Skyrim is the fifth edition of the Elder Scrolls series and the follow-up to Game of the Year nominee, Oblivion. It is a massive open-world adventure that merges typical RPG elements into a tight, engaging storyline, breathtaking in-game cinematics and dramatic combat.
This highly anticipated sequel has lived up to its five-year wait.
Skyrim takes place 200 years after the events of Oblivion. The kingdom of Tamriel is on the brink of civil war, with the inhabitants of the province of Skyrim wanting to secede from the empire. At the same time, dragons return to Tamriel under the control of Alduin, the Nordic God of Destruction. The player takes on the part of “dragon born”, who has been prophesised by the Elder Scrolls to defeat Alduin.
Skyrim possesses all the elements that have made the previous Elder Scrolls games so successful: a large open-world environment, a wonderfully constructed story arc, a multitude of side missions, the ability to join guilds, huge amounts of character customisation, and enough magic, weapons and armour to keep players tweaking their experience for ages.
The character skills and levelling system have been simplified from the previous game. Players no longer have classes and major/minor skills, and can only choose the race of the character. Players also strengthen their abilities by actively using them in-game. This also levels the character overall. Also, players get skill perk points whenever they level up, allowing them to fully customise the skills used most often.
The combat dynamics are more balanced than in Oblivion. Firstly, players can now dual-wield any combination of spells. For example: putting up a magical shield while hurling fireballs at an enemy is a brilliant way to avoid damage, but still gets the character close enough to the enemy to inflict serious harm.
In summary:
Pros: Huge open-world environment; brilliant story; multitude of side missions; huge amount of customisation for characters; simple skills/ability management; beautiful soundtrack.
Cons: A number of small glitches; auto-generated side missions mean players can never really finish the game; character animation/emotions are not perfect, 300 hours to complete - seriously!
Score: 10/10
Time to completion: Main story -120 hours. Main story + side missions - 300 hours (I only completed 30 hours of the game at the time of this review)
Moment of the game: Taking down my first dragon
Achievement difficulty: 10/10
Secondly, the baddy difficulty levelling, which was one of the biggest complaints of the previous game, has been greatly improved. Baddies no longer overwhelm the player from the outset and the game is more balanced. The learning curve is not perfect, but accommodates players who are new to the genre, allowing them to easily adjust to the dynamics of the game without becoming frustrated.
Finally, one of the perks of being “dragon born" means players have the ability to learn dragon shouts. They include a force push, slowing down time, calling in allies, fire/ice attacks, and, best of all, they don't use up magica. Each shout has three parts. Learning all three significantly increases the shout's power. Unfortunately, players can only use these abilities once they absorb the soul of one of the dragons that now inhabit Tamriel. They spawn randomly, so keeping an eye out for them and hunting them down is critical to success in the game. So far, these epic encounters have been the highlight of the game.
In summary
It's difficult to pin down exactly what makes this game so successful. It could be the fact that players can get lost for hours organising their character's environment in Skyrim; or that the game adapts to the player's preferred play-style rather than the other way around; or that it has a riveting storyline that leaves players wanting more, even if that means trawling dungeons for just another piece of treasure. Either way, Skyrim is a remarkable, near-perfect game. Not only do I think it is my best game of this year, but I daresay it might be one of my favourite games of all time.
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