Skyrim's intro makes me NOT want to replay it. Not every intro _needs_ to be fast-paced, but this was one that did. I mean, they made a dragon burning down a village _boring_.
Maybe not on your first playthrough, but on the fourth? It should have been skipable.
*****
Yes, you're restricted in certain ways, but it's only as to not mess the story up. RPG stands for Role Playing Game, and every time I pick up Skyrim I can play any role just fine.
The only thing the game tells you is you were caught crossing the border of Skyrim during a time of war, implying you're not from Skyrim. Or you had been out of the country for a period of time. I can come up with dozens of viable, fun backstories and characters off the top of my head with that in mind.
shunkwugga
I do, and a lot of my friends do. Granted, we're all into role playing games of other types to begin with, like D&D. But I can't imagine playing Skyrim without RPing; it would get boring *fast*.
Every time I play Skyrim, I 1) make sure my character eats something substantial at least once a day, 2) make sure my character sleeps each night, and 3) I often won't loot the armor off of dead bodies because realistically, it wouldn't be fitted for my character. So yes, a lot of people _DO_ role play in Skyrim.
TalonSky I'm into D&D as well, but I still have to say that Skyrim, for all of its visual glory, was just too shallow of an experience with me. I do have a tendency to harp on about Morrowind and how much I love it so I won't do that here, but I just felt limited in this game. When Skyrim ended I didn't really care, I wasn't left wanting more, and that, to me, is as big of an indictment of a role playing game as I can think of. When Deus Ex ended, I was sad. I wanted more. When Morrowind ended (the story), I was sad, I wanted more. When Shadowrun Returns (the first campaign) ended, I was sad, and I wanted MOAR!!! I could go on and on, but in my opinion Skyrim was just not a sufficiently interesting place. I'm a lore hound, and I found myself for the first time not caring about the lore in an Elder Scrolls game. Where I feel that Bethesda really went wrong with Skyrim, was that they were trying to go for a really broad audience. When you cast a really wide net, a lot of fish will inevitably slip through said net. I was one of those fish. I was a player with a certain expectation of depth from an Elder Scrolls game who was thoroughly disappointed with the lackluster product I was presented with. I tried. I really did. The intro didn't kill the game for me, the GAME killed the game for me. It went from feeling VERY D&D to feeling just kinda D&D. This game, for me, is the Elder Scrolls equivalent of the edition 4.0 ruleset for D&D. They tried to simplify the game and put more of a focus on core mechanics, but in doing so, lost all of the depth that older players enjoyed out of the game.
Modern Warfare also uses the transition from one character to another since it's roots, where the player is in control of different characters throughout the entire game, which makes the intro scene even more spectacular when it reaches the end, following a cohesive system that fits perfectly within the series. I remember when I first played this game my jaw dropped because it was so very well crafted.
*Ulfric Stormcloak
*Sovngarde
*Rorikstead
*General Tullius
*Thalmor
*Helgen
*Vilod
The game has subtitles for the whole thing.
Ulfric is mentioned repeatedly throughout the game, with several items literally spelling it out for you. Yes, literally. The items are books with his name in them and his own equipment, which you are able to take. You can also join him, meaning you will learn how to spell his name quickly. The faction was named after him by the Imperials, who were using the name as two simultaneous insults: A group of puppets blindly following Ulfric, and people who cry loud enough to drown out thunderstorms when they don't get exactly what they want. Unfortunately, the people actually WERE willing figurative puppets of Ulfric, and Ulfric actually IS louder than a thunderstorm when he's angry, and literally murdered the high king, who was thinking about joining him, by screaming.
Sovngarde is mentioned in every single ES game released so far, including spinoffs and the online game where Talos wasn't even born yet and there actually ARE only 8 divines (3 if you're an elf, 11 plus daedric princes if you are a Khajiit). All of them have it in the lore and spoken by an NPC. Skyrim actually puts you there at one point, and it is labelled on the map. There is an entire main quest segment that takes place there, and the name shows up in bold font when you go there the first time. There is no excuse.
Rorikstead is a village on the map. It was expanded from its initial state as a homestead belonging to a guy named Rorik. They even had one of the deceased real-life ES developers live there as a tribute. He even has a quest where you convince his father to let him be an adventurer like you, and there ISN'T a joke involving arrows or knees the entire quest.
Tullius is the leader of an army you can join, with an entire quest line. How did that get misspelled?
The Thalmor are mentioned every single time you go to a place that isn't aligned with the Imperials. The dead ones have a letter ordering your execution if you do anything not aligned with them. You can talk to some that won't kill you on sight, and they don't have Irish accents like the Nords (The Thalmor, a faction of the Altmer, a race also known as High Elves, have Colonial English accents, which is actually different from the Dark Elves, or Dunmer, who have Boston and Cockney accents), so the "th" is clearly pronounced.
Helgen is on the map, and can be discovered as a bandit hideout, giving bold letters.
Vilod is an NPC, and couldn't have an "e" as the first letter due to the way Nords pronounce "e" (bell, get, Jello). He is also in the subtitles when a Stormcloak speeds up his own execution. His line is "Justice!" although this is hard to find without looking. The house you jump into is actually his inn, and you can find that mead Ralof mentioned.
+Alex Leonardi thatsthejoke.jpg
Skyrim's opening breaks my interest in it. Like, I _want_ to make new characters, do different things....restart my Nord since I accidentally overwrote the save data :( But that opening sequence....why couldn't it have been skipable for future playthroughs? There is literally _nothing_ important in it once you understand the basics of the game.
