The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)-$59.99/$49.99
Bethesda Softworks
Bethesda Game Studios
November 11th, 2011
What it is:
The long awaited fifth entry in the highly praised Elder Scrolls series, Skyrim has unleashed itself upon the masses and ushered forth not only a brand new engine, but almost everything Bethesda Game Studios has learned in the time that has surpassed since Oblivion and Fallout 3. Oblivion and Skyrim, interestingly enough, appear diametrically opposed when contrasted head to head. The former was at the forefront of new console technology as it was one of the first games to welcome Xbox 360 hardware development, and is often remembered for being the game that forced Microsoft to increase the default system RAM for the console due to Oblivion's requirements. The latter, in comparison, exists within a completely different realm in regards to the current console's lifecycle, as developers and enthusiasts continue to plead with hardware manufacturers for new hardware due to the strains and limitations that arise with each passing day. Not to be denied, Skyrim finds itself releasing during a time in which it is hard to deny that the current consoles are currently on their last legs, as we look onward to the coming years and the inevitable new toys with which we will all collectively tinker. To admit this fact shall be considered nothing more than sheer honesty, but the real question to be asked is this: does it even matter? Could a detail such as this ultimately affect the overall scale, scope, and quality of such an important title? In the end, Skyrim not only provides immense scale, scope, and quality, amongst other glowing characteristics, but laughs in the face of being questioned by anyone or anything, outright, period.
The Experience:
My history with the Elder Scrolls franchise doesn't travel as deep as some of the series' diehard fans, truth be told, although I have dedicated some unhealthy amounts of time getting lost in its lore in recent memory despite this. I never touched the first two titles, Arena and Daggerfall, and other than a few painful hours with the less than desirable Xbox port of Morrowind, most of my experience with the franchise lies within the land of Cyrodiil in the aforementioned 4th game in the series, 2006's Oblivion. I didn't delve into said title until recently, within the last year in fact, but it was my love and adoration for Fallout 3 that enabled me to appreciate its beauty. Carrying over the same menu, UI, and basic presentation and mechanical systems, Fallout 3 trained me in order to go back to the previous title in which it drew a lot of its design inspiration. No, it's not as brutal and visceral, and no you don't have guns at your disposal, but other than the lengthy load times, terrible character models, and overall par for the course open world jank, I found myself utterly swept away by Oblivion, and before I knew it I had sunk over 100 hours into what Tamriel had to offer, completing every quest, faction requirement, and unlocking every achievement in both the main game, and its expansion sized DLC offering, Shivering Isles. I'm not typically a fantasy kind of guy, especially the high fantasy, King Arthur/Renaissance Fair style pursuits that generally define Oblivion, but it was my familiarity with the mechanics of Bethesda games that kept me in the experience. This, combined with the fact that it doesn't matter where you travel when the developer at the helm is the utmost best at crafting a world worth exploring and becoming lost within, ensured that I saw all threads resolved to their conclusion in Oblivion and would most assuredly be anticipating Skyrim's release with intense fervor.
