Zen-Bethesda pinballs

The three Zen Pinball tables based on Bethesda Softworks games I announced last month are here. As expected they are based on three of the more successful games of Bethesda, Skyrim, Fallout and Doom. Now, I haven't ever played the first two. I knew them only by name. I played Doom back in the 90s when it was produced by id Software. So I came to the pinball games without any sentimental reminiscing. Does this mean that my judgement of the games will be more objective? ((Probably not).

Let us start with Skyrim.

It is the simplest table in the sense that it is uncluttered and the graphics are tame. What spoils it completely are those pesky dragons which traverse the table from time to time. Now, mind you, I am a Game of Thrones fan and should thus like dragons. Well, I do, but not when they are interfering with my pinball game.

The second table is Fallout.

It is the most cluttered of the three, with some fairly tricky shots. I found the whole set-up with the frequent visits to the shop rather annoying. Still I did like a lot the night mode.

With the third table, Doom, I was in known territory.

A moderately cluttered table but with rather garish colours. Definitely the most interesting of the three. I appreciated a lot the fact that the ball does not drain easily. 

So, what is my overall opinion after playing a few games? As always I find Zen pinballs graphically superb. I used to say for Littlewing pinballs (sniff!) that one had the impression to play inside a painting gallery (thanks to the fabulous artwork of Reiko-san) but Zen tables have reached now a comparable level of perfection. The physics is always very good. But these two things do not suffice. Unless one is a Bethesda games fan, one will find the three new pinballs somewhat unexciting. 

Somehow, although I am constantly criticising FarSight I keep going back to their pinballs.