So I'm finally done with the base game, completing it the second time, after 20 years or so.
First of all, and I don't remember anyone in this thread ever bringing this up but I just wanna say it's JUNK: the game. Why no one does mention that? I'm tolerant to junk and bugs as the next guy, especially if a game is good but here it's almost unbearable at times. Starting with the most basic thing: jump. You wanna use jump in this game, especially later on, in order to traverse faster at least (and recalling as you were playing Q3) but on the other hand, you don't. Because Vivec forbid you land on a wrong spot you might fall under the textures. It's happened to me over 100 times at the very least during my playthrough. That's not okay. Moreover, as your acrobatic skill increase, it become more and more apparent that 1) you can move while in air which is stupid and 2) very often you don't actually land
when you should, resulting in some kind of levitating state first which can in turn result in falling under textures i.e. see above and just feels very wrong. At some places this is particularly annoying, like at that small pedestal over the mages guild portal in Ald'ruhn, which you will be visiting like 1000 times. Then of course you have all sorts of being stuck in terrain and not only for you but for all the NPCs and mobs. Also mobs are very often don't attack right away, only with a huge delay. Or notice you even. In truth there're some other engine related issues which are known to everyone but I wanted to highlight those.
The sound design and the music. Never understood the people's obsession about MW soundtrack, to me it's nothing special if nice but the real problem here is it doesn't fit for the game's somewhat alien and unusual setting. I imagine it's suppose to convey a sense of "adventure" and "fantasy" and that's it. Hardly that's the composer's fault I think it's rather mismanagement problem, as it seems to be for many other things about this game. Then there's another issue with the soundtrack. There're let's say exploration tracks and there're combat tracks. Now as in many other games this one switches tracks every time you engage/disengage combat. But more often than not it's just one mob along the way which turns this sometimes into even comedy as you see some fucking mudcrab attacks and so you hear intense fantasy combat music which then abruptly ends in 2-3 sec and you hear another "peaceful" track. This scheme work very well in games like HOMM but not here. For example, even when you explore Sixth House dungeons or the red mountain you still stuck with either "light-hearted adventure" themes or "intense epic" when you whack some cliff racers there. Fallout's approach where you get location-based ambient is far more superior one.
Worse, the more such switches happens, the more becomes apparent just how dead silent the gameworld is as background sounds are very rare and in between with exception being Dwarven ruins I'd say. Those and the fact all the NPCs like to speak to you all the time with mundane phrases and I imagine this's better instead of they being silent unless spoken but it still looks bizarre even at times. I guess they tried really hard to fix this with TES4 and we got the memes, thanks mr. manlet.
The core progression system. Now to where all the schizophrenia is embedded. Not sure where to start especially since it's probably been discussed to death before me but the system simply sucks and primarily because of the potential attribute growth. I think it'd be much better if they'd not grow (as well as HP with each level) and the rest of the game would take that into account obviously speaking. If we subtract the attribute growth instantly classes make sense, races become more distinct, the overall progress curve becomes much more predictable so it'd be possible to make late game to suck less etc etc. Then, on the skill side we have trainers and I think they were added, at least as they're in the game later in development. Because again, I think they should've been cut entirely with proper adjustments for individual skill growth curves. You just cannot design the whole game with one system in mind and then introduce a feature which kills it at its root. Again, schizo all over. Mismanagement, lack of strong vision etc. Btw, somewhat funny oversight in skills: if you unequip shield the game consider it to be unprotected spot even if you have armor everywhere else and you'll be able to increase unarmored skill.
The trainers are also a root for the Arch-everything at once silliness because all those faction skill requirements suddenly mean nothing. Even without google it's easy to find at least "major" trainers for any particular skill. And the gold is no problem, the economy break itself sooner or later even without player special efforts. For instance, there's a dungeon (and one of the best ones I might add) called Urshilaku Burial Caverns which is incentivized to visit fairly early on the main quest and there's plenty of glass gear, ebony helm, wizard staff etc. If nothing else it costs more than 100k combined I think which is a lot! So to everyone who deflect similar critique with the "you deliberately brake the system" - fuck off, the game does it itself unless you restrain yourself at every step (and miss stuff).
