Skyrim was named 2011's Game of The Year and was loved by long-time fans and the rest of the video game community. I decided to get the game and see for myself what this cultural phenomenon is all about. Although I'm a little late to the party I can see what everyone else see's as they step into the shoes as the dragonborn and journey across the world of Skyrim.
The Good:-Skyrim is massive
-Amazing leveling up system
-Great action sequences
-Over 100 hours of gameplay
-Things are beautiful from afar
-Amazing original score
-Can create your own story
The Bad: -Things are ugly up close
-Using magic can be confusing and difficult at first
-Some controls are unresponsive
-lots of graphical issues
The Ugly:-Without a doubt the buggiest game you will ever play, regardless of system.
StoryYou're a refugee, arrested by the Imperials for crossing the borders into Skyrim, and even though you did nothing wrong you are still sentenced to death. As your head lays down on a cold slab, the executioner raises his axe and what you may think is your last moment alive, a black dragon (a species presumed to be extinct for centuries) falls from the sky attacking the entire village. This mayhem allows you to flee from your death and you begin your life anew in this brave new world.
The best part of the game's story is that you can make your own tale from your character's race, personality, alignment and even play-style. Right after the intro quest "unbound" is completed you are free to do anything you want and build your own tale. Whether you're a Nord fighting with the Empire against the Stormcloak Rebels, A Kajit Mage that joins the dark brotherhood, no two stories will be the same.
From Race, hair, personality, and skills. The skies the limit.
However that doesn't mean there's no main plot to this game. After your escape you learn across your journey that you are the Dragonborn, a rare individual born with the soul of a dragon. After discovering your new found gift to absorb a dragon's soul and utilize their powerful magic shouts (known as the Thu'um in the Dragon Language) you can journey to train and hone your new found gift and investigate the sudden reappearance of the Dragons while also trying to stop them from wreaking havoc across all of Tamriel. The Choice is yours.
Story: B+Graphic'sIts night time, you look up at starry sky and see the beautiful Northern Lights shimmering as if you were staring into the eyes of Sovengarde itself as you also see the misty mountain top of the Throat of the World, the highest point in all of Skyrim (possibly all of Tamriel) and it is truly a sight to behold.
The you take a moment to look down at your feet and see the cobblestone path is completely pixelated and unpolished. Even with your graphic settings set to 1080p on your ultra-powerful Alienware processor, you can easily see pixels up close. Flowers, grass and other foliage looks flat and uglier than sin. Another problem is that there are always graphical bugs and issues in the game. Many time's I have come across a river or stream and a perfect square area of water texture was completely missing
Was someone sick that day for water texturing, Bethesda?
That's just the tip of the iceberg. Or should I explain how a wall in my house has some serious clipping issues with unfinished wall texture, or when I killed an NPC bandit and their dead body falls through the solid floor like a poltergeist. The list goes on and on.
Luckily for owners of the PC versions there are tons of mods already made that not only fixes these errors but also give the game a huge graphical update that makes everything more realistic and beautiful. Sadly for console owners, we're going have to wait for update 1.4 that will MAYBE fix these issues.
Graphics: CSoundSkyrim definitely had one of the best scores of the year, I always get excited when the main theme plays while I fight a dragon (which happens a lot) and there are a plethora of amazing songs that you'll hear from traveling on the road and each major city.
Insert epic music here
The voice acting is pretty well done. My biggest problem is that the game does use the same voice actors for major and minor NPC's which isn't a problem except they sound exactly the same. And Hearing the guard's use that stupid "arrow in the knee" comment can get annoying to the point of going on a massive killing spree.
