Skyrim

Posted by: Joe Baker

This game might be all about the frozen heights of Skyrim, but I'm pretty sure I got all kinds of heated up while playing this. In this latest release from Bethesda Softworks they introduce you to the world of Skyrim - the dragon populated, revolution entwined, mead swilling home of the Nords. An adventure where someone asks for just a simple favor can turn into an all immersive quest where you have to travel the whole of Skyrim to finish your adventure. This can lead to countless hours and distractions from what you were doing in the first place, but exploring all the little crevices of this immersive fantasy RPG is what this game is all about. There are a few bugs here and there, something I'm sure Elder Scrolls veterans see coming, but none of them ruin this simply awesome game.

The hours spent on this game are certainly not wasted. As mentioned earlier, this game takes you to the continent of Skyrim. Vets of the Elder Scrolls games will have probably heard of this before as it is mentioned in the previous two games – Morrowind and Oblivion. In this northern region snow is almost always prevalent, it just a matter of how you get it. Snowstorms, iceflow, light snow – basically every kind of snow accompanies the landscape and it's chilling waters. At night the sky is painted with a multitude of colors in the form of an aurora borealis, and I spent many minutes simply standing still and gaping in wonder at it. The games tone is much darker than Oblivion and harkens back to a similar atmosphere of Morrowind with it's random storms and ruins of ships you can see in the distance.

The key to this game is that not every aspect is honed to a perfection, but rather it lends to a much grander scale to the environment and the game mechanics as well. Your quest log with quickly fill up with a multitude of quests offering dozens of choices, each as exciting as the next. The main story follows your ascension and training of the Dhovakin, which is dragon for Dragonborn. This has you facing the many types of dragons that fly around Skyrim, searching sewers, getting all dressed up for a party, and visiting a fabled monastery on the highest point in Skyrim. The main story is carefully woven and Bethesda has simply outdone itself again.

Even when not pursuing the main story line, this game has an explicable amount to search and explore. You could be simply walking around on one of the many trails in the game to discover a little village being assaulted by a dragon. As you pull out your weapons or magic to battle the beast, the villagers will aid you with their own fireballs, whistling arrows, and gripping their two handed hammers to give it a good punch. The battles really bring out the story of how terrified this land is of dragons and the many creatures that inhabit Skyrim.

>The best aspect that I truly enjoy is that the narrative stories aren't just limited to the core story, they are a part of literally EVERY SINGLE quest. Some of theme even help with the main storyline in terms of NPC's used and the areas explored. Eavesdropping on a conversation that an NPC has with another can lead you to a quest where you are sitting at a table with a group of vampires actively asking you questions. Other quests let you choose and change the realm of Skyrim completely such as either joining the Stormcloaks or the Imperials for control as the governing body of Skyrim. This has you assaulting forts and rescuing prisoners that will later help you on to take control of this frozen continent. While there are simply too many quests to talk about in an article such as this, one memorable quest for me was one where you are asked to steal something from a temple and turns into you leading the next (spoiler alert) prophet back to the Temple of Dibella.

It is impressive what Bethesda has done here to not only give you so much to do, but make it all very enjoyable. Sure, not everything is going to so awesome to explore, and there might be a nasty trap or two that cause you to go into a fit of rage. But overall, each quest and task has a sense of immersion. Looking for a missing person turns into tremendous voice acting and creative writing. How often are you just walking along and there are woolie mammoths towering over you and giants coming to squash you like the little bug you are to them?

Not every that makes you jump (oh yes, I jumped many times) is welcome, but the sense of the unexpected is what drives you to explore of much as you can. The possible hidden enchanted weapon hidden in a tomb, a grove of trees with mysterious caretakers, or a book that shares the world around you are just some of the rewards. Maybe you just enter a tomb just to explore it and find words in the dragon tongue that lead you to further greater powers. Finding these words is only half the equation tho, killing dragons for their souls is the other. These will unlock the spells in which will give you the advantage in battle and possibly tip the scales in the conflicts surrounding you.

