If you follow the video game news somewhat closely or even browse the internet for more than a few minutes a day, you’ve probably come across some sort of hype regarding “The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim” game. For those not too familiar with the game, “Skyrim” is the latest installment of the Elder Scrolls franchise that is highly regarded among the roleplaying and general gaming circles. The hype leading up to this release has been one of the biggest and furthest-reaching promotional campaigns seen for a video game in a very long time, especially for a game outside of the first-person shooter genre.
Now, what is Skyrim? For starters, it’s a roleplaying game (RPG) but what makes it different from other RPGs is that the game world is open ended, meaning that there’s a lot more to see, experience and do. You can go weeks without touching the main storyline by trekking into the mountains and fighting yeti-like monsters, slaying dragons, marrying a husband or wife, venturing off into the wilderness to hunt animals, forging your own weapons, making your own armor, collecting herbs and plants for potions or even ingredients for cooking. What you want to do in this game is completely up to you and the experience is completely customizable.
The storyline begins with your character being taken to the town of Helgen to be executed. What happens immediately before your beheading is something for you to discover but soon enough you find out that as the “Dovahkiin,” or dragon-born, you have a destiny to fulfill, with the entire land depending on you. During your travels, you’ll come across various side quests for profession guilds, priests, merchants and even politicians.
Every experience in “Skyrim” is a unique one. It’s almost impossible to have a complete duplicate play-through. There are tons of options you can choose from that can start your character differently each time. Another plus to this game is a slight change from previous Elder Scrolls games and RPGs in general. Your character doesn’t have a specific class or any limitations, so you’re free to try out any skill you like. The only character constraint you have is your race, which is pretty safe in itself.
Lastly, it’s probably not a good idea to grab this game without some form of guide, whether online or in print, to refer to while playing “Skyrim.” PrimaGuide’s Official and Special Edition Strategy guide boasts almost 700 pages, pretty much double of Oblivion’s (the previous entry in The Elder Scrolls series) guide, so you know there’s a lot more to do. Also, you can’t exactly ignore the side missions in this game. Early on you’ll come across monsters that you can’t defeat right then and there, so you’ll end up completing side quests to level up and then take on the challenge.
“The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim” is something that you’ll want to sit down and dedicate at least two to three hours per session to. Also, this game isn’t for the extremely busy college student. Chances are you’ll probably want to start playing “Skyrim” after finals are over. You’ll find out that the hours pass too easily playing this fantastic game and you’ll still have that final paper to write. This reviewer speaks from experience.