// PC GAMER — GAMING
8 strong Elder Scrolls opinions: With over 2,500 combined hours (and not all as stealth archers), we shout at each other about Skyrim, Morrowind, and Oblivion
Five editors Mid-Vur-Share their thoughts for the past and future of the series.
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We've become the Nerevarine and defeated Dagoth Ur. We've foiled Mehrunes Dagon and closed the Oblivion gates. We've destroyed Alduin and absorbed his soul. We've bought horse armor, stolen an Elder Scroll, and even once pickpocked a note from the butt of a fully-dressed assassin without him noticing.
In other words, we've done it all, and with a combined 2,500+ hours across the series, five PC Gamer editors have come together to say few things about the past and future of The Elder Scrolls series.
Below, we've shouted some of our strongest opinions about TES—and don't worry, Dragonborn, we've left some room for you to Fus-Ro-Dah yourself. After each opinion, you can click a button to tell us if you agree or disagree with our scalding hot takes.
What gets Todd Howard out of bed every morning is the possibility of removing yet more numbers from Tamriel. Stats? Delete them. Skill points? Crush them. You want to play a distinct class, you sick freak? Absolutely not. Please hand yourself into the authorities.
But what this has done is turned the general experience of playing a Bethesda game into a uniform mush. Not in the sense that we're all stealth archers now (though that is a problem), but in the sense that, play any of these games for long enough and you simply become a master of everything. A lack of limitations, a willingness to tell a player they can't do something, that this or that skill is simply outside their remit, has made Bethesda's games more accessible but also more boring. It's time to go back to the old ways.
There was an intense contrast between how fun Oblivion's Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood, and Daedric Prince sidequests were and how boring its main questline was. Even the Fighter's Guild had some twists. I think that experience must have traumatized a generation of players, because I can't think of any other reason why people say the same thing about Skyrim.
In Skyrim, the Thieves Guild are a pack of losers and to get anywhere with their story you have to level them up by doing procedurally generated filler jobs. The Dark Brotherhood quests have little of the Hitman flair of Oblivion's, and mostly just end with you killing targets the same way you'd murder a bandit. Rare highlights like A Night to Remember aside, Skyrim's sidequests are nothing special.
But its main quest has you fighting dragons, climbing mountains, and travelling to the land of the dead. It's full of spectacle and also Paarthurnax, one of the few memorable NPCs in the entire game. Best of all, it doesn't demand you run a single Oblivion Gate.