So one of the things that made me REALLY excited for this game was the return of the Dark Brotherhood.

Hands down, in Oblivion the Dark Brotherhood storyline was the best. The quest where you had to kill that whole family in the house one by one and where there was a twist at the end to murder your whole sanctuary, everything about the dark brotherhood in oblivion were just amazing.

However in Skyrim, It was just a pretty average and dull questline. The interesting part only happens at the end where you actually initiate the plan to kill the emperor and with the whole attack on the sanctuary but everything else is pretty forgettable.

Anyone else feel the same way?

This is the only guild I've done and I hardly done anything thing else in the game, Are there any other guilds or quests that I should be on the look-out for?

I didn't mind it. It did feel a lot shorter than Oblivion's though. The whole storyline is way better if you talk to the jester (when he needs help fixing his wagon that is carrying the Night Mother) before you take on the quests as it just feels more interesting. Cicero's diaries were the best part of the whole thing as it tells the demise of the organization everywhere else (most people probably only read his last diary, there are four or so in total).

It people complain about my lack of a spoiler tag it's their fault. It says spoilers in the title of the thread.

I really enjoyed the dark brotherhood quests. I found it to be much more interesting than some of the other guild storylines. The Thieves Guild in particular just felt weak over all.

I enjoyed it a lot.

When the false emperor set-up thing happens and you realize that she sold you out, I was genuinely pissed and bummed that she would sell me out like that after all I've done.

Anytime a game can make real-world me feel betrayed by the actions of a character, I consider it a good thing.

That said, I agree that it's not quite as strong as in Oblivion

I agree that the Dark Brotherhood quests in Oblivion felt a lot more interesting than in Skyrim. The Emperor-plot in Skyrim was pretty cool but the twist in the end was pretty obvious. Still 3/5.

Was pretty meh in my opinion not even close the the Oblivion Dark Brotherhood questline.

A lot of what made it weird for me was all the filler quests it sent you on kind of dulled it all, and the main quests weren't quite as uh... inventive as the Oblivion ones. I loved Cicero's character and the underlying 'false vs true' story (and dropping a statue on a princess' head was pretty funny), but Oblivion's quests were much more twisted and creative.

I liked Cicero a lot, his diaries that detailed his backstory and descent into insanity were pretty cool. I've only done that story and the Thief's Guild (haven't even touched the main story and I'm like level 40) but so far I am a bit more partial to the Thief's Guild.

The manner of storytelling is relatively well done, but the story itself was pretty predictable I found in both cases. It seems to be the case for WRPGs as a whole, sacrifices have to be made for the openness.

I enjoyed them, but yeah, not as good as the Oblivion quest line. Infiltrating the ship was really fun for me, as I have a high sneak level and wasn't caught once except for one lieutenant or something right on the other side of a door I opened. Felt awesome.

I thought it was ok. Killing the Emperor was a nice and cool ending. And Cicero was just awesome (though I hated him). Looking forward to doing it on my 2nd character and seeing where it goes if I let him live.

I was more surprised by how short it was. Are the other guild's of a comparable length?

I thought it was great. I wish there were more unique assassinations that led to the emperor instead of just two though.

@SlashDance: If you've not done any side stuff for the guild then you've not finished with the Thieves Guild. After you do 5 missions in 4 specific towns, you get special requests which are a bit more interesting. Once you've done those then you become the Guild Master and get a nice new set of armor. Also a key to the Guild Master's Tribute chest.

@Addfwyn said:

I liked Cicero a lot, his diaries that detailed his backstory and descent into insanity were pretty cool. I've only done that story and the Thief's Guild (haven't even touched the main story and I'm like level 40) but so far I am a bit more partial to the Thief's Guild.

The manner of storytelling is relatively well done, but the story itself was pretty predictable I found in both cases. It seems to be the case for WRPGs as a whole, sacrifices have to be made for the openness.

He is the only cool character, the rest is pretty lame compared to the Nightingales and the Psijic Order.

@dekkadekkadekka said:

@SlashDance: If you've not done any side stuff for the guild then you've not finished with the Thieves Guild. After you do 5 missions in 4 specific towns, you get special requests which are a bit more interesting. Once you've done those then you become the Guild Master and get a nice new set of armor. Also a key to the Guild Master's Tribute chest.

I did not know that. Thanks. :)

I just started this and have a question. I screwed up the debt collection quest. One of the NPCs was killed by the town guards. Is my save screwed?

@Ragnarok512 said:

I really enjoyed the dark brotherhood quests. I found it to be much more interesting than some of the other guild storylines. The Thieves Guild in particular just felt weak over all.

I thought that the assassinations were really boring, apart from the emperor one. Things started out well, but there wasn't much invention with what they asked.

It was just a case of find the person and wait till they were asleep. Not much cool environmental stuff or set pieces, which was a shame. It's a shame because Oblivion had some great quests

The Dark Brotherhood stuff isn't on par with the Dark Brotherhood quests from Oblivion, but I don't really mind. Skyrim has its own highs (the Daedric quests are my personal favorites), and I'm glad they're not just the same highs that Oblivion hit.

Skyrim overall seems more focused on providing a lot more random dungeons and loot rather than better storyline. All of the infinite quests are stupid though. For example i got a quest from the nightmother to "meet an unemployed laborer and accept his contract" I went to him and he told me to kill "A corrupt mage in winterhold". He was just sitting in the inn there super easy to kill. I go and return to the nightmother to get a quest and I literally get the exact same quest "meet an unemployed laborer" who sends me to kill "A corrupt mage in winterhold" and he's sitting in the exact same spot, the body from before has somehow magically disappeared. Skyrim your attempts to make a game that can be played forever have obviously failed and the storyline quests have suffered. No Science!

