The Best Elder Scrolls Sequel So Far

       The story of Skyrim is one of fantasy and mystery, much like that of Oblivion. Don’t worry, I’m not going to spoil anything here – I’ll steer clear of anything story-related beyond the premise. With another game, that would be tricky. With Skyrim, the stories that come from how the game works are often the best ones. 

       Skyrim is a game that's easy to completely lose yourself in. The reason for this is two-fold. First, the game's production values work hard to immerse the player in Bethesda's sword and sorcery world. For a game of this size the quality of the graphics and the attention to detail is awe-inspiring. As the player travels through Skyrim, they'll encounter dense woodlands, snow-capped mountains, majestic cities and crystal clear rivers that run throughout the map. They'll run into an assortment of interesting characters and battle myriad monsters.  They'll have to plough through blizzards, find shelter from thunderstorms and, on a clear night, they can gaze up at the sky and see auroras bleeding through the darkened heavens above them. The visual and sonic features of the game completely obliterate any traces of the outside world. 

      The second part of this enchantment is wrapped up in the number of ways Bethesda allows the players to interact with the world it has created. Players can while away hours upon hours creating weapons at a forge, mixing potions at an alchemy table, enchanting weapons, chopping wood, practicing archery, investigating subterranean caverns or simply pointing their character at the horizon and heading over the nearest hill. They can buy a house, join a guild, marry an NPC or read every book contained in the library at a college for mages. Around every corner and at every new town they wander into, there's a monster to fight, a character to talk to and some new discovery to be made. The amount of things to do in Skyrim makes the player feel like they're a living, breathing part of its world. In short, you need time by the bucketload to get to grips with Skyrim, because once you enter its world, it becomes your world.

 

     Another thing that hasn’t changed is Bethesda’s apparent joy at kicking the player’s ass at every turn. Between trolls, Spriggons, bandits and sabrecats, walking a trail to pretty much anywhere means taking your life in your own hands. It’s a brutal world out there. Also, the 7000 steps to High Hrothgar…They ain’t kiddin’. What a climb! 

  

      From the time you kill your first dragon, fairly early in the arc, things unfold and shape and turn in a very captivating way. I’m very happy with that. You’ll have the ability to buy a home, gain titles and live whatever kind of life you’d like. If you want to spend hundreds of hours collecting flowers and berries, working on your alchemy skill? Go for it. Want to go out and get in bar brawls for cash? Go for it. Want to play the role of Dragonborn and put the smack down on some overgrown wing-ey lizards? Have at it! That’s something that really amazes me about this series…The fact that you can just do whatever you want. There is nothing pushing you along. Nothing that makes you follow the progression of the story. There’s no time, there’s no major sense of urgency to get things done, you can just do whatever you want. This has been a bit of a downfall for me, personally, because I often find myself spend much more time than I should off in the woods collecting flowers and catching bees. Suddenly I’ll remember that I’m on a quest and will set off toward my goal, only to get caught up in collecting flowers and catching bugs again.

    Magic, meanwhile, has been given an incredible crackle of raw power. Emperor Palpatine would be a level one mage in Skyrim – unleashing two torrents of thrashing electrical arcs is literally the first trick you learn, and it doesn’t even get you tossed into a reactor shaft.

    The Dragon Shouts, gained by exploration and killing dragons, are like a manlier version of conventional magic. One can send even a Giant flying, one lets you breathe fire, another makes you completely invincible for a few seconds. Even the one for befriending furry animals is macho: it can turn four bears and a wolf pack into obedient pets with one angry roar.

     In case I’m not getting it across because of my rambling, this is a thumbs-up. So gotto go now i still have side missions to complete. Ciao!!!