Now that it is upon us, I can safely say that Skyrim is astoundingly amazing. First things first, the new Creation engine that Bethesda has delivered for this title improves its quality by leaps and bounds. As great as the previous games were, they all ran using the Gamebryo engine that Bethesda had been licensing all this time, and it was susceptible to various bugs, glitches, and the biggest culprit, locking up consoles. I can't speak for the PC crowd, since the little of Fallout 3 I've played on PC was using a laptop not very capable spec wise to run it to begin with, but on consoles at least the Gamebryo engine was bittersweet from the start. Very much capable of making sure you enjoyed the incredible aspects of the games, it also made it incredibly frustrating due to how it would, for lack of a better term, just break. Fallout: New Vegas served as that engine's last stand, a title that I personally was able to enjoy, but I can't fault those who got tired of the bugs and hard freezes. The Creation engine rectifies this, for the most part. It churns out graphics, even on consoles, that in this day and age are seemingly unparalleled, especially considering this is a massive, open world game we're talking about. Not only does it stream textures dynamically during real time to heighten aspects such as resolution quality and draw distance, but it features less of the pop-in that plagued a lot of my travels across the Wasteland in the Fallout games. Environmentally, it is a spectacle to behold. I've never been absolutely consumed by a game and its atmosphere quite like I've found myself while traipsing across the world of Skyrim. The water in the game is so realistic that it's difficult to avoid just stopping to stare, whether it's the realistic manner in which it moves and flows, or the immense realism provided by the lighting and how sunlight is reflected off of the water's surface. You'll see streams, waterfalls, and large bodies of water closer to oceanic classification, but it doesn't matter which case you're experiencing; you can't deny how impressive it all looks. From what I've gathered, the PC version has definite improvements to lighting and frame rate, given the ability to play on high settings, and some elements such as weapons and character models have higher polygon counts, but by all accounts you shouldn't think the console versions are in any way gimped. I think it's one of the rare games that actually slims the margin as to how far the PC/console versions end up comparing, because playing Skyrim in widescreen 1080p looks so gorgeous, I'm too satisfied with it to ponder how I could make it look better, even if technically I could. It also helps that no matter what platform you play it on, Skyrim is unquestionably designed to work best with a controller as the means of input, hands down.
I could spend days just talking about the visual qualities achieved in Skyrim, but I can't stress it enough before I move on. Not only do the environments look crisp and really pop off of the screen with their high resolutions, but they're varied and contain some of the most incredible real time and dynamic weather systems that I've ever seen, period. You'll see lands of thick, green hued wooded areas of foliage and forestry, mountain tops thousands of feet into the atmosphere that feature amazingly realistic and impromptu snowstorms that recreate low visibility and white out conditions (something I don't think I've ever experienced in a game, to this degree at least), beautiful nighttime scenery with full view of the stars, constellations, and gorgeous color variations that paint the sky in such stunning ways that it doesn't matter what time of day or night it happens to be, it will look awesome. The way in which they mix the moon, stars, and clouds, how fog and mist appears out of thin air depending on your movements while travelling, and how fog and mist will dynamically move through the air along with the ever shifting clouds, I found myself simply awestruck most of the time I was just exploring the world moment to moment. It's one thing to create an interesting world in a video game that is fun to explore and aimlessly pursue, but when it looks this good and this realistic and beautiful to boot, it's difficult to even put into words and compare to anything else, really. It reminds me of the concept of the uncanny valley, only in reverse if that makes any sense. Normally associated with character models so realistic that they threaten to disturb the user (exemplified for some in the case of Heavy Rain), part of me relates this concept to the actual world in Skyrim. It's so visually impressive and almost just like wandering across an environment in real life, that it makes you shake your head in bewilderment sometimes as you're constantly having to remind yourself that this is, in fact, still a video game, as you take a time out to face Giants that are herding mammoths, and to shoot your firebolt spells at attacking dragons. Yes, there are dragons.
I guess I should take the opportunity I've created for myself and talk about the story, since we're at the point of mentioning dragons. The majority of this game just needs to be experienced, if you're even remotely going to enjoy it, so I don't want to do anyone the disservice of spoiling it here. In order to summarize the basics, all that needs to be said is that you play the role of the Dragonborn. This means that you have dragon blood within your own, and you have ties to the once thought to be mystical race of creatures that have long since disappeared from the world of Tamriel, forgotten and no longer worth discussing. But guess what, people? For some unexplained reason, they're back, and they're doing what dragons tend to do...killing, destroying, and generally creating chaos and destruction. That's where you come in, since the main characteristic of being a Dragonborn involves your ability to speak in Shouts, the native tongue of said dragons, which also happens to grant you immense powers and abilities. If this doesn't sound awesome, you shouldn't even be reading this review, frankly.