Speaking of Arch-everything, after completing the Imperial Cult branch I'm convinced this is another schizo/mismanagement moment since you end up at the rank Primate and been told that that's a maximum for an adventurer like you, otherwise in order to increase rank you gotta dedicate yourself fully to the faction (become a healer or something) which sounds very sensible actually. The NPCs gives you their MMO-style crap quests also in certain fashion which you'll never see in any other faction except for Caius Cosades so I believe they did Imperial Cult first, decided to change the approach later but to keep the content too probably since many quests there might serve as some kind of tutorial. Who among new players goes straight to Ebonheart though? The game doesn't suggest that at all.
Also, looking ahead, I on purpose firstly became the Arch-everything and only then started the main quest. And wouldn't you know it, almost no one ever recognized it (aside from Ordinators in the Ministry of Truth who all said that they don't care I'm the Patriarch and that they will kill me if I won't leave - wtf even). You meet fighters guild member, mages guild member (informants), thieves guild member... Obviously it was done in order to introduce player to said guilds but then they all started asking ME for favors. Fucking ridiculous. Moreover, then you meet a member of dissident priests and she don't care at all you're actually the Patriarch and then even let you inside their sikrit sanctuary! Furthermore you're also suppose to meet then "the leader of the Temple who is worried". Hey, he's retired. Just fuck off, game.
The combat, the Action/RPG balance. I think everyone who insist on MW being much closer to RPGs unlike TES4-5 is either full of shit or played the game wrong. If you play it as intended (stacking class/race bonuses, keep stamina high) your THC will be very high and the action aspect will kick in right from the start meaning you're suppose to hold weapon a bit before the attack and... stunlocking enemies (and chugging stamina potions all the time). Which is pretty stupid but that's just how the game works. For magic users you also suppose to kite in order to avoid interrupts so it also doesn't work as in classic RPGs. By the way, AI is terrible but I guess that's no secret to anyone who played MW, what can you do right? One time I killed some mage in a few hits but wasn't able to stunlock him so he managed to cast a single debuff on me. Never guess which one: Sound
The setting, lets finally move on to something positive. Yes, it's very good, especially the Great Houses I'd say but then you have stuff like totally not-Romans. What's up with that? I imagine it's been dragged from previous entries? But we also have some odd pieces like yurts, katanas, orcish armor (reminded me of nu-Asscred now lol), Bretons (really?) etc. Daedras and their bickering strongly remind me of Greek Gods but whatever. It's just ironic when
luj1 loves to make fun of PoE and their fampires and shit and then adores this very game. On a less serious note, why there's so many niggers? We have not one but two types of them and the action takes place on one type's motherland so you'll see plenty for sure. Then we can add orcs as honorary niggers and so you get 3 types. Niggerwind, indeed. On the other hand, when oh so honorable head of the thieves guild: a nigger in fancy clothes said that now he can finally retire and maybe (!) visit his family on Hammerfell I laughed hard man.
Anyway, even setting being very good, cool and nice my issue is with it - excessive exposition. All these ashlander prophecies. All these books and notes you're suppose to read which tell you basically the same story but from different angles. Which is cool I guess but it's happened a long time ago. Some people have had similar issue with Colony Ship and its mutiny story and rightfully so. Compare this all to UnderRail when the lore is very good too but you have to make effort in order to learn it. Otherwise you can throw that all off and the plot still will make sense, just less so. Nevertheless, I liked the MW plot. I imagine some people on Codex like it too very much at least for its honesty, elaboration and the lack of even Arcanum-level twists. No, you're actually the chosen one, kissed by a God.
What I liked about gameworld is that even when you often see how it's stitched together it's still doesn't slide into biome x>biome y etc. Overall the whole island look pretty organic, I'd hate if they'd add a small desert or some shit (they did DLCs for that). On this note let's talk about exploration, another allegedly strong game's point. After doing that and then doing the main quest I'd say just do the main quest: all the best dungeons are there and it's not even close. And despite some small encounters here and there (cultists kidnapped my wife!) you're rather suppose to take quests and explore the game using them since we have here the same "the rest of the dungeon is blocked off because you're here by accident" Skyrim-esque design. It's just not worth it. Yes the loot thankfully isn't scaled but why would you want it? You'll trip over some OP gear sooner or later either way and the game's easy as shit unless you're a dumb kid or have never played RPGs before in your life.
Anyway, let's wrap it up already: the game is fundamentally broken. It's bad almost in every facet but because of the people who've done a great job of putting together the game's lore and the game world players are tend to forgive anything I suppose.
