Skyrim - An Attempted Review

The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim is a challenging game to review for several reasons, mainly because at times it seems like a rich, thoughtfully designed world with endless choices on how to enjoy yourself, and at other times a creaking glitch fest to rival Superman 64. In an equally confusing way i'm going to start this review with a summary. Skyrim is not a "masterpiece" despite what the critics on the box art claim. Your character does not get stuck in the scenery of a masterpiece, nor do they hear the same five voice actors in as many minutes. The player definitely doesn't witness a mammoth nonchalantly levitating thirty feet into the air before channelling Wile E Coyote and falling to its death as part of a "masterpiece".

Amongst other things, it took me a long time to decide whether or not Skyrim was immersive; a problem additionally hindered by the fact that developers sling the term around more often than Wii remotes on a drunken parent's wrist at Christmas. I certainly didn't feel immersed when an attacking bear would suddenly sprint off into the sea, no longer able to resist its dream of being a grizzly submarine. Yet at other times when trekking through a forest surrounded by gently drifting snow, a majestic orchestral soundtrack and the ominous silhouette of a dragon in the distance, i couldn't help but feel a sense of awe. I ultimately decided that Skyrim is not immersive, despite it's best efforts but is instead incredibly detailed. From the multi textured and layered clothing on NPCs, to the fantastical landscape and it's stirring views from mountaintop or town square, Skyrim is beautifully crafted and one of the best arguments i've seen for aesthetic video game art...as long as no one sees the nearby dog slowly sinking into the floor.

These grainy potato wielded shots don't really do it justice...

I think one of the main reasons why Skyrim has been so well received by critics and players alike is that it allows you to do and be an immense number of things, for which it should be applauded and other games following the linear Gears Of War clone format should stop and take note. Now by featuring dragons, soldiers, wars, sorcery, assassins, werewolves, vampires, cults, demons, romance, tomb-raiding, crime, exploration and property management (and making ninety percent of those optional), the odds are in Skyrim's favour that some of these things will be done well. Dragons for the most part are everything they should be; terrifying, challenging encounters that often come out of nowhere and if you're alone in the wilderness, pit you one on one with a huge angry flying flamethrower.

Unfortunately on the rare occasion the Dragons do glitch out, it is more than noticeable. On my second playthrough i decided to settle down in a place called Riften, where crime runs high but having joined the thieves myself, wasn't a problem. The blacksmith of the town asked me to help out his dying forge, and seeing as a better blacksmith would obviously benefit me, i undertook the quest to find the minerals he needed. How does this relate to glitchy dragons? well once i completed the quest and following it received a chummy welcome whenever visiting my local axe basher, a dragon attacked Riften. I killed the beast before anyone was hurt but since then, every time i return there, the dragon's corpse spawns somewhere instead of disintegrating to a skeleton after its' death and getting out of the damn way.

Though apparently I'm the only one who cares...

This undoubtedly breaks the aforementioned immersion, although when the dead Riften dragon spawned mid-rooftop and slid down to crush my favourite blacksmith i was impressed that he not only stayed dead, but that i received inheritance and his apprentice took over at the forge. I later discovered that it was in fact a random thief that killed him and the dragon merely blocked my view and stopped me doing anything about it. Now that's a nice enough addition whether scripted or possible to befall any of the townsfolk but the dragon rather spoiled it and as charmingly hilarious as these glitches often are, in terms of creating an engaging, immersive world, it shatters the carefully constructed illusion within seconds.

The actual gameplay of Skyrim is rewarding, fun and addictive, there are a few irritating fetch quests and the caves, crypts and ruins sometimes seem duplicated, but for a game world this size to actually be enjoyable in almost every area is pretty impressive. The depth of the combat is a major highlight; there are hundreds of ways to approach every situation and depending on how you upgrade and whether you choose to specialise or spread your skills you may never have two fights the same. When choice is such a major feature, i find anecdotal examples paint a much better picture than this ramble-gabble-tech-spec-speak-fuck.

My first playthrough was as an Argonian; a lizard type man who i levelled up to practically be a ninja. After a fellow lizard double crossed me, i tracked him to a large waterlogged cavern where he was hiding amongst some beefy mercenaries. After several surprise attacks that all ended with my head getting caved in, i took advantage of my Argonian's water breathing abilities and lured individual mercs out for a beating before diving underwater as the cavalry arrived. In a literal rinse and repeat fashion i hid underwater until they gave up searching and then stealthily cornered another in a literal cloak and dagger fashion until i had worn away the entire group. Now that same situation could be handled completely differently depending on how you create your character, which is a process far beyond the initial appearance selection and is in fact interwoven with game's narrative itself. I fully intend to spend my next playthrough as an insane barbarian who charges through everything with a sword bigger than his head, just to offset all my sneaking, playing nice and getting married that i've done thus far...what?...oh fuck you, it gives you the option to get married so i got married alright?......stop laughing!

I haven't played the earlier Elder Scrolls games but it seems that they're constantly catching up with their own ambition which i think is strangely ultimately a good thing. For every stupid or unconsidered choice made there is a another that works flawlessly. The Werewolves for example have a fair amount of attention put into their narrative and gameplay, there are advantages and disadvantages to having the condition and when you transform and maul someone to death it is suitably macabre. The vampires on the other hand, seem little more than an afterthought as enemies for the werewolves. Their advantages and disadvantages amount to little more than status perks, and feeding becomes a trivial annoyance when there is no consequence to it. Nobody dies or becomes infected with vampirism when you bite them, you can only feed on sleeping prey, missing the chance for a wonderfully evil surprise attack and the feeding itself involves no blood and a pink fading filter. Surely alarm bells would ring when designing vampire gameplay and no one mentions blood?


Skyrim also suffers from the Minecraft problem of not explaining how to do several important things. Admittedly the explanations are there but only if you know where to look and there are countless players across the internet asking how to cure vampirism, or buy a house in Windhelm (actually currently impossible due to an almighty bitch of a glitch). So whilst exploration and discovery is rewarding, some things need to be more clearly labelled before the player grows fangs and is chased from every city he reaches trying to find help but greeted only with torch wielding mobs of previously friendly shopkeepers. 

After enduring these shortcomings however there is still such a lot to enjoy in Skyrim and its many bugs and faults have not stopped me playing it more than Mass Effect 3 (a series i had followed from the start).
With Skyrim it's a case of forgiving but not forgetting, an expansive but somewhat unfinished game, that is truly an adventure in that you have to seek out the unique and enchanting moments amongst the confusing and broken.