Arena, Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion, and now: Skyrim, the newest addition to the Elder Scrolls family. Skyrim is the fifth installment in The Elder Scrolls role-playing game (RPG) series, developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks., and is quite possibly the best game I have laid my eyes upon. After waiting in the cold for hours outside of GameStop, among a few hundred other fans, I finally got my claws on Skyrim at 12:13 am, and put my social life to rest. Like every other Elder Scrolls series, Skyrim demands your full and undivided attention. It’s worth the detrimental effect of your social life, though, because once you step into the work of Skyrim, you won’t want to leave. The sheer size and scope of the game is enough to pull you in, offering hours upon hours of gameplay within a beautifully graphic utopia that can only be the love-child of Bethesda Software.
Starting the game, you find your hands and feet bound together; a prisoner yet again, as with previous Elder Scrolls games. Traveling in the back of a cart, you listen to other prisoners speaking, learning that they are on the way to their own execution for involvement with the Stormcloaks, the group founded by the king’s assassin, Ulfric Stormcloak. What instantly makes this different from the other Elder Scrolls games is the interaction between the player and the non-playable characters (NPCs). The interaction takes place in real time, and unlike in Oblivion where the camera would zoom in on the NPC’s face, it allows the NPC to move around and make body gestures while conversing with the character. The toolset for character animation was developed by Havok Physics software, and for that I thank them fully. The real time reaction improves the game, but this isn’t the only change made within the game.
The change in character development is also a huge aspect of Skyrim. Unlike the previous Elder Scrolls games, the developers completely got rid of the ability to assign major and minor skills, as well as the class system: a system that determined what skills would contribute to the character’s leveling. With the removal of the class system, Skyrim allows the character to develop skills naturally and allows the player to select a skill-specific ability with “perks” gained from leveling up. Unique skill abilities and daily power are instead offered through the selection of character race. Skyrim offers ten playable races with racial abilities and powers, including the Argonian race, which offers the ability of water breathing, and the Khajiit, whom have the power of “Eye of Night”. Each race has the special skills so that the player has the ability to focus on what type of class they would like to excel in, without locking themselves into one.
The game continues on after you have chosen a race, and your head is put on the chopping block. Just as they’re about to chop your head off for being a filthy swine, a DRAGON appears. Yes. A dragon. One of the most exciting new aspects of Skyrim is the inclusion of dragons and the special skills you get from killing one and for being Dragonborn. Each dragon contains a soul, and when you slay a dragon you absorb it, allowing the character to use powerful spells called “dragon shouts”. Dragon shouts are obtained from visiting “dragon walls”, which are within dungeons and also dispersed throughout the expansive world. The dragons are randomly-generated, making them have the infinite ability to attack you, cities, or towns at any given time. The character can fight the dragon through bows, two-handed weapons, or duel-wielding magic/one-handed weapon combos, another new aspect added to the game.
After the dragon appears and destroys the town which you have been captured in, your character is free to roam the expansive world of Skyrim in the nonlinear gameplay tradition. Quests are given from NPCs, but when not completing a quest, the character can do many other things. The character can choose to join a faction/organized group of NPCs, like: The Dark Brotherhood, a band of assassins or The College of Winterhold, a guild of magic users. They can improve their alchemy skills or cooking skills. They can mine for gems or ores in mineral deposits or chop wood for 5 gold a piece. Overall, there’s a variety of activities that makes this game so unique and so much better than its predecessors. The incredible graphics alone should be enough to pull someone in, but the gameplay and side events make it that much better. So say goodbye to your friends, grab a controller or mouse, and join me in the amazing adventure known as Skyrim.