Reviews// The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

At first, I don’t want to. “It’s the first one we’ve seen in a thousand years: let’s kill it,” my unpleasant comrade says, and the girl who became a vegetarian for nearly three hours one time replies in my head “No! Can’t we take it in and study it before releasing it into the wild with a tracking tag on it?”

But, lamely, I follow them outside of the city walls where, soaring around a watchtower like an angry holly leaf is a bloody great big black one, breathing fire at the guards and being a nuisance... And I’m terrified. I cower in sneak mode behind bushes, desperately scanning the skies every time it circles and dropping my arrows when I try to load them. Then I decide that I have to prove myself at some point and step into the fray.

The game reveals itself. Suddenly I understand what it’s all about. The quests get interesting. I work out how to make potions and enchant my own items. I learn how to use magic to set fire to people and the environment, freeze my enemies in place or sap their magicka with Sparks, mixing and matching them with weapons. Or, regenerating with one hand while hacking away with a sword before bringing some of my victims back to life to fight the remaining poor suckas. Then there are the 20 dragon shouts, although they’ve got a cool-down, so use them wisely!

I realise that, much like in Yorkshire, I’ve become very happy. I’ve got a close circle of friends, (OK, mercenaries) who seem to love and respect me, got ingratiated with the top brass and I’ve bought a house decorated and furnished with cast-offs. I wonder if you can buy cats?

Before I know it, I’ve plunged a week into Skyrim and hardly even touched the 30-hour long main quest at this point. It feels like there's so much to do in just Whiterun. I’m a long way from exhausting that city, the first of five, but I have stories which would easily confuse passers-by in the pub if I were allowed to tell them: the time I chased a goat over the mountains for five minutes before shooting it over a cliff and watching it tumble all the way back down to the valley; the time I slept in some guy’s bed after getting attacked by giant spiders and then realised he was a corpse when he hadn’t shifted in the morning; the time I went as far north as you could go and what I found there.

The more I explore, the more I feel like Frodo, awestruck by my surroundings and usually impressed by my own bravery for being there at all. I want to shout out at people in the street what I did last night while they were busy watching X Factor. “I know why there are glowing mushrooms and what lurks in their caves! I watched a dragon circle beneath the Northern Lights!” It’s not enough for me to just tell you, either. I need you (yes, you, the bloke with the ragged cuticles, and you, the one with the uncomfortable looking work shirt and the one drinking a can of Coke, all of you!) I need you to go out and play this so I can talk to someone about it! It has to be experienced for the feeling of other-worldly intoxication I haven’t felt since... well... the last Bethesda RPG. But there’s no backhanded compliment in that, it’s just that they out-class everyone else.

Skyrim is definitely a fitting sequel to Oblivion. It has the same sense of scale and depth, while the contrast in atmosphere and improvements in mechanics, systems and graphics are substantial and give the series a new lease of life. I worried about the marriage and children making it feel like Fable, but its dark edge keeps it from becoming either a joke or too predictable. Looks like I’ve already learned to enjoy spitting those cherry pips out.

Pros:
· The gorgeous sound effects adding a real depth to the game.
· Restoration and conjuration feel much more impressive: think He-Man doing his “I have the power!”-bit rather than a kid with a sparkler.
· Not having armour and weapons degrade in the middle of a fight (or at all).
· Colour palettes seem to really vary from area to area, cave to cave.
· Dual wielding and mixing combat styles.
· Imaginative ‘treats’ in unexpected places and treasure maps! I’m a pirate! Yarrrr!
· The giants and their mammoths.

Cons:
· I’m sure I thought of some originally....
· Ummm....you might start shouting at people in the street “How dare you stop abruptly in front of me! I’m a level 50 Dark Elf! Oooh, if I had my orcish warhammer, you’d know about it!”

SPOnG Score:
4 hours in: begrudging 92%
10 hours in: solid 96%
21 hours: 99%