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Skyrim

Here we are ladies and gents, for my first review I will be looking at Bethesda's latest title.

Skyrim is the next in the series of Elder scrolls games, following on from Oblivion, which is still selling anniversary copies to this day. With these big boots to fill, the hype leading up to the release, was always bound to be huge. Bethesda promised a lot from this game, and as such, a lot was expected.

The gameplay for Skyrim is great. The amount of options you have as a player going into combat are numerous, with 3 different branches of combat, magic, ranged and melee, each of which branches off further, giving the player plenty of options. The world itself is huge and persistent, giving the impression of a living breathing world. Npc’s will go about their business regardless of where your player is within the world. In cohesion with the deep and developed lore that comes with the Elder scroll series, the game really does seem alive.

One massive boost to the story element is the addition of radiant stories, which take actions from the game and creates random quests, this is an innovative addition that has really extended the potential game time that can be spent on the game. As an RPG, the story for Skyrim is quite possibly one of the most important features of the game, which makes it all that more surprising that the main storylines of Skyrim do not really strike me as a story people will be talking about for a long time. The questlines, both the main and the guild, are average, which is unexpected considering the rich and deep lore that has been built into the elderscroll series. Don’t get me wrong, for the average player the story is interesting and enjoyable, but as a player who has played the previous elder scroll games and read about the lore, the story is definitely sub-par. However, an element of Skyrim that has had a lot of effort put into it is the music, which is quite frankly beautiful. The music, taking on a Nordic theme, is appropriate for Skyrim, and really gives the feel of the world, and during battles the music takes on an epic tone, which is truly out of this world. Easily one of the best music scores for a game I have ever heard.

Overall, Skyrim is an epic game that will easily sink a massive amount of your time. The world is huge, with a vast amount of lore, as a role playing game it is one of the best and will be setting the bar for open world RPG’s for a long time. It is very hard to play Skyrim, despite its innovative combat system; its quest creation system; its beautiful scenery, and not be disappointed by the lacklustre storyline, which is by far the games weakest point.