I wish they set it up like in Oblivion or Fallout, where after the tutorial level before the open world you could change everything to do with your character. You could save just before this and return to it whenever you wanted to make a new character.
Herp Mcderpington It is surprising they did not do this, especially since they are both made by Bethesda.
All you had to do was make a save game right at the character creation point. Voila! Skipped intro. I have done it. Not a big deal.
Random Citizen
I was including the whole escape from Helgen in my comment. The 'tutorial' portion, as it was put earlier.
A Donut with Sprinklez Actually, EVERY SINGLE ELDER SCROLLS GAME was made by a different team. I'm not kidding. Literally all of the ones (unless you count dagger-fall and arena, but I don't know there). Sure all Bethesda, but an entirely different group of people made each game (except for a few key people such as the sound director). Certain things working and being unnoticed for working isn't too far-fetched when you realize that.
"Because this is an Elder Scrolls game, we are also a prisoner"
hahahahh that cracked me up.
So true.
I love the Skyrim intro! One of the best ones I know. It's kind of boring to do it over and over again when you start new characters, but I really love it, I feel that on the contrary it does everything right:
1) introducing the main antagonist,
2) introducing the main side-story of the rebellion
3) making you excited about what's going to happen
and 4) giving you real epic action which, although very easy, let's YOU decide what's going to happen from the very start
5) also it takes you through the tutorial of how the game works in a completely natural way, instead of the forced ways many other games do it
First of all i enjoyed this episode and i am not a Skyrim fanboy. However i really liked the opening to Skyrim for exactly these "flaws" it has and i think it works for new players as well as Elder Scrolls veterans. I really like how the landscape is desolate, grey and unimpressive because it makes you feel like you are at the ass of the world. Lost. You want to get out of there. It would be more comfortable to have all the characters who speak to you sitting right next to eachother but you are a prisoner and being imprisoned just is not comfortable, so i like that choice aswell. I could go on with this but instead i'd like to point out that you also don't criticise an "unfolding game" because it doesn't show you what the game will be all about later right at the beginning. -My conclusion is that i as a normal consumer really liked it and this opening was intended for normal consumers, not for other designers who spot "theoretical flaws" right away because they are trained to do so. Still, it is not perfect but you could also say that there is no such thing as perfect. I really love your videos, i just wanted to share my opinion on this matter.
+Lord of Banana
There's nothing wrong with start of Skyrim, the big draw about Skyrim is that you can change and improve who you are. Skyrim starts with you powerless and a nobody, escaping the dragon and making your way to the near by village is a great way to give the play the confidence to go explore the wide open world and more importantly grow as a character.
+tk9780 No, in Dragon Age Origins you can change and improve who you are, because you always have 5 or 6 choices of what to say in any given dialogue. In Skyrim you can change what you look like and how effective you are at swinging lumps of steel around.
+Lord of Banana Agreed. Part of it is just Skyrim's art style as well. It's very low fantasy compared to most series out on the market. I mean how many games have their characters walking around in greasy hair and dirty faces?
This video misses the whole point with the Elder Scrolls games: immersion. You're a little person in a big, living world, and you always start as the lowest form in the social rank. All is supposed to be dark, unattractive, unpleasant and confusing. Then it gradually opens up. Like all the previous games in the franchise.
+Khogn TM doesnt mean the opening has to be dark, unattractive, unpleasant and confusing
Cupriferous Catalyst worked for dark souls
You spend a lot of time talking about the first two minutes mechanically, but there is a solid reason that has nothing to do with the core mechanics of the game. The core mechanics of Skyrim are not technically all that fun, but we perceive them to be because they don't need to be explained to you very much, and they fit comfortably in with the rest of the game. There is no complicated combat, just press buttons to kill things. Exploration is not fantastic, but it is nice and it does not need to be explained. You want to go to Whiterun? Just go to Whiterun. So what is left for us? The appeal of Elder Scrolls is immersion. You're supposed to feel like you've been whisked away to some Tolkienesque land full of magic and wonders. People in their own land need not explain things that are commonplace and easy to learn about. Everyone knows who Akatosh is, so you're expected to know too. Skyrim was my first Elder Scrolls game and I understood what was going on, even at age 13. The intro is a slow burn, just like the rest of the game, and after those ten minutes, you come out of a cave, both metaphorically and literally, and you're greeted by the fantastic mountainscapes and everything. Seeing things going on in the background in this situation just wouldn't make sense in terms of immersion.
Me waking up
My phone: youre finally awake
I love the introduction! Yea it's a hassle to get started but it just shows me the beauty of the game to me. It's probably one of most memorable starts to the game and I refuse to hate it because of the joy it brought me. Just my opinion though :)
+Peter Dworzanski Its sad, that people dont have time to feel the environment, the people around you talking about their fate, sitting and waiting for your fate...
Today every game needs to start RIGHT away... When I have played Persona 4, till you actually have been able to play it correctly it took 5-7 hours, and HELL I enjoyed that =D
At least there are some people thinking the same =)
The strangest thing about Skyrim's opening is that Bethesda nailed the openings of Oblivion and Morrowind. Morrowind's opening was tense and drew you in to the idea of being part of some intricate, complex plot and Oblivion pretty much shoved those epic, sweeping landscapes right in your face. Their intros were different, but I felt that they were both really good, way better than Skyrim's.
