Video Game Review

 The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Developed and Published by: Bethesda Software

Available on: PC, Xbox 360, PS3

Genre: Open-World, Action RPG

ESRB Rating: M for blood and gore, intense violence, sexual themes and use of alcohol.

Synopsis:  Taken place 200 years after the “Oblivion Crisis” of Bethesda’s previous installment, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Skyrim is not a continuation of Oblivion, but instead a new chapter in the Elder Scrolls series. 

    In Skyrim, you awaken on a caravan as a prisoner, mistaken as one of the rebels known as the “Stormcloaks”, you soon discover that a civil war has been raged after the assassination of the High King, by his brother, Ulfric Stormcloak, forcing the Imperials, those who govern Skyrim, and the Stormcloaks, the original Norn settlers of the land, into a brutal war.  After being taken to Helgen to be executed with the rebels, the execution is halted by a dragon, named Alduin.  Upon escaping the burning Helgen, the player has the choice of siding with either the Imperials, or the Stormclocks, a choice that affects the outcome of the story.  After following the main storyline, the player is granted the knowledge that they are the “Dragonborn”, and that the civil war, and arrival of Alduin have been prophesized as the destruction of the world, and that they have been sent by the gods as the only means of stopping Alduin from consuming all that remains. 

Throughout the story, the player meets many essential and unessential NPCs who guide them along their quest.  The player may choose to be benevolent in their action, or malevolent, in the open world gameplay of Skyrim, affecting how the NPCs of the world view and behave towards the player.

Rating System (On a scale of 1 to 10)

Gameplay:

9/10  

    The gameplay of Skyrim is fantastic.  You may chose from playing in third person or first person in an open world setting, and the choices of what you play are entirely limitless.  Want to be a mage?  You can do that.  Want to bash some heads with a massive hammer, while still having the ability to plink them from afar with arrows?  Sure, why not.  Want to sling fireballs with one hand, and hack away with a sword or axe in the other?  No problem!  You can sneak and steal, bash with a pickaxe, pick pockets, destroy locks, destroy lives, help build them up again, get insanely drunk, marry a drunk, and run around half naked in the snow, punching bears in the face.  I wouldn’t be writing it if I was exaggerating.  

Onto the more important portion however, the game is extremely diverse.  It prides itself in not limiting you in the choices you make, and doesn’t punish you for making a decision you may later want to change, in regards to how you play the game.  The combat system keeps itself diverse.  Some areas you may find it simple to run through, without fret, whereas other areas may simply be too difficult for your level.  However as you progress and gain levels, you can always return to unfinished business to clear an area up with ease, as the difficulty of previously found dungeons do not scale difficulty with level, as previous Oblivion games had.  This creates gameplay that challenges and rewards you for your achievements, without ever making the game too simplistic, or too difficult.  Every combat skill contains its own skill tree, that can be improved with “perks” to assist, and reward you for training certain aspects.  Smaller aspects of the game, such as lockpicking, pickpocketing, smelting, forging, and speechcraft, all have skill trees as well, with their own beneficial perks that often also affects larger aspects of the game play.   

The game is however, not without its issues.  Bethesda has made itself famous for its hilarious glitches and bugs, from catapulting across the map from jumping on the back of a dragon, to the more unnerving, misplaced mannequins that I found stuck to a ceiling and staring at a woodcutter’s axe.  There are some odd choices made that are bothersome as well, such as the inability to switch to first person mode while playing as a werewolf, and riding a horse, as well as having arrows shoot a few ticks about the crosshair, but these are more trivial annoyances, that don’t make the gameplay impossible by any means.

Graphics:

10/10

    The graphics in Skyrim are acclaimed as amongst the greatest yet.  Bethesda has managed to force out an engine powerful enough to deliver dynamic graphics, incomparable to many other games, even on low settings.  The character design is refined, and the landscape is full of lush foliage, stock full of particle effects depending on the area, such as snow, steam, sulphur  gases, and fog.  Caves are exquisitely delicate with detail, especially in areas such as Dwemer ruins, which commonly merge into Falmer territory, the two of which clash techmagery with nature, creating a spectacular scene of caves riddled with golden metals, steam, fungi, and particles of spores and fog throughout the air.  Occasionally, textures are broken in certain places, but this is a rare occurrence that encompasses almost any game you play, regardless of developer or platform.

User Interface:

7/10

 

    Truly the only debilitating issue presented with Skyrim is its choice in sacrificing the traditional keyboard and mouse interface for one that appeals to console gamers.  Keybindings, an aspect of PC gaming that allows the aspect of freedom that differentiates itself from console gaming, has been next to entirely abolished in favour of a console layout.  One must now pause the game, and navigate through lengthy menus to reach one specific item, equipt it, play, and repeat the process upon their desire to possibly switch to a different weapon.  Being as Skyrim is largely based upon fast-paced gameplay, it would be a desirable, if not logical, choice to allow console players to switch between items using the traditional 1-8 keys, each with a specific binding, as to avoid unnecessary delays in action, and lengthy navigation to complete dull the excitement of a situation.  It is irritating, debilitating, if not insulting in the choice to port console interface onto a PC, ignoring the vast flexibility and capabilities that the keyboard and mouse offer.  Ignoring such, however, in the navigational menu, aspects of the game such as magic and potions are all properly labeled, and can be “favourited” to open into a quick menu that may be opened during gameplay.

Audio:

10/10

    With a soundtrack composed by Jeremy Soul, familiar pieces from previous games have been ported, and remastered for Skyrim, including the composing of brand new tracks.  The nostalgic aspect of previous tracks is a welcome aspect, and the all tracks have been properly coded to play in moments that most fit it.  A battle is easily make more intense by the addition of music, and Skyrim successfully achieves this and gets your adrenaline rushing.  Moments of calm, admiring the snowy landscape of the fantastically composed flora and fauna, are accompanied by tracks of ambiance, and the entirety of audio composition is flawless.

Storyline and Content:

10/10

    Skyrim is a game packed full of content and storyline.  With the ability to delay the main quest indefinitely, you soon find yourself discovering caves, ruins, mines, forest clearings, small huts, towns, mills, the list is endless.  Given a compass with minute markers, the curiosity that each one piques is unfathomable.  On the way to finishing a side quest, you may find yourself in ten others before you finally reach your goal of finishing the first one.   The story line is simple, there is a great threat, and the player is the only one who is capable of saving the world from imminent destruction.  It compensates, however, for putting interesting back story into even the smallest aspects of the game.  Every cave or ruin that you explore often contains a journal that hints towards those who have explore it before you, and the deep history imbued in how the area came to be.