Review: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Bethesda's Finest

        It's rare for a game to come around that players can spend over one-hundred hours playing without completing the main quest. Whenever a new Elder Scrolls game is released, people can be sure that they are going to spend months, if not years, exploring the vast world created by Bethesda and leveling up their characters to ridiculous degrees. With Skyrim, players can expect everything they love from the series along with tons of new additions that make this the best game in the series.

        Skyrim is set two-hundred years after the events of Oblivion in the land of the Nords, appropriately named Skyrim. The Empire has fallen on tough times since the end of the Septim line of emperors. It's been divided due to war and now another war has broken out. The Nords are fighting the Imperials in a civil war that has resurrected the ancient dragons who have come to bring about the end of the world. 

        After escaping a village from an attack by the head dragon, you're tasked with following through with the main quest, or you can forget about that and just do whatever you want. It is to no surprise to anyone that the land of Skyrim offers limitless opportunity to explore it's massive mountains and deep ruins. The game allows you to discovers ancient tombs and modern cities so that you become immersed in the world and its history. These are the kind of things that Bethesda is best at in terms of game design. 

        The other things that Bethesda is fantastic at are combat and progression. Fights with enemies feel more real and enjoyable than ever. Enemies will collapse when their health is low, allowing for the final strike. The stagger of your character is better felt when the ground shakes or when attacked with power attacks. There are also special finishing moves that can be triggered under the right circumstances. The addition of dual-wielding allows for more fun and tactful combinations. The player can equip whatever he chooses whether it be two swords, a sword and shield, two spells, or a sword and a spell. 

         Dual-casting the same spell can add greater effect to the spell or dual-casing two different spells can offer an advantage to more enemies. The spells themselves are cast differently this time around. For example, fire spells can range from a flamethrower-like effect to exploding fire balls to a huge area-effect explosion. There is much more variety when it comes to combat.

        The newest addition to combat are the dragon shouts. These magic words can be learned by finding special walls in Skyrim, and when they are spoken they create all kinds of different effects on the environment. Some are merely super charged versions of destruction spells such as fire breathing while others are more elaborate like slowing down time and calling in a thunderstorm. The dragon shouts really offer an advantage against opponents an help change the tide of battle when in a jam without feeling overpowering. 

        Level progression in Skyrim offers way more freedom. There are no fixed classes and there are no special skills that need to be improved in order to gain levels. Instead, the player can work on the skills they want to work on and they will level up regardless. In addition to more freedom, Bethesda takes a cue from Fallout 3's perk system and puts it in the form of a skill tree. Whenever the player gains a level, they unlock a perk within a specified skill.

        Now for the main draw of the game, fighting dragons. They are presented as wandering bosses that fly in during random times to give the player a workout, but the reality of that is a mixed bag. Fighting dragons is tough up to about level twenty, from there, it jumps around. Right now, I'm level forty-one and I find Elder Dragons difficult and find Blood Dragons push-overs, but ten levels earlier I found Blood Dragons to be a bunch of bullies that kept mugging me for my lunch money. There is not a whole lot of strategy involved in killing them, but if one is careless, they could end up as lunch.

        The one problem that keeps Skyrim from absolute perfection, is a problem that has kept every Bethesda rpg from absolute perfection. The game is filled with bugs. Although the bugs are less prevalent than previous games, they are still just as frustrating when they happen. An Argonian's tail stretching out too far after getting caught on the geometry is a minor problem. Game crashes and bugs that prevent quests from being completed are not minor. Right now, there is a dragon that flies around backwards and stalls in mid-air, and if I get too close to him, he begins to freak out and cause the game to slow down significantly. 

        Despite the bugs, Skyrim is a fantastic experience that offers way more than sixty dollars worth of content. I've put in over one-hundred hours into this game and still have not finished the main quest. If you are an rpg fan dying for something to fit your tastes, or if you are tired with all of the military first-person shooters that are all over the place, you will eat this up.

Final Verdict: 9.75/10