Video game review: Skyrim (PC)

The last quarter of 2011, will be a very busy month for fans of video games. With many AAA titles released, (Batman Arkham City, Assassins Creed Revelation, Zelda Skyward sword), it is really difficult to find the time to play all these games.

Amongst these AAA titles, one of the most anticipated release is Bethesda's "The Elder Scroll V: Skyrim". After 5 years in development, Besthesda finally released Skyrim on November 11, 2011. Personally, Skyrim has been on my "to play list" ever since I first encountered the teaser trailer at the beginning of 2010. Being a fan of RPG genre for 15 years, I had great expectations for Skyrim. After I picked up my copy of Skyrim on its release day, I have played the game for around 50 hours (according to the developer Bethesda, to complete all the quests take approximately 200 hours). At this time, I have already completed the main storyline of the game, but left numerous amount of side missions undone. Anyhow, I decided I know Skyrim well enough to write a review for it.

Introduction:

Skyrim is the fifth installment of "The Elder Scroll" (TES) series. The last installment of TES was "Oblivion", which was an open world game. This means after the player enters the game world. You can literally go anywhere in the game. Besides the main storyline, there are numerous side quests a player can do, while accumulating items such as armor, weapons etc..

Oblivion was a good game, it had a massive game world with numerous amount of contents. However, the game was not perfect, as there were many complains about the character models, bloomy atmosphere, and had some flaws in the gameplay system.

In Skyrim, the developer has promised to fix all those problems. The game is heavily inspired by Norse mythology, from names, people, cultures, armors, weapons, buildings etc.. all look very "Viking" like, and are simply great!

Story:

It is really hard to say what the main story of Skyrim is. Because of its open world style and the massive contents. It is possible for a player to spend hundreds of hours on Skyrim and still not touch the main storyline at all. Personally, I think this is the one of the greatest charm of the Elder Scroll games. You don't have to play the main quest to play the game. The player can craft his/her own adventure base on what you feel like doing. In Skyrim, there are 6 factions that the player can join. Each faction has a series of storylines and quests that make them feel like a different game by itself. Other than this, random encounter with NPC (non-player character) in the game world can sometimes trigger new quests. Personally, I didn't start to play the main quest until I was 38 hours into the game. But the best thing is that after you finish the main storyline, the adventure doesn't end. Actually, you can continue to use your character to keep on adventuring in Skyrim and doing quests.

Just in case if you are wondering.. Yes, there is a main storyline. Which takes about 10~15 hours to complete. In the main storyline, 200 years after the event of Oblivion crisis (the main story in Oblivion), the dragons have returned to the land of Skyrim. This is an ancient prophecy foretold in the Elder Scroll. The dragons are lead by a powerful, ancient dragon known as "Alduin", which will consume and destroy the world. As hopeless as it sounds, all is not lost. The prophecy also foretold that there will be one last Dovakiin (dragon born), who will come to Skyrim at the desperate hour to do a final, titanic battle and slay Aldiun for all time. Guess what? If you play Skyrim, your character is the last Dovakiin the prophecy foretold.

The main storyline is interesting enough, but as I said before. The main strength of the story of Skyrim, is not in the main storyline. But in the fact that the player can craft his/her own adventure depending on what quests you do, and continue to do after you complete the main story quest.

Gameplay:

Skyrim is an open world game. The land of Skyrim has numerous cities and towns to visit, people to talk to. And dangerous caves, dungeons, ruins and forts to explore. The game world is filled with infinite adventures and quests to do. Yes, because of the new game engine used in Skyrim, the game will randomly generate quests depends on how your have been playing the game. Theoretically, you can play Skyrim for as long as you want with just one character!

The game can be played from either first person view, or third person view. Personally, because I hate first person view. I have been playing Skyrim entirely in third person view. But I do have to say that when it comes to spell casting or archery. It is far easier to do so in first person view.

The gameplay system of Skyrim has been revamped. Now besides the traditional fighting methods (two handed weapon, sword and shield, spell, archery), Bestheda has added the new option to dual wield. By duel wield, I am not saying just dual wield two weapons, but the player can actually dual wield spells, or have weapon in one hand and spell in another. Dual wielding spells can be especially fun, as the player can assign different spells in each hand, and even combine them to create different effects. Another new addition to the gameplay system is the finishing move animations. The finishing moves look great, but they don't happen too often to create distractions.

Skyrim is an RPG, so it also has a lot of player leveling ups. The character level-up system in Skyrim has been simplified. Before you start to rant about your dislike for "streamlined level-up system", let me say that the character level-up system in Skyrim, is so well done that I do not miss the level-up system in traditional RPG at all. In Skyrim, the players are no longer required to invest in physical attributes such as: strength, intelligence, vitality etc..as in Oblivion. There are 18 skill trees in Skyrim, when the player levels up, all you have to do is to choose which of the three areas you want to improve: health, magika, and stamina. After that, the player is granted 1 perk per level, to invest in special skills under a certain skill tree. When the player starts the game, you no longer choose which class you want to be. The player's character built depends on how you play the game. This means, for example if you use two handed weapon and wear light armor a lot, you are going to land up with a character that does insane damage, can move quickly but has very low defense rating. I really like the idea of "your character built depends on how you play" system. Thumbs up to Besthesda on this one!

