It Dawns In Fire

Two hundred years have passed since the gates of Oblivion opened up across Cyrodiil, flooding the countryside with the evil Daedra.  With the end of the Oblivion Crisis the Forth Era began, an age of peace and rebuilding meant to restore the Empire to its former glory.  As time has gone on however the Empire has instead begun to crumble as it is losing its grip on the northern province of Skyrim, home to the Nords and refuge to a strong portion of the Elven and Orc populations.  Skyrim is on the brink of civil war between the Imperial-backed Loyalists in Solitude (Skyrim’s capital) and the Stormcloak rebels of Windhelm.  And, once again, the Elder Scrolls have predicted this and the terrible repercussions are beginning to take hold.

You awaken on a cart being taken to your execution for attempting to cross the border into Cyrodiil.  In the middle of it however an awesome and dreadful sight arrives: a dragon.  Long thought extinct, you are barely able to escape the beast as it tears apart the town’s motley garrison.  From here your destiny is your own to make but the Elder Scroll’s prophecies will be fulfilled whether you will it to or not.  The survival of Skyrim and all of Tamriel is in your hands but the outcome is a fate of your choosing.

Skyrim’s story, much like that of Oblivion, is an open-ended affair that can’t be so much told to you as experienced.  Given the nature of Bethesda’s catalog of titles this is to be expected but to spoil anything from the story would be blasphemous.  What I will go over however are some of the sections as examples as to what the player can do without invading the main storyline.  What I can say is that of the overarching narrative is that, while perhaps not in possession of the best narrative in comparison to some great games out there you will find yourself having trouble both leaving and returning to the main plot as there’s simply so much to see and do in Skyrim.  When looking at Bethesda’s previous efforts however the answer is clear: Skyrim is the best one so far.

Men are But Flesh and Blood

Like all other titles Bethesda has created since they were first formed Skyrim has a rather robust and complex character creation system.  At the beginning of the game you are allowed to create whoever you wish to be across a choice of ten races, each with their own native abilities like magicka resistance or enhanced thievery skills.  While each one has unique enhancements you’ll also find that being a certain race can give you access to different conversation possibilities and even alter the way you are viewed in Skyrim.  For example, since the Nords that dominate the population of the province are quite racist to Orcs and Elves you can find yourself being insulted and possibly more if you are not careful.  As an Orc however you will automatically have access to a few Orc strongholds that lie throughout Skyrim.  This mechanic does not seem to limit the player access to anywhere in the world however so you don’t have to worry about which race you choose.  Given that you are Dovahkiin I felt it necessary to include a little humor in the background of my character.  Thus Dvorak, the female Imperial, was born and for those of you who got that joke I send your way a high five.

Character leveling and upgrading is a staple of any role playing game and Bethesda titles are no exception.  What you will find however is a far different system from all the other titles before Skyrim.  Instead of choosing which skills to give stat-building points to this time around the entire system has been redone.  No longer will you gain experience for completing quests.  Instead you will earn an overall level by completing leveling of the various skills at your disposal.  The eighteen different skill sets are divided into one of three categories: Mage, Warrior and Thief.  There are no acrobatic or mysticism skills in Skyrim so don’t think you can just go running and jumping across the countryside to level up your character.  Sorry, this time you have to earn it if you want to reach the game’s level cap of fifty.

Within those eighteen skill sets you will find another new ability: perk activations.  Similar in concept to the system utilized in Fallout 3, each skill set contains a perk tree that gives you access to more powerful ones if you can both unlock the preceding ones in the path by continuously leveling that skill.  Using the archer skill set you can, for example, unlock the ability to zoom in and slow down time when drawing your bow.  Others, like the smithing skill, allow you to create and upgrade various different types of armor and weapons depending on your how much you level it.  The ability to unlock a perk comes available each time you have leveled up your character but you are not required to unlock one during this process.  Perk saving is a welcome addition to the series and I can only hope it sticks around.

Unlike Fallout 3 though, whatever character you choose, you will find that Skyrim returns to the tradition of allowing you to max out your character in all aspects rather than having to rely on specific specializations.  To do so however is a triple digit investment of hours so those daring enough (and have that amount of time on their hands) can certainly have their cake and eat it too.  Regardless of whether you are willing to invest that kind of time into the game you’ll still find yourself more in control of your character than ever before.

They Know Their Doom, But not the Hour

I have made it clear in the past that I believe that only one game has ever done first-person melee combat right, that title being Condemned: Criminal Origins.  Condemned’s mix of simple, strike and block mechanics made combat both easy to understand and at the same time quite intense.  In Oblivion, a title that arrived a handful of months after Condemned, the combat felt weak in this author’s opinion and was a factor that affected the title’s overall worth quite negatively, enough anyway to prevent me from returning to the game after closing my first Oblivion Gate.  What I find remarkable about Skyrim is that there doesn’t seem to be a hint of Oblivion’s combat system at all within it which is an exceptionally welcoming sight to see.

Combat in Skyrim runs the standard gambit of single and two-handed weapon combat with the added ability to dual-wield any combination of weapons and magic you see fit.  Players can even combine magic spells together for increased effectiveness or to gain added affects to yourself, your target or both.  This is only accentuated by the reworking of the game’s inventory system that allows you to favorite weapons and items such that they can be used on a whim at the press of the directional pad.  This new system really draws the player into combat far more than Oblivion or Fallout 3 ever did as it never takes you out of the action.

