| The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim | ||
| Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks | ||
| Genre: | Open-world RPG | |
| Rating: | Mature for Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes, Use of Alcohol |
Game review by Wade Manns Reprinted by permission from eCorsair.com
Bethesda's SkyRim is the most impressive, immersive open world RPG to date, building powerfully on the previous Elder Scrolls titles. Bethedsa says they shipped seven million copies worldwide on the game's launch. Half of the game's "launch units" were sold in the first 48 hours and the studio says it is swamped for large reorders. Skyrim set a record on Steam with more than 280,000 concurrent players.
It’s here! The most eagerly-anticipated RPG for many followers of the epic Elder Scrolls series has arrived. Is it worth the hype and all the positive feedback? Oh, yes, it certainly is!
Like all other games in the series, you begin by creating your character from one of ten races, either male or female, and you can also fine-tune their facial and body appearance for even more customization! This is one of those games that let you truly own your experience; more on that later.
In the fantastical realm of Tamriel, in the snowy lands of the province of Skyrim, two hundred years after the last of the Septim emperors was lost, you’re a prisoner accused of collaborating with a dissident faction which threatens to rip Skyrim apart. You’re moments from your execution when—A dragon! Roaring out of the sky, blasting the little village to dust and cinder, Alduin, the Nordic aspect of the Aedra (ancient god) Akatosh, is back to devour the world, or so ancient Nord prophecies foretell. You are a very rare breed, the Dragonborn, or Dovahkiin, the similarly prophesied hero. You have the power to collect the souls of dragons throughout the land and power your Shout ability; this is an innate magic power that allows you to alter reality with your voice!
It’s certainly something to be able to bowl people over by simply shouting an arcane word at them, but of course more power exists that lies in wait for you to find. Simply penetrate to the core of a number of the many lavishly detailed, very beautiful dungeons littered throughout the land, and absorb the Word of Power that glows on the wall before you; then, with a collected dragon soul, you may equip it and partake in a little of its power! You must, however, find all the words in a set before the Words unlock their full potential…
The journey to become strong enough to defeat Alduin is a long one, but it’s far from dull. Every corner hides another mine, cavern, shack or small village that has secrets to be revealed. And the nine grand holds throughout the land (Whiterun, Winterhold, Solitude and Riften are four of them) serve as the cities from which you’ll do most of your questing.
There have been some changes to the previous Elder Scrolls formulae, including the fact that there are no major or minor skills anymore, and each leveled skill contributes to level up. Each level gained confers an increase to your choice of Health, Magicka (magic energy) or Stamina, as well as a perk (or special ability) that can be assigned to any skill you desire. This results in a more free-form character development experience, as opposed to previous games where you pretty much had to specialize.
It also may take some getting used to the interface: a button press leads you to a compass-style screen with your Skills, Magic, Map and Items arranged around it; you hold a direction to go into the desired screen. This appears to be a concession to console gamers, but I found it easy enough to get used to after a while. The PC version has some unbindable keys in inventory and conversation modes at this writing, requiring you to use the defaults which may be in awkward positions, but again, you can get used to that.
One of the potentially tedious things about the game is that it takes a long time to level up – but this seems to be more about the pacing of the game and how many hours you’re likely to pour into it. It’s not a fast blast through the experience meter by any means. You’re better off not worrying about that, and just deal with things as they come up.
Be warned: This world is incredibly deep and enthralling, and a little knowledge of past Elder Scrolls events will do you good, but is not necessary. That being said, I am seven hours into the game and am only at the fourth phase (of very many) of the main quest; expect to spend upwards of a hundred hours (and many more!) trying to find everything, if Oblivion and Fallout 3 were any indication. But like those previous Bethesda titles, this is an incredibly detailed and beautiful game, and I most definitely recommend it to everyone who can deal with the mature subject matter that these types of games have come to exhibit. Five out of five!
There are already bugfixes out for the PS3 version of the game, with X-Box 360 and PC patches on the way.
About the Author
Krypton Radio game reviewer Wade Manns
Wade Manns is currently finishing his General Associate of Arts with a major in Journalism. In addition to his work for Krypton Radio, he also writes and edits for the Corsair, the student-run paper at Pensacola State College. His passion is video games, but he also likes reading science fiction, spending time with friends and engaging in social networking.
Skyrim is one of only two new games I’ve been looking forward to getting,(the other being Terraria 1.1). I’ve already seen some trailers and reviews for it, it definitely looks epic.
Some points to consider:
There are some limits to the diversity that character creation can allow for, particularly in head and facial hair (assuming your chosen race even has these). Fortunately this being much the same system used in Fallout 3 and Oblivion, mods should be able to cover any perceived gap in due time.
Leveling your character may be a bit more difficult if the only skills you work on are combat related. For instance, I was able to breeze through to level 15 just by working on Sneak and Lockpicking in the first few towns you come across. Just be sure not to get caught!
Sneak becomes especially useful as it creates idiotic behavior in the NPC AI, who somehow believe that you crouching equals near invisibility. Lockpicking is great for getting through doors you would normally need a key to pass, and you can practice it in lots of places after nightfall. Archery or One-Handed skills work great with Sneak, allowing you to deal critical hits to enemies before they even know you are there (moreso with relevant perks), and even if you never break into a single NPC home, Lockpicking is excellent once you get how it works (just be sure to carry lots of spare lockpicks!).
At least it’s not as extremely easy to fully level your character here as it was in Fallout 3.
As for “deep and enthralling”, oh yes indeed. My “free time” has been replaced by “Skyrim time”, sure to end only when I’ve completed a significant portion of the content.
There have been very few games that have created such a deep sense of terror as when you are on your way to a quest, or back to your home town to sell stuff, when a you hear the roar of an approaching dragon! The knowledge that, even with the wide array of Shouts and other abilities at your disposal, that all it takes is to be too close to an angry enough dragon for you to end up in its mouth, or annihilated by its breath weapon, or smacked by claw, wing, or tail, causes such a massive amount of tension that is not seen that often in gaming.
Well, I got Terraria 1.1, now all that’s left is Skyrim. I’ve already looked up a lot of info on in-game quests(I usually don’t mind spoilers and the like), and in all honesty I am greatly looking forward to being able to buy it soon.