Author Topic: Skyrim Question for those who have played  (Read 7406 times)

Offline YourMathTeacher

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Skyrim Question for those who have played
« on: November 18, 2017, 03:53:51 PM »
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I wasn't sure if there were still restrictions on discussing M-Rated games, but my question is actually about the rating, so hopefully this will not be a problem. Moderators can delete this if necessary.

I had a couple questions for those who have played Skyrim. It was just released on the Nintendo Switch, and my son is interested in trying it since he has already mastered Breath of the Wild. We do not currently have any M-Rated games, so I was wondering :

1. Is there a way to play through the game without encountering most of the "mature content?" I have read about "Dark Brotherhood" quests, for instance. Can these be avoided completely?

2. Is there a toggle control in the settings that can reduce/eliminate blood? Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance had this feature years ago, so I was hoping other games used it.

I would appreciate any thoughts about whether it is possible to play Skyrim as a T-Rated game by avoiding M-Rated thematic objectives. You can PM me instead of posting here as necessary.
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Offline Lampy 2.0

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Re: Skyrim Question for those who have played
« Reply #1 on: November 18, 2017, 05:35:01 PM »
+1
1. Basically, yes. I haven't done anything from the Dark Brotherhood stuff and I have two and half days worth of time clocked into the game.
2. No. I didn't think the gore was that bad. It wasn't like Fallout or Doom by showing lots of it. However, I'd recommend watching some gameplay videos of Skyrim just to make sure if its something you'd want to get for your son.
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TheHobbit13

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Re: Skyrim Question for those who have played
« Reply #2 on: November 18, 2017, 08:27:47 PM »
+1
Pm sent.

Offline YourMathTeacher

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Re: Skyrim Question for those who have played
« Reply #3 on: November 19, 2017, 03:51:47 PM »
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Thank you Hobbit and Lampy for your input. I'm glad that I can avoid TDB, but what about the other "warnings" that come with the M-Rating? They specifically mention sexual themes and alcohol use. Are these also avoidable?
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Ironica

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Re: Skyrim Question for those who have played
« Reply #4 on: November 19, 2017, 04:32:55 PM »
+1
As someone who has played Skye in for over 100+ hours on both PC and Xbox, I hope I can help you out some :).

***MINOR SPOILERS BELOW***

1) For content purposes, the rating is whatever you make it.  For the Dark Brotherhood, you actually have a chance to destroy them instead of joining them.  For the thieves guild, though they do not encourage killing, you can bypass almost all of them as well (you do have to do the first quest as part of the main story but even if you fail it, they still let you in).  Something else you might want to watch out for is in the dwemer town (havent played it in a while so i forget the name but its the down that looks like a dwarven town), there is a priest outside a house that mentions his ordee and that he was sent to clear out the evil in the house.  Do not do it as it makes you a servant of an evil deadra and kill a monk slowly.  Another one to avoid is the cannibal side quest (don't remember where it is).  With the expansion, you have a choice to become a vampire or fight them.  The story is mainly the same but the ending is different and if you pick the hunters (dawnguard), you can play it correctly to have your companion (who is a vampire) become healed of her vampireness.  The rest of the quests are standard ones morally so you just need to avoid the few (and if you accidently pick one of them up, you can just leave it incomplete in your mission log).

2) Though there is no "turn blood off" option, for the most part, the blood is just painted on the sword/person and doesn't really gush out.  There are a couple of exceptions, though.  One big one is that there is a perk that gives you a chance to decapitate your opponent.  That can be graphic as you see it in FPS mode (I prefer FPS mode than third person view) and some blood does squirt out of the vote for a second.  Another thing is that if you do the champion story line, you become a werewolf.  As one, you can choose to consume a body to increase health and prolong your form (it's on a timer).  I usually don't and at the end of the story line, you can become cured of it (though I usually keep it as the bonus of not worrying about poisons and diseases out ways the downside of no rest bonus for me (even though I never turn into one)).  Also, on that story line, you do have to collect the heads of some witches to get the cure so when you check your inventory, you do see the severed head.  The best way to avoid blood is to actually become a wizard as the magic does not cause blood to appear.

