Oh What Joy Discovery Brings……

Rain falls gently over the small trail leading up to Bleak Falls Barrow, a decrepit and broken fortress half buried in the snow above you. The closer you get, the more you become aware of the rain slowly rolling over from that damp cold to icy pellets of sleet, and finally to a whirling slant of fast falling snow. Obscured by the weather, you almost stumble headlong into a small scouting tower, the only saving grace being the small pinpoints of torchlight up ahead. Crouching down, you slowly encroach upon the bandit post, taking a moment to swap out your iron battle axe for the hunting bow you found near the village of Riverwood. Readying an iron-tipped arrow, you take careful aim, using the torchlight as a guide to find your targets. You let loose your projectile, hearing it land in the back of the bandit’s head, killing him instantly. His two companions start, drawing blade and bow as they call out “Who’s there!?”, “Show yourself!”

Swapping out your bow, you take up your heavy axe in one hand and in the other a flame spell, rushing forward as the two remaining scouts close with you. Pressing down on your magical attack, your simple flame burst spell becomes a lethal looking flamethrower, igniting both bandits as you sweep your hand back and forth. With magika spent, you cleave the nearest bandit in the head, the view suddenly shifting to a very visceral looking deathblow as blood flecks across the screen, the man’s head caved in like a broken melon. The other bandit turns to flee, begging for his life. You give chase and cut the poor man down with a quick blow to his back. He lands on the path leading to Bleak Falls, face buried in the dirt and blood smeared snow.

With the threat now gone, you take a moment to loot their bodies, even finding your arrow still stuck in the bandit you shot earlier. You notice the weather picking up pace, obscuring your path. Taking a moment to switch out your flame spell for your recently purchased Clairvoyance talent, you quickly find your bearings, following the small ripple of blue magic leading through the swirling snow and ice towards the undergrounds of Bleak Falls Barrow……

It has been two hundred and fifty years since the events of The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, and the lands of Tamriel have been all but restful since then. With no unifying force to keep the myriad people secure, civil war has ravaged and fractured the once mighty empire. With no emperor to protect, the Blades have disbanded, having gone into the world to slowly fade from the memories of its people. It has been a time of terrible sorrow, terrible suffering, and terrible uncertainty. And soon, very soon, it will be a time of terrible prophecy. For soon, the last prophecy of the ancient Elder Scrolls will come to pass; those magical, mystical pieces of future time that have foretold the fates of king and pauper alike. And this final vision of the fate of Tamriel, and its people, rests upon your shoulders.

Into the Howling Dark

You’ve followed the trail as best you could, through the light green crush of some unnamed forest, past broken spires of weather-worn stone, into the quiet of the ice and snow covered highlands. The air is cold, dry, lifeless. The wind braces against your face as you clamor over snow covered rocks, its passing sting reminding you that The Throat of the World is a harsh and unforgiving place. It has bred strong willed people, hardened by the cold and the land. And much like its people, the land does not suffer the weak.

Steeling yourself against the fact, you press on towards the cave your employer told you to find. The task was simple enough; find the cave, retrieve a golden horn stolen by a local band of brigands, and return for your reward. Cresting a ridge far above, you turn to look down upon the small village several miles below. Even from here, the air is clear and crisp enough to see the village bustle with ordinary life; grey smoke rising from various chimneys, merchants milling about open stalls, workers moving towards the mill, the faint red glow of the smith’s hearth as he pounds the iron and the steel of the world into blade and shield.

The view is breathtaking. And from here, as you look upon the land of Skyrim for miles in all directions, you would be hard pressed to dismiss claims that it is a land blessed. That it is a land that gives birth to the strong. Yet for all its beauty and for all its strength, it is a land that can mean death for the unwary.

A shadow above blots out the midday light, snapping you from your reverie. You scan the sky above, seeing the splayed wings and the prehensile tail disappear behind the rise of the forest canopy to your right. As the beast lets loose a guttural cry, the chill that runs down your spine is suddenly far colder than even the winter air your breathe.

A Dragon.

Breaking into a sprint, you race for the cavern ahead of you, the ground suddenly shifting under foot as you run, the dragon growls as it lands and races after you. Your blood races and your heart skips as you hear that unnatural swooshing, deep intake of air. As you scream and dive into the cave, the almost thunderous boom of dragon fire licks at your heels. You land upon the dank cavernous floor, clawing and scrambling to get to your feet. Tucking your body into a curve in the wall, you can hear it pace and growl outside the cave. Dragons are tenacious hunters, patient, relentless, merciless. It will not give up the chase any time soon.

