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deL's Game Review: Skyrim
 

I will open by saying that in general I am not a fan of playing games. Sure I love to get involved in the competitive aspect and this can be seen in my choice of games over the years such as Guild Wars with it's competitive PvP aspect and of course the Blizzard RTS games. My passion lies with management or following teams, players and leagues rather than getting good at a game myself. It is a rare exception where I find myself thoroughly enjoying playing a game. Skyrim was one of the few times I genuinely wanted to keep playing, and being such a significant event I thought I'd express why I found it so enjoyable in a format I have never attempted before, a game review.

My history with the Elder Scrolls series is brief. Before playing Skyrim I knew of Morrowind and Daggerfall, and heard good things about them but never had the patience to play it myself - I generally avoided single player games. Oblivion was an exception as I found it on sale with the two expansions, but it really never caught me and I didn't really like it enough to continue much past the lower levels. I now know that the Elder Scrolls series has a rich history of Role-playing, open games ranging from Arena with randomly generated terrain, through the action focus of Redguard spanning 1994 to now.

Overview
So on to the review itself. I'd like to cover the various aspects from plot to graphics but I'd rather focus on why I enjoyed this game from the perspective of someone who rarely enjoys playing a single-player game. Having seen the graphics and much of the gameplay through streams like Trump and Day[9] I had a fair idea of what to expect in terms of controlling my character without spoiling too much of the plot. While the graphics of this game are much priased, and deservingly so, that is not really something that jumps out at you right away. As the game opens you are a captive criminal without any idea why in typical TES fashion, but rather than breathtaking scenery you get your simple wagon heading to the gallows with some Skyrim native criminals. Instead, the immersion begins early, as controls are quite restrictive early on (as makes sense with bound hands) but you find yourself listening intently to the conversation with your fellow ne'er-do-wells and getting a feel for what is going on in the country and the feelings of the people. Character creation was also improved over Oblivion - similar functions but your characters just look a lot better.


Shortly after the action begins and I will try to avoid spoilers but the process of escaping the crumbling city does a reasonable job of teaching you the ropes, especially if you have played Oblivion or other first-person games. One thing I didn't like at this point was how long the tutorial went and, later, the fact that you must go through it with each new character.

The Cities
Shortly after the tutorial you will soon find yourself in the first town or city. I say shortly, but really the game lends itself to the obsessive compulsive as I found myself frolicking through fields with my muscled tiger-man picking wild mountain flowers quite. Now the graphics came to the fore, as the scenery even in this simple valley walk to the first small town was alive and you really feel like a part of the world. I entered the first town, bags brimming to overflow with various posies, and met my first non-scripted ("radiant"?) NPCs. It was worth noting at this point that the voice acting, character detail and behaviour, facial expressions and dialogue options are much improved over Oblivion and do much to raise the immersion level of the game.


The cities are an absolute joy to explore. While some don't feel as big as in previous titles or as epic and populated as some areas in other games they more than make up for in character and charm. From the seedy underworld found in Riften, through the Dwarven influenced architecture of Markarth to the grandness of solitude I spent many of my first hours in the game simply exploring the cities and talking to as many of their inhabitants as possible. The atmosphere for most of the towns is spot on and they feel a lot more organic than those in many other RPGs which can feel basically like a noticeboard for side quests and loot dumps. Instead, no NPCs feel useless and they do their best to keep them in character - you will find a merchant in a less well off area of town has more random items for sale as if they sell what they can in desperation, while others have very structured items for sale that are obviously relevant to other items they sell.

The Landscapes
Woth a brief paragraph mention are the landscapes and outdoor scenes in Skyrim. While many of the encounters lack the personality found in the cities the atmosphere is there in spades. The variability of the terrain and the dynamic weather really add to this and all of the landscapes are well realised, from the snowy and rugged peaks of the mountains to the dusty dungeons and crypts. I found myself exploring for most of the start of the game rather than completing quests and I don't doubt I am alone in this.

