The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Review

main quest – no matter what the main storyline is about, one thing is consistent: you need to roam around the world. bethesta WANTS you to explore their world so they are forcing me to do it in every possible situation. i dunno, maybe they think that no one would want to explore their world unless they are forced to?
another pattern that emerges in the main storyline are the dungeons. again, it feels like bethesta is afraid someone might not see all the 4-5 types of dungeons they made so you need to visit each one of them during your main quest.

i havent beaten skyrim as i really dont have enough patience for it after morrowind and oblivion, i could barely finish them.

when i look at skyrim, i basically see just a polished version of flawed morrowind with graphics pimped to the max and a much bigger world. it has all the basic elements of an elder scrolls game: exploration and wandering, doing quests, killing random enemies, gathering/selling/buying stuff, sloppy codding -> resulting in -> bugs. maybe i have just sated all my elder scrolls game type needs with morrowind all those years ago and that’s why i dont see what’s the big deal with skyrim. i think its just a mildly amusing, empty-ish game, unless you use mods.

ah, the mods, when someone mentions elder scrolls to me, first thing that comes to mind are mods. i feel like bethesta discovered a perfect recipe for a successful game: huge world + graphics + editor = people make what they want to see in the game themselves. for a few days ive been browsing oblivion – skyrim mods just to see all those crazy things people made for this game, and i think these mods are the reason why skyrim still stands as one of the best RPG recently released.

no matter how much i dislike realistic graphics in games, i cannot say skyrim does not have great graphics and environment, heck, they are really good. i feel like environment was the main focus of the developers as the game wants you to explore this new land of ice and snow. but if graphics arent your thing (like they arent mine) you wont find this game so fascinating on this front.

sound…well, i cant say that anything past morrowind’s theme ever caught my attention music-wise. even the skyrim theme bored me after hearing it like 3 times. elder scrolls soundtracks have always been forgettable for me, skyrim is no exception. and also, who can forget the bored voice actors that sound like they are recording the dialog during their coffee break. imo bad voice acting is the trademark on all elder scrolls games, and i find skyrim again, as no exception.

combat-wise gameplay in elder scrolls games, to me, has never felt like anything more than just meshing your left click until your target dies. maybe because i would always play a straight-forward melee warrior, or maybe because there really is nothing more to it, and considering the fact that there is a lot of fighting in these games, that’s a bad thing as it gets to feel like a chore really really fast.

on the good side, it only took bethesta a couple of games to realize that their method of leveling up in their games was really bad and needed to be changed into something better. so skyrim has that, a well made leveling system. lack of exp in previous games made quests pointless as you didnt get anything out of them except the ‘enjoyment’ of doing a quest and an occasional reward. this time around, you are given more reasons to do quests, as they let you improve your character further.

again, like in all elder scrolls games, i find skyrim suffering from a lack of interesting equipment. they all show you several different sets of items and that’s basically that. you get ebony (fun fact – its rubber), glass, daedric, iron, leather, dwarven, and a few others. that’s all fine and dandy but i really want to see more unique-looking enchanted items, not just another random enchanted dwarven or glass weapon with a name. i havent played skyrim all that much, maybe it does have a ton of unique looking weapons, but i doubt it. but i know that mods can fix that. whatever you dont like about the game, turn to mods for help.

oh and lets not forget the camera. i dont know if i am the only person on the planet but, when i see the 3rd person view that has your character NOT in the center of the screen, i feel like im drunk and i just cant play it. it is really distracting for me and totally ruins the experience. hope im not the only one here, as if i was, id feel really dumb now…

overall, i dislike skyrim just as i dislike the previous elder scrolls games. to me they are just lazy games that follow a recipe for a successful game, so the majority likes them. it really offers nothing i would look for in a game. i can see why it appeals to people, but it just does not to me.

Like previous Elder Scrolls titles Skyrim takes place in the world of Tamriel, this time it’s the province of Skyrim, the northernmost province and home to the Nords. Winters are long and the bars are always full… the life of a Nord is a simple one but don’t cross any of them! To better capture the Nords life a few key features were added… everyone is big and hairy… they also tend to carry big axes. Bars are full of life including bar brawls and a bard in every tavern who sing wonderful songs about the King Killer and the Legendary Dragonborn. Last, it snows… it snows a lot. Dress warm or freeze, Skyrim is not an easy place to be and that ruggedness is captured beautifully.

The interface has been updated… some good some bad (mostly bad on PC) but they’ve added a few key features that are really great additions. First lets talk about the onscreen interface, it’s good, really good. The first thing you will notice is well there really isn’t one. Everything except the compass by default fades out of the way when not in use to provide an extremely clean and immersive HUD. It’s a great way to do it and works well. The Menu/Inventory interface on the other hand needs some work. They’ve separated Items/Magic/Leveling/Map menu from the System/Quest menu… which at first is extremely confusing. The System/Quest menu is done pretty well… except for the part of Quests being in the System menu…. The other Menu though is just a train wreck… the only real redeeming feature is thanks to Favorites you don’t have to use it a whole lot. One example is checking on effects like having a disease is under Magic… whaa? Exactly! At least the Map is pretty cool.