As you pause to catch your breath, you know that you must press forward into the quiet dark. Into a lair filled with unknown dangers. Death behind you. Death before you. And as you take hold of bladed steel in one hand and summoned magical light within the other, you suddenly realize that what they say about Skyrim is true.

The land does not suffer the weak.

Of Bauble, Brook, and Blade

The first thing that really caught my eye was the striking beauty of Skyrim, from babbling brook and light snow covered slabs of earth and rock, to the way the tree branches swayed lightly in the wind, expelling small boughs of collected snow as it fell lightly to the ground. The villages feel both organic and weather worn, the people far from simple static elements in the system, each having a purpose both simple and complex. Subtle things caught my eye, to the way that the weather dynamically changes from point to point, rain one minute, snow or sleet (or even that in-between) the next, and it even affects the items I was holding; frost covering the tips of my iron mace, a glaze of snow along the top rim of my iron shield.

I was expecting a long campaign in Skyrim, what I wasn’t expecting was the still-going-on bevy of things to do in the town of Riverwood (basically your starting village), six hours later after I started playing. From here you can do all manner of things if you’re interested in doing them, from chopping wood to smelting iron and steel ingots into weapons and armor, or tromping around the nearby’s to hunt elk and wolf and bear for their pelts to make clothing, simple leathers, trinkets you can sell at the local merchant store.

All the while the villagers go about their daily tasks, some working at the local smithy, others tending to crops in small square plots of land, others simply traversing the town drinking to excess (yes, there is a village drunkard) or tending to various everyday tasks of life. Even in this small section of space, I am in awe of the changes Bethesda has made to the Elder Scrolls universe. And at the same time, I wonder if this is the last time I’ll get to experience the setting on consoles as it currently is or, as I hope, simply a new beginning in a much larger world.

Skyrim is beautiful. Absolutely the best console-based Elder Scrolls to date. Everything seems so vivid and colorful, even when covered in bits of snow and ice. Skyrim itself looks wild, untamed, untouched. And the bits that have been worked by the hands of mankind seem to meld within the land around it. It all has that “well lived in” look, weather worn wood now that soft grey, stone set roads smoothed and hump backed with the passage of both foot and cart. Beautiful. Organic. Perfect.

Elder Scrolls has always been a game where pretty much everything not nailed down can be picked up, stored in your inventory, or in some cases, stolen. That trend doesn’t stop here. Pretty much everything you see can be yours if you want it bad enough. And every item in your inventory can now be manipulated; you can spin the item around, flip it over, and look at it from every possible angle you want. You can also hot list it your “favorites” list. With a quick press of the D-pad you can swap out your current steel mace for a longbow and iron tipped arrows, or a sword and shield, sword and dagger, sword and flame spell, you name it.

Hitting start gives you a list of menu items, ranging from weapons, armors, items, etc. Flicking over to view other talents or to level up your character is a simple up, down, left, right thing. Streamlined and orderly for your viewing pleasure.

Loading times are still there, though surprisingly the longest load I ever experienced took less than 12 seconds (yes I timed it). And that was when I went from the overworld map into Bleak Falls Barrow and back again.

Leveling up in Skyrim has been retooled to fit the new feel of the game. For one, don’t expect to have a preset profession to start with. Every player begins the game as a blank slate. There are 10 races in all, based on the dominate races of Tamriel. After that it’s, well, pretty much your choice.

Skrim’s new leveling system also comes with the ability to gain skills and perks from its new skill tree system based upon the various constellations in The Elder Scrolls world. The idea is that you look up to the heavens and you have a different constellation for each one of your skills, and those constellations are actually made up of perks that you can pick, so the way leveling up works is you just use skills – whatever you like doing you keep doing it, and you’ll get better at it, and the more you increase your skills (any skills) the more you’ll move towards leveling up, and when you level up you get to pick a perk.

These new perks, much like what was present in both Fallout titles, are unlocked as you become more proficient with a certain skill. Every skill affects your leveling. The higher the skill, the more proficient you become with magika, certain weapons, armors, and so on.

New to the series is the ability to dual-wield. And what that means is that it allows players to do pretty much anything they want. For instance, you can wield a mace in one hand and a spell in the other or go sword and shield, spell and shield, sword and mace, or even dual wielding spells at the same time. In fact, you can even dual-wield the same spell for a more potent and impactful outcome. An ice spell, for example could be used with another to not only damage an enemy, but with the added incentive of literally freezing them in place.