As the player is meant to be "Dovakiin", this means the player is going to slay a lot of dragons in this game. The dragon encounters in Skyrim is simply awesome! The game engine is made in a way so dragons appear randomly in the game. There were so many times when I was just running in the wild, and all of the sudden I heard the roars, see the shadow, look up and.. a dragon is flying down the mountain to attack me! The random dragon encouters, not only add to the fun factor of the game, but also creates a sense of immersion and real adventuring for the player.

As good as the gameplay in Skyrim is, but it is not without flaws. In PC version of Skyrim, the user interface is extremely poorly designed. Skyrim has probably the worst UI I've ever encountered in video games. Maybe it is because this game is directly ported from console? Anyway, the user interface is so clunky and it is really frustrating to use.

Another gameplay flaw is that for some reason. Besthesda has decided to cap the frame rate on PC version of Skyrim to 60FPS! This is really annoying, because this means the PC user cannot get FPS higher than 60 even with really high end PC. To disable the VSYNC through modifying the game file can cause some graphics glitches, so this means if you want to play Skyrim without graphics glitches on PC, you are stuck to the console limit of 60FPS!! Come one Bethesda, please put some effort into looking after your customers who use your products on PC! After all, PC users are also paying hard cold cash to support your business! This game feels like a direct console port without any effort to adapt to PC platform. It is simply ridiculous and unacceptable!

Other than these two flaws, the gameplay in Skyrim is near perfection.

Graphics and design:

I love Norse mythology! And I also love Conan the Cimmerian! Skyrim seem to be taking these literary elements and infuse them into their game design. The game world looks like something straight out of Beowulf and the Norse Epic saga with a touch from Frank Frazetta's artistic input! (There are numerous references to Norse mythology, i.e. Poetic Edda, Hrothgar, King Olaf, Volsung etc..)

Skyrim looks like a land that existed long before you entered, and feels like it will continue to exist long after you're left. The game world looks absolutely amazing, there are so many times when I just stopped in the wild, and looked around to admire the scenery.

Another major improvement in Skyrim is the character model and design. In Oblivion, every NPC you encoutered not only look ugly, but also extremely comical in appearance. To simply put it, in Oblivion, it is hard not to mistaken an orc for Shrek. In Skyrim, an orc actually looks like an orc and you don't want to mess with him. All the character models now look different, and they all have unique looks.

I also want to praise the dungeon designs, all the dungeons in Skyrim are hand crafted. This means every dungeon, caves, town or cities that you visit, are all unique. This is very good efforts on Bethesda's behalf.

Having said this, the textures in the game seemed pretty low for a 2011 game, which is a shame because the graphics of Skyrim could have been even better if not for the low textures. I think this is because the developer tried to accommodate to the console version of the game?

All in all, I think Bethesda has done a great job at crafting the world of Skyrim, and it is very clever of them to infuse Norse mythologies into the game to inspire a sense of realism. The result is a game with just the right amount of "fantasy and realism". Skyrim, is a stunningly beautiful looking and deeply immersive experience.

Sound and music:

The soundtracks in Skyrim are amazing. From serene music in the cities and in the wild, to extremely epic music in battles. The soundtracks for the dragon battles are especially epic! Sounds like a group of ancient barbarian warriors singing with the orchestra!

The sound effects are among the best in video games. Not only do the dragons look menacing, but they also sound menacing as well. Enough for you to actually want to run away from them.

Conclusion:

Story (9.8/10): The best thing about the story in Skyrim is not in the main storyline, but in the way that the player can craft his/her own story through adventures you choose to do. Having said this, the main storyline is still interesting enough to be treated as a "major quest" in the game. This is a game that you can play for as long as you want, and theoretically with "infinite" replayability. A very robust game indeed.

Gameplay (9/10): The revamped gameplay system is well implemented, but the clunky user interface and the FPS cap makes the PC experience somewhat frustrating. It would be really good if these two issues can be fixed in the upcoming patches or mods.

Graphics and design (9.7/10): Despite the low textures used in this game. The land of Skyrim looks amazing, but with a touch of realism thanks to the inspiriation from Norse mythology. The game world feels like something out of an ancient saga only found in almost forgotten, epic poems from eons in the past.

Sound and music (10/10): In Skyrim, dragons sound and look like real dragons and not lizards. The epic soundtracks makes you wonder why they don't use the soundtracks as national athems.

Violence: Heavy: Skyrim has a lot of blood and violence. Strictly "M" rating for mature audiences only.

Sex/nudity: low: Apparently, according to online forums. It is possible to marry NPC in the game world, including same-sex marriage. No sex scenes are present, but one should beware that there are some sexual references in NPC conversations.

Final Score: (9.7/10): I found it hard to describe what it feels like to play Syrim, but I think this quote from Tolkien sums up quite well: "The value of myth is that it takes all the things you know and restores to them the rich significance which has been hidden by the veil of familiarity" - J.R.R. Tolkien.

Skyrim is a game that transports players into a fantastical world of an ancient frozen wasteland, it is a place filled with lore and adventures. You may find yourself lost in it and captured by its beauty, and wonder if such a place can really exist!