While none of the Elder Scrolls titles are actually sequels or directly connected, they’re all set in the land of Tamriel. The subtitle for the fifth game in the series represents the region, Skyrim. At its core, Skyrim is set 200 years after Oblivion and places the player as the last ‘Dragonborn’. The player must then straddle their destiny of saving the land from the prophesised destruction at the hands of the Nordic Dragon-God, Alduin, and a civil war being fought between the Imperials and the Stormcloak rebellion formed by the Nord race. While the story and setting are great for not imposing a prerequisite for playing the previous games, long time fans will get their jollies through inexhaustible lore and countless story and world references.
A very daunting welcoming committee.
Critique of the story for Skyrim is really secondary though, as it is the very definition of freeform gaming. The story itself isn’t all that long, but the Elder Scrolls defines itself with everything else that’s in between. Skyrim is more than a playground; it’s an entire new world filled with quests, tasks, distractions, details, secrets and an abundance of discoveries. However, the hallmarks of Skyrim would have to be the surprisingly astute mixture of the openness seen in Morrowind, the ability to play as you want, while still being a title open to new comers, particularly console players. While this generation has seen the rise of accessibility, in both positive and negative lights, Skyrim highlights just how good it can be when a proper balance is struck. PC players will also have several mod tools at their disposal, to go completely nuts with the game.
Built on a completely new engine, the Creation Engine, Skyrim is one of the most visually stunning titles ever released, while Skyrim itself is a beautifully diverse world to explore. The new engine allows for a host of dynamic weather effects, increased area to explore and a very noticeable upgrade over its predecessor. From seeing the highest mountain in the distance, to observing a butterfly float by, or even watching your magic spell shoot out of your hand (like a plasmid in Bioshock) it’s rare that a game allows you to see and feel as deeply as this. You can even sit around and enjoy the sunset if you want (and it's a pretty good one, on a clear day). The ‘lucky’ players will get through with barely a hitch (though often the hitches can make for a good laugh) and be shown that this probably what Oblivion should have looked like.
A title of this size, scale and magnitude is bound to have a few glitches and aspects such as animation not always in sync. These may distract enough to prevent the game from being held in irrefutable awe, but none is going to mistake this for anything than an Elder Scrolls title; that is the strength of the game’s artistic merit. The score for Skyrim succeeds in evoking the highest levels of aural stimulation, while perfectly befitting the fantasy setting. Whether it’s crossing the vast fields, or raiding a bandit encampment, you’ll have a suitable score to take you through. In true Bethesda form, you’ll have your share of decent to comical range of voice actors, but along with all that is good and the graphical idiosyncrasies, they all come together to add a unique level of charm.
Wolf season...
Now aside from adding dragons - which elevate the game to all different kinds of awesome by default - there are a lot of additions, changes and improvements made over the previous titles that manage to retain and enhance the sense of openness, while also making the title more accessible. This review is only going to sample a few of these things, as a massive pleasure from Skyrim is the scope of discovery. Up front, you choose your race/class and apply the token set of customising options to get them looking as good (or as bad) as you want them. These options seem a little basic in comparison to recent offerings, but you won’t get bored with what’s there.
Crucially, just like Deus Ex: Human Revolution did earlier this year, your race or preferred style of play will not be punished by making certain acts unachievable later on. Just like Deus Ex, there is no one way to achieving the goal you set out for. Sure, each race will start you off with different areas of advantage and disadvantage, but the new skill development and perk systems make up for this. Skills increase as you use them, literally, but not when you’re aimlessly swinging your sword or nonchalantly spewing magic from your hand. So weapon and magic skills will increase gradually while in combat, where as skills such as sneaking increase when used properly, or skills such as enchanting and smithing will increase as you use them, or even as you read about them.
The perk system is quite well handled too, as it gives you reason to start picking skills to concentrate on, rather than try and pass off as a jack-of-all-trades. Navigating the skills and perk system has been innovatively handled as well, as console players will be treated to what is probably the most accessible RPG menu ever seen. Now it might seem strange to harp on about a menu, but when you’re spending as much time as you are in RPGs, it’s a pretty important part of the game. While the ‘interactive’ menu from Fable III was too ambitious, Skyrim gets it right with a smooth, unobtrusive, minimalist yet informative and robust presentation. Aside from there being nowhere to keep records of what you read, there is a good chance that every other game will seem clunky and dysfunctional afterwards.
Come at me, bro!
Players brought up in the hand-holding era of caffeine-induced set plays and choreographed explosions might not know what to do with themselves with the vast open fields and multiple quest paths of Skyrim. Furthermore, the actual play in the game could be seen as pretty mundane. After all, your core actions are pretty basic, what with the simple trigger movements and actions. However, it’s the content and sense of discovery that move things forward, as these core actions are enhanced by the sheer number of possibilities of what can be done within the actions, but all done within reasonable limits. Even actions such as cooking, smithing, enchanting and potion making all seem daunting at first, but are simple enough once learned and open a huge amount of possibilities, if the player is willing to explore them.
The world of Skyrim isn’t just for show, as you’ll have a number of crucial decisions to make throughout. And these decisions are really devious and consequential; nothing that’s just black and white, and nothing that adds a plus or minus to an arbitrary meter. Even something as simple as stealing for a shop owner could have a contract placed on your head, while your decision in what seems like a minor side or miscellaneous quest could have significant political implications later on. Furthermore, the game isn’t short of things to do. Even as you head towards the latest story quest, seemingly random events such as innocents looking for help, bandits looking for a sucker or a fire breathing dragon will appear, as will quests that take you to corners of Skyrim and show you events you didn’t think were possible. As players will have seen by now, you can put an hour count anywhere between 25 to over 100, but suffice to say, if you’re aiming to clock the game as quick as you can, you’re doing it wrong.
I JUST WANTED A HUG!
With all said and told, Skyrim is just about the epitome of Western RPGs and sandbox gameplay. The famed series glitches will get everyone in some way or another, but for all their charm, some unlucky ones will suffer from a few game breakers. It might only drop the player back a save or two, but it’s still an undesirable facet of the game. Occasionally, the game can come off as clumsy, be it with an accidental death through inconsistent path finding or ill-timed combat manoeuvres, an accidental knock to a group of friendlies that will set an army on you, or the inane behaviour of friendly AI meant to help you. Otherwise, for all the freedom you have in Skyrim, one thing that doesn’t do quite as well as, for example, Fallout 3, is do enough to make the world relatable and one that you’d care about. That’s not to say it’s disinteresting or likely to bore you. It’s just not as compelling is it probably could have been, given the fantasy setting.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, as a game, can be very easily picked apart. But you don’t go through Skyrim the game. You go through Skyrim the experience. And as a title that allows you to go, see and do everything at your own pace, as you want to, it’s pretty much the epitome of the sandbox play and Western RPGs. Furthermore, it’s manages to robustly straddle the line between a core and accessible experience, making sure that no one is left out from either challenging themselves to conqueror another part of Tamriel, or exploring the glorious fields for the first time. This was the title that Oblivion set to be, and it’s great to see that Bethesda finally got it right. But probably the biggest compliment to the game is that regardless of how many hours you spend in Skyrim, it’s very hard to shake the feeling that there is still more to experience...
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