The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Review

Oh Bethesda, you silly developers. I did have a life before you brought out Skyrim. I had things to go to and finals to study for… But NO, you made this giant game for us to play. Even so, it is an epic journey worthy of all the hype about it.

The massive story is just that, massive. It starts, as with Oblivion, with your character as a prisoner. You are told briefly about a civil war happening in Skyrim before literally being brought to the chopping block. As the axe is raised and you realize how much you really do value your neck, a dragon appears and attacks the village. After scrambling away and doing a few minor quests you find that you are the last Dragonborn, a warrior who can use and absorb dragon souls in “Shouts”, and is the only one who can stop the reemergence of dragons who have not been seen for thousands of years.

That, however, is only the main quest. There is much, much more to be done in Skyrim: Dark brotherhood, Thief’s Guild, the civil war and the Companions fighter’s guild are just to name a few. This is not even considering the downloadable content that is sure to come to the game. There are also many small missions for random citizens. All quests aside, there is still exploring, hunting, cooking, crafting and other such activities that are available.

One cool addition to this is that you can craft your own armor and weapons. Pretty much every kind of weapon and armor can be created by your character’s own two hands. It is a hassle to carry ore, leather or whatever other material around, but there are places that you can drop them off.

Like in its predecessor, Skyrim also gives you the ability to buy houses. They are safe places to drop off items that are not worthy enough to join you on your quest but are good enough to not be dropped somewhere random. Unlike Oblivion, in this Elder Scrolls game, you also get somewhat of a servant guard called a “housecarl”. They stay in your house unless you ask them to follow which means they will follow and protect you on your quest, and/or, and much more importantly, carry your stuff for you. However, getting a house can sometimes not be worth the cost.

The combat in Skyrim is also greatly improved. There is now an option to dual-wield weapons. Dual wielding prevents you from being able to block, but it has different power attacks and bonuses. Magic is also improved. In Oblivion, I could not stand using a mage, but in Skyrim, I stopped playing my first warrior character to make a mage. It can be argued the magic is overpowered in this game, but I enjoyed burning, freezing, electrocuting, etc. the enemies who got in my way.

While the super strong hero role is easy to play in Skyrim, it becomes extremely difficult to try and play as a low profile kind of character. You can get through the game alright, however it’s hard to try and be a sneaky thief kind of guy and a dragon falls out of the sky and starts fighting you. Realistically speaking, that MAY cause attention. If you are trying to really “get in the game” it really ruins the illusion, but if you want to be a bloodthirsty, Viking-like badass then don’t worry, you’re good.

The new ability of “shouting” for Elder Scrolls games is in Skyrim. Shout does not take “Magicka” to use, but instead uses a separate recovery meter. You can get a variety of shouts in the game that have different effects. The shouts can do anything from pushing things away to breathing fire. Shouting is a very interesting addition to the game and, luckily, it is very easy to make it a core part of your gameplay without feeling forced to use it.

The visuals of this game are also amazing. It was entertaining to just to travel around and view the mountains or flow fields or the occasional babbling brook that are scattered throughout the very large world. It’s not often that I, personally, have a feeling of awe by the landscape of a video game, but I did feel it at some of the areas in this game.

The massive game of Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim can proudly carry on the prestigious reputation of its predecessors. The only downside to this game is also one of the great things about it, its size. It requires a lot of time to play this game. Other than that though, this is definitely a game that I would recommend to all ProvenGamer fans.

I give The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim a thumbs up for our ProvenGamer fans.