Again, in order to keep this brief, you'll feel right at home if you've played any of the other recent Bethesda games. Much like escaping the prison in Oblivion and the vault in Fallout 3, Skyrim opens with your character in a current state of captivity, only to be thrust into a tumultuous affair that requires, you guessed it, escaping. I don't want to say any more than that, because it's pretty awesome just to witness it. Basically, it's not long before you have the entire land of Skyrim at your disposal, as it takes 10 minutes or so before you have freedom and complete reign to go wherever you choose, and do whatever the hell your little heart desires. Before any of this occurs, you are granted the time to create your custom character, and most of this revolves around cosmetic features. It's similar to previous games, only it looks a lot better due to the enhanced improvements offered by the new engine. There's no class choice of any sort, and even though the options in the customization menu are absolutely robust and staggering, the level of choice here as far as deeper meaning is kept relatively simple. The only thing you're choosing this early on, to start out, other than your character's appearance such as their gender and hairstyle is the race in which they will inhabit. There's many to choose from, with most of the familiar races such as Argonian lizard guys and stealthy Khajiit cat people returning, as well as the obligatory elf races and the closest thing to standard human warriors in the world, such as the Redguards, Imperials, or in my case, the Nords. I rocked the Nord dude from the trailers and art that promoted the game, and it's pretty cool how closely you can recreate him, and pretty easily in addition.
It's also not long after this that Bethesda introduces another one of their most respectable game characteristics they have earned acclaim for mastering: choice. At the time of your first choice, during the first few minutes of the game, it may not seem strikingly obvious as far as the weight the choice carries with it, but after playing far enough into the game and reflecting, it may actually be a pretty huge choice in the long run, and one that could have you deciding upon multiple playthroughs to get the different routes opened up, or more in line with your own personal beliefs as far as your character is concerned. For me, it was a choice that has perplexed me from the start, but not in a bad way. This stems from the vast amount of political and religious themes that are completely coated throughout Skyrim's roughly 8 hour main quest, and no doubt carried over across all of the side quests and miscellaneous content that is strewn throughout the total package. Bottom line, this is Bethesda's best main quest story to date, and the writing is spectacular as always and the voice acting is improved along with it. They touted a much more diverse cast of voice actors prior to the game releasing, and I can confirm that they have fixed this. I may have heard a repeating voice a few times here and there, but it's nowhere near the level of problematic it was in the previous games, particularly Oblivion which seemingly had 6 total voice actors. They did a great job, and it exponentially increases the immersion factor of the game.
As disjointed as the main quest in Oblivion was, and as overly simplistic and brief as the main quest was in Fallout 3, Skyrim's is actually so far removed from how the stories in those games felt that it actually resembles something closer to other contemporary games that actually excel in storytelling and aren't open world. Granted, it's still not very long since games such as these are meant to be played for 100's of hours and in no specific order of events, but even after over 30 hours of playtime before I finished the main quest, I still found it to be completely satisfying and it carried more weight than games of the past. I was able to stick with it for awhile, do some side objectives and exploring, and always come back to it in a seamless manner that it just really resonated with me even according to my very specific style of playing through such a massive game as this surely is. Your style and approach will almost certainly differ from my own, and even if it's not the complete opposite it's difficult for two people to play the exact same way, do the same things, and see the same sights, and even in the case of those things, it will absolutely always occur in a chronologically separate order. This is what I love about Bethesda's games, and how there is a fiction to absorb, a canon to pursue and invest within, but it is always at your own pace and you point the compass wherever you see fit. I may not stumble upon the same things as you within your game world and playthrough, and vice versa, but it doesn't matter as half the fun is in sharing those stories and always having something fun we can exploit or seek out. They manage to keep all of this under the same overarching ceiling or roof of fiction, if you will, in a way that is so balanced and just makes sense, especially when compared to previous games. I'd actually suggest playing through the main quest first and foremost, since some of the powers and weapons that you acquire for doing so are pretty badass and beneficial that they are almost guaranteed to help you in future scenarios of exploration and discovering what you have left in the world, which is absolutely going to be A LOT.