A bit late but I wanted to add a small addition. Out of the three, I think Morrowind gets to me most because of how simple it is. It's kind of like Fallout New Vegas's opening for me. Is it flashy? Not really. But it always gives me more of a sense of replayability. It was generally vague enough to let you play a wide variety of characters with very limited restrictions on your character (Morrowind- Outsider, NV- Courier). My problem with Skyrim's opening is that it makes me not want to play a new character. It's just so long of a sequence that I don't feel is worth a playthrough past one time, maybe two. Granted, I have this same problem with F3's even though I actually sincerely like F3's beginning.
I can still remember the feeling I got from watching the start of the game:
*from the wagon ride to escaping the cave* "Well it's kinda okay
*seeing the player whip out a bow and just go off freely into the wild* "Okay I need to get this game"
I picked up Skyrim, got 15 minutes in, and put it down. I have yet to pick it back up. I know it's a great game, but the start didn't hook me enough.
same here
same here
same here
I encourage you to give it another chance, it's amazing
You need to mod it
Sovngarde*
Ulfric*
Tullius*
Thalmor*
I hope those were deliberate, or you should probably find a new person to proofread these.
I think it's pointing out what it is you 'hear' in the first few minutes. unless you know the exact spelling thalmor/dalmor tullius/tullious isn't really going to matter.
Nexsusthepro
That's fair. Good point.
Skyrim's opening is by far one of the most boring intros I've ever had the pleasure of sitting through multiple times. And yes, I have played every Valve game with a plot.
Bottom line is: If you wanna do an oppening, do it like The Last of Us.
Lol no
That's my answer to pretty much everything. Do it like The Last Of Us. God I loved that game. It made me cry, like, 3 or 4 times, but I loved it. The feels were so intense in that game, partly because of how well they set the scene with that opening.
+Chris
Never tried doing an oppening.
+Chris It became interactive a tad too late for my taste and it only worked because TLoU's cutscenes were on the level of a well-written and Hollywood blockbuster with really good actors. If either one of the characters had been less interesting or believable its intro would have been atrocious.
aR0ttenBANANA96 why not?
But the opening shows you the execution of the stormcloaks and then a dragon attack. Setting up two main plot points. A civil war is going on and the stormcloaks are having a hard time with it and the dragons are returning.
I have to disagree, this intro makes the freedom we are about to experience more powerful; when you get your bounds cut and when you hit the open world it provides contrast. It's used to enforce the Idea of: You're a prisoner, you are in a restrained situation, the outlook is bleak and you will never get to live your life and then you're given a second chance as with the dragon attack and you are told something very personal and simple to understand "You there, *RACENAME*, c'mon! The Gods won't give you another chance!" and this is to cement the role playing 'Second life' aspect; another chance as to do something amazing when you finally get to the open world from the cave which is a stark vista to explore with the dragon flying overhead to remind you of the plot drive. Honestly it's not a perfect intro but it's used to create contrast and atmosphere and you should give it at least a little more credit.
It doesn't matter because its job was to show contrast from the life and death you would have experienced as a prisoner with the life you do life a a free citizen of skyrim. Its called contrast and we need it in games!
Not saying it was done well, just saying it deserves more credit.
I have played the elder scrolls series, a lot (clocked 140 hours on oblivion), but my final verdict is that I find the games tedious, slow, dull, tiresome, monotonous and work like. The game play is spread sssooooo far apart that an unbelievable amount of time is spent on traveling and loading the next area. I really want to love this series but ... I don't. I was ssssoo sick of oblivion, especially the bugs, I shattered the disc against a wall. ...V No regrets V...
I agree in part. Being imprisoned in the beginning is a great way to be awestruck by the vast world you can later explore. But Skyrim did that quite poorly. I agree with the vid on everything really. Besides that, you can compare the elder scrolls games themselves.
imo Oblivion and Morrowind did a much better job at using limitation to excite the player about their eventual freedom. You were in both cases a prisoner(duh!), but it all felt much more fast paced and direct. Morrowind pretty much let you loose withing 2 minutes with only the vaguest goal for you to follow(optionally) while Oblivion gives u full control of your character from the first moment. You could do everything in your tiny cell that you can do in the whole game(pick up stuff, fight, move/jump/crouch etc) while the other prisoner gives you a bleak view of your future. Within moments you meet the emperor with a discussion filled with mysticism and interesting mystery. Immediately you get a way out of the prison, but only once you actually escape through the sewer and go outside do you realise what freedom means, even though it seemed like you had not been limited at all from the beginning.
So all in all, both Morrowind and Oblivion used the prison to freedom formula just like skyrim. However they both did a much better job at it imo
It works... because it FREAKING WORKS!! lol. For those that have never heard of TES before Skyrim (like me and most people I know) that intro was freaking *Amazing*! It was such a stark contrast from any other game. The graphics, sound quality, and sheer presence the game had in the beginning got you immersed into the game _before_ it threw you into the deep end. It made it feel real and that you should be paying attention to this or that or whatever before even placing a weapon in your hands without seeming too much. It sets a great expectations for what's to come.
If they had started the game with as much action/scenes as COD then the player would have been dissapointed at all the quite moments throughout the game, they would have had to up the ante considerably every time (which is exactly why the rest of COD didnt pan out so well).
No doubt these are some great points, but for Skyrim, it freaking worked because they knew what they were doing enough to change up the formula.
No doubt it is highly frustrating and annoying to do every single time you want to replay with a different character, but it works for the vast majority of newcomers.
