Following the events of Oblivion, where the late king's last remaining son had a much greater destiny than being the next heir to the throne, the Empire quickly lost power and influence until 200 years later, where Skyrim begins, they're trying to regain some of their former glory by invading the other realms. Including - you guessed it - Skyrim. Their presence is dividing a nation, splitting them into a group that welcomes and supports the soldiers of Cyrodiil and the Stormcloak rebels, who believe that Skyrim should be free from the Empire. In fact, some of them wouldn't mind getting rid of everybody, who isn't a Nord.
Right from the start, people try to drag you on to their side, ask where your loyalties lie, whether you're for or against the Empire. And that's when the dragons start to show up and scare the shit out of everybody. I might be absolutely wrong here, but my guess is that, in the long run, you'll end up uniting the people to stand against the dragons. But since it's a Bethesda game, there will probably be other options here, as well. We will see.
The game does an incredible job at making you experience everything through the eyes of your character, from the shaky camera when you start to run to the huffing and puffing when you're out of breath from the very beginning of the game, where you're being carted to your execution with a bunch of other prisoners, who all talk to you as you look around.
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| Nobody would wield their maces like that. |
The whole thing isn't perfect. You don't actually see your character when you play in 1st person perspective, you don't get to look at your legs flailing about when a baddie sends you flying and the way your character will dual wield melee weapons is anything but realistic, though it does look pretty awesome once you zoom out into 3rd person view.
I'll admit I'm a bit disappointed with the graphics, especially the overall look and feel of Skyrim itself, the outdoor areas, the forests, plains, mountains and streams. Don't get me wrong - it most certainly doesn't look bad! But do you remember the first time you've ever played Oblivion? How you had to pick up your jaw from the floor and you couldn't help but gaze at the landscape for a while before you actually went on with the game? There are no such moments for me in Skyrim.
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| It looks nice. Just not piss yourself with excitement kinda nice. |
According to preview trailers and interviews, they're using a whole new engine, but I see old flaws persisting from the days of Oblivion, starting with the really shitty jumping animation to random arrows getting stuck in your character and staying there for what seems like an eternity.
The faces, facial expressions and overall animations look better than ever, but there is simply nothing here that completely blows me away. Oblivion did that. Fallout 3 did that. I guess Bethesda have spoiled me in that regard. I was expecting more.
The game has supposedly become a lot simpler, as well. Not in an "idiot-proof", casual kind of way, but less unnecessarily complicated. Instead of having a skill for long blades, short blades, blunt weapons etc. you just get one-handed and two-handed weapon skills and that's that. No more strength attribute. Or any attributes, for that mater. No more acrobatics, either. Instead, you now get to choose perks upon level ups, which are supposed to be more fun and exciting than simply raising stats such as strength or intelligence.
I can appreciate the big idea here, however I'm not entirely satisfied with the execution. When I level up in Skyrim, being a dual-wield melee based character, I get to put points into a perk, which raises the damage done by my one-handed weapons. I also get to raise things such as health or stamina. How exactly is that different from or more exciting than having a Strength attribute, which I used to level in the earlier games of the series? It does the exact same things.
I'll admit there are a few more interesting perks, which will allow you to paralyze foes with a power attack or make some attacks bounce off your heavy armor, but in order to get those, you will have to spend countless points on boring, dull perks such as "+10% armor bonus" or "+5% two-handed weapon damage". I fail to see the innovation.
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| On the default difficulty setting, your first dragon is a complete pussy. |
One thing that has definitely become simpler is actual difficulty. On the default, medium difficulty setting ("adept"), I can simply click enemies to death like a madman and even when I have sprung a few traps and when I have done battle with my very first dragon, my life bar would never go any lower than 50%. I don't really mind, since I can always crank things up a little higher if I get bored, but I was hoping for a combat system, which would feel more solid and complex this time, rather than getting through every tough situation with simple button-mashing.
My major complaint with Skyrim is its shitty interface. Seriously - how hard can it be to come up with a UI, which can be controlled with a mouse and keyboard? Buying and selling items is a chore, switching from your favourite sword to a bow and arrows is unecessarily complicated and the whole thing becomes horribly unresponsive if you do as little as *try* to use your mouse in the menus rather than navigating them with WASD, E and TAB. Don't get me wrong - you will get used to the menus over time as you play, but you simply shouldn't have to.
I know that reading all these bits of criticism will make it sound like I had a horrible first impression. But, and that's the important bit, I absolutely love the game. I can't wait to get back in, can't wait to fight more dragons, to explore the land and to fight my way through countless dungeons, meeting new companions on the way and working my way through the various guilds and factions. It may not have the stunning looks I had hoped for, but they're more than adequate. Combat might not be as incredible as I would like it to be, but it's enjoyable and the bloody fatalities and dismemberment make it look good. And most of all, the story is right there, drags you right in, won't let you go. Because unlike Oblivion, this one makes you the hero, makes you the main character rather than Sean Bean's little errant boy. And at the end of the day, that's exactly what we all want from our role playing games.
-Cat
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