Please be advised this is not a full review of the complete game, which I anticipate contains roughly 200 hours of content in total, depending on how quickly you play through, your chosen difficulty level, and whether or not you make significant use of fast travel. I have not finished the main quest line, the Civil War storyline, or any of the major guild story lines, but I have dabbled in all of them. For reference purposes, I am playing on EXPERT, on the PC on max settings, and my character level at the time of writing is 48.
[HEADING=2]INTRODUCTION[/HEADING]
Like Oblivion, Skyrim drops you into the thick of things straight away, and like Oblivion, you're incarcerated (Bethesda clearly believes Elder Scrolls players have an imprisonment fetish, Morrowind started on a prison ship).
[HEADING=2]GRAPHICS[/HEADING]
I'll say it right up front...the art direction and world building in Skyrim is second to none. Even if you don't have the same appreciation for the rugged Nordic setting that I do, it's impossible not to admire the sweep and splendor of Skyrim's craggy heights and alpine meadows. Under the right conditions, Skyrim can be an uncommonly beautiful game, and is far more visually evocative then the more sedate gently rolling countryside of Oblivion's Cyrodiil.
[HEADING=2]VOICE ACTING[/HEADING]
We'll get the good out of the way early...this is a huge step forward for the Elder Scrolls series as a whole, and for Bethesda in general. The big name actors are excellent, and some of the lesser knowns turn in solid work as well. The Nords are given a nice Scandinavian flavor to their accents, and you'll not be hearing the same voice actor having a conversation with himself in the streets any more. All of this is good, and represents significant progress for the series. However, to say it's an improvement on previous offerings is, sadly, damning it with faint praise.
[HEADING=2]MUSIC[/HEADING]
Something needs to be said about the music in Skyrim, and it's this: It's ruddy brilliant. Often in Bethesda games I will turn the music off immediately, to better drink in the ambient sound effects and better immerse myself in the world. In Skyrim, this would be a crime. This is Jeremy Soule's masterpiece. The absurdly epic and triumphant "Sons of Skyrim" alone is worth the price of admission. The first time it kicks in while you are fighting a Dragon, you will WET YOUR PANTS.
This has never been Bethesda's strong suit, and has actually been a crushing weakness in a few of their titles (Fallout 3, Daggerfall and Oblivion were widely seen as having humdrum to terrible main stories). It's difficult to tell a focused, meaningful story and still allow the kind of open world exploration that Elder Scrolls games are prized for. So how is Skyrim's story? Well, it's alright, actually. It's not too bad.
The Dovahkiin narrative follows the hoary old "Hero's Rise to Power" formula slavishly, and isn't going to blow anyone's socks off with the fresh ideas it's bringing to the table, but it feels suitably portentous and weighty for a series that primarily concerns itself with ancient prophecy. The Civil War storyline is a treat, with some nicely sophisticated political undertones and some seriously greyscale factions that make a choice of alignment painfully trying for anyone attempting to land on the side of the angels.
[HEADING=2]COMBAT[/HEADING]
Improved significantly over previous entries in the series, the combat now has a nice "weighty" feel to it, which suits the setting. Shield bashes and stagger give a solid impression of impact, and while it's still possible to do the "Elder Scrolls shuffle" and dip in and out of range, it doesn't feel as floaty or artificial as Oblivion (although it still falls short of the crisper combat in a game like Mount and Blade). Those looking for some "oomph" in their combat are cautioned to avoid one handed swords and/or daggers, which swing very fast and can feel a bit "spammy" compared to the more ponderous axes, maces, and two handed weapons. Archery is also slightly improved, although it has been simplified to feel less realistic in terms of arrow arc.
Magic has some lovely effects, but scales poorly, and the left hand/right hand system Skyrim employs doesn't feel as natural or comfortable for spellcasting as it does for melee combat. Couple this with the removal of the spell maker and the humdrum Mage's Guild questline, and you're left with a game that doesn't cater particularly well to those who are of the wizardly persuasion. Much as Morrowind was most rewarding to a Dunmer character, Skyrim is most rewarding to a Nord...and a Warrior Nord, at that. Fairly warned, be thee.
This was a terrible weakness in Oblivion. There was so little money left over after they hired their five man voice actor team that they only had enough for one guy to work on the dungeons, and it showed. Specifically, it showed that he worked on one dungeon, and then copied and pasted it 100 times and called it a day. All the Oblivion dungeons had a terrible sense of both randomness and sameness, just a bland collection of meaningless chambers and rooms lightly sprinkled with loot and a motley assortment of haphazardly selected beasts milling about for no discernible purpose. Oh, this room has a Minotaur, a Wisp, two Wraiths and a Bandit? Oh, okay then. And they're all...they're all working together to kill me. Okay. I guess that's...I guess that's alright.
