My Journey Through Skyrim

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is a high fantasy RPG, first released way back in 2011, and re-released countless more times because Capitalism (I'm joking, go easy on me), and unfortunately, I was late on getting onto the wooden cart that crossed the border into the land of the Nords, having gotten my first copy in the latter part of 2017 for the Xbox 360. But my journey through the cold North was anything but unpleasant and will forever be ingrained in my memory as the greatest video game of all time. I love it so much that I'm looking to purchase its next re-release for my smart fridge that I hope to own someday. Jokes aside, you're here for a story, a retelling of a pleasant experience that might be relatable or help you make an informed purchase, so let me divulge to you my thoughts on what I consider Bethesda's greatest achievement.

The return of the Dragons

Skyrim's main questline follows the return of the Dragons, heralded by Alduin the World Eater, the firstborn of Akatosh, the Dragon God of Time, who wishes engulf Tamriel in fire and chaos, and the only person who can stop him is you, the Dragonborn, a person blessed with the blood and soul of a dragon, and the power to stop them, but outside of that, Skyrim is a province plagued with all sorts of problems, from Dragon attacks, monsters, bandits, civil unrest, and the struggles of daily life, the fifth Elder Scrolls is chocked full with content to make your playthrough memorable, and lengthy for as long as you need to. From guild quests to side quests, there's plenty to see and do, with you controlling the pace of your adventure. Sounds impressive doesn't it, and for the most part it is. One can fall in love with how the quests meld with the atmosphere and setting. Skyrim is mostly a vast wilderness, fraught with danger whether you live behind the walls of the towns or cities, or not. I remember one occasion where I was travelling through the Rift and came upon a mill near a river, owned by a woman named Grosta and her son. Grosta tasked me with finding her husband Leifnarr whom had left home with their wood to sell but never returned, and she assumed he had run off with another woman and abandoned she and their son, but the truth was far more dire, because I found Leifnarr's remains in a well-hidden bandit camp near the city of Riften. This was a memorable quest, and I find that the reason why it was so memorable is because of its simple narrative. When it comes to a videogame, I want something with a good story, something with just the right amount of complexity and simplicity, and Skyrim has the perfect mix of quests to cater to different tastes, with many to teach you the lore of Tamriel and the forces that hold monopoly over it, and many that just require you to go around helping people solve their problems. You might scoff at fetch quests, but sometimes you need to take a break from fighting a civil war and go and collect alchemy ingredients for an up-and-coming alchemist, because deep down, there's a story to it.

One of my biggest gripes with the quests in Skyrim is the linearity and the guild quests but let me discuss the guild quests first…they aren't good. Whilst they are very story-driven, they're not as impactful because they require very little effort which oftentimes makes your hard work feel wasted. When I heard of the College of Winterhold, I trekked across the entirety of Skyrim to get in, only to realise that despite magic being the central focus of this particular guild, it isn't all that necessary to climb the ranks. Yeah, I know. I played Oblivion after Skyrim, and I remember that in order to get into the Arcane University and join the Mages Guild, you had to get a recommendation from each Guild Hall in every major city in Cyrodil and only then would you be accepted. In Skyrim however, you just have to complete an entrance exam, which involves casting one random spell, and I found this to be quite underwhelming. You don't tend to notice these flaws on your first playthrough, at least I did not, but despite being short and not as fleshed out or laden with intricacies and lore like previous Elder Scrolls games, there's a lot of fun to be had with them because they still possess relatively good plots and memorable characters.

Linearity, what I consider to be the main issue with Skyrim. Despite being marketed as an open-world game with endless possibilities that enable you to develop your character in any way you want, and how they interact with the world around them based on the choices you make, the truth is far from that. From my perspective, Skyrim's morality system borders on good and neutral, and most of the time, the game makes you choose between the two and often times this limits how you want a quest to end. For example, after Skyrim's release, two expansions were released afterwards, one of which was called The Dawnguard. This expansion centred around a group of Vampire hunters called the Dawnguard who are at war with a group of vampires called clan Volkihar native to Skyrim, and the plot centred around a prophesy that the vampires were trying to complete, which essentially involved rendering the sun powerless against all vampires, allowing them to wander Tamriel without fear of dying from contact with sunlight. You had the option to decide which side you wanted to join, the valiant Dawnguard, or the immortal and bloodthirsty family that lived off the coast of Skyrim, and regardless of whoever you chose and ultimately had to defeat, the choice you had to make in the end was the same, the tyranny of the sun could not be brought about. But what if you wanted the prophecy to come true if you decided to join clan Volkihar? What if you wanted to see how Skyrim would be affected by your choice? All you have at your disposal is a temporary sneak peek. It's a long-time trend that seems to appear with each new Elder Scrolls game, where there are limitations with the number of narrative choices and options available which begs the question, will The Elder Scrolls 6 have the very same issue, or will it be a true RPG, one where I as a player can decide how I want the story to end? Time will tell.

The lands of Skyrim

It's not difficult to see where a lot of the love was directed at whilst Skyrim was under development because its open world is beautiful. From the tallest peaks of the Pale to the autumnal forests of the Rift, there's a plethora of sights for you to behold because Skyrim's map is littered with locations for you to explore. Cities, towns, castles, towers, burial mounds, dungeons, old forts, caves, there's a lot for you to do during your playthrough, and it must seem daunting does it not, knowing that there's so much for you to do, but the beauty of it is that you aren't forced to storm a fort or delve into some unknown depths, nor is there a time limit. With Skyrim, everything is done at a pace, a pace which you control. Whilst quest locations are compulsory, they are unique in terms of design, layout, and what you might find in them, but outside of questing, you'll most likely find yourself wandering the wilderness, in search of something.