Shouts are only a small part of the spell book tho. Bethesda brings back its usual different types of magic – Destruction, Illusion, Alteration, Conjuration, Mysticism, and Restoration. Each type brings a dynamic visual and audio effect. You can even dual wield spells, such as a flaming fireball in one hand and a summon of a Fire Atronoch in the other. That's not to say you can't melee with some of the creatively designed weapons in the game. Skyrim also lets you dual wield one handed weapons, and brings back the two handed versions as well. This allows for ultimate customization in your play style. Armor is basically the same, but there is no Medium Armor anymore and all armors are either Light or Heavy. While this may ruin some uniqueness, I feel that it removes the un-needed complication of these play styles. Bethesda also brings back its standard races – Nord, High Elf, Imperial, Khajiit, Orc, Redguard, Argonian, Wood Elf, and Dark Elf. Each model made me want to delete my character to change my race. You can customize literally everything size wise about your character as you can in Oblivion, but Skyrim provies a level detail that just makes one gasp. The big change from the other Elder Scrolls games is that you do not pick and specializations or a class as you create your character. Instead there are talent trees for each skill that you can put points into as you explore and level that allow you to gain special abilities and reduced mana costs. So if you find yourself half way thru the game unwanting to use magic, you can switch and become more of a melee character. As you use the particular weapons and spells, you gain experience in them.

The combat is fluid and lets you use do it at your own pace. There are, as in Fallout, slow motion kill moves if you land a critical hit to kill the enemy. This breaks up the monotony of swing/casting and killing that stagnates the combat in other RPG's. At times you can feel like your swinging blindly, but this is the best combat system Bethesda has put out yet. The audio and visual cues provide excellent feedback to where the flailing doesn't seem like your just pressing buttons in hopes of saving your life. And all these are needed. There are all types of creatures that have diverse models and all are trying to kill you. For instance, bears in this game charge at you and you can literally see every fiber of hair and crack in their teeth coming to maul you down.

Some of the best changes from previous Elder Scrolls is the change in non-combat skills such as Lockpicking and Enchanting. Lockpicking has been changed from the funny 5 bar keylock thing in Oblivion to a much more manageable "find the sweet spot" system. You much turn the luck either clockwise or counterclockwise as well as you pick to find the exact point that will open up the lock. Enchanting is now done at an Enchanting table that lets you disenchant items that you have in your inventory to allow you to learn that enchantment. The table also provides a simple three step orcess in which you pick the item, soulgem, and enchantment of your new item. Alchemy also has changed to a table system that displays all the available ingredients and will list what recipes you can make. A new introduction is Blacksmithing. This allows you to take ore, turn it into bars, and create weapons and armor that you can update the quality on as your Blacksmithing skill increases. As in past games, you can collect the materials in chests, wandering around, but you can now mine ore and cut down trees for wood.

The best part (and will always be) of Bethesda games is the immersion factor. The literally want you to feel like your living in this world that they have created. That's what makes this game so great – you can see that each NPC has their own schedule, and it isn't always the same. Some shops that are normally open during the days are sometimes closed because the NPC had to go out, or a guard will tell you about a dragon sighting and tell you where they saw it to mark your map. Not only is it the programming aspect of the AI, but the amount of written text in the game. There are literally hundreds of books that the Bethesda team has placed in the game with biographies about other characters in them, poetry written, or even history books involving the events in Oblivion and Morrowind. Bethesda has always also been a master at music. Skyrim does it wonderfully without blowing at you as you enter in the zone. The voice acting is not only immaculate, but wonderfully done as well. There's a total of 72 voice actors doing 100 some NPC's.

This game will enchant and mesmerize you with it's open world, immersion into the story, and the amount of things simply to do. I've put close to 80 hours into this game and I can easily say that I'm no where near done with it. Whether your taking out a dragon, helping someone find a lost loved one, or stealing from them, this game easily delivers what it has promised.