The Favorites system works extremely well. It allows you to favorite weapons, potions, spells, shouts… well pretty much everything and then access it via one button. Press the button and the game will pause and open a menu… in the menu is a list of all the items you have favorited. This allows you to switch weapons, spells etc on the fly without having to hunt through the menus. It’s genius, simply genius. O and hotkeys still work too.

Skyrim brings a number of streamlining features that long time Elder Scrolls fans may not like. Quick travel returns… along with most of the Oblivion “streamlining features” (although they added a Morrowind Strider like system via carriages if you choose to use it yay!), armor degradation has been removed, leveling has been simplified a ton and the big one regenerating health has been added. Still here? What kind of hardcore fan are you! Just kidding, before you grab your pitchforks and torches hear me out. I’m not the biggest fan of these features but they work well and all seem to be focused on keeping downtime well… down.

Armor degradation was always annoying in Oblivion especially early on when money was scarce… nothing is worse than your favorite sword breaking in the middle of a fight… welll except for going back to town and find out you don’t have to cash to repair it *sadface*. Skyrim changes that, instead of degradation Skyrim focuses on upgradation!?!… . The system is pretty simple but it’s pretty well done and in the end works well. You’ll also find quite a few unique weapons along the way making upgrading largely not needed if you so choose.

Leveling has been changed a ton. No more sleeping to level up, no more core attributes… it’s all about perks! Those that have played Fallout should be familiar with this term and it works a lot like it. So skills like Archery still grow levels through use and after you gain enough skill levels you level up… everytime you level up you get to pick a perk and add a point to one of these three, Heath, Magicka or Stamina. Them three are pretty self explanatory so I’ll jump to perks. Perks are added bonuses for skills, like in Archery, slow time, zoom, more damage etc. Again the system works well, I still prefer how it worked in past Elder Scrolls games but it’s nice and straight forward.

Last but not least is regenerating health. Regenerating health is major change to the gameplay and I like it alot. Now before you burn me on a stake, I hated it… really hated it at first. I thought it was a step back but then I started playing dying and slowly I started to come around to the idea, it wasn’t until I went back to Oblivion and had to constantly chug potions that I really started to like and mIss the regenerating health. It ‘s not overpowered and work very well. It’s not immersive but everything else is so immersive it doesn’t really hurt the overall immersion and it helps keep you in the action. Don’t neglect a good heal spell and potions though… you’ll still need plenty of them on harder difficulties.

Combat is nice, it’s pretty hack n slashy melee weapon wise but they’ve tried to add some depth. Finishing moves and kill cams are a nice touch… although can sometimes look weird. Shield bash is also a really nice addition and has a nice feel to it. Melee combat overall feels a little weak in the sense club to head doesn’t provide a nice crunch *sadface*. Magic has been revamped a bit, you can now equip to spells at once… casting two of the same spell can form a more powerful version. Archery has a nice feel to it. Arrows have a nice weight and impact is solid. Some of the kill cams are done really well too. Being a Dragonborn you also have a shout ability, I won’t go into them too much as not to spoil it but I will say it’s done well and integrates very well with all the primary combat types.

Graphics are amazing, details are amazing, the world is… well you get the point… moving on.

Bugs bugs bugs… it wouldn’t be an Elders Scrolls game with some bugs. At this points most of them are fixed but the game launched with quite a few bugs… some extremely crippling to the game. I’m not gonna go into it to much as most of it has been fixed by now but never the less it happened again, *sadface*. I’m also sad to report that a number of weird things like save a town from destruction… everyone greets you like a hero… then treats you like always… mostly dirt… are still are around, which is a shame. “New engine” was suppose to fix all that….

Skyrim is another step away from the beloved Morrowind days but that’s not to say it’s such a bad thing. The game may have changed but at the end of the day the core is still intact. Skyrim delivers the open world experience better than any Elder Scrolls, I could go even as far to say better than any other game before it. What it lacks in classic Elder Scrolls it makes up for in pure unrelenting fun and honestly that is what games should be, fun!

For starters, I want to thank my computer for allowing me to play this amazing game……

This game is absolutely stunning. The combat system is great now that you can heal yourself and swap to a weapon without having to use hot keys (you can if you want still)

So far I only have Fus to Fus Ro Dah but I plan to try and max out this game.

Out of the graphics I would say that the worst detailed item is the ore. It is extremely difficult to find when you are in the harsh land of skyrim.

-Still a nub in Skyrim but love it-

Ichi