Past Elder Scrolls games like Daggerfall, Morrowind, and Oblivion were relatively horizontal in nature, but it seems that Bethesda has changed their open world design formula by opting for a more larger scale map in terms of verticality whilst still retaining its wide scale map size. But any studio can craft a large-scale open world game, it's a matter of doing it in such a way that it appeals to its audience, and I feel that this is where Skyrim truly shines. It's a striking level of depth that not many other titles can come close to achieving, because I believe many developers assume that its player base wants a large map, which is what I want, but I want it to be filled with interesting content and structures, not empty, and lifeless. Skyrim feels alive. Animals roam around, hunting, grazing, sleeping. Bandits patrol highways, ready to happen upon unsuspecting travelers, refugees can be seen wandering the wilderness, soldiers engage in combat, ants march across tree stumps. And environmental physics! I could go on for a long time telling you how much I love the way the grass moves, or the way water flows down winding rivers and off of waterfalls, or the blizzards that obscures your vision, or the heavy rainfall that pelts the dirt and cobblestone paths, though I must add, I do question whether Skyrim's version of precipitation happens all over the map, or is just a cell around the player that moves as you move, which at times, ruins the immersion for me. Sort of makes that figurative expression about storm clouds hovering over your head a bit true. But I digress, Skyrim feels like a living, breathing world, and very few videogames have come close to achieving that.

Character creation, artistic motives, and the joys of sword and sorcery

With an updated and new character creation system that offers a wide-array of options to craft your player character, gone are the days of weird, potato-faced characters with weird expressions. Past Elder Scrolls games afforded you a limited number of choices to mold your character, with all of the options being limited towards the character's facial features, or race. Skyrim shakes the formula by a vast degree by giving you not only more facial feature options, but facial markings, more hairstyles, and a simpler system to change facial structures. Sliders are still present but they're easier to understand and the changes are not so subtle as they used to be. You now also have the option to change your character's stature. Want to roleplay as a buff Viking-like warrior? Well, there's an option for that. Want to roleplay as a guy with a shockingly high metabolism and who looks like they can barely fight a mud crab? There's an option for that too.

Skyrim's races have been given a complete overall as well, in terms of design, and their appearance, featuring better, more prominent textures, and I believe that this, regardless of how you make them look, makes them fit into the art style and tone that Skyrim has or sets. Despite its high fantasy elements, Skyrim's atmosphere feels and plays more like a dark fantasy game than what it's made out to be. Your character, and every other NPC looks sullen, and melancholic. They even sound somber, except for that one Elf that runs the stable in Windhelm. He's strangely optimistic. I can describe Skyrim's colour palette as warm, moody, and sometimes cold, and grey. A strange assortment, but not far from the truth, and it creates this level of intrigue and comfort.

Skyrim's combat is divided into four parts, two of which can be used simultaneously. If you're a first-time player, and I speak from experience, you'll spend most of the game roleplaying with melee weapons. Melee combat is very straightforward, and can be best described as hack and slash, but nothing fancy like Darksiders or God of War. Instead, it involves very simplistic movesets, some of which are restricted to certain weapon types. You've got your daggers, axes, maces, swords, etc., with the option of carrying a shield, and the best part is that there isn't a level requirement to wield them, which is a trait prevalent with all weapon types. Then you've got two-handed combat, wherein you'll wield great swords, hammers, and battleaxes, a combat option more suited towards tankier characters who can take a hit because blocking won't negate most types of attacks. Unlike its predecessors Skyrim offers dual wielding as a viable combat method wherein you can wield two one-handed weapons, thus increasing your damage output, or you can spice it up by casting spells whilst swinging a sword because that's possible too. Magic is by far my favourite choice of combat because who doesn't enjoy casting spells and being an overpowered wizard? There are a wide variety of spells, belonging to five different schools, that being Destruction, Conjuration, Illusion, Alteration, and Restoration. I enjoy playing Skyrim on its legendary difficulty, because I play Dark Souls after all, and it also makes every combat encounter a matter of survival, thus I always dabble in Conjuration which allows me to summon monsters to aid me in battle, even arcane weapons such as a sword, or a bow. However, investing in magic can be costly and time-consuming because firstly, magic is heavily underpowered if you're starting off your career as an adventurer, especially on higher difficulties, and secondly, spells have to be learned either through purchasing spell books at relevant vendors which is extremely expensive, or happening across the desired one by chance, which doesn't happen often. But those drawbacks shouldn't be seen as a form of discouragement because the sacrifice is more that worth it when you're able to repel Draugr Deathlords with restoration magic and single-handedly defeat that guy that lives inside Azura's star without even considering summoning a Dremora (I suffered and had no choice, don't judge me).

All-in-all, if you're a fan of medieval fantasy RPGs, or you aren't and normally play games with intense shootouts but you're considering trying something new, Skyrim can provide you with what you're looking for, and it's available on almost everything so put that trip to Paris on hold and head North to Skyrim, I hear the weather up there is great this time around. Just keep an eye to the skies.