I wonder when can we expect the next TES!! I yearn for another similar game but cannot find one... Freaking tired of all these FPS games and whatnot. Give me another Skyrim Pleaeeaaase!! (But with better combat, monsters, classes, graphics, voice acting, and crafting lol).
I REALLY, REALLY HOPE THEY WROTE THOSE THINGS WRONG ON PURPOSE ON 5:57 (BONUS FOR THE PICTURE FROM CYRODIIL WHEN HE SAYS SKYRIM IN 5:54)
is your caps broken
Sometime this show says something because it has something to say, and sometimes it says something just to say something and sound witty. No. There is no connection to MW. Actually... Bethesda always starts their characters in a "prison", shackled, being dragged to the guillotine. The previous game in the series, Oblivion, did that too, so did New Vegas, Fallout 3. You're always locked somewhere and then you're let loose on the open world to wonder and be amazed.
Yeah the MW part isn't right. I wouldn't quite say shackled and being dragged to the guillotine. Oblivion you were just waiting and Morrowind you were already being freed (being a prisoner was in the past by now). My only real gripe with Skyrim's opening is the same as I have for Fallout 3. I want to play it once. Then I never want to again. There's not really that many choices in that time that are that significant to make me want to go back and play it. Instead, I try to, get bored, and download a mod to let me start from somewhere else. On a side note, New Vegas isn't a Bethesda game in reality or at is as much as Bethesda game as Dishonored is a Bethesda game. As for Morrowind and New Vegas, I think I prefer them because they give you a rather general backstory (all games except F3 have this where you can kind of create your own story with minimal influence from the game) and it's not really long. It's answering some questions to create your stats. Add to that, Fallout NV's opening cinematics can be skipped with relative ease. Just wanted to say how I agree but also point to some criticisms.
in Oblivion you where a prisioner - yes! but not on the way to your execution!
in TES 3 Morrowind you wheer a Prisioner - yes, but on your way to freedom !
The thing behind it is simple: Evryone has the right for a second chance to show whyt he/she is really made of !
Si-Wo there was a comma between the two in my comment, it was an enumeration.
Daniel Cofour you're missing the point. It's not the prisoner thing that made it boring (although they did try to say Skyrim tried to rip-off CoD, which isn't true). But EC was saying it was HOW they set up the intro. The boring background scenery, the bad placement of the other prisoners, the jargon, the character creator interrupting what was going on, & the bad voice acting. All that together, you have to admit they could have designed it at least a little better than they did.
Honestly, I played the first 15 minutes and never wanted to play the game again because of it, so I get what EC is saying.
I'm looking to start making video games, and my friends and I have talked about doing it for years. I've made it a group mandate that all members of our team will study your videos thoroughly, both Extra Credits and Daniel Floyd channels. You're doing amazing, quality work and, at least in our case, you're helping indie developers a HELL of a lot by teaching us the kinds of things to avoid when making a game. (Skinner boxes for example) Keep up the good work, guys, and thank you so much for doing what you do!
Future elder scroll games should base their beginning off what race you pick. If you pick a Nord, you start off in your youth learning to fight with your father. If you play as an Argonian, you're learning to hunt with your mother. And so on and so forth
Austin Beattie sorry this is just a tad bit late but all of the elder scrolls games have you start as a prisoner so you can make your own backstory and overall your character
They have a mod where you get to pick your opening
The elder scroll stories are all about washing away your life previous to your imprisonment and embracing your destiny as tabula rasa.
*General Tullius
*Helgen
*Sovnegarde
*Ulfric Stormcloak
*Rorikstead
Geez, how many mistakes can you make in spelling TES-lore stuff?
As well as "Dalmoore" instead of Thalmor. At least I assume that's what "Dalmoore" is supposed to be
Funny that you should misspell “Sovngarde” while trying to correct their own mistakes x)
This really pissed me off coming from supposed long term fans of the franchise. Most of them arent even spelling mistakes just pure mispronunciations that if you have played the game for even a few hours you would pick up on.
I actually love this opening. I like how deceptively low-key it is, and then suddenly DRAGON!
Helgen*
Sovngarde*
Rorikstead*
Tullius*
Thalmor*
Pardon my pedantry good sir but I have this unhealthy obsession with proper spelling and grammar :)
Robert Lacatena you forgot Ulfric, haha
da Wolfy Oh NO! I'M A FAILURE AT BEING PEDANTIC!!!
Also can we figure what "Elod" is? I still can't tell.
Mediocrities I believe it is supposed to be grelod, one of the citizens of Helgen
But...didn't he mispell them purposely to emphasize the fact it's too many words? That's what I got from it at least.
Have you played skyrim? You just dont realize how many hours youve wandered through endless trees.
You know what's coming when you start Skyrim. Even when it was your first time you knew roughly what you were in for because you'd already played Oblivion & you'd seen the Skyrim trailer. Keeping you bound & on a cart for a few minutes, & then making you run a very enclosed & linear dungeon for a few more was done very deliberately. It's the moment you burst out into the sunlight at the end of that dungeon & see Bleak Falls Barrow on the mountain side in the distance that you get your "wow" moment.
& besides, we all realised pretty early on that you can save the game just before Hadvar asks "Who, are you?"
I like the intro, it reminds of Halo. You start out fighting it out in a cramped spaceship, the pillar of autumn. Then you crash land on Halo and you step out of the escape pod and see the massive Exspansion that is Halo. Very similar to stepping out of the cave.
