So since everyone says its so great, and since reviewers thinks it fantastic. I actually bought the game. I dont buy games very often, and I rarely find many new games I try very fun. I often feel games are moving backwards. That story and gameplay was better in the old games, and everything is about fancy graphics and effects these days. But this was supposed to be good so... I gave it a shot.
My verdict?
This is it? This is the best game of the year? My first thought was that there cant be much competition if this is the best. Games really havent improved much at all since the first text-based games it seems. The opposite rather. Well except they have more polygons and more glow-effect on everything now. That doesnt make it funnier though.
So the world is huge. Thats not fun on its own. Its still the same old boring quests. Same old collection of dungeons. "Go find this thing, Ill tell you were it is, you just need to go get it". "You need to open a door, go find the key.". "Go kill the stuff in that dungeon and you'll get a reward". Yey... no need to think here. No need to ask around for clues or anything. Nothing to puzzle out. You'll even get a nice little marker on a map that tells you where the thing you need is.
Story and acting? Same old stuff. War this, war that, blabla. The people you meet are the usual cliché-types in fantasy games, and the acting isnt very good. The voice acting is nothing special at all, and the animation is very boring. Its not very gripping... If these characters were in a movie it would be a B-movie that would probably not even be released. It's a typical "game story" and "game actors". Its fine for a game, but compared to the great movies and books its really no idea to even compare. Its like when people here say "Oh the movie was good, for a swedish movie". Meaning the bar is much lower for swedish movies compared to "real" (hollywood) movies.
And the game aspect? Well, the world is big... it looks okay graphically. The fighting system is the usual. Click one button to hit, another to block. Its just the same system they had in the very first graphical games. Its not really challenging or fun. Same old. You can craft stuff, pick herbs etc... well... go around collecting stuff is nothing new. Is it fun? I dont know, in Genesis I would script it, I cant here... it bores me.
I you die you just try again. Nothing lost. So there isnt any excitement or danger really.
I want to _feel_ something. I feel nothing. I dont care about my character, he/she is very anonymous. Lets compare the opening of this game with for instance and old game like Monkey Island. Monkey Island starts with a funny looking guy walks in and says "Hi, I am Guybrush Threepwood and I want to be a pirate". Within minutes we've heard a bunch of funny dialogue and we like the character we "are". Most importantly he _wants_ something. Skyrim? We are someone, who apparently is willing to die without even fighting to live. Our character says nothing, does nothing, just lays down on the chopping block to be executed. Thats the person we're gonna like? "We" dont even want to live...
But fine, Luke Skywalker is pretty boring too so we can live with a boring main character, if the other characters are likeable. Are they? Nope. I dont care about the characters I meet since they do such a poor acting job and dont get through to me.
In general I dont laugh, I dont feel sad, I am not scared or excited in any way, and I dont get the feeling of accomplishment that you get when you figure something out. Because there really isnt anything to figure out. Oh and it does have some annoying bugs.
It feels like the game is either made for very young kids, or they simply underestimate their audience.
I think Genesis beats Skyrim in most categories actually. Really.
Obviously I am "wrong" though. Since almost everyone loves it. Which means we will see more of this type of games. I suppose I just enjoy other types of games more. Or perhaps have too high expectations of games? But it does give me hope about Genesis. If I prefer it over WoW and Skyrim, I sure there a re a few hundred others in a world of 7 billion who does too.
But dont get me wrong. I think its an okay game. I'll probably play it some more when I dont have anything better to do. But if this is "fantastic" then I think the bar for games today is very low. I think this is an average game thats perfectly "fine". Nothing exceptional though.