Overall the questlines are weak in Skyrim. The main story was ok, and there were a couple moments where things get interesting in the Thieves Guild and the unveiling of a certain....power during the Companions was neato, but mostly the game is a series of fetch quests.

I kind of enjoyed some of the things. Pretty much everything after Cicero leaves to flee to the Dawnstar Sanctuary is when it started to really pick up. The part where you're the gourmet is fantastic, where you kill the Emperor is hit and miss (killing him is fun, treading through the ship is not), and the torture room when you repair the Sanctuary is much needed for leveling. Most of them kind of suck though. The Companions had two interesting "Oh shit" moments. The Mages really had none at all and were by far the weakest. The Thieves guild was fun up until grinding out the same missions to become the master. I honestly like some of the random quests more, like all the Deadric quests and some of the random ones when you just enter a dungeon and end up in there for an hour before fighting a Dragon Priest that you had no idea was there.

Wow, I'm surprised at the hate for the Thieves' guild quests here. I thought that was the best one. I didn't care for Dark Brotherhood, but I also didn't care for the misanthropic flavor in the first place so I'm in no position to judge.

It had huge highs and lows. The opening sequence was great. Then it was pretty boring doing those randomly generated assassinations, then it got good once you receive the contract to kill the emperor. 
 
The wedding assassination and the emperor assassinations were both very fun. The twist was pretty good too, but actually killing the real emperor was very underwhelming. The boat wasn't particularly interesting, and even the emperor just wanted that shit to be over.

I thought it wasn't quite as good as oblivions but still was pretty great. The thieves guild stuff was pretty amazing though and is the highlight of the guild stuff in Skyrim for me.

I liked it. Something about the end of the emperor assassination plot didn't really stick to me, but I think it was a good story, with good twists. I also loved how they managed to portray Cicero's insanity without making him that annoying.

@imsh_pl: I thought he was really annoying. That voice. Ugh. But he was better than he could have been because the VA really sold it.

The last set piece was really nice (see above) but for the most part it was pretty forgetful in comparison to Oblivion's. There were some nice touches here and there like Shadowmare and the Spectral Assassin but overall it wasn't as good as I hoped it was. Don't get me wrong, I still really enjoyed it.

I was hoping for some more quirky murders like in Oblivion. But Oblivion's was so good, I didn't expect Skyrim's to live up to it. Still pretty cool overall.

Skyrim's quests have the same glaring faults that almost all games have. The quests end or become bland once you get to the point where they should be the most interesting. Shouldn't leading guilds full of thieves, assassins, and warriors be more than an infinite loop of bland randomly generated quests that have no bearing on the guild itself? Shouldn't I be able to manage and affect the guilds and have more interesting conversations with them once I'm their leader?

I liked it. Something about the end of the emperor assassination plot didn't really stick to me, but I think it was a good story, with good twists. I also loved how they managed to portray Cicero's insanity without making him that annoying.

The reason I loved the Dark Brotherhood storyline in Skyrim.

On that one mission where Cicero went nuts and Astrid told you to chase him down, I didn't really read/listen to what she was saying 'cause I wanted to go kill the little fagle. So I ran outside and instantly I noticed something was weird. The black lake or puddle or whatever started bubbling and I was like OH SHIT something's coming to kill me. I draw my weapon and anticipate the worst. But then. The words "BEHOLD SHADOWMERE" appear on the screen and I see the beautiful bastard and I'm like HOLY SHITTTT THEY GAVE ME A HORSE!!! BEST DAY EVERRRRRRRRRR. And then I rode him all the way to Dawnstar and killed that gaylord. Yea. I didn't play Oblivion, but this part was pretty amazing for me.

Am I the only one that didn't think The Dark Brotherhood stuff in Oblivion was some amazing quest line?

I enjoyed the Thieves Guild quests more in both Oblivion and Skyrim. That being said the best quest in either game is the Clue house for DB in Oblivion.

@Ragnarok512 said:

I really enjoyed the dark brotherhood quests. I found it to be much more interesting than some of the other guild storylines. The Thieves Guild in particular just felt weak over all.

This, after being super disappointed by the Thieves Guild (which is awful and has very little thievery, and way way way too much combat) I found the Dark Brotherhood to be both exciting and an awesome change. Killing the Emperor? Kind of epic. Also, when you come to the Emperor and he realises his demise and is totally accepting about it, and goes and stands looking out the window as you come to assassinate him, I actually felt kinda bad for killing him. I was really surprised I actually had feelings for a video game character. So I fucked up the dude who sent me to kill him as he asked.

I can't believe some people really like the Thieves Guild when it was so, so bad. I guess they are people who usually like the combat questlines and don't realise what the Thieves Guild is supposed to be about as a stealthy non-combat character.

Surprised by the number of people saying the thieves guild was the weak link this time around. You guys play the mage questline?

Hmmm... it was pretty good. However the Dark Brotherhood questline in Oblivion was much better. And the Thieves Guild in Oblivion was a-freaking-mazing. The mage and the Fighters guild were meh.

The Thieves Guild though, man. You steal so much shit, and incrimminate so many people. And the reward is so awesome. Stealing an Elder Scroll using awesome artifacts? Getting the Grey Fox hood? That hood was game breaking! So good! Loved it. Haven't played the Thieves Guild in Skyrim yet, but from what I've heard... Doesn't sound as good.

However, all the other quests in Oblivion were REALLY forgettable. And this time around, they're all pretty interesting.