The time you spend on the Pillar of Autumn from start until you leave the bridge is my favorite first ten minutes of anything ever. It sells the Halo franchise by itself. Declaring Skyrim's intro comparable to it despite all the flaws pointed out in this video is lighting the white-hot fires of my nerd rage.
Now I want an episode on how good that opening is. I can provide paragraphs of material about it for you guys, just say the word lol
I come back here every couple of years to remind myself how hilarious it is that he said "Dalmoore" after claiming to have played the game for countless hours
By High Klingon Alfredo Strumclick, I hope you meet the fate of the horse thief from Rooriksteed and get sent to Sivungord, under the order of General Toolius.
Also alternative start mod console peasants.
You misspelled almost all the things that were mentioned in the beginning of skyrim. Otherwise good video.
exactly what i thought and wanted to write aswell
+dalnator honestly the entire point he was making there was weird to me I mean most of these things were not hard to understand. All the names of the divines he said were divines and that is pretty self explanatory what it would be and general Tullius can't be much else than a general right? They explained briefly who Ulfric was and the other things to me just made the world feel large and expansive. only the words like "nord" "hammerfell" "imperial" and maybe "sovnegard" would make sense to veteran players so it's not like it was much easier for them. And the other things were not hard to understand and they weren't that important anyway he said Elod it was clear that that was a person but it doesn't matter if you forgot him because he was not important at all so it just makes the world feel alive to me. And the way they talked about hammerfell you would no it was a province or at least a location but again it wasn't even important.
+Plattfisken holy shit that comment turned out longer than I expected, I actually had more to say but it wouldn't let me. Anyway I doubt anyone will read a wall of text like that anyhow.
+Plattfisken Stuff like "... General Tullius the military governor," "...Ulfric Stormcloak, the true High King," do make it fairly understandable. I think they do a good job of introducing you to the major plots from the start. Also, it gets you wondering who are these Stormcloaks, Empire etc., questions which you can ask Ralof or Hadvar later. This said, I do agree the start of the game is a bit poor.
+Akașșș very true
well this explains why I've tried to start playing skyrm 3 times and quit within the first 10 minutes.
Yup, troll.
What's the video where you talk about the importance of the first minutes?
+Leonardo Fernandes This may be what you're looking for! "Starting Off Right - How the First Five Minutes Draw Players In" ruclips.net/video/EFU4tjMndi4/видео.html
Extra Credits Thank you
+Dhark Pulse Wtf are you talking about
+Dhark Pulse I don't know, that was a bit of a stretch. The city guards say all sorts of memorable things, and we have no idea how you play the game. Lets not assume the experience of somebody because your joke wasn't easily understood by everybody.
+Dhark Pulse your execution was off. You can't say that just because the butt of the joke is well known, that anybody should be able to understand what you said.
I agree!
Now go tell that to every fucking book they made us read at school.
GregTom2 MADE you read, honestly if you go back and read them again its a completely different expirience
lauren maughan I've read many books, some for my own enjoyment and some for school assignments, and I've even had the pleasure to start my own novel as a hobby.
And yeah. Non-action novels not-for-youth are 90% crippled with the "here goes 3 chapters where nothing happens but the caracters get exposition".
Personally, I like fast expositions or even _in media res._
GregTom2 I meant reread the ones you were forced to, when you know you chose it out of your own free will its way more enjoyable
You got the core of skyrim wrong, It is choice, adventure, mystery . Even though the beginning is quite lacking, within 10 minutes you are given your first decision. Go with a Rebel are go with Imperial. And you get thrown right into a mysterious land with , mysterious creatures like dragons and the races of skyrim. You just looked it at the wrong way
But even that first choice was rather lacking in my opinion. Most of the people that play Skyrim for the first time and reach that part in the intro sequence, either don't pay attention and go with the Rebel or Imperial at random or they go with the Rebel.
After all, very few would willingly follow the guys who tried to chop your head off moments before, and the choice is nearly meaningless if you consider the difference in events afterwards. It's essentially a fake choice.
Even the three concepts of adventure, mystery and exploration are part of the same triangle. You don't really get the full experience until you reach the fort and the rebel/imperial cuts your restraints, really allowing you to have a say in your adventure, letting you explore the mysteries of that location (See what I did there?).
Well uh......Mods I think fixed the beginning
The Lunar Sniper But opening is supposed to be the most compelling to everyone and mostly to those that didn't play the game before. Would you mod a game, especially its beginning before you even played it?
And opening is supposed to show exactly the core of the game. Which Skyrim's default opening doesn't.
As it has been said before first choices aren't even a real ones, as you don't know what the hell is going on. Most new players(me included) just went with random guy, because you were thrown to an unknown world without getting to know of it. And Skyrim is about getting to know about it(aka exploration).
I love how Skyrim starts, especially the first time.
I love how they had the player focus on the characters around them.
I love how they continued The Elder Scrolls theme(at least since Morrowind, not sure about before then) of having the player start as a prisoner.
I love how the lore aspects weren't tossed aside just to generate mass appeal, and how when I made new characters later I was able to keep up with the "jargon" because I'd gotten familiar with the game.
Also, I may just not be socially adept or something, but I strongly disagree about the prayer and running seeming wrong.
This video convinced me more so than before watching that Skyrim had an amazing opening. Skyrim wasn't as action packed in early few minutes of the opening or as unexpected in actually having you die, like the other game you mentioned, but it wasn't supposed to be.