Skyrim is seemingly endless. The game director himself, Todd Howard, publicly stated in an interview that the game is built to be never ending, and I don't think he was kidding. Part of this is simply due to the team at Bethesda dedicating so much time and work into crafting a dense, content filled world, but the other half of it is due to the game's unique implementation of radiant AI technology. What this means is that the game will dynamically create quests and tasks for the player to pursue on the fly, according to their particular play style and decisions and behavior exhibited within their personal game. Thinking about something like this is one of those things that almost surely makes the average gamer think "how cool!" in their own head, but after 35 hours with the game and witnessing it myself, I can't begin to describe how awesome it is. The fact that the more and more I learn and switch up my style of playing Skyrim, the more that it will add content that is pre-programmed to respond to given scenarios, is unfathomably incredible and such a step forward for modern, and even future, game design. This enables the game to almost, like Todd said, never run out of content, because radiant quests such as these are not designated specifically by the developers. Instead, there are constants that are programmed to be in play, but the variables are things that are dependent upon the player, and no two players are going to receive this content in the same manner. It reminds me of the looting system and the "millions of guns" ideas explored by Gearbox in Borderlands, only in Skyrim we're talking about entire story driven quest lines and not just stats on individual weapons.
Speaking of weapons, and how you actually play the game, where do I even start? Players will undoubtedly remember that the sword play in Oblivion was a tad bit janky to be considered enjoyable, and the shooting in the Fallout games was never its strong suit, instead relying on the VATS system to increase the quality and enjoyment of its combat. Skyrim improves this in almost every way possible. Since there are no guns in the game you're obviously not going to have a VATS system at your disposal, but what the game does do is polish up the combat, which is simple and mapped to the triggers on the gamepad, and completely overhauls the magic system in a way that makes it far more intuitive, and fun to actually use. I found myself not really bothering with the magic and potions in Oblivion, even though it was sort of designed to be crucial at some point; I managed to cheat it in some ways. Skyrim simply allows you to learn spells either by purchasing them or finding them in the world via looting or as quest rewards, and hitting a button automatically allows you to learn the spell in question. These range from the standard fire, frost, and lighting spells in the school of Destruction, but the robust levels and depth of options to this style of combat are absolutely overwhelming. It further evolves into at least half a dozen other categories, such as Restoration that provides the player with another option other than potions to heal themselves and others, Conjuration, which can enable the spawning of creatures from the world to fight in defense of the player at will (as well as reviving the dead to fight for you in zombie form), and Alteration, which transforms parts of the environment to suit your needs in battle, enabling you to do things such as creating barriers that will inflict damage upon any enemies that dare to cross their given thresholds. The best part about all of this is the fact that combat just feels satisfying. The blunt force and impact of connecting with an enemy with your melee weapon is incredibly tactile and really carries the combat system a long way so that you never get bored and actually feel like there's some strategy to implement as opposed to mindlessly spamming the attack button. Shields also act as another viable way to approach combat, with elements of blocking, parrying, and countering becoming relative to the overall sense of defending oneself. The more that you level up these categories within their respective constellations, the more powerful you will enhance them and the more possibilities they will unlock and exhibit. Oh, what are constellations, you ask? I guess I forgot to describe the leveling system...*deep breath*
*Exhale* Okay, so for starters, the leveling system in Skyrim is done in such a user friendly way that it's one of the most impressive features of the game, bar none. Not only is it more accessible compared to the games that came before it, it just makes more sense and rewards the player no matter what the scenario or particular character they are utilizing in battle. To reiterate, the game simply requires the player to choose a race for their character to start, and from there Skyrim allows one to explore and progress through its vast world using whatever means and tactics one may so desire. There is leveling that occurs progressively over time, but not in a way similar to other games where "XP" is earned. There are less numbers and increments involved with how leveling up in Skyrim functions, and for this I commend it because it's a breath of fresh air and an utter delight to see an RPG allow so much freedom in specifically leveling a character according to the user's particular play style. Basically, anything that one does in Skyrim "levels" the character in question, whether it's using a sword and shield to kill an enemy, equipping spells to perform given tasks, blocking with a shield, killing a long ranged foe using a bow and arrow to enhance your archery, persuading someone