I have a friend a few years my elder who used to love becoming completely engrossed in RPGs. From Zelda to Landstalker and whatever he could find in between, he was there. But with time comes age, and with age come, well, kids. When Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind was released, he wanted so badly to get lost in the fields of Vvardenfell. But with a wife, a newborn, and a job that required lots of travel, he quickly abandoned it. There was just too much to do, he said, and it took too long to see results.
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is his game. Skyrim is for the gamer who wants to hole up for the winter and drown in hundreds of hours of spellcasting and blacksmithing, there’s no doubt. But it’s also streamlined enough for the pick-up-and-play, hey-honey-don’t-put-that-in-your-mouth crowd that longs for a vast landscape that can be consumed one small portion at a time. In this sense, and in so many more, Skyrim is unequivocally a crowning achievement.
As, well, as some person from some place depending on what kind of character you choose to be, you begin your journey in the back of a horse-drawn cart on your way to the chopping block. Considering that this isn’t about your quest through the afterlife, you can safely assume that things don’t go quite as the Imperials plan, and you end up free and out in the wilderness. From there, how things unfold is completely up to you. There’s a huge, densely packed world for you to explore, and it isn’t hyperbolic to say that most people will never see it all.
If you’re an Elder Scrolls veteran, you’ll quickly find yourself right at home. Grab a sword and shield, a bow, a few spells and whatever else you want and get to it. The more you use it, the better it gets, so if you want to be a professional swashbuckler, you’d better start slashing. What has changed, and it’s definitely for the better, is the leveling system. Instead of the quirky major/minor system, now when you level, you get a stat point to put into health, mana or stamina and a point to increase any of your skills, which range from increasing your base damage with axes to unlocking the ability to craft better armor.
It’s fair to say that the customizable systems of old have been replaced with ones that are less open but significantly easier to follow. Sure, you can’t create your own spells, but the weapon and armor crafting, alchemy and enchantment systems have much more clear-cut goals and progress markers to follow. It’s easily exploitable, but would you have an Elder Scrolls game any other way?
But that’s not what your focus should be on anyway. The real reason Elder Scrolls games are so popular, the reason you’re going to neglect major responsibilities to dump hundreds of hours into traversing Skyrim, is the pure adventuring. Wherever you go, there are wondrous sights to see. Over every mountaintop is a majestic landscape teeming with opportunity. Every city is painstakingly crafted, and you’ll be amazed at what you’ll find when you take your time, soak in the scenery, and just experience being an adventurer in the world of Skyrim.
Oh yeah, and there’s dragons. Big, scary, element-breathing flying beasts of doom that want you dead. Well, most of the time. Exploring is so much fun, sometimes all a dragon wants to do is a little care-free soaring. And can you blame him? Sure, Skyrim isn’t the best looking game of the year, but it’s so well designed, and the architect is so, well, just so interesting, that you can’t help but be fascinated and wowed by pretty much everything.
Quests that seem like brief jaunts suddenly turn into deadly expeditions deep into the earth. And then there’s the usual slew of guilds to join and take over, items to craft, maidens to save and, oh yeah, an actual story to follow, if you can manage to stay on track. Which you should, at least for a bit, because you’ll uncover all sorts of neat toys.
And the music! The music! Just sitting at the title screen will get you pumped up. The sweeping melodies will transport you, and the voice acting is just good enough to not make you drift back. And that’s not a backhanded compliment. With so much voice acting to be done, it’s a wonder it’s not a complete mess. To have it be even somewhat acceptable seems like a minor miracle.
Yeah.
But of course there are things to nitpick at, starting with the subject we just covered. Yes, apparently a lot of town guards ended their adventuring careers with an arrow to the knee, and word of your deeds reaches them with astonishing speed. And OK, sure, the entire game being built on a bed of seemingly infinite triggers leads can lead to hilarious/maddening bugs and character models that don’t interact with their environments all that naturally, but that’s the trade you make for a vast world such as this.
Technical problems are bound to crop up in such an ambitious undertaking, and it should be noted that the current problems plaguing the PS3 version are unacceptable. The problems with large save files hurt the game’s longevity on the platform, and if it’s not fixed resolved in the next patch as promised, the PS3 version should be the furthest thing from your purchasing mind.
And OK, the user interface is obviously built with a controller in mind and is often stunningly obtuse with a keyboard and mouse, and sometimes it just plain doesn’t work. Thankfully, the modding community has taken measures to remedy this, and if you’re playing on PC, you should be modding your game anyway; it’s half the fun. If something simple like custom shaders, which were used in the screenshots you see in this review, can make a world of difference.
But all of my words here are empty and meaningless. If need help in deciding whether or not to take the plunge, just ask my tired old friend. The look on his face when held up that game box on Christmas day clearly said, “My children will be OK without a father for a few months, right?” No, they won’t, but don’t tell him that; he’s already too far gone, and he couldn’t be happier.