You know what another GREAT opening to Skyrim would have been? Watching that cart ride from the POV of Anduin, flying overhead on his way to roast the dragonborn - then, once he lands (keeping the actual dragonborn out of frame), we get a cutscene of him alighting on the tower and roasting some fools, before panning straight into the head of the character who does the standard runabout with their hands still behind their back, so you don't have to determine their race yet. THEN, once in safety, your bonds get cut and you're asked who you are, bringing up character creation.
Not only does this establish the dragons as the central theme of the game, but it establishes the open vistas of the game world as it's central engagement.
Well... I found the beginning to pull me in more than any other game. Even more than COD:MW's. In COD it was so sterotypical for a military game... Skyrim's wasn't... it had so many questions, why am I here? Why am I hostage? Than it releases you to the wild to answer those questions...
And then make those answers up yourself. You were picked up for being there when they caught Ulfric. They tell you that in the cinematic. There are no other answers to be found other than to make up your own reasons why your character was there.
There's the "what's up with the dragon" question but is a slow, boring cart ride with bad voice acting the best way to set-up that mystery? I doubt it.
Honestly I was okay with the opening my first time through. Skyrim was my first Elder Scrolls game, and so in many respects all the jargon I later learned to understand just made me feel that much more the outsider, which my character seemed to be set up as. Nobody knew who I was, which was later reconfirmed throughout the opening sequence.
Sure, it's not quite as intriguing as other game openings I've seen (Oblivion anyone? Dayum but Patrick Stewart makes everything awesome.) but it worked for me at least.
Nice breakdown though. It's nice to see a thorough explanation of opinion mixed with facts.
Comparison for you: CofD:MW takes 20h to beat, so invest the player after 5 minutes in to the game... Skyrim... 252h to beat... I think it's ok to give 20 minutes to invest the player in the intro sequence. Proportions, proportions.
Bad opening comparison in the video. Different gender, different game type, all is different.
Genre is irrelevant, Skyrim is a great game. The intro is slow exposition and waiting around for things to happen. Play Oblivion and you're given a quick voice over and start in a dungeon exploring within moments after creating your character.
Trevor L Buuuut it also works in Skyrim's favor. Skyrim was my first Elder Scrolls game, and by me having NO IDEA what the hell was going on at the start I truly felt like I was my character. Seriously. I had no idea what they were talking about, my character seemed to not really know why he was where he was, and I knew something was about to happen to free me and make the game start. With the information I got at the beginning, I was able to figure out game lore when it was brought up again later. Sure, at the beginning it doesn't feel too good, but later on you realize it really did help you learn about the game's lore.
Oblivion's opening was good, I agree, but for what Skyrim did (appeal to a shitton more people, most of whom were NEW to the series), its intro was great.
Proportions do not always work out that way. A 1000h long game should not have a 1 hour opening.
I like how he skips the epic dragon attack set piece that makes the intro exciting
What are you talking about? Skyrims intro is awesome. If anyone would like to hear(read) an explanation as to why, let me know.
okay, I like to see other people opinion. so what is your opinion
Ok, I can't say anything about the VA, since I've played the german version and not an english one. But in german it's quite good.
By placing you in an environment where there is nothing really to see you can focus totally on the talking characters. And the shifting the view is what you also do in real life. In a conversation between multiple people, do you stand a few feet away from them, so you can see them all but don't feel like you could participate at any moment, or do you stand next to them and look from one speaker to the next?
The mentioning of all the names and locations makes a veteran feel "at home" and can awaken the curiosity of a new player, makes you want to find out, what exactly they are talking about.
The first glimpse of the world you get not when you emerge from the catacombs of Helgen, but right after character creation. I still know my exact thoughts: "Whoa, that mountain is huge! I wonder if I can get up there. Hm, execution. I wonder how they will get me out of this one. Wait! Was there a movement? Did noone see that?" Then, the action. And I: "You there! Cut me loose! And gimme a sword! An axe?! At least a dagger! Anyone! GIMME A SWORD!"
Then you get to choose if you go with the guy representing the law, which wanted to execute you just because you were in the wrong place at the wrong time, or the rebel who was next in line for execution. (btw. if you listen to what Ulfric says in his throne room, you might find some similarities between his conversation with his ...Huscarl, isn't it? and speeches from Adolf Hitler. Maybe that was just due to translation, but I think it was intentional. But that's not part of the intro, so nevermind.) Not that your choice has any impact on the story or anything. At all. But it's nice to have a choice here.
Oh, and for a game with at least ten times the length and a higher replay value, I think they get a bit more then just five minutes to win you over/pull you into the game world.
So, if you read this all, then thank you for your time and have nice day.
sc2_Nightmare didn't really think about it that way, but yeah i see your point and it got some pretty good arguments, Thanks for sharing it!
sc2_Nightmare Cheers man, thanks for the dissenting opinion. I love hearing multiple ideas on things. You make some great points, and it's great to see someone disagree with a video in a reasonable, civil way :) I think both ways of looking at it could be valid, it just comes down to what you find more appealing/ how you think games should introduce themselves. And I think you're dead on with the first time you leave the cave. That's the true introduction to the world, and it's a spectacular one. I wish they'd mentioned it, even if it was to say that it was well done, but they thought it was too late in. anyway, that was some good food for thought, thanks for taking the time to write all of that!
