Two hundred years since the end of the Oblivion Crisis; the player begins the game as an unnamed prisoner. A civil war is raging between the imperial legion of Solitude and the rebel stormcloaks of Windhelm. After a character creation, a dragon attacks the town of Helgen, allowing the player to escape. It's not long before the character learns they are a Dragonborn; an all-powerful being that can absorb dragon souls to learn special magic spells known as shouts. From there the story is told at the player's pace as their character attempts to unravel the dragon attacks plaguing the land and discover their destiny as a Dragonborn. The story is well told, feeling much more immediate than the Oblivion Crisis. Many characters of different races and natures populate this tale along with many twists and turns along the way though the other quests to do with the civil war do not factor in with the main story which mildly removes the sense that the world of Skyrim is changing due to your actions.
With a sprawling world ripe for exploring and filled with hundreds of quests and hundreds of hours total play time, Skyrim provides an epic game bound to last for at least three years to find every location and even longer to max out your character, and beat every mission. You begin the game by creating a character but this time he or she is no longer tied to specific upgrades and skills. All races start with bonus specialisation in some skills but you're completely free to build your character in any way you wish across eighty levels. Want to go melee only with a sword and shield? Or a combination of magic and stealth? The choices are simply endless and unparalleled in almost every other game on the market today. The same also goes for play style; sure you could be an honest and good citizen of Skyrim, earning your money the right way but for others it will be much more fun to sneak around, breaking into shops and robbing the innocent. Each time you level up you'll go to an elaborate looking skill tree menu to increase health, stamina or magika points as well as assign a perk point to one of the many skills available. Acrobatics and agility have been dropped in favour of alchemy going towards concocting potions and poisons, enchanting to place attachments such fire damage on a weapon and speech to get better prices to buy and sell goods from vendors. Quests are divided into several categories; Faction quests include the companions, Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood and College of Winterhold which specialise in melee, pickpocketing, assassinations and magic respectively. There are also civil war quests in which you side with the imperials or the stormcloaks, Daedric quests which focus on the demonic gods infesting Skyrim and many more side quests and miscellaneous tasks. It's all held together brilliantly with the map and journal system's showing you exactly what you're doing and where you need to go. It also serves as a quick travel option to places that have already been discovered. The inclusion of dragons also adds greatly to the series. Some attacks are random and others are set at areas in which villagers will join you in the battle, it goes so far to making you feel like you're part of this huge world.
The enormous amount of choices creates an enormous amount of gameplay types. The melee combat now allows for dual wielded weapons. Combat still feels tough and gritty thanks to some new Fallout style finishing moves though these can suffer from clipping and slowdown issues. The combat still isn't quite on par with proper action games due to some loose hit detection and the lack of a lock on system. Magic can also be dual wielded with different spells affecting different attributes. For example a lightning destruction spell can chip away at a mage's own magika points. Along with ranged combat with bows, magic remains fun and weighty to use thanks to some satisfying hits and sound effects from foes. Sneak remains as devilish as ever with attacks from behind feeling tremendously brutal. This gameplay type also applies to the crime system. Committing a crime while the eye symbol is closed prevents any bounty being added in a given town. Guards can also be bribed to avoid jail time which definitely eases the difficulty of being a criminal in Skyrim. The undead Dragurs, huge giants, bandits of all races, frostbite spiders and all manner of wild animals are just some of the many awesome creatures you'll face through the adventure. Caves can vary in difficulty and you'll often be brutally punished by tougher enemies, making the practice of multiple save files necessary. Also new to the series are followers which can be given orders and will fight with you. While these can be very useful to bear the weight of many items at once, they can be very annoying at times. They'll often get in your way when trying to attack a target and can block you in to tight corridors, prompting a reload. Regardless they are still quite useful and don't diminish the overall fun of the game. Shouts give a new edge in combat and give an even bigger incentive to go exploring and like most every open world games, there's sure to be an epic item or treasure waiting to be found by the boldest of explorers.
Skyrim's world is by far the best looking in the series to date showing huge draw distances and vastly detailed environments. Even running on low settings the game still looks so much better than Oblivion did by a mile. Animations still look great, be it swinging a sword or casting a spell. The third person viewpoint has also been improved in that your character actually looks like they are running rather than floating over the landscape. Gazing at such a huge world closely will reveal pixelated textures, the facial animations aren't quite the emotive they could be, and the game does take shortcuts such as vanishing NPCs going through doors and load screens for quick travelling. There will also be a few glitches here and there such as disappearing objects and allies not doing what they're supposed but taken as a whole, the world of Skyrim is a sight to behold in the world of open world games.
Skyrim is a brilliant RPG that significantly improves on its predecessor while offering an highly detailed world to explore. Any fans of adventure or RPG's are sure to get sucked in and fully immersed in one of the best games of 2011.
Rating: 9/10
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