For those unfamiliar with The Elder Scrolls, it is a series that allows you to create your own character, customize him/her to your liking, and play through the game at your own pace. You may focus on the game's main story or simply explore the land, and believe me when I say that there are tons of places to explore, many quests to complete, and many discoveries to be made. And that's pretty much the gist of it -- go out, quest for stuff, kill stuff, find stuff, sell stuff, buy stuff, then repeat (Not necessarily in that order.) -- it's a simple, yet brilliant formula that has worked for years, and The Elder Scrolls was one of its codifiers.
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| Combat has been greatly refined in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim... |
For this game, Bethesda revamped some of its mechanics from Oblivion, namely, the elimination of character classes in favor of just focusing on warrior/wizard/thief specific stats. Basically, you don't choose a class, you simply focus on your desired attributes; you want to be a wizard? -- focus on casting magic; you want to be a warrior? -- wear heavy armor and swing heavy weapons; You want to be a thief? -- well... steal things; Don't give a damn? -- just play. In my opinion, this change makes sense -- I mean, all classes were in previous games were a set of five-plus attributes with an over-title, and increasing said attributes was the only way to level up. This way, as long as you simply increase your attributes, you'll still level up. Each level-up also allows you to choose a 'perk', that can range from increased effectiveness with a weapon-type, decreased magicka usage in a particular branch of magic, the ability to cast more powerful magic with a spell-type, etc. Another welcome change they made was getting rid of the level-scaling (the game levels with you) system that plagued the last game which pretty much eliminates balancing issues when leveling up.
Combat has also been improved in Skyrim. You now have the ability to dual-wield weapons and spells. You can also dual-cast a spell to create a more powerful version of it, provided you activate the perk in your desired branch of magic. Combat also feels more natural and, in some cases, requires more strategy as opposed to Oblivion where it felt more like you were just using power-swings until your opponent went down.
A new combat element has also been added -- "dragon shouts". You see, if you decide to follow the story, you soon find out that you are a "dragonborn" or "dovahkiin", and as such, you have the ability to utilize dragon shouts which are ancient words shout out by our hero(ine) that can aid him/her when needed. One shout can severely stagger any opponents in its path, while another let's you breath fire (because, you know... you have Dragon blood). You can unlock new dragon shouts by spending dragon souls which are received by slaying dragons... even if you have to FIND the shout first to be able to unlock it, so it's kind of pointless. There are moments where, although required to complete the game, dragon shouts could feel like a gimmick... And yes, you get to fight actual dragons as well. Fighting a dragon requires strategy at first, but as you get stronger, dragons become much easier to defeat on your own, and believe me, you will fight several dragons throughout. Even after you beat the game, dragons will still appear, which can really get annoying later on when you're speaking to someone only to have a dragon pop in and terrorize the village while you're trying to listen to a freaking quest-giver.
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| ...as have the graphics. |
I only need one syllable to describe the graphics in Skyrim; Wow. Oblivion's graphics were fair for its time, but they've shown signs of age since then. When Oblivion first came out, we were stunned with its graphics; it's truly amazing how we believe developers give it all their effort for some games and then they push a console's hardware beyond our expectations for the next game. Skyrim's environments are wonderfully rendered and full of life, and the view distance is amazingly detailed in contrast to Oblivion's faux-N64 rendered view distance. Character models also have more detail; when you talk to characters, they look more natural, unlike Oblivion where characters stood perfectly still when they were scared out of their mind. Speaking of Oblivion, one thing I didn't like about Oblivion nor Morrowind (especially) was that your character looked rather odd in third-person view; when he ran or walked, it looked more like he was walking on air than the ground. In Skyrim, your character's movement looks and feels more natural, so it makes playing in third-person feel like a more viable option. There are a few flaws here and there, such as the game-world moving when you talk to characters -- sure, it's more realistic, but at the same time, there can be moments when you're talking to someone, the town can be in bedlam and the person you're talking to will act like nothing's happening.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim takes most of the flaws from Oblivion and remedies them. Honestly the only real complaint I have with this game is that the story lacks substance -- even the final encounter is anticlimactic. Compared to Oblivion's end-game, it really didn't feel like it was the end. I actually looked up a walkthrough to see what was next -- that was it. Despite that, Skyrim is one of the finest RPGs out right now; and any fan of the genre should play it.