[HEADING=2]GAME BALANCE AND LEVEL SCALING[/HEADING]
Level scaling was either game breaking or game saving in Oblivion, depending on who you ask (hint: it was awful), so you will be delighted/horrified to discover it's back in Skyrim, albeit in greatly altered fashion. Those who enjoyed the countryside bandits strutting about in full Daedric regalia as punishment for making progress in Oblivion's grotesque and anti-intuitive leveling scheme will be demolished to learn that this is no longer the case in Skyrim. Certain creatures, such as high level humanoids and undead, and most notably Dragons, will level scale happily alongside the player, ala Oblivion. Others, such as Bears and Giants and Trolls, will not, instead inhabiting a fixed level range that will make them pushovers at high level and absolute terrors when you're an apple cheeked noob fresh out of Whiterun. Early visitors to the 7000 steps will get to witness this aspect of Skyrim's level scaling scheme up close and personal.
Game balancing is another issue altogether. The Elder Scrolls has never been a series known for its solid game play mechanics and rigorous balancing, it's always been a big glorious mess that's been comically easy to break with a little judicious min maxing and abuse of the game's shabbily designed systems. Skyrim, sadly, is no exception. The crafting trees, most particularly Smithing and Enchanting, enjoy a ridiculous degree of synergy that makes it possible to trivialize game play completely with a couple of hours of simple grinding. Magic doesn't scale properly, sneaking is hilariously overpowered, and some trees (such as lockpicking and speech) are profoundly useless. It's very, very easy to design a character that swiftly becomes so powerful that the world loses all sense of danger, and equally easy to accidentally create a non-combat character who levels himself into a parade of hapless deaths by picking too many pockets before swinging a sword.
So, much as with previous Elder Scrolls titles, to get maximum enjoyment out of Skyrim most players are going to need to fiddle with the difficulty setting frequently, and judiciously employ "house rules" in terms of which poorly balanced game play elements they're prepared to exploit and which they're going to deny themselves in order to find their own sweet spot for balance. In short, Bethesda did not do a good job of balancing this game for you, so you're going to need to use your own imagination and/or mods to get it where it needs to be.
[HEADING=2]USER INTERFACE AND STABILITY (PC VERSION)[/HEADING]
Anyone who has ever availed themselves of a Bugthesda product knows that quality control is not their area of expertise. Fearful prospective buyers of Skyrim might be curious to know if they're in for the same degree of rough trade they experienced from Fallout, Oblivion, and New Vegas. The good news is that Skyrim is arguably the most stable Bethesda game to date. The bad news is that's rather the same as saying it's the most pleasant car crash you've been in.
For a series birthed on the PC, the interface appears to have been designed by someone who had never seen a PC before in their life. It's beautiful, but cumbersome, and painfully counter intuitive. Fussing around in the menus is an unrelenting chore, and there's a terrible interface anomaly that frequently results in a mouse click not selecting the highlighted conversation response. While you can (and must) get used to it, it's an unacceptable pain in the ass, and Bethesda should be ashamed of it.
[HEADING=2]FINAL THOUGHTS[/HEADING]
Look, Skyrim is a flawed game. Indeed, its flaws are legion. Anyone who is a veteran of the Elder Scrolls series and Bethesda's titles in general has heard this song before. If you push on these games too hard in any one direction, they fall apart completely. Yet, it also a game that is staggering in its ambition and scope. The sheer ridiculous SIZE of it is humbling. You can read every book on that book shelf. You can pick the flowers in that field. You can buy a house in this town. You can chop that lumber over there, or work that grain mill. You can kill that chicken and cook its meat over that fire. It's a glorious, noisy, complex world...a giant sandbox full of thousands of toys. Some of the toys are broken. A lot of them aren't.
In a lot of ways, the Elder Scrolls games are more reminiscent of a title like "The Sims" than a traditional story based CRPG such as Dragon Age or The Witcher. They are sandboxes for you to play in and explore, and project your own imagination onto. They actually encourage role playing, which...depending on your personality...is either a tremendous boon or a terrible detriment. If you don't wink through the game, fast traveling everywhere and blitzing your skills up, you'll find a deep, vibrant world backstopped by hundreds of years of carefully developed lore. You'll FEEL the height of those mountains, and the cold of those blizzards. You'll welcome the warm fires of an Inn after a wearying trek through a wolf haunted forest or a life threatening excursion to the bottom of a long forgotten tomb. There has always been tremendous potential in these games, and Skyrim is the finest of the series to date. It may lack of some Morrowind's uniqueness and crippling complexity and depth, but it makes up for it in spades with presentation.
