The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Very few things elicit such a humbling reaction as a dragon in flight, regardless of the context. Be it overwhelming sense of majesty or sheer terror these mythical creatures are a sight to behold. I consider myself an RPG veteran and will happily throw countless hours away while completely diving into the fictional worlds developers create, levelling my character up slowly and steadily until he/she is an unstoppable juggernaut that lays waste to all with their breath alone - but in this sense The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim well and truly takes the cake. The presence of dragons means I have never felt like such a badass in my gaming life. The sheer exhilaration in taking down one of these winged beasts never gets old.

From the first fledgling steps you take - praying to any divinity that’ll have you just to make it through the confrontation alive - to becoming almost demi-god like, laughing in the face of your scaled foe before sending them to whichever afterlife they envision, each dragon you slay brings you one step closer to making Skyrim a better place. Oh, and it makes you a greater dragon slayer and it gives you the raw materials to fashion that kick-arse dragon armour you’ve been lusting after for the last fifteen or so hours. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s take it back a notch, shall we?

As I mention before, there be dragons in Skyrim. An ancient evil grand dragon known as Alduin, previously thought vanquished, has returned and is resurrecting his old buddies around Tamriel. This spells big trouble for the entire continent, or so it would seem. An ancient prophecy foretold his return, and of a champion, a being known as Dovahkiin, the Dragonborn. A warrior without fear infused with the soul of a dragon who will rise up, protect the citizens of Skyrim and destroy this evil threat. No pressure, right?

As with all chronicles in The Elder Scrolls you're just an ex-con trying to go straight and get your kids back. After suitably setting the opening scene and introducing you rather abruptly to the sheer force of nature that be dragons, Bethesda Game Studios unceremoniously dumps you in their sumptuous world and says “off you go son, have at it.” The entire northern continent of Tamriel is at your disposal and choice is your greatest weapon.

There are no ifs or buts about it, this is a Bethesda title through and through. The touch of their previous titles is there for all to see, and in no way at all is that a bad thing. The slow motion finishing moves, the musical tones when levelling up your character, the ability to switch between third and first person viewpoints, the ridiculous amount of quests and the utterly immersive world. It’s like the developers have taken their entire gaming pedigree, harnessed it and distilled it into essence of pure unadulterated awesome.

Skyrim is the RPG experience you want it to be. Bethesda has streamlined the experience offering an extremely user-friendly model that is as simple or complex as you want it to be. The revamped menu system put everything in clearly spelled out categories which are easily brought up and understood, making it feel less daunting to newcomers. Those that live and breathe RPGs will be able to delve as deep as they want, and considering there’s over 300 hours of game at your fingertips, you’ll be able to get pretty damned deep into it.

The only decision you really need to make is your race and gender at the game’s beginning. Then it’s pretty much a “Choose Your Own Adventure”. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim doesn’t want to constrain you. Their breakthrough levelling up system has been broken down to reward your own style of play. Simply put, the more you use something, the better you get at it and they don’t penalise you for experimentation. You could go through 30-40 hours favouring two-handed weapons and heavy armour, then switch to stealth attacks and focus on destruction magic, then switch over to light-armour and a sword an shield combo. It wants you to immerse yourself and then lose yourself, and believe me, you will.

The whole game is designed to suck you in and never let go. The constantly updating quest system feels more organic than ever before. You don’t need to go up to NPCs and hope that they have something for you. Many will approach you on their own, begging your favour. Other times you’ll enter a grand hallway and fall privy to an opportunity to make new noble friends by completing a task or two. It feels significantly smoother than Bethesda (or any other developers’) previous outings and surprisingly real.

Every new town, settlement, camp or village is a hub and after a few conversations you’ll have a plethora of missions on hand. In fact, it’s not uncommon to have well over thirty various quests open at the same time - and that’s not even the beginning of the distractions. The world Bethesda has created is alive and aching to be explored. Skyrim is a harsh, icy cold playpen, yet stunningly beautiful. The weather constantly changes and is magnificently rendered. Blizzards are a regular occurrence - and they look stunning.

As you traverse its length and breadth you’ll see vast mountains peaking over clouds and covered in mysterious fog, negotiate forest trails with massive trees obscuring your path, slink through underground causeways and sewer systems, crawl through dungeons, investigate ruins, explore wondrous castles and so much more. Each new area opens up as slew of new quests - as well as something shiny in the distance that demands to be investigated. The hardest thing to do in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is stay on point, on mission, and I’ve never been so happily distracted.

Now as I mentioned before, you are the Dragonborn, scourge of dragons and hero of the realm, and it comes with its advantages, namely the new ability to magically shout. You see, when dragons breathe fire or frost they aren’t using magic, they’re simply talking. To a dragon, combat is no more than an intense conversation or debate. Scattered throughout Skyrim are Words of Power, walls inscribed with terms useful only to you, Dovahkiin. Each new phrase adds a new ability to your repertoire with the added bonus of not depleting your magicka, so you feel like you’re having your cake and eating it too.