Sorry, had to edit this because I completely blanked. They did mention the exit from the cave, and how it gives you that sense of wonder, the urge to explore. But like the video said, you're already 20 minutes in at that point, so the feeling is definitely diminished.
sc2_Nightmare Exactly, I can't believe EC misses out on the obvious parallel between Skyrim and Fallout here, they liked the Fallout opening. The whole point here is to put the player in the "vault" until he is free to command his own destiny, then and only then, do you hit him with the great open visual.
I can't believe they missed out on that, showing any more of Skyrim during the tutorial section was purposefully not done, and for good reason as it would have been too early.
I have never played Modern Warfare, but what I take from the opening described... you don't know who you are, you get dragged to your execution, any exposition is delivered via subtitles unless you speak that language and then... you die. Continuing the game as someone else entirely.That's... pointless.
+Thrano The exposition doesn't matter at all.The looking around part does.
It's a good way to introduce people to the world so that they know what they would be expecting once they gain control of the game.
The 'not understanding the language' part matters too because it would make the player feel foreign to the land.
+Joey Robles it's cod, of course war is going on, all we learned from that intro was what race we were killing that game.
darnell168 Leaked story from the next CoD: It starts out in a non-descript middle eastern city, ravaged by civil war and terrorist attacks... and we fight against an alien invasion! X-COD: Extraterrestrial Warfare
+Thrano It's not pointless. It's giving you insight into a situation that your playable character isn't involved in yet. besides throughout the game you switch between a couple of different characters every couple levels or so if I remember right. It's pretty old at this point lol.
+Thrano Without playing Call of Duty 4, I was able to go into the opening of the game and deduce that this land (probably in the middle east) is under going a rebellion or coup of sorts. You are probably the head of the former government and are being executed by the new usurpers of the city. The rebel army is a savage group doing what they think is right by slaughtering all those who do not agree with them and are trying to prove something. I went on the WIKI for CoD4:MW and was correct. this game displays exposition in such a way that it makes the player put all the pieces together by giving you visuals and a vague exposition that can display so much with out telling you directly. Skyrim, on the other hand, has a far tougher job than CoD but handles the exposition in a way where you get very little visual exposition, and dumps terms on you that new players won't know. Who are the Thalmore?" "What's High King?" "What are Stormecloaks and why are they such a problem?" all questions I wondered the first time I booted the game up. It tells you nothing about them and later gives you the opportunity to interact with them. I would have enjoyed Skyrim so much more if it didn't bore me from the get go.
I'll take anything Skyrim over anything Call of Duty any day.
PrimeWeekle hey, the older call of duty games were actually good
randomguy6679 the character-based ability system is pretty cool in newer games.
It's all normie schlock anyway
PRIMEVAL Music It's like shopping by brand, not product. That's stupid, if I can get something good I'll do it anyway
I don't think skyrims and cods openings should be compared at face value. CoD is supposed to hype up the player, to keep him on his toes, to prepare you for the action focused game that is to come. Skyrim on the other hand is in my opinion more focused on keeping you calm, making you find your own path to explore. And for someone that usually goes for the optimal path over the fun path, this is a nice change of pace, forcing you to step down and relax before you set out on your journey.
Got to say my only complaint with the intro was that I couldn't skip it. I have an alternate starts mod and the original is still my favorite. I didn't find anything too over the top with out reason. The original opening is a solid way to introduce a player to what is happening in the tattered remains of an empire that is falling apart. It also speaks to that exploring theme. When you start you get explore your surroundings and as you go the world slowly opens up to you. COD is a ridgid pipe of a story in comparison.
Fallout 3 in turn has a mod for skipping the introduction of Vault 101, which shows that many players don't seem to like that tutorial in the slightest.
Create a save point at character creation if you don't like the long intro
I know this. I've played the game before on both 360 and PC. I'm talking about for multiple characters. I've seen players with 2000+ game time hours and y"all cant wait 15 mins? Priorities man. Life's gonna be hard for you.
I was weary about the length of the introduction at first too, but when I first saw it on the 360, I was amazed by the detail. The anticipation _should_ make you excited to get into it even more. After the first few hours, you forget about it anyway. That's where my save point shortcut comes in for later characters. Dragon Age Inquisition kind of had a similar beginning, didn't know what the plot was until halfway through, but it turned out to be a great game regardless, and now waiting *patiently* for the DLC in September.
Honestly, that is my biggest problem with the intro. They should of allowed people to skip it after the first play through.
You're missing the point of the video, which is to show that Skyrim's intro is basically shit at introducing the player to the game and to its world. The game is still great, as said at the start of the video, but the focus here is on the introduction.
@@JmdMagic if you couldn't make it 15 minutes to get to player creation to create a save point in a game this large I have some bad news for you... you weren't going to make it anyway.
2:36 It's not lifted from any CoD, it's lifted from Oblivion, Morrowind, Daggerfall, etc. You've always been a prisoner in any ESO game. Even ESO:TU. It's an Elder Scrolls thing about a prisoner rising up and becoming the hero.
+Jesse Jarvis He isn't referring to the character being a prisoner being lifted from Call of Duty. He's referring to the act of forcing the player into a restricted situation, where the only thing you can do is move the camera around. And while yes, other Elder Scrolls games have you play as a prisoner, they didn't force you to sit through 10 minutes of dialogue before you could even move.
+Jesse Jarvis Each of those games had you jumping into moving around and fighting within those five minutes (character creation notwithstanding, obviously). Skyrim binds you from movement save for looking around for far longer than any other Elder Scrolls to date.