during conversation to increase one's speech, etc. Anything you do in Skyrim levels up your overall character, and I've heard reports of the game having a current level cap of about 80, although this is not necessarily confirmed as of this writing. Obviously you have to play A LOT of Skyrim, but that's not important at the current time. By increasing these overall levels, you're also increasing your individual skills, which like I said range from the different schools of magic like Destruction and Restoration, to combat skills like One handed, two handed, shield, archery, light and heavy armor, etc. You also have the miscellaneous skills like sneaking and lock picking for more stealth oriented characters, speech, alchemy, smithing, enchanting, etc. These all level to a total of 100 each, and trust me, you're not going to max them all out in one playthrough. Every time your overall level increases, by simply playing the game and leveling up these various skills, you earn one perk to dedicate to any particular skill tree that you desire, as well as increasing one of your three main attributes one level. These include Magicka, Health, and Stamina, which of course are constantly balanced moment to moment throughout the whole game, and Skyrim makes it so that you have no choice but to increase these one by one every time you level up, which is definitely a smart way to design it and ensure that the game remains balanced for all players. The skill trees themselves are so robust and it's a drastic time sink merely contemplating what type of character you may want to play, and you'll even change your mind on the fly while you're playing the game. The possibilities are endless, and I can't stress this enough. From increasing maximum damage to melee damage, having quieter footsteps while sneaking, having certain spells using up less Magicka, or the current one I'm pursuing, a chance to decapitate enemies while using one handed weapons! It's ridiculous how many options and routes for advancing the gameplay exist within the core infrastructure of Skyrim, and it's one of the most complex (in a good way), smartly designed, and intricately crafted RPG systems I've ever seen.
This is all in addition to the game's unique set of abilities that pertain to the Dragonborn aspect of your character's heritage. Since you have the Dragon blood coursing throughout your own, you are able to interpret the Voice, which is how the races within Skyrim refer to the Dragon Tongue, or their specific language. Not only can you interpret it and speak it, but you can also utilize the shouts that you stumble upon throughout the locations in the game and then gain the ability to incorporate them into your arsenal. The only thing further required of you once you've learned the shouts is to equip them by spending a dragon soul. Well how the hell do you get a dragon soul, you ask? KILL A DRAGON. Yeah, that's no big deal, right? Luckily, the dragons are not only scripted in some sequences of the main quest, but they are also incorporated in a radiant fashion much like some of the random quests the game has the ability to generate. So yes, randomly generated dragon attacks are a thing that happens in this game, and other than them being useful to seek out in order to get the much needed souls, they are also pretty goddamn glorious and epic. Ever since it was revealed that fighting dragons would be a pastime to pursue in Skyrim, I have been anxiously awaiting the chance to do so, and the game sure as hell didn't let me down. There's nothing quite like being faced with an impromptu dragon battle, as the score inserts the pre-recorded dragon theme music by a fully voiced harmonic choir, and your blood starts pumping and your adrenaline levels exert into overdrive status. The best part is, that even if you were currently fighting other antagonists, every one tends to temporarily put their personal grudges on hold in order to come together to take down the more important threat, obviously that being the dragon itself. It typically boils down to utter chaos, as I've heard reports of other players having multiple dragons, along with giants and mammoths entering the fray at any given moment. Watching all of this play out on screen is nothing short of breathtaking, especially the giants and how their programmed physics will literally smack you and any other potential beings in the world into the upper atmosphere with one swift stroke. One pro tip I can offer without hesitation: be careful when fucking with giants and/or frost trolls. They are the equivalent of death claws from Fallout, and in some cases, even worse.
Once you consume the dragon souls, then and only then can you apply them in order to unlock the unique Shouts. Enabling them is a simple matter of tapping the LB button, and these range from breathing fire, sprinting ahead large distances in a split second, and by the end game, you can summon your own unique Nordic warriors, create your own thunderstorms at will, and yes, even summon your own personal dragon to fight for you. The shouts run on a timer so that they have to recharge in between uses, but using them once is powerful enough that it's a fair trade off. Much like most things in the game, if you want to diminish the cool down time for using shouts, there's a corresponding upgrade in the skill constellation that you can apply points towards in order to upgrade this effect. It's all designed almost immaculately, and actually carries through with impressive execution in an all encompassed, meticulously balanced, and endlessly fun system of conducting whatever sort of actions one may desire throughout the entirety of Skyrim.