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to run to Solitude, and get lost in 37 assorted ruins, keeps, caves and barrows along the way. FUS RO DAH!
[HEADING=2]INTRODUCTION[/HEADING]
Like Oblivion, Skyrim drops you into the thick of things straight away, and like Oblivion, you're incarcerated (Bethesda clearly believes Elder Scrolls players have an imprisonment fetish, Morrowind started on a prison ship).
The opening is nicely cinematic, and gives the player a lovely introduction to the setting and to the Civil War/Return of the Dragons storylines that will form the backbone of the narrative. It's a significant improvement over Oblivion's wearisome dungeon crawl, but like Oblivion it still has you naffing about in tunnels and caves for 30 minutes before you emerge into the game proper and can begin availing yourself of the freedom that Elder Scrolls games are famous for. It could very easily become tiring on repeat playthroughs.[HEADING=3]Elder Scrolls 6: Jailhouse[/HEADING]
[HEADING=2]GRAPHICS[/HEADING]
I'll say it right up front...the art direction and world building in Skyrim is second to none. Even if you don't have the same appreciation for the rugged Nordic setting that I do, it's impossible not to admire the sweep and splendor of Skyrim's craggy heights and alpine meadows. Under the right conditions, Skyrim can be an uncommonly beautiful game, and is far more visually evocative then the more sedate gently rolling countryside of Oblivion's Cyrodiil.
That is not to say, however, that Skyrim's oft-impressive visuals are free from blemish. The much ballyhooed Creation engine is really our shabby old friend GameByro in a new hat and dress, and a quick pick under the new chapeau reveals she's still not the kind of girl you want to bring home to Mom. Animations, while much improved for this series, can still be halting and awkward, and occasionally jarringly poor. A lack of polygons can give a lot of the scenery, particularly the rocks, a jagged/artificial quality when viewed up close. And the less said about the random texture quality the better.[HEADING=3]Not Pictured: Gently rolling hills[/HEADING]
If you just move through the world naturally, drinking in the art direction and the mise-en-scene, you'll find the game frequently breathtaking. But if you go looking for trouble, you're going to find it everywhere.[HEADING=3]Hmmm...[/HEADING]
[HEADING=2]VOICE ACTING[/HEADING]
We'll get the good out of the way early...this is a huge step forward for the Elder Scrolls series as a whole, and for Bethesda in general. The big name actors are excellent, and some of the lesser knowns turn in solid work as well. The Nords are given a nice Scandinavian flavor to their accents, and you'll not be hearing the same voice actor having a conversation with himself in the streets any more. All of this is good, and represents significant progress for the series. However, to say it's an improvement on previous offerings is, sadly, damning it with faint praise.
While the primary roles are all dug into with relish by seasoned pros, a lot of the secondary voice acting is still very meat and potatoes. They're not embarrassing themselves (with the notable exception of some of the Daedric Princes, who are embarrassing everyone), but there's not a lot of emotion or nuance in their performances, either. This is very workmanlike voice acting, and there is still a lot of room for improvement. Also, even with a cast of close to 100, there are a LOT of speaking parts in a game as big as Skyrim, and you *will* find yourself hearing the same voices frequently.[HEADING=3]The entire cast of Oblivion[/HEADING]
[HEADING=2]MUSIC[/HEADING]
Something needs to be said about the music in Skyrim, and it's this: It's ruddy brilliant. Often in Bethesda games I will turn the music off immediately, to better drink in the ambient sound effects and better immerse myself in the world. In Skyrim, this would be a crime. This is Jeremy Soule's masterpiece. The absurdly epic and triumphant "Sons of Skyrim" alone is worth the price of admission. The first time it kicks in while you are fighting a Dragon, you will WET YOUR PANTS.
[HEADING=2]NARRATIVE[/HEADING][HEADING=3]Keep a backup pair handy[/HEADING]
This has never been Bethesda's strong suit, and has actually been a crushing weakness in a few of their titles (Fallout 3, Daggerfall and Oblivion were widely seen as having humdrum to terrible main stories). It's difficult to tell a focused, meaningful story and still allow the kind of open world exploration that Elder Scrolls games are prized for. So how is Skyrim's story? Well, it's alright, actually. It's not too bad.