The Quests
As I understand, the main feature for the AI was the so-called Radiant AI where quests and interactions with NPCs vary a little depending on your previous quests and choices. It would require a second playthrough to fully appreciate, but from what I have experienced of it it's a lot of fun and does make a significant difference for some of the larger quests. It was more telling than in previous titles and many other RPGs I've played.

The levelling feature as introduced in Oblivion (to my knowledge) has thankfully been changed. Some areas, items or opponents are roughly levelled while some are a set level, or the level is set when you first enter the zone again encouraging exploration. The levelled areas aren't so tedious as in Oblivion where you die in a couple shots, but they do mean you can't rambo in both axes swinging and hope to come out alive.


The quests themselves are mostly great. There are very few collect X item quests and when they are, you don't go and grind them out from one place. Rather, you come across them in suitable and realistic places (nirnroot near swamps, gems in crypts and mines, etc.) and end up completing them over the course of 3 or 4 other quests just by exploring. This takes a lot of the tedium away from quest-focussed games and you really feel like you are in control and are not being forced to do anything. There are quite a few postman quests but in general they tell interesting stories about the characters and they are simple with the use of quick travel, plus encourage you to do a lot of exploring which really pays off. Of course they are not perfect and some of the crypt or cave clearing quests can get a little similar but it's a big improvement on what my impression of a quest was in an RPG.

My personal favourite quests are those involving the Daedra, as I love their characters. So evil and they almost always involve some kind of trickery or backstabbing where you can choose to kill your companion for personal gain. The items you get are well worth the sometimes longer quest lengths and it made me want to look up more about the Elder Scrolls lore outside of the game. I didn't role play much in that my hero just does any and every quest and will use the best gear available, but in regames I will consider theming my character to see if there's reward to be had there.

One disappointment was the odd difficulty of the game. There's not too much penalty for death and I found myself dying quite easily early on but once you can craft some nice armour and afford a bunch of potions you rarely have any trouble even encountering levelled opponents. After this the game feels mostly easy (though this is on default difficulty "Adept", and I may have to revisit at a higher difficulty level) and with plenty of loot I was pretty rich in no time, before level 30.

Combat and Magic
I can't remember how the magic worked in Oblivion, but it feels a lot stronger and simpler in this game. While switching between various spell, weapon and armour sets is annoying and takes some getting used to the fact that the game pauses while you do so really makes it a moot point. Item improvement and enchanting creates some interesting diversions from quests and gives you enough goals outside of the in-game achievements to keep you occupied. The combat is intricate enough but still simple, with options to dual wield for extra damage at the expense of block, use two handed weapons to deal massive hits that are easy to dodge and the use of bows (underpowered until you get perks later on. Magic isn't so much its own category (Mage) now, you can easily wield a sword in one hand and shoot bolts of potent lightning with the other or be more of a paladin with knight's weaponry and armour while using your offhand for protection and healing spells. This adds a lot to the personalisation and I always hated choosing a race or your typical 'warrior, rogue, mage' archetypes in other RPG games as you often felt you made the wrong choice and can't do anything about it. It's quite easy to switch your major focus in Skyrim and I think most people should appreciate that.


One downside is the lack of variety in spells and weapons compared to similar games. The number of total spells is lacking and the number of weapon and armour varieties is also quite low. This also means that if you want the top level gear you're going to have to settle for how Daedric items look and this could ruin the role-playing aspect for some people. If you want a 'Good' themed knight and he has to wear demonic looking armour to compete with the tougher opponents it's going to spoil the theme.

Music
Usually I use my own music in a game or turn it off in order to focus or talk on teamspeak but Skyrim was a game where I preferred to play with the sounds as they are meant to be. Aside from the obvious requirement to hear important dialogue, the soundtracks reminded me a lot of Guild Wars which was another game I thoroughly enjoyed the music. It is yet another thing that adds to the epic atmosphere and can define a situation in the game as tense, action-packed or relaxing.


Hope you enjoyed my attempt at a review, feel free to comment on anything I'm happy to talk about all things Skyrim! n_n Apologies in advance for not proof-reading this, it might be a bit all over the place.