While sound effects for actions like banging on a shield or pickpocketing money are all there and are good, but it's the ones for magic and other supernatural abilities that. are amazing. Hearing a dragon's roar from a long distance and hearing it get closer and closer really tenses you for the upcoming fight. It also gets pretty amazing from the sound of their fire breathing, it really sounds like a river of flames when he's spewing it in your face. (see image above)
Sound: A-GameplayIn previous Elder Scroll games you were given the option to pick a class with preset abilities and perks (usually meaning you'd be forced to pick a race that is better suited for that class) Now, you can build up your characters abilities in any way you want. If you want to be an Orc mage, you can be one that's just as effective as a high elf mage would be. How this works is that you level up an ability by actually using that ability, for example if you want to become a better archer you actually have to use your bow and arrow while playing.
When you keep leveling up you abilities you soon eventually level up yourself, giving you the choice to raise your health, magicka or stamina and giving you the choice to purchase a perk. Perks can be purchased to make you more effective in your playstyle and give you extra abilities. For example when you have high level sneak, you can purchase a perk that lets you do a silent roll while crouching, allowing you to move more effectively while in sneak.
Each ability also belongs to a certain class set: Warrior (red), Mage (blue), Thief (green) and you can build you skill trees up in any way and style you want, making it one of the most in depth progression system in any game made today.
Enemy AI is very interesting in this game. While at lower levels you can easily dispatch a random skeever or wolf with your bare fists. But you will run into a lot of enemies that can kill you in one hit even when you start at the game. Since you can travel anywhere at anytime you want you'll run into some higher level enemies while on your journey, but I believe it adds to the emotional bond that grows into you. At the start you'll easily get killed in two hits by a frost troll making you feel helpless, but as you level up and grow stronger you can easily take out that troll along with his buddy just by shouting them off a cliff (a very hilarious and satisfying kill I should mention) giving you real sense of accomplishment as a player, overcoming an obstacle you couldn't have before.
Lift off in 3...2...1...
Which leads me to my next subject, Dragons. One of the main focal and selling points of this game was the introduction of Dragons. These giant monsters will be the ultimate test of a players skills and abilities. Killing your first will be one of your fondest memories while playing this game.
And the best part of killing one will be the payoff, not only do you get a good chunk of gold and their scales and bones that can be sold for high prices and used to make armor later on in the game, but you also get to absorb its very soul. As the dragonborn, you can absorb the soul of a dragon and use it to unlock powerful magic known as shouts. Shout's are the strongest of a dragons magic and all have a unique power from, fire breath, summoning a storm and even a whisper to see the auras of your enemies (perfect for sneak attacks).
However, I do have to bring up how many bugs this game has. Some of them can be minor like your horse flying away like a rocket when you climb up a steep mountain.
Horses also don't apply to the laws of physics too...
But the worst glitches are the ones that can cause your game to crash and ones that doesn't trigger a quest dialogue option or even make a quest driven item not appear. Which means you can no longer finish that quest if you don't reload from an earlier save. I've run into a few of these glitches, and while I've managed to overcome most of them just by backtracking from an earlier save, I am no longer able to finish a quest because an item I needed to retrieve off a vampires body apparently never existed. These tend to happen a lot and could even ruin your experience if you don't have the patience.
Don't believe me? This video will show all.
Gameplay: B+ReplaySkyrim is long, reeeally long. So long this game could last you for months, and hell, even when the main quest is done, you're not really finished with the game. There are factions to join, caves to explore, shouts to master and many more things to come. It's hard to say that this game has replay value, due to the fact you really cant finish a game like this. Which isn't a bad thing. Even after doing all the things I wanted to accomplish are all done, I'm still finding plenty more to do in the game. And with Bethesda planning on DLC later this year, This game will keep you coming back for more.
Replay: ADespite how massive this game is, with it's deep progression system, radiant stories and never-ending gameplay, there are many shortcomings that should've kept it from being game of the year. Don't get me wrong though, this game is addicting, which can be the redeeming quality of any video game. I've known many people who put their social lives on hold just to play this game for hours on end. So if you're looking for a game that's worth your money, has no annoying kids mic spamming in your ear and is guaranteed to last you a long time, Skyrim is a great choice for you.
Final Score: B+
