It seems dragons were indeed a fitting centerpiece for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim's marketing campaign. In most fantasy realms, dragons are often a looming, inescapable presence that take their place as the most intimidating and badass creature around. Such a description is a similarly apt way of characterizing what Skyrim is in the realm of role-playing games. Skyrim is a behemoth game that outdoes every single other game of this console generation in terms of sheer scope. From Dragon Age: Origins to The Witcher, and even The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, there have been many immersive fantasy worlds crafted in the past few years, but even the superb world-building in those games pale in comparison to just how impeccably realized the land of Skyrim is.
It doesn't take long after a misleadingly clumsy opening sequence to realize two of this game's most important facts. One, you are free to do whatever you please within the massive realm of Skyrim. Two, you are Dovhakiin, a humanoid with the soul of a dragon (more on that later).
In case it wasn't clear, the sense of place in Skyrim is at the game's core. There's a seemingly endless amount of places to go, quests to embark on, characters to meet and lore to learn. Even at sixty hours of play time, I didn't feel as if there was any shortage of content to explore. That's partly because the game is so well structured in terms of its opportunities to take on various missions and tasks.
As with all Elder Scrolls titles, the game's central story campaign is made quite apparent from the get-go. Dragons, thought to have been extinct for centuries, return pretty much as soon as you set foot in Skyrim. Their presence threatens the entire world, and as the Dovhakiin, you soon embark on a quest to slay these monsters before they can destroy it all. The main storyline has a bit of the cliche "chosen one" vibe, but as the story ramps up, major events start becoming more creative, and your decisions become more impactful.
In addition to the main story quest, there are five major quest chains that come from taking a side in a civil war, as well as joining one of Skyrim's guilds. The civil war allows you to join up with either an oppressive Empire, or a group of violent revolutionaries. Again, this may seem heavy on the cliches, but once the story gets going, the narrative ends up being a lot more nuanced than it initially appears to be. The guild stories are all quite engaging, with the Dark Brotherhood content, focused on preparing for a very high-profile hit, being the true highlight. It's worth noting that, despite the implication of being specific to a particular cla.ss you'll be able to go through each guild story regardless of how you choose to build your character.
It's this openness that characterizes nearly every facet of The Elder Scroll V's gameplay. This first becomes apparent when, in a very rare move in the world of RPGs, the game doesn't force you to pick any kind of cla.ss or specialization from the get-go. Instead, as you level up, you can choose to unlock perks that will strengthen certain abilities. This leaves you free to pursue any kind of character build you want, and hybrid characters are much more encouraged than they are in similar games.
The act of gaining experience to level up is similarly intuitive. Experience is gained simply through utilizing your favorite abilities. For example, the more you use two-handed weapons, the more damage you do with them. This formula for improving abilities is so simple and logical that it makes the behind-the-scenes dice-rolls and stat calculations that other RPGs use seem pretty absurd.
Combat itself a lot of fun, and is a marked improvement over past Elder Scrolls titles. Magic is a lot of fun now thanks to your ability to dual-wield spells. Mixing and matching different abilities, as well as combining them for a devastating attack is a lot of fun. Standard melee combat is also far more engaging thanks to an expanded set of attacks, as well as the occassional Fallout-esque brutal slow-motion execution animation. Finally, those who prefer a sneakier approach will find that same degree of fun abilities and attacks. Most significantly, however, is the fact that you can easily utilize any of these cla.sses. While my character was primarily a warrior, I also used a bow for deadly sneak-attacks, and used various defensive spells.
The last, and perhaps most interesting element of combat comes in the form of Dragon Shouts. As the Dragon-born, you are able to read and speak the Dragons' language, and thus can learn various phrases etched into Word Walls littered throughout Skyrim (mostly in monster-infested dungeons). These abilities usually help in combat or exploration. The Fire Breath shout is my personal favorite, but there are around 30 shouts to learn and upgrade.
The only major flaw I found in Skyrim's gameplay is the lack of compelling decisions and dialog options. While the main storyline does offer some interesting choices, they don't have a whole lot of lasting consequence, and few other moments in this huge game allow for this same level of decision-making. While choice has never been a staple of the Elder Scrolls series, it feels odd to play an RPG in 2011 that is as straightforward in terms of dialog as Skyrim is.
Skyrim's graphical quality can vary greatly. The environments themselves are absolutely gorgeous. The overworld is a massive, diverse place, offering up locals that range from arctic tundras, to snow-covered mountains, to filthy swamps. And while you must suffer through a minimal load time to reach interior environments, they are just as engaging (for the most part). The art design here is incredible, and it plays an integral role in truly bringing this world to life. That said, there are still some glitches to be endured, ranging from minor clipping and physics issues to freezes. On the Xbox 360, anyway, there are no truly game-breaking graphical problems or glitches, but it's still worth noting that this isn't a totally polished game.
The story is largely the same on the audio side. The impeccable sound design, surprisingly large voice-over cast and incredible score are some of the game's real highlights. However, there are some returning audio problems that have plagued the series for years. Minor NPCs still rattle off repetitive phrases whenever you draw near, and there are some occasional glitches here and there. At the end of the day, however, the good far outweights the bad.
Talking about The Elder Scrolls V's replay value seems somewhat pointless, as this is a game you can play for hours every day for months and still find new things to do and explore. Each of the six major questlines last between 6 and 10 hours, there is said to be about 150 dungeons to explore, a Radiant Quest system allows for a huge number of unique miscellanious sidemissions, and there are dozens and dozens of more involved quests to come across. And while all that content is good for a few hundred hours or so, it's also worth noting that there is something very rewarding about simply wandering in Skyrim. No matter how many hours you sink into the game, there's always a sense that there's more yet to be uncovered, and the game is so well put together that travelling around in hopes of discovering new adventures or visual wonders is sure to take up hours upon hours of your time.
Even though I've already written quite a great deal about The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, I feel as if this review still only scratches the surface. It's that colossal scope that proves to be Skyrim's most memorable, and unprecedented quality. Besides the game's absolutely ridiculous replay value, the core mechanics are intuitive, and the game's presentation is great. There are flaws to be sure, but they ultimately feel so minimal when compared to this game's unmatched achievements. Knowing that it will only be hardcore gamers reading this review, I'm not going to throw out the "If you're only going to buy one game this year..." phrase, but it's true that Bethesda has crafted one of the most fully-realized worlds in video game history, and with very few flaws can serving to distract from this game's wealth of content, Skyrim is ultimately the most compelling and memorable open-world game of this generation.