The Dovahkiin narrative follows the hoary old "Hero's Rise to Power" formula slavishly, and isn't going to blow anyone's socks off with the fresh ideas it's bringing to the table, but it feels suitably portentous and weighty for a series that primarily concerns itself with ancient prophecy. The Civil War storyline is a treat, with some nicely sophisticated political undertones and some seriously greyscale factions that make a choice of alignment painfully trying for anyone attempting to land on the side of the angels.
From Daggerfall through to Oblivion, the Elder Scrolls has been presenting us with more structured, guided narratives, and Skyrim continues this trend. This is undoubtedly the most accessible Elder Scrolls game to date. Series veterans may find this vexing, and prefer the old days of feeling your way around blindfolded. Series newcomers are likely to find Skyrim's friendliness in this regard a breath of fresh air.
[HEADING=2]COMBAT[/HEADING]
Improved significantly over previous entries in the series, the combat now has a nice "weighty" feel to it, which suits the setting. Shield bashes and stagger give a solid impression of impact, and while it's still possible to do the "Elder Scrolls shuffle" and dip in and out of range, it doesn't feel as floaty or artificial as Oblivion (although it still falls short of the crisper combat in a game like Mount and Blade). Those looking for some "oomph" in their combat are cautioned to avoid one handed swords and/or daggers, which swing very fast and can feel a bit "spammy" compared to the more ponderous axes, maces, and two handed weapons. Archery is also slightly improved, although it has been simplified to feel less realistic in terms of arrow arc.
Magic has some lovely effects, but scales poorly, and the left hand/right hand system Skyrim employs doesn't feel as natural or comfortable for spellcasting as it does for melee combat. Couple this with the removal of the spell maker and the humdrum Mage's Guild questline, and you're left with a game that doesn't cater particularly well to those who are of the wizardly persuasion. Much as Morrowind was most rewarding to a Dunmer character, Skyrim is most rewarding to a Nord...and a Warrior Nord, at that. Fairly warned, be thee.
[HEADING=2]DUNGEONS[/HEADING][HEADING=3]Nord Magic[/HEADING]
This was a terrible weakness in Oblivion. There was so little money left over after they hired their five man voice actor team that they only had enough for one guy to work on the dungeons, and it showed. Specifically, it showed that he worked on one dungeon, and then copied and pasted it 100 times and called it a day. All the Oblivion dungeons had a terrible sense of both randomness and sameness, just a bland collection of meaningless chambers and rooms lightly sprinkled with loot and a motley assortment of haphazardly selected beasts milling about for no discernible purpose. Oh, this room has a Minotaur, a Wisp, two Wraiths and a Bandit? Oh, okay then. And they're all...they're all working together to kill me. Okay. I guess that's...I guess that's alright.
While Skyrim's many dungeons do begin to blend into one another after a while, and do re-use the same art assets for the different types (if you've seen one Nord Barrow, you've seen them all), they feel much more structured and purposeful. Undead are populating the Barrows, as you'd expect. Dwarven security mechanisms patrol the halls of Dwemer ruins. Bandit caves look like lived in spaces, with sensible layouts and a logical progression. And each dungeon has its own little boss, and end reward...a word of power, or a chest packed with loot. A few of the more unique or larger dungeons are actually quite memorable.[HEADING=3]The many dungeons of Oblivion[/HEADING]
[HEADING=2]GAME BALANCE AND LEVEL SCALING[/HEADING]
Level scaling was either game breaking or game saving in Oblivion, depending on who you ask (hint: it was awful), so you will be delighted/horrified to discover it's back in Skyrim, albeit in greatly altered fashion. Those who enjoyed the countryside bandits strutting about in full Daedric regalia as punishment for making progress in Oblivion's grotesque and anti-intuitive leveling scheme will be demolished to learn that this is no longer the case in Skyrim. Certain creatures, such as high level humanoids and undead, and most notably Dragons, will level scale happily alongside the player, ala Oblivion. Others, such as Bears and Giants and Trolls, will not, instead inhabiting a fixed level range that will make them pushovers at high level and absolute terrors when you're an apple cheeked noob fresh out of Whiterun. Early visitors to the 7000 steps will get to witness this aspect of Skyrim's level scaling scheme up close and personal.