Some shouts can be used to clear foul weather, others can show you any living creatures in the vicinity, there’s a killer force push ability that blasts enemies into the distance, of course you can breathe fire, but the most useful one you’ll find is Dragonrend. This shout grounds any dragon it hits for a limited period of time changing the scenario from death from above to an all you can eat dragon buffet. There are over a dozen different shouts to uncover, each with three tiers to unlock and can only do so with the soul of a defeated dragon, so you’ll be battling these beasties for a large part of your adventure… and that’s not all that’s new in the cold northern reaches of Tamriel.

Spell casting and weaponry has had a complete overhaul and offers you an unbelievably amount of freedom. Any item can be mapped to each hand allowing all manner of crazy combinations. You could use a mage’s staff and a sword, a mace and shield, dagger and axe, or mix it up with some magic. All spells can also be mapped to each hand or double-tapped if you want a little more bang for your buck. You could run around with a shock-damaging sword in one hand and have your healing spell at the ready in the other. Mixing and matching to find your sweet spot is half the fun and you’ll constantly be chopping and changing.

I was partial to main-wielding a two-handed sword, holding restoration (healing) magic as back up. I made sure to get my sneak on whenever I was hitting up a cave or ruin, draped myself in heavy armour and I was a dab hand at archery - useful for sending my enemies some long distance love (with 2.0x damage when sneaking).



Funnily enough I spent a great deal of time focusing on weapon and armour manufacturing (under Smithing) and can't recommend it highly enough. The more adept you become at this skill the easier it is to upgrade weapons and armour significantly, fashion your own, create enchanted items and even, wait for it, craft dragon armour from the bones of those you’ve vanquished. It’s an invaluable skill and one I’m betting many will overlook - and it’s not the only one.

You can enchant weapons, you can take raw materials and craft potions to get your alchemy on, work on your bartering skills with speech and then there's all the other ways to level up your skills. You can find random experts on your travels and pay them gold to give you a mini boost. Certain Ritual Stones can help hasten your character’s growth focusing on thieving abilities, combat or magic, you can pray to divinities for an added health boost and to cure any physical ailments and the list just goes on and on.

As overpowered as you may feel at times, Skyrim is always at the ready with a humbling experience, with several littered throughout my journey. In my first hour I encountered a frost giant and thought I’d saunter over to bid him good morrow. Big mistake. On my approach he smashed the ground - not me, just the ground - with a club the size of a small country. My body arced gracefully, with fantastic ragdoll psychics, about 40-50 feet in the air before my bone crushing, life ending landing.

Confident in my abilities at the early level twenty mark, I had countless tough skirmishes, but had always prevailed, more or less. Entering a crypt, after unlocking it with some ceremonial weapons, I was confronted by a fearsome warrior’s ghost. After hitting him with every shout, spell, arrow and two-handed strike I could muster, he’d barely dropped ten percent of his health. I even threw my [no doubt soiled - Ed] underwear at his as a distraction (that may not have happened).

He was the final obstacle before I could read a Word of Power etched in the wall behind him - creating quite the quandry. Should I man up and try to best him? Come back later when I’d jumped a few levels? All decent plans, but not on the menu. Gathering my courage a run past him at a full bolt, read the words off the wall and ran crying home to mummy before he had a chance to rend me limb from limb.



I plan to return for a little payback, but not until I’m in the region of level 50, and that’s part of what make Skyrim so goddamned addictive. For every moment the game has you feeling like the greatest fighter the world has ever seen, there are equally emasculating moments that throw you on the back foot, running for your life. The balance is just right, with a constant push and pull against your abilities.

Special mention has to be made of the truly magnificent score which brings your entire adventure to life. Composer Jeremy Soule has had a long and distinguished association with The Elder Scrolls franchise, but has well and truly outdone himself here. It just oozes class and mires you so deeply into the experience you’ll never want to leave. His background music takes centre stage conveying a sense of grace, longing, melancholy and nobility all at the same time. It is bolstered by a Nordic choir congratulating each achievement, be it minor improving of a skill, approaching a new location or levelling up your character, what he;’s created isn’t just music to your ears, it’s music for your soul and it really is remarkable.

I could write another 10,000 words on The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and still feel like I’m only just scratching the surface. This is the most expansive, intuitive and living game world I’ve ever had the pleasure to play. Sure it may have sporadic bug or two with the random pop in here or an audio glitch there, but none of this shatters the illusion of immersion for more than a millisecond before you’re off and running at something shiny glinting off up in the distance.

Skyrim is completely and utterly addictive in every aspect and quite possibly, I’ll say it, the greatest RPG of all time. It affords you the luxury of playing it your way and doesn’t try to constrain you. It wants you to get lost in a winter wonderland and believe me, you will. Kiss the rest of your life goodbye.