Skyrim's the limit!
The game begins interestingly enough, I was caught off guard by the "nordic" accents, possibly viking'sh. Basically you are a prisoner being carted off with other prisoners to be executed. After some dialogue you arrive at the castle where the executions are taking place. After some more dialogue explaining the charges against the prisoners, you are then prompted to customize your characters race, gender and looks. I decided to play as a Nord, when in Norway do as the Nords do I always (never) say.
I don't want to spoil too much after that but, essentially a dragon attacks and all hell breaks loose. This is where the game begins, you are cast into the open country side following whomever you chose to follow into your first town where you are introduced to your first quests and the main line of the story.rnrn I won't get too much into the story, but the main story line names you as the "Dragon Born". You are to investigate why dragons are coming back to Skyrim, and how to put a stop to them. Without saying too much, you must fight fire with fire!rnrn If that's not enough, there is also a civil war taking place in Skryim, Imperials or Stormcloaks, who do you wish to side with?
I've played through the main quest line, finished the mage guild and fighter's guild main quests. I have also finished the civil war quests. A lot of quests are go find person "X" and retrieve item "Y" to obtain either money, quest progression or magical item "Z". There are variations but for the most part you will be going through dungeons and castles in search of a certain chest or NPC to kill. Never once was it a chore or boring. There was enough variation in scenery and dungeon layout to make it different each time.
Speaking of the scenery....WOW! The land of Skyrim is huge! Hills, mountains, rivers, streams, lakes, snow covered mountains where the only noise is the howling of the wind and blowing snow. These are the types of realistic scenery that you will encounter. There are also various animals and monsters that inhabit these lands, ranging from the tiny salmon swimming in the lakes, to the monstrous 20 foot tall Giants taking their woolly mammoth pets for a walk.rnrn You don't have to walk, there are stables that allow you buy horses (or steal them for the thiefly kind). The horses run at a good pace, just make sure not to go tumbling off a mountain or you and your horse will have to restart from a previous save. There are also cities to investigate, houses to buy, and you can also get married if you find your virtual soul mate.rnrn The cities are varied and interesting, I found that the layout was a bit confusing at first, but once you learned where everything was then it was not too bad. Although I still get lost or fall to my death too often at Markarth.
There are also different races to encounter, khajit, orc, high elf, dark elf, red guard etc....Daedric princes are also scattered across the land, waiting to challenge players with quests!rnrn I played mainly as a sword and shield character, I dabbled a bit in magic, but not as my main method of disposing of enemies. I also tried archery, but I found it hard to aim properly which is the same issue I had with magic. My fireballs and arrows would usually miss, which would usually alert all nearby enemies of my incompetence at which point I would have to pull out the battle axe and chop down some bandits.rnrn Levelling up at first was hard, especially because most creatures can kill you within one or two hits. Even mudcrabs were very dangerous if encountered in groups. But once I got the hang of levelling up then things became a lot easier. There are still levelled creatures around that level up with you, but you normally would only seem them while doing quests or going into certain dungeons.
That's all I wanted to say without getting into it too much. There is a lot more in this game than what i have talked about. I really enjoyed playing this game, and I'm probably not done with it. I'll load it up every now and then just to check out a couple more dungeons and do a few more quests!rnrn There are issues with the game, a couple of times I got stuck in between rocks and the only way out was to reload a previous save game. Also the load times between transitions is horrible, but I think it's only on the PS3. The PC version and 360 version might load up quicker, the PC version for sure, not sure about the 360 though. A couple of times the loading screen would get stuck and I would have to reboot the PS3. There are also some frame rate issues where it feels like the game seems to stutter or slow down a bit, but the slow downs were rare. The first person view also feels a bit off for some reason, it feels a bit zoomed in so you don't get the panoramic view feeling. Also, there is no 3D support, but I can understand that adding that in would probably slow the game down to a stuttering crawl. These were just minor issues, more irritations than issues. The loading screens allowed me to take a break and grab a drink or deal with other bodily needs :)
The PC peeps get mods that they can apply to their game, to either enhance the graphics or to add totally new content that was made by the community. Too bad we can't do this on the PS3 or 360. There are even a couple of youtube channels setup that review the mods every week. There are official add-ons that have been released as well. One of them allows you to become a vampire who can float off the ground as well as other creepy abilities. The newest add-on allows you to build your own house and have children if you wish. The official add-ons do cost money, I have not purchased any yet, but I may do so after adventuring a bit more.
Overall, the game was awesome. I really enjoyed the story and all the different quests. It was fun plundering dungeons and finding all the treasures hidden within. The environments felt very realistic and were very effective, I found myself shivering a couple of times while climbing up a snow covered mountain in the middle of a snowstorm! You will die a lot in the beginning, but that's because almost everything out in the wild can kill you if you are lower than a level 10. Keep going and follow the main quest or the civil war quest and get into a guild as soon as possible.
Adventure on brave warriors! Remember, keep your sword in front of you and the wind to your back so that the enemies may smell your wrath and run away in fear! Also, don't drink too much skooma ;)
J