Many people have already played this game and most will at least know of its existence. Now I have also finally had a first look on Skyrim, the fifth part of the Elder Scrolls series, published in November 2011. The Elder Scrolls is a series of fantasy action RPGs with huge open worlds in which almost everything seems possible (you can find an Entry about The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind in the Guide). Skyrim itself is a rather violent game, so certainly nothing you would like to give your children. The game is available for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. On PC it needs a Steam account and internet connection to be played (it's one of their tries to make you unable to resell a game once you have played through it or make illegal copies).

The setting

Skyrim is one of the provinces of the continent Tamriel, which is the main setting of the series. Skyrim is in itself parted in different districts which are under the protection of different Lords – the Jarls.

Skyrim seems to have a rather cold climate and is dominated by a landscape of high, snow covered mountains. The vegetation consists by and large of pine trees and bushes. People live in small villages, made up of simple wooden houses of a rather Nordic design.

The biggest part of the local population are humans called Nords, but like in all of Tamriel there are also various other human races and species like different kinds of Elves, Orcs, a reptilian race and a feline race.

Elder Scrolls are ancient prophecies which are said to have been written at the beginning of times. They foretell the destiny of the world, but only very few people are able to interpret them. The actual scrolls hardly ever appear in any of the games.

Story

Once again the player is a prisoner at the beginning of the game (this seems to be traditional in the Elder Scrolls games). You find out that you are accused to be one of the rebels, the Stormcloaks, whose leader has killed the king of Skyrim. Along with some other prisoners you are brought to a village where you are meant to be beheaded by some soldiers of the imperium, but before this can happen a dragon suddenly attacks and lets everyone run away in panic. This is your chance to flee.

During the main story/questline of the game you find out that there are a lot more dragons who are led by a very powerful dragon called Alduin. It is on you to fight them and prevent them from taking over the world. To do this the player has to kill first some minor dragons and then more tough ones, to get more powerful by collecting their souls and learning words of power in the dragon language. You also get to see the real thing: Elder Scrolls.

Gameplay

After the introduction sequence of the game the player gets to choose a race and appearance for their game character. There are no classes, but different races are especially good in different things – some are better for magic for instance, others are better than others when it comes to hiding themselves. The player is completely free in what they do with their character, anyone can learn to fight with any weapons for a start. The more something is used the better a character gets at using it, additionally there is a perk-system, which specializes the character on certain skills.

There is also – as usual in Elder Scroll games – the possibility to join various 'guilds' who ask the character for favours but also help with their expertise and also by accompanying the player on their travels. There is for instance a warriors guild, a school of magic and some more dubious groups of people who want to have the player on their side. Additionally you can fight either for the imperium or the Stormcloaks. All these decisions influence the character's view on the world and the story that the player experiences.

The whole game can in fact be played without ever engaging in the main storyline and is completely open ended. The world is big, with many people to help, kill or steal from and many different dungeons to explore and treasures to find.

If enough materials are collected on the player's travels, they can be forged into armor and weapons in a tradeskill process which can then be enchanted to be even more powerful. Potions for health and temporal bonuses can be mixed and food can be cooked from vegetables and meat.

And if you don't know what to do with all your money you can just buy a house, completely with furniture. There are different sizes and styles available, certainly something to look at and very good for storing all the things you don't want to carry with you all the time. If this isn't enough you can even marry and let your husband or wife help you to earn money and keep the place in order.

Like the previous Elder Scrolls games Skyrim is again something for readers. Loads of books can be found all around Skyrim. You can read them all, some give you additional experience in whatever you read about, others just give you information about the world. You can certainly spend hours reading these books, and you can store them all in the bookshelves in your house.

Impressions

Skyrim's graphics style and design is very realistic, the landscapes, towns and individual houses are all very well done and interesting to look at. Same goes for many pieces of armor. In this respect everything seems to fit together, the world as a whole is very realistic and has just the right atmosphere. Unfortunately this cannot be said about the characters. All proportions of people seem to be slightly off, especially when it comes to their faces and hair. Everyone just looks slightly strange, but it doesn't seem to be intended to be that way. On the other hand there is a lot of voice acting in the game and you will hear people talking to each other as you pass, which makes the world seem more real, even if the character design is not so great.

One thing that they did not get right in Skyrim are maps. The big map of whole Skyrim looks pretty but needs a bit getting used to, while the dungeon maps are very confusing most of the time.

As mentioned above, Skyrim is certainly no game for children, it made me go 'ewwww' a few times. It involves werewolves – if you like – and eating your dead opponents to get stronger – if you choose to (you can't see it in detail, no) – and quite a lot of beheading and blood and some cutscenes that show how you finish your opponent are not so nice either. This is not to say that all this is really bad, or that it does not fit together, you should just know what to expect when you start playing the game.

The world of Skyrim is definitely very open and you feel free to do whatever you want. It's also worth playing this game a few times with characters of different races and different choices in the story. If you like rpg games in which you can do almost whatever you like, you should have a look at Skyrim. If you think it's still a bit expensive but you're interested in the Elder Scrolls games now, you can buy 'Oblivion' or 'Morrownind' for a much, much lower price. In fact, you get quite a lot of gametime and places to explore for your money, so it's certainly not over-priced. And as this month's topic on h2g2 is music, this just leaves me to mention that Jeremy Soule has again provided the soundtrack to this new Elder Scrolls game and of course it involves the usual Elder Scrolls theme which is used since Soule made the music of Morrowind – now I got it stuck in my head again.

The future

An addon for Skyrim called 'Dawnguard' will be released in a few weeks It will feature an additional quest involving vampires and the game community asked for fighting on horses, which has been included too. Unfortunately it will be exclusively available for Xbox for 30 days before it is released for PC and PS3. This is definitely a bad move and I don't know what whoever decided to do this expects from it. Will everyone now go and buy an Xbox just to play Skyrim? I doubt it.

In 2013 the MMO 'The Elder Scrolls Online' will be released. The producers are not the same people who make the single-player games and the story is set a long time before the current games. It is said that the online game will be a typical Elder Scrolls game, just for more people. Let's hope that they can live up to the expectations.

Tavaron da Quirm

18.06.12 Front Page

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