The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Review

The midnight launch for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim at the Jordan Landing Gamestop was pretty fun! We had a bean bag toss going on all night as we waited to purchase the game; it may kind of sound lame at first, but it ended up being a bit of a challenge. Those who threw a bean bag through a box took home "Skyrim" stickers, and other posters.

The Sweet: Massive world to explore, almost limitless customization, hours of side quests, enticing story, addictive gameplay, and highly replayable.

The Bitter: Graphics aren't as clean on the console (Xbox 360) version, larger enemy's are almost impossible to kill on a harder difficulty.


Without giving away too much, the beginning of the game  lets you customize your character in such a way that I haven't seen before. Though that may be because I haven't played the previous "Elder Scrolls" games. Once I chose my race (Khajiit), I was then prompted to customize more detailed features of that character design. If you don't want to spend thirty minutes customizing your character, Bethesda has provided the option to pick from a preset design. I'm not going to lie, I spent thirty minutes customizing my character, and was very pleased with the end result! After naming my character ("Arcticus"), the game continued with it's opening scene. I won't say what happens next, but let's just say it's intense!

The Khajiit Race

As I left the city I started in and began walking down a mountain, I just stopped; I couldn't believe how huge my surroundings were. The backdrop seemed never ending, and extremely detailed. At a distance everything looks magnificent, but once you are up close the detail depletes. I understand that for Bethesda to create such a massive world (around 16 square miles to be exact), and give you the opportunity to travel the entire countryside without having to stop, they wouldn't be able to provide a game with polished graphics. The graphics aren't horrible, they're just not as detailed as I would have liked.

The beautiful world of Skyrim

In that first moment where I realized how large "Skyrim" is, I got a little overwhelmed. Lucky for me, Bethesda designed the game so that you were forced to take baby steps with the story. The first village I traveled to wasn't very far away, and my next destination was only a little bit further from that point. Eventually I found my self on very large journeys, climbing up and around mountainsides to get to my goal. A really nice feature in "Skyrim" is that once you have discovered a town, city, or dungeon, you are able to fast travel to that location at any time.

The leveling system was designed to be easy to figure out, and to seem endless. You don't pick your class in this game, you build your character how you want them. If I want a thief with magicka, then I can do that. I just have to learn those skills, and apply them to my character. Once you learn an ability, you upgrade that skill by using it. In order to upgrade my skills, I must improve my overall rank. Each skill has a rank, and within each skill you must have a certain rank to upgrade the perks for that skill. It's sort of like a branch system. When I have the ability to add a perk, I can pick the skill I want to upgrade. If I want to upgrade my archery, I  use my bow and arrow until that skill jumps up a rank. In this case, I choose to add a perk to my archery. The perk I want to add gives my arrows a higher percent of damage, each time I shoot an arrow at a target. In order to get this perk, my archery rank must be at level 15 or 20. So in other words, when your overall rank goes up, and once your skill reaches a certain rank, you are able to add perks to that particular skill.

A walk through Riverwood

I've heard that the audio in "The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion" is extremely repetitive, and dull. In "Skyrim" it is quite the opposite. Just about everyone I have come in contact with I've been able to ask several questions. Sometimes they have clues to where I need to go next, which I found very helpful in finding my next objective. The music in "Skyrim" is brilliant. It fits the world perfectly, and if you are sneaking around dungeons trying to remain undetected, the music lets you know you have been detected. There will be a 4-disc original soundtrack released soon, and I will be buying it for sure. My wife walked in the room and asked me if I was watching a movie, because she thought the music sounded so good.

My first encounter with a dragon was epic, and my heart sunk into my stomach because of how large it was. Lucky for me I had several Imperial guards fighting by my side with this one. I wasn't so lucky with my second run in with a dragon. Hearing it roar, and seeing flying around, I quickly crouched to see if I could sneak around it. It seemed like it was flying around a structure on top of a hill nearby. I thought I could get to it with out being detected, but it of course spotted me right away. I had learned two dragon shouts by this point, and was able to use one of them in this circumstance. After defeating that dragon, on my own, I felt a sense of accomplishment that I hadn't felt in this game. I didn't feel it with my first dragon because I had the help of Imperial Guards. Once I absorbed this dragon's soul, I continued along my path, to see what it was flying around. I came to a large stairway, and began climbing it, once I reached the top I could hear the chants of men, indicating that I was nearing a "Dragon Wall". These walls have the Draconic language engraved onto them, and once I read it, I learned a new dragon shout that gave me the ability to disarm an armed person. In order to use this new word, I need a dragon soul absorbed. Luckily for me I had just gained one.

Yep. The Dragons are huge!!

The game's story is very immersive, but I don't feel tied down to it. I can begin and end a quest whenever I please. If I'm on my way to an objective, and bump into someone who asks that I complete a quest for them, I can change my objective to fulfill that first. I have found the journeys into the mountains to be the most difficult because they carry the most danger. Bears, wolves, and trolls roam them, and provide a challenge each time you encounter them. There are several different guilds to join in "Skyrim", and depending on your characters type, what guild you should join varies. For instance if your aiming to be a thief, then you should probably join the Thieves Guild. It makes it feel like you belong to something, and gives you additional challenges and achievements/trophies to complete.

"Skyrim" offers a world of customization, exploration, challenge, and entertainment for hours to come. Because of these factors, I'm giving Skyrim 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Until next time, keep on gamin' on!