Game Review – The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

In the world of RPGs, it is very difficult to find one who has not heard of The Elder Scrolls series by Bethesda. The latest single player installment of The Elder Scrolls, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, is an Open World Action Adventure RPG where you control a character of your own design on their path to defeating a great foe from the past and embark on several side quests. This game allows the player to put their story in their own hands, giving them absolute freedom of how they wish to play.

Absolute Freedom

The story of Skyrim starts out with the player slowly waking up on a cart. They were caught in an ambush and captured by the nation’s army as they tried to cross the border. The player is then taken through a long introduction sequence to build the world a little before they begin, and the player is allowed to create their character from tons of different looks and races. Each race has its own special ability that may sway the player to one or another depending on their playstyle. As soon as the player breaks out of the introduction, they are prompted to go to a specific town down the road to start the main questline, but the player is given free reign to do what they wish. In a large world full of quests, side plots and other stories, the player can forge their own path. They could be a mage and travel to the north to learn from a college of mages, finding ancient artifacts in the process, or they could travel to the southeast and become a thief, using stealth, pickpocketing, and daggers to make their way through the game. They could have an encounter with Cultists at any random point and be prompted down an entire branch of story if they reach a certain level. This allows for so much interaction from the player, and the ability to feel involved in the world, absorbed by it. Talking with NPCs prompts them to learn more about the lore, but its all up to the player to decide if they want that.

A Couple Blemishes

There are some issues some players have with the game, however. As this is a very large game, they take a long time to make, and Bethesda has been pushing out some other projects instead of making a new Elder Scrolls game, as such, it was recently the 10th anniversary of the game, the latest installment in the Elder Scrolls franchise, and it is beginning to show immensely. As games up their graphics year after year, Skyrim remains with its far less appealing models and faces. While this could be fixed with an engine update or new refined meshes being sent out, Skyrim’s developers decided to add more activities like fishing to the 10th anniversary edition. Other issues the players have with the game is the community club. Instead of allowing the good mods on all platforms, some console players are trapped with the Creation Club mods, pay-to-play mods that add only a little content to the game. Some of these attempts at monetization even after the $60+ purchase bring some outrage to the fans. Another small issue the fans have is the vast multitude of bugs the game still possesses. Ragdolls being launched into the sky, flying horses, and running up steep slopes are only a few bugs present, and it breaks the focus within the game. Instead of updating and fixing these, once again Bethesda decides to push out other content instead, things none(or very few) of the community asked for.

My Final Thoughts

Some simple fixes could be patching a few of the bugs and giving a boost to the models again to stick with the times. Other than that, Skyrim is already a blemishing game of involvement and freedom of choice. While the graphics aren’t the best, they still stand up to some other games, and the large worldbuilding aspects and allowance of the player to go down their own path of story and weapon or armor specification certainly keeps the Skyrim fans holding on to their seats and waiting for the next game, and making good fun of the bugs along the way.