And this is alright, really...it's an acceptable compromise and for the most part it works. There are definitely some oddities...Dragons feel curiously underpowered at lower levels, and level scaled opponents can create strange feeling difficulty spikes...but this is the price you pay for having an open world you can explore at your own pace. It's not perfect, and it could still use some work, but it's moving in the right direction, and that's good.[HEADING=3]Where it looks and feels exactly like being murdered by a frost troll[/HEADING]
Game balancing is another issue altogether. The Elder Scrolls has never been a series known for its solid game play mechanics and rigorous balancing, it's always been a big glorious mess that's been comically easy to break with a little judicious min maxing and abuse of the game's shabbily designed systems. Skyrim, sadly, is no exception. The crafting trees, most particularly Smithing and Enchanting, enjoy a ridiculous degree of synergy that makes it possible to trivialize game play completely with a couple of hours of simple grinding. Magic doesn't scale properly, sneaking is hilariously overpowered, and some trees (such as lockpicking and speech) are profoundly useless. It's very, very easy to design a character that swiftly becomes so powerful that the world loses all sense of danger, and equally easy to accidentally create a non-combat character who levels himself into a parade of hapless deaths by picking too many pockets before swinging a sword.
So, much as with previous Elder Scrolls titles, to get maximum enjoyment out of Skyrim most players are going to need to fiddle with the difficulty setting frequently, and judiciously employ "house rules" in terms of which poorly balanced game play elements they're prepared to exploit and which they're going to deny themselves in order to find their own sweet spot for balance. In short, Bethesda did not do a good job of balancing this game for you, so you're going to need to use your own imagination and/or mods to get it where it needs to be.
[HEADING=2]USER INTERFACE AND STABILITY (PC VERSION)[/HEADING]
Anyone who has ever availed themselves of a Bugthesda product knows that quality control is not their area of expertise. Fearful prospective buyers of Skyrim might be curious to know if they're in for the same degree of rough trade they experienced from Fallout, Oblivion, and New Vegas. The good news is that Skyrim is arguably the most stable Bethesda game to date. The bad news is that's rather the same as saying it's the most pleasant car crash you've been in.
Quest breaking bugs abound, there's occasional CTDs, it's far too easy to become stuck on the terrain, and there are the same host of wacky physics issues we've come to expect from the Gamebyro engine. Throw in the occasional animation and polish issues, and you have a game working hard to destroy the very suspension of disbelief that is so central to enjoying it.[HEADING=3]Of course some of the glitches are more like "features"[/HEADING]
For a series birthed on the PC, the interface appears to have been designed by someone who had never seen a PC before in their life. It's beautiful, but cumbersome, and painfully counter intuitive. Fussing around in the menus is an unrelenting chore, and there's a terrible interface anomaly that frequently results in a mouse click not selecting the highlighted conversation response. While you can (and must) get used to it, it's an unacceptable pain in the ass, and Bethesda should be ashamed of it.
[HEADING=2]FINAL THOUGHTS[/HEADING]
Look, Skyrim is a flawed game. Indeed, its flaws are legion. Anyone who is a veteran of the Elder Scrolls series and Bethesda's titles in general has heard this song before. If you push on these games too hard in any one direction, they fall apart completely. Yet, it also a game that is staggering in its ambition and scope. The sheer ridiculous SIZE of it is humbling. You can read every book on that book shelf. You can pick the flowers in that field. You can buy a house in this town. You can chop that lumber over there, or work that grain mill. You can kill that chicken and cook its meat over that fire. It's a glorious, noisy, complex world...a giant sandbox full of thousands of toys. Some of the toys are broken. A lot of them aren't.
In a lot of ways, the Elder Scrolls games are more reminiscent of a title like "The Sims" than a traditional story based CRPG such as Dragon Age or The Witcher. They are sandboxes for you to play in and explore, and project your own imagination onto. They actually encourage role playing, which...depending on your personality...is either a tremendous boon or a terrible detriment. If you don't wink through the game, fast traveling everywhere and blitzing your skills up, you'll find a deep, vibrant world backstopped by hundreds of years of carefully developed lore. You'll FEEL the height of those mountains, and the cold of those blizzards. You'll welcome the warm fires of an Inn after a wearying trek through a wolf haunted forest or a life threatening excursion to the bottom of a long forgotten tomb. There has always been tremendous potential in these games, and Skyrim is the finest of the series to date. It may lack of some Morrowind's uniqueness and crippling complexity and depth, but it makes up for it in spades with presentation.
The Elder Scrolls series is approaching its 20th birthday. It's moving into rarefied territory for Western RPGs, territory occupied by venerated titles such as Ultima and Wizardry. It's becoming an institution, and with each chapter Tamriel becomes a deeper, richer, more vibrant world, more worthy of exploring and inhabiting. If you have the patience to endure the warts, work through the balance issues, and let the game world draw you in, this series can be rewarding for RPG enthusiasts like few others. It's my personal game of the year, and once all is said and done I expect it to place highly amongst my favorite games of all time.[HEADING=3][/HEADING]
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to run to Solitude, and get lost in 37 assorted ruins, keeps, caves and barrows along the way. FUS RO DAH!