Hope that helps.

Offline Bobbert

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Re: Skyrim Question for those who have played
« Reply #5 on: November 19, 2017, 05:02:43 PM »
+3
I'll weigh in. In my experience, the sexual themes are primarily through certain in-game books and dialogue with certain characters - nothing naughty is shown on-screen, although if you take the clothes/armor off someone (often after killing them) they'll be left in their underwear. There is cleavage and some amount of innuendo, but nothing explicit. There is also an (incredibly simple) marriage system, and once married spending a night with your spouse gives a buff called "Lover's Embrace." Alcohol use is pretty rampant - you can hardly go five minutes without tripping over a bottle of mead or a flagon of wine, and since taverns and inns are usually one and the same, alcohol will be the primary option for beverage throughout the game. Most alcohol also a consumable that restores stamina but slows down stamina regeneration, so it can actually be useful in combat. Even though almost everybody drinks, there are only a few 'drunk' characters, and most of them are beggars that ask charity/money for booze. There is a quest where someone invites you to a drinking game and you wake up halfway across the continent and have to go figure out what you did last night.

All that said, I personally enjoy the game a lot - I have nearly 70 hours logged on the Special Edition and over 100 on the original version. I don't know your son, or how old he is, but if you decide to buy the game for him I'd recommend talking to him about what is and isn't okay, and the difference between reality and fiction. There is a LOT of violence, a pantheon of 'divines', a Thieve's Guild, vampires and werewolves an assassin guild (the Dark Brotherhood you mentioned), a magic college, cursing (d, h, and b), and the above themes. It is an incredible, deep, and very fun game. I would argue that it does earn the M rating, but unlike some other M-rated games (GTA and the Witcher come to mind) it's not over-the-top. It's certainly a good M game to be your first M game.

...just my :2cents:. Again, I enjoy the game a lot, but I don't want to mislead you.


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Offline Isildur

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Re: Skyrim Question for those who have played
« Reply #6 on: November 19, 2017, 09:49:54 PM »
+2
Thank you Hobbit and Lampy for your input. I'm glad that I can avoid TDB, but what about the other "warnings" that come with the M-Rating? They specifically mention sexual themes and alcohol use. Are these also avoidable?
YMT for better or worse the game is a role playing game. Just about everything (except the violence) can be avoided by choice.

The violence is... well violent haha but it's not over the top gore like the Fallout series or some other M rated games. It's your normal run of the mil fantasy violence.
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Offline YourMathTeacher

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Re: Skyrim Question for those who have played
« Reply #7 on: November 21, 2017, 07:59:39 PM »
+3
Thanks for all the info guys. I knew I could count on the Redemption community. This is exactly what I needed to know.  ;D
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Offline YourMathTeacher

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Re: Skyrim Question for those who have played
« Reply #8 on: February 02, 2018, 05:20:34 AM »
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I'm reviving this thread to add one more question. What are your thoughts about the difference between the console versions? For instance, I could get the PS3 "Legendary Edition" or the PS4 "Special Edition." The Switch version apparently matches the PS4 SE.

How much of a downgrade would the PS3 version be? The difference in price is part of my dilemma - $50 for Switch, $20 for PS4, and $10 for PS3.
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Offline Bobbert

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Re: Skyrim Question for those who have played
« Reply #9 on: February 02, 2018, 10:46:14 AM »
+1
I'm reviving this thread to add one more question. What are your thoughts about the difference between the console versions? For instance, I could get the PS3 "Legendary Edition" or the PS4 "Special Edition." The Switch version apparently matches the PS4 SE.

How much of a downgrade would the PS3 version be? The difference in price is part of my dilemma - $50 for Switch, $20 for PS4, and $10 for PS3.