As the Dovahkiin you have access to one other ability: shouts.  As you progress through Skyrim and explore both the story as well as the many, many locations scattered throughout the province you will locate pieces of the dragons’ language.  Each location will yield one word of a phrase that you can wield as you see fit and each word is unlocked by absorbing a dragon’s soul.  Each has a different effect when used and as such differing degrees of recharge times (you cannot spam them endlessly).  Earning souls and learning words to fill a full phrase can unlock powerful variants that cannot be overstated in their usefulness.  These improvements are definitely superior to their lesser counterparts, the difference being using a shout to cause an enemy to flinch and fully knocking them off their feet and throwing a fireball and unleashing an inferno.  Shouts are exceptionally useful in combat and can often mean the difference between life and death.

Earning dragon souls is no easy task and it is here that we address the most talked about (and anticipated) part of the overall Skyrim experience: fighting dragons.  You will find that, while some moments are scripted to continue the story along, a vast majority of the encounters with dragons are either random occurrences or even optional endeavors.  You will often find yourself wandering through the land only to hear a sharp rush of air and the roar of one of the beasts as it passes overhead.  However, despite its imposing arrival they will sometimes just circle overhead and fly off.  The random nature of the dragons really makes the experience more exciting.

Fighting a dragon is no small order of action though.  Should you engage (or perhaps be engaged) by a dragon you’ll find yourself fighting a formidable foe that, at a bare minimum, is as strong as you are.  These beasts will fly around and attack you from every angle, often forcing you to shift between short range attacks and long range ones with a bow and arrows.  Dragons also come in a variety of types such as fire, frost, blood and more so you may have to shift your strategy based on exactly which one you are fighting.  Dragon attacks can sometimes have you facing two of them at once as that very scenario happened to me.  Should this become reality your only hope is to use the terrain to your advantage and pray you are near a settlement whose defenders will come to your aid but if neither of those can be utilized it is probably in your best interest to act on the later part of your fight-or-flight instinct.  Regardless, fighting a dragon never gets old and when the sweeping chorus of Nordic chanters take over the game’s soundtrack and the beast begins flying toward you murderously you’ll always draw your sword with a smile on your face.

The (Other) War in the North

For each of its titles from 2002 to 2008 Bethesda Softworks utilized an engine called Gamebryo.  This engine, while remarkable last generation, looked muddled in Oblivion and was universally decried in Fallout 3.  Thankfully Bethesda uses a new engine in Skyrim called Creation and while the results yield similarities to what we’ve played before this new one is quite the generational leap.  Draw distance and environmental depth are the key focuses of Creation and it is immediately noticeable upon stepping foot in Skyrim for the first time.  The game smartly has little to no invisible walls (a large problem in Fallout New Vegas) and The Throat of the World, the tallest peak in all of Tamriel, is climbable, something that many are going to want to do from the moment they begin the game.

Beyond height and draw distance you will find that Creation allows for a deep and quite lively world to explore, more so than anything Bethesda has ever created.  Forests are large and alive with animals living their lives underneath the canopies of tall trees.  No one location in all of Skyrim feels generated for the expressed purpose of existing and the world actually feels quite alive.  These changes aren’t limited to the world however: the citizens of Skyrim are just as vibrant in their lives as the outside world is.  Character models no longer seem randomly generated and the compliment of voice actors this time around doesn’t seem nearly as small in number.  Conversations no longer zoom in on the (previously ugly) faces of people and the world continues on outside of your interactions.  The world of Skyrim is incredibly engaging and one you will love exploring.

One specific note that audiophiles and regular gamers alike should know about is the sound design.  Simply put, Skyrim absolutely has to be experienced in 5.1 surround sound and it is almost a waste to do otherwise.  The sound design is already fantastic but it is worth noting that, at least in the Xbox 360 version of the game, there can be some localized sound issues to be had with playing with a 2.1 or lower sound system.  In this scenario, at least during the pre-patch timeframe, sound often cuts out drastically when moving the camera away from active sounds and the simulation of sound coming from the side and behind you is dramatically different, yielding a product that makes a lot of interaction with the world a bit annoying.  Again, this is something that can probably be fixed through a post-release patch or even a properly calibrated sound system but for those who do not have a surround sound system you’ll immediately want to upgrade as soon as you experience Skyrim with one.

The Champion of the Fourth Era

When I sat down to review Skyrim I was quite apprehensive.  After all, I really didn’t enjoy Oblivion much outside of the first few hours and while I was actively engaged in Fallout 3 I did not like the idea of returning to melee-only combat.  What I’ve come away with however after over forty hours of gameplay already is a title that I was completely wrong about.  Skyrim is a game that not only will draw in Elder Scrolls fans but also new gamers alike with a gameplay design that you’ll be hard-pressed to put down the controller whether it is 2pm or 2am.  Combat in the game is engaging and the amount of things to do and places to explore is staggering even for an Elder Scrolls title.  After a week of playing the game for hours on end I still want to dive back in and fight another dragon, liberate another town and learn more shouts.

Simply put, Skyrim isn’t just the best title Bethesda has ever made: it is probably one of the top releases of this generation.  Mage or thief, Nord or Khajiit, PC or console, the results are the same: you will love Skyrim.