I could go on forever talking about this game, as I'm sure you could guess, but so much of the minutiae found in the game only further adds to the overall spectacle. The books return from previous games, and although nothing new, it's worth reflecting upon how ever impressive these tend to be. So much work clearly goes into creating them, and it really adds layer upon layer to the already deep breadth of the fiction and lore that there is to be had across the world. Each book has at least half a dozen pages, and there are, literally, dozens if not hundreds of books to be found scattered throughout that you will find during your travels. Adding to this potential reading up on the fiction and getting more and more details and short stories, some of the books level up your skills when read at random, and others will actually add map markers to your map that provide bonus side quests that could provide you with even more additional hours of content to pursue. All of this for simply clicking on a little tiny book lying on a table, or on the ground. The writers at Bethesda did such an impressive job with their attention to detail in this regard, and some of them probably had specific jobs solely to sit and spend countless hours crafting and writing the stories contained in these books. I can't think of any other game developer that takes this much time and cares that much about their product to do such a thing, let alone implement them into the world so lovingly that it adds to the immersion instead of just reading them in a log of some sort. I also want to compliment the game's level designers specifically, because they do a splendid job of making all of the interior portions of the game look unique, vibrant, and impressive to explore, especially the caves and subterranean dungeons. A lot of the dungeon design in Oblivion, and to an extent the Vault equivalents in Fallout games, tended to recycle assets so that when you got to a certain point, they all tended to border into monotonous territory. This is no longer a concern when encountered in Skyrim, because they're able to carry over what made these areas great by giving them their own interesting, yet separately contained stories and events, yet they're so much more versatile in their appearance and presentation that it's an absolute blast to pursue them all and delve into what secrets they most definitely have hidden, just waiting to be found and consumed. The ability to create a Favorites menu in the game where you pre-select your most cherished weapons and spells and map them to easy access by a simple tap of up on the D-pad is just another mechanic on the already extensive list of nicely added touches found in the game. You could almost compliment the game for never ending amounts of time, which is kind of ridiculous, and I swear I haven't been paid off, nor have I slept with any Bethesda employees. The game is just that good, almost to a magical degree that will have any RPG fan simply awestruck.
I can't find much to fault about Skyrim after my time spent wandering its many peaks and valleys, minus two hard freezes. This was a huge problem in previous games, but to such a greater degree that I can't complain about two isolated incidents in over 35 hours of playtime. The frame rate hasn't been an issue, and things like load times and texture pop are still present from time to time, but nowhere near the levels that they have been in the past. In short, this is a massive game with an almost infinite amount of things to do, as your side quest and miscellaneous quest counts will only continue to increase the more that you play, even after completion of the main quest, so complaining about little errors and glitches here and there seems unfair and almost insignificant. I absolutely did not encounter anything that was so troublesome during Skyrim that it managed to overshadow my complete and total immersion, adoration, and sheer bliss of playing through it. The in game map is rendered in full, isometric 3D! The loading screens are interactive! Inventory items all come accompanied with a full 3D model that can be personally examined and rotated on its own axis! The minor tweaks and sprinkles of geek fan service spread across the game are almost as crucial as the more major accomplishments I've already referenced.
If you consider yourself a hardcore gamer, especially a fan of hardcore/fantasy RPG's, you'd be living under a rock to not be privy to the hype surrounding this game. The bulk of my Xbox Live friends list at the present time is totally full of player upon consecutive player in a long list that keeps repeating "Skyrim" or "last online, playing Skyrim." Don't be mislead by the hype, and by all means, believe it. You need to play this game, because it's not only completely fun, polished, awesome, and immersive, but it's indefinitely going to end up being a lot of people's game of the year for 2011. That's not only impressive from a value and quality perspective, but more so given the level of competition that it is surrounded by in a year with so many other great games coming out left and right in what is such a crowded market. Not only does Skyrim manage to topple just about every single one of them, but this very well could go down as one of the top highlights from this console generation, spanning all genres of games. Hell, this probably won't be the first nor the last time you'll read this sentence, and I feel no hesitation in typing it, for the record: Skyrim firmly plants itself right alongside some of the greatest games ever released, due to the fact that Skyrim itself is the epitome of a modern classic, one of the greatest games of all time.
Final Score: 10
GT
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