Written by: Ian

 

 

 

With a new engine, and a whole new region of Tamriel to explore, is "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim" the best Elder Scrolls game yet? Oblivion & the two Fallout games have been three of my favourite RPGs of this generation, and have taken home many nominations for GOTY, both from myself and numerous other critics.

 

Therefore, it’s fairly safe to say that the expectations for Skyrim are fairly sky-high, and I have been trembling with anticipation for months, hoping that those beautiful trailers are indicative of the actual gameplay.

 

 

I’m not going to give away any real spoilers here, or ruin the plot, but rest assured that it is the richest, deepest story that you have ever played in a videogame. There is more fiction here than in Tolkien, and more to see and do than you could possibly imagine.

 

Dragons have returned to this cold, hard land at the north of Tamriel, and they are key to the storyline, and make for some amazing moments. Seeing them fly majestically from behind the snowy mountain ranges, especially in the far distance, raining fire down upon some unknown enemy is nothing short of breathtaking.

 

There are also some fantastic scripted and unscripted moments that are far beyond anything else for sheer majesty and brilliance. I’ll give you an example of a couple. Atop a mountain, I came across a dragon lair, surrounded by a blizzard. As I moved to attack the dragon, I disturbed the grave of some long dead mage, who also began attacking me. At one point, the dragon took off to try to launch a breath attack at both of us, whilst I was locked in mortal combat with the wizard, trading spells furiously. He disturbed another, even more powerful blood dragon, so there was a colossal free-for-all by a mountain precipice, in a blizzard, between two dragons, an undead mage, and myself. I was buzzing afterwards.

 

 

The first dragon you take on is another brilliant moment, with a real sense of a whole town united to face a threat. There are so many other cool moments too, from hilarious conversations, and smaller little things, and playing through the quests becomes seriously addictive as you scrabble to complete more and more of the story, uncovering more about the mysterious land of Skyrim.

 

 

Skyrim takes what was great about Oblivion and Fallout, and keeps the very best bits, then keeps the innovations coming. In some ways, it’s almost more adventure game than RPG, but at the same time, it has one of the best and deepest character customisation systems ever created.

 

You now no longer chose a class, just a race, which will determine what your starting stats are. But then, it’s up to you how you want to progress, as you upskill through just using your abilities. So you could focus on one area, or just be a jack-of-all trades. I’d say it’s useful to try a variety of things, as levelling seems to be slightly easier that way, but it’s totally up to you. Levelling is easier now, as you chose to upgrade one of health, magika, or stamina, and then a Fallout style perk from one of your ability classes. Most have a minimum skill level required before you can select it, or a prerequisite perk, but that’s just encouragement to keep on improving.

 

The UI and journal have also received updates, making them easier to use, and easier for you to find things, although my one criticism is that it’s difficult to work out what diseases or blessings you have, and the effect on your stats. The map is also brilliant, with more categories than before, whilst in-game, the markers are also really addictive, making me do far more on-foot exploration than I have done in previous Bethseda RPGs.

 

 

Combat has also undergone a big upgrade. It’s by no means perfect, and the 3rd person view, whilst much, much improved, still looks slightly odd, but it’s by far and away the best system in a Bethseda game. You can dual-wield, but also have a mix of shields, weapons and magic active at any time, and thanks to the ‘favourites’ system, it’s easy to switch between them on the fly, and use various potions. You now also have a stamina meter, similar to Dark Souls, and a sprint button, which makes combat, and traversing through the world, much easier. Health also recovers slowly over time too, another much-wanted option, although potions and/or restoration magic are still crucial to survival in combat situations.