Solitude feels empty compared to the Imperial City and I can't unsee it now

[EbonyWarrior]

Coming back to Skyrim after replaying Oblivion and man, Solitude is gorgeous but it's basically a theme park. The Imperial City had actual districts with different vibes, the Arboretum, the Waterfront with its own whole questline, the Arena, the Mages Guild and Fighter's Guild actually embedded in the world. You could get lost there.

Solitude is like... walk down the main street, hit the castle, the Jarl's court, the Thane questline, done. There's the Drunken Huntsman off to the side but it doesn't feel like part of the city, it just feels like a quest marker. The market exists but nobody's actually buying or selling anything that makes sense. Where's the actual life?

I get that Skyrim is more about the wilderness and the holds are just bases, but Oblivion's cities felt like they had weight to them. You could spend hours just existing in the Imperial City and finding stuff. Solitude is beautiful and the architecture is incredible but it's kind of a ghost town with good lighting.

Does anyone else feel this way or am I just being a Morrowind/Oblivion snob about it?

 

[ScrollsOfTamriel]

You're not wrong, but I think you're comparing two different design philosophies rather than one being objectively better. Oblivion's cities were built as hubs - you were supposed to spend time there, talk to NPCs on schedules, stumble into quests. Skyrim's holds are more like... staging areas. The actual game is outside them.

That said, Solitude is weirdly sterile for a capital. The Drunken Huntsman thing especially bugs me - it's just there. Compare it to how the Waterfront in the Imperial City had the whole skooma smuggling angle, or how you could actually hang around the Arboretum and feel the city's rhythm. Solitude's got the Thane questline and then... market stalls that don't do anything. The Grey Quarter feels tacked on. Even the castle interior is kind of a maze that doesn't quite make sense spatially.

I think part of it is that Skyrim has way more going on outside the cities - you've got all these dungeons and radiant quests and the main story pulling you away. Oblivion didn't have that same gravity pulling you out into the wilderness, so the cities had to be denser. Solitude looks the part of a capital but doesn't really function like one. It's a beautiful set piece rather than a place that feels lived-in.

Not really a snob thing, just a different era of game design. I'd take Solitude's architecture over the Imperial City's generic fantasy aesthetic any day, but yeah, the Imperial City felt like an actual city in a way Solitude doesn't quite manage.