Neriad13
Premium Member
I recently played through it as an Imperial soldier, under General Tullius. I came away with a mixed bag of opinions on it. Some things I thought it did extremely well, but other things sucked very badly.
Cons
- My gosh, the lag was horrible. Whenever there was a situation with a huge amount of NPCs, the game struggled to keep up with the demand. There were times when I was fighting frame-by-frame. And that was why I was playing this on Novice difficulty.
- For such a large and important fighting force, the Imperial Army has precious few notable NPCs - three, to be exact. Rikke, Tullius and Hadvar are the only soldiers that do anything that matters in this storyline. The army is such a vast, cosmopolitan organization. And yet I never found out anything about the majority of my comrades. Oh, occasionally I'll hear an ambient conversation at one of the camps. But that does precious little to help the notion that I'm the only living being in a sea of expendable bodies.
- The final fight with Ulfric was a massive disappointment. There was all this great buildup that he too had the power of the Voice, that he ripped a man in half with it. I was expecting an awesome fight with the charismatic rebel. But...I just hit him a few times with my flaming sword and he died. He didn't even give me a good Shout. Dang flammable humans. Of course, as I was playing this on Novice difficulty, perhaps this isn't an entirely fair assessment.
- In the entirety of the war, I only participated in one defensive battle, when Ulfric attacked Whiterun. After that, it was as though the Stormcloaks just gave up. One by one, the Imperials took Stormcloak forts and reclaimed Stormcloak holds, with no fear of retaliation. There was no struggle for power in this war - the Dragonborn's side is automatically the one destined to win. It would be so interesting if the player ended up on the losing side and then had to constantly look over his shoulder for enemy soldiers.
Pros
- The few notable NPCs in the war were great ones, each of which embodied the diverse opinions of most of the denizens of Skyrim. I loved Rikke's clandestine faith in Talos and hatred of the Thalmor. Her opinion on the war mirrored my own - the Aldmeri Dominion was wrong, but a violent rebellion is the wrong way to solve the problem. Tullius was a stranger in Skyrim with no personal stake in the war's doings but he came to respect the land he'd been sent to. And Hadvar is a boy caught in the times, doing what he thinks is right.
- These quests offer a completely unique experience in the entirety of the game - the chance to fight alongside an army in massive battles, with dozens of combatants on either side. It's something you don't get in dungeons, daedric quests or plain exploration. There's something very satisfying and epic about charging at a wall of enemy soldiers with a host of your comrades behind you.
- The battle for Windhelm was excellent and even a bit of a challenge to complete. The familiar streets of a town I know were transformed into a flaming maze filled with enemies. Fighting my way through to the Palace of the Kings while havoc rained down around me was a great deal of fun.
- I loved how the political geography of Skyrim changed as you progressed through the storyline, for better or worse. When a Jarl was exiled and replaced, it gave a real sense that you were the one changing this world and not all in a good way. Such as, when Maven Black-Briar finally nabbed the title of Jarl. And those two very pro-Ulfric blacksmiths in Windhelm who are now furious at me.
So, what did you think about it?