Being Dragonborn, it is your duty to tame and defeat the dragons of Alduin before they consume the world in fire. To do this you must learn to speak their language. Literally. Known as the Voice, your player has the ability to gain powerful chants and battle cries that he or she can learn along their travels, chants that can alter the playing field in your fight against these ancient creatures significantly. These battle cries can be found in ancient texts, ruins long buried in the land, or even from the souls absorbed by defeated dragons.

One such dragon shout, which the player gains after delving into the deep dark of Bleak Falls Barrow, gives the player the ability of a Force “push” powerful enough to stagger and confuse potential dangers long enough for you to react, be it to simply escape safely or prepare yourself for battle. Now, this shout is just the “novice” word you learn. Most, if not all, of your shouts start out like this, but if you can find the two other words that fit with the initial word, hell, you can literally clear a room full of potential hostiles before they even have time to react.

On the audio scoring department, you have absolutely some of the best sountrack riffs I’ve ever heard. From the ambient background song lightly playing as you travel; light flutes and violins, to the fist-pounding thunder of battle horns and deep drums when you enter battle. There’s that satisfying clang of iron against iron, the dull thud of a weapon against wooden shield, that wet-sounding smack of cut flesh as you spill your enemy’s blood, and that equally rewarding pop of breaking bone as you smash in an enemy’s head with a large steel mace.

But it’s when you’re fighting a dragon that the music really shines. The first I heard “The Dovakiin” play I…..I just couldn’t properly describe just how truly epic the game felt then. It stirs the blood, resonates deep in your core, and just……here. Words alone cannot do it justice. Here, take a listen….

http://youtu.be/r35vsmzDkis

Great stuff right? I just want to scream “I am all that is ma- I mean Dragonborn! HAHAH!!!” ….um….*ahem.* Right, moving on…

The main story is strong, but it’s the sheer metric ton of sides-stories that make this game fantastic. The civil war that’s brewing between the Stormcloaks and the Empire, the Companions (as close to a Fighter’s Guild as you get in Skyrim), The College of Winterhold, Dark Brotherhood, Thieves Guild, all the myriad little quests that fit in the in-between; all optional but all equally memorable in their own way. This is what I love about RPG’s. It’s what I love the most about Skyrim. I’m not funneled to point A, then to point B, then to *yawn* point C and so on. I can take my time doing what I want to do. I can skip and ignore what I want. I don’t have to do it, but I do because, well, I enjoyed the hell out of it.

On the who bugs/freezes/glitches, yes there are some to contend with. Thankfully not as many as I was fearing there’d be. Some are minute, like when I was in a local tavern talking to a Bard who gave me a sidequest to do involving a wood elf and a local girl they both fancy. While he was talking he sipped from an invisible cup, with said cup mysteriously disappearing and reappearing on the table in front of him every time he picked it up and put it back down.

Another was a fellow in front of Whiterun that, when I first passed him, was waist deep in the road. About an hour later I was coming through again and, well, he was still in the road, but there were…..two clones standing next to him. And yes, there have been a total of two game freezes/crashes while I was exploring the overworld map, but honestly, considering how glitchy as all hell the Gamebryo Engine used to be before this new Creation Engine took its place, I’ll take that as a vast improvement over the near broken experience I’ve had in other Bethesda games.

The DLC packages, though not numerous, have been rather large and beefy and add in their own unique elements to the game itself (weapons, items, magic, and so on); Dawnguard, Dragonborn, and Hearthfire. And they ARE susceptible to the same problems as the main game; but again, minute, nothing game breaking that I’ve ever experienced.

On the PC end of things you’ve got two official plug-ins with the High-Resolution Texture pack, and Fall of the Space Core, Vol 1. Which, oddly, teams Bethesda and Valve up by adding in the Space Core to the game’s storyline. Jealousy. I haz it.

Final Thoughts: I spent six hours of my life consumed with just wandering around my first town before I even set foot on the path of the main quest. I never felt rushed to do anything I felt I wasn’t prepared to do. I wanted to simply experience and experiment with every last thing in Skyrim that I could, then to take cautious time to appreciate the work that I put into my character. And I am thankful for this. I have been absolutely floored by the experience, despite the small gameplay elements that still need some work. I honestly look forward to what Bethesda offers up to me in the future with this new engine, be it in another Elder Scrolls game (please please please), or another Fallout title (PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE). Because if this is the future I have to look forward to, it’s going to be one hell of an experience, and a privilege, to see.