Oblivion, arguably, has the best intro, because it immediately opens the character creation once the title card passes, and after that you're free to jump around your cell and punch the shackles hanging from the ceiling. Once the Emperor and the Blades arrive, you can defy their orders to move away from the cell door until they open it and execute you for not moving. The game immediately displays to you the kind of freedom you'll have from there-on-out, while Skyrim says, "guess what? You can't move for 5 minutes, and once you can, your hands are bound for another 2-3". That's not a good Elder Scrolls introduction.
+Frankthegb To be fair, neither was Morrowind's intro. Sure, you're a prisoner, but for the most part, you're just a foreigner coming in from overseas, filing all your paperwork like a normal person... The tutorial consists of windows you read, and you end up doing literally nothing to put most of it into practice until you've already forgotten most of what's been said.
netatsake And while that is for the most part true, the biggest thing here, is that you aren't forced to sit there for 5-10 minutes without being able to move while exposition is thrown up in your face the entire time. With Morrowind, it was "Whats your name? Great! Heres how you move and interact with things! (WASD & Space) Whats your race? Good, head into the next building to pick your class. Heres how to pick up stuff and open your menus! Good luck!" While Morrowind was a lot of reading in general, sure, the tutorial itself was actually pretty quick and concise with little in the way of unneccisary information. At the least, the entire thing took less than 5 minutes to get everything it wanted to get across to you, while also giving you a direction to start walking.
Couragearmour64 The problem with that, though, is that they didn't really teach you shit about the game in the process... As soon as you come out of that door, having no idea where you're going, no quest markers, and not even a map to show you your way, you're left to figure everything out for yourself. I, personally, gave up trying to learn the game well before I even got to Balmora... There was far too much information that I just didn't have in the beginning, so I just ended up spending the entirety of my time screwing with the console.
For me the introduction was fine, specifically because I'm a veteran, familiar with both Morrowind (Elder Scrolls 3) and Oblivion (Elder Scrolls 4) - so I didn't feel alienated; in fact starting as a prisoner, being taken through an exposition cart ride actually tickled all those nostalgia-feelings we like.
However, I think Morrowind did the introduction sequence much better; the character creation is basically the bureaucratic procedure of your release, and it takes only a minute or two for you to get above deck on the prison ship, to see the vast and alien world of Morrowind. Finally, once you are through the character creation process, you're basically dumped in an open world with no restraints - no tutorial-dungeon, no introduction quest, though still you start in an easier area, designed specifically to help you get used to playing the game and familiarizing you with the controls, without excessive hand-holding. There are a bunch of optional quests that'll both help you learn to play and get your level a bit higher before you set out for the main quest - such as helping/betraying the elf with the magic ring (I forget his name) or the missing tax collector. Simple missions, that introduce you to both the world, and the game mechanics.
Loved the intro. Wouldn't have changed a thing.
I disagree, I think the opening to Skyrim is done perfectly well, it establishes an atmosphere of dread, political unrest and moral ambiguity. And you can't say there's no excitement, sure maybe by now we all know what happens, but the first time I ever played it, and my guy was kneeled at the chopping block, I was just thinking "What is going to get me out of this, it's cutting it awfully close!" then the dragon appears and the epic music begins and everybody is running around in sheer chaos.
That is the core aspect of the game right there! Political upheaval, warring factions, a sense of dread (possibly thinking it might be the end of the world) and of course the return of dragons. You can argue that exploration is the core attraction of the games, and that's fair. But you can't forget that each game also has it's own unique narrative and the intro to Skyrim introduces almost every single element that is important to the plot, within that short intro. I personally love playing it every time.
The exciting things you mentioned all happen after the real intro, which is you sitting in a cart with boring background.
2016 thinking back on skyrim. Now i must play skyrim!
Bethsanda's idea of starting a game.
Fallout 3:Escape the vault
Oblivion:Escape with the Emperor
Skyrim: Escape from Helgen
Dishonoured: Escape from Prison
Fallout 4:Escape from a Nuclear Strike.
But Bethesda never made Diahonored. They published it.
+Clay-bit blocks Still has their name on it...
Honestly, the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild had the best intro... aka no intro. It literally goes, "here's a tablet and clothes, now go do whatever."..
I understand that there's still the tutorial area (the great plateau) to go through, but it's presented in a way that it doesn't feel as such.
Ulfred stormcloak? really man?
General Tuleous
Dalmoore
It was on purpose
I got hooked bc I saw other people playing the game well after the intro. The beginning was a necessary evil to play the game.
Same, it looked so cool from the videos. And it delivered of course. Just wish that I could experience my first time playing again.
Necessary evil to the players now, but not necessary to introduce this game to players. During the development of this game, they could've chosen a great number of completely different introductions that would have been much better.
Ciel Soleil it was not nessacary lmao such a shit opening
1:11
Getting overweight by collecting everything from every
dead person then walking for a few hours just to gain 100 gold.
I have an idea on how to fix the start of skyrim in my opinion. Keep the carriage ride, but your character will have a dream being a dragon flying over skyrim while Parth's VA gives you key bits of lore as narration. And when you come to an then immediately prompted to create your character after the dream sequence. You will be still in the cart after this, and this time will be used to tell a little of the Civil war. Upon reaching helgen you over hear a coversation between the imperials and Thalmar. That would used to give you a slight idea of who is in control. The dragon you were in your dream, that would be Alduin making his way towards Helgen. That is also a way to establish a sort of connection of fate between you and Alduin.
Meh, I prefer how they actually did it. :P