I'll admit that I'm not a console player myself, so take this with a grain of salt, but to my understanding there are two major differences. Both versions are the full game complete with DLC. The PS4 and Switch versions will have better graphics, since that was the primary point of releasing a special edition on a newer console. There are also some bugs from the original game that were fixed in SE. In addition, the PS4 version has access to mods through Bethesda. By all accounts the modding and support thereof is significantly more restricted than for PC and Xbox, but it's there.

Personally, I mostly play Special Edition, but part of that is because there were a lot more bugfixes on the PC version. If you're not planning on doing modding and don't care if every blade of grass is rendered, the PS3 version is probably fine.
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Offline Ironisaac

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Re: Skyrim Question for those who have played
« Reply #10 on: February 02, 2018, 11:44:23 AM »
+1
I only own special edition on the PC, but from what i have read, the graphics aren't necessary better, just different, so that's really just personal preference. they fixed some old bugs, but there are some newer bugs that are only on SE, although they are very minor and easy to fix if needed, and I've also read it's a bit harder on on your computer than the original skyrim. If you want a modded game, SE is the way to go on Console, but original is better on pc. Personally, i would go for SE on the console, but i would probably do the original on the PC.
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Offline YourMathTeacher

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Re: Skyrim Question for those who have played
« Reply #11 on: February 02, 2018, 01:02:28 PM »
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Thanks again for the input. I really don't care about the additional rendering, if that is all we're talking about. I guess the bug fixes are the biggest concern. Would the PS3 version even be playable on that old of a system? My PS3 lags already, so I'm afraid a graphics intensive game like Skyrim would cause it to freeze. Minecraft used to freeze the console once we had uncovered more than two-thirds of a classic map, which was very annoying. I don't want to make good progress in Skyrim just to lose it when the save file gets too big.

But if the PS4 version has the same problems as the PS3 did, then I guess the point is moot. I would not likely go PC since I only use consoles for real-time gaming (except Age of Empires, but that's different).
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Offline Ironisaac

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Re: Skyrim Question for those who have played
« Reply #12 on: February 02, 2018, 01:09:57 PM »
+1
The ps4 should be able to handle it. It's far more advanced than the ps3 and SE is not that much more graphics intensive, and worse case, just turn down the graphics a few notches. 
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Offline Isildur

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Re: Skyrim Question for those who have played
« Reply #13 on: February 03, 2018, 03:16:06 PM »
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The PS3 version isn't terrible, it actually runs quite well. Bethesda games do have this nasty habit of getting weird crashes later in the game due to the 3rd gen consoles (XB360 and PS3) not really being able to handle all the memory needed to handle the late game save files. I have many fond memories of Fallout 3, New Vegas, Morrowind and Oblivion crashing or lagging on me in the late game because of this :P

I would buy the PS4 version due to it being a more stable game in comparison to the slightly more buggy PS3 version.

Fun fact, many PC players prefer the older version of the game because the majority of Skyrim mods work better with the OG Skyrim.
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TheHobbit13

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Re: Skyrim Question for those who have played
« Reply #14 on: February 03, 2018, 03:23:03 PM »
+1
Bethesda games do have this nasty habit of getting weird crashes later in the game due to the 3rd gen consoles (XB360 and PS3) not really being able to handle all the memory needed to handle the late game save files.

Yeah, have to be careful of the inventory glitch! Switching between inventory sections, entering doors, etc becomes almost unplayably slow. Fact is you probably have like 10k, 0 weight keys that you have to drop from your inventory haha. Ruined the game for me until someone helped me fixed it.

Offline YourMathTeacher

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Re: Skyrim Question for those who have played
« Reply #15 on: February 04, 2018, 07:20:47 AM »
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So, the PS3 version is fine graphics-wise, but late-game saves will have issues. This was the same problem I was having with Minecraft for the PS3.

Thanks again for all the helpful information. You guys are awesome!  :thumbup:
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