Forums » Elder Scrolls

Best Dungeon Design?

    • 158 posts
    January 16, 2014 12:25 PM EST
    I´ve long thought that the design for Bleak Falls Barrow is quite excellent, from the standpoint of introducing a new player to the types of traps and enemies one will encounter in Skyrim´s dungeons. Folgunthur is probably my favorite dungeon, partly because of the unusual backstory with the Dragon Cult, and partly because of the twists and turns one has to take to get to the end.

    Do you have a candidate for best dungeon design? Which dungeons do you think are the most interesting, most difficult, most unusual?
    • 79 posts
    January 16, 2014 1:03 PM EST

    Black Reach, there's something very mystifying about that place.

    • 194 posts
    January 16, 2014 2:21 PM EST

    I like long ones that exhaust you mentally mid-dungeon. Blackreach is more of a worldspace when you think about it. I mean a linear, corridor-filled dungeon that is so long it doesn't even have to be confusing to fluster you. You're running out of carrying capacity, potions, and patience. Dwemer ruins are the best at this, however.

    • 79 posts
    January 16, 2014 4:17 PM EST

    Black Reach is a dungeon in a dungeon.. It's an open-closed world environment that has an air of mystery to it :)

    • 69 posts
    January 16, 2014 4:19 PM EST

    I like the ones where there is something new in them. Like the wolf queen one. I had no clue that was going to happen.

    • 61 posts
    January 16, 2014 4:28 PM EST

    I like the ones where you have to interact with stuff in a different way, so you're not just pulling levers and such, like Ustengrav, where you have to run past the stones and whirlwind sprint.
    I wish that there was an acrobatics aspect to dungeons like in oblivion.

    • 25 posts
    January 16, 2014 4:36 PM EST

    I haven't nearly explored Skyrim as much as I should so there are still places I have yet to go so I do get surprised from time to time. I really like the ones where there isn't really a quest per se but you enter it and stumble on some bandits after getting deeper and deeper you see their corpses and then finally what's been killing them. Falmer. At level 15 it's a sort of a panic moment because at that point I'm too deep in to turn around and leave and they always manage to hurt me more than they should

    • 158 posts
    January 16, 2014 7:21 PM EST

    Mmm, I'm a big fan of Blackreach too.  Both that and Ustengrav are just visually stunning.  And I completely forgot about Wolfskull Cavern - I was totally blown away by the voices and the spiraling lights during the Wolf Queen ritual, absolutely unexpected.  

    As for Falmer, I really liked the one where you see the lost Dunmer caravan - I think it's Tolvald's Cavern.  And Frostflow Lighthouse too.  One thing you have to say for Bethesda, they didn't just cookie-cutter their dungeons.  There's a lot of original content, even if the puzzles are kinda cheesy.