Based on suggestions from commenters, I’ve been playing Bethesda Game Studios’s action/role-playing game, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim for a little while now. Skyrim is the latest entry in the long-running The Elder Scrolls series of games (the first was released in 1994). I had never played any of the installments before.
The first thing that struck me about Skyrim is its vastness. There is a whole world to explore: mountains, forests, plains, swamps, cities, towns, ancient ruins, caverns. You could probably ignore the plotline completely in favor of just wandering around and exploring its world. It’s tempting to do just that. In the game you quickly learn that you are Dragonborn, one of a group of rare individuals who are able to absorb power from dragons when you kill them. From there the race is off to discover what that means and your destiny whatever that may be.
It uses a skill tree structure that’s pretty common these days: you advance in levels, gaining skills and perks as you go. The menu of skills you can cultivate is substantial and you’ve got to pick and choose how your character will develop. I’m playing at a medium level of difficulty, my character is presently at Level 20. I’ve elected to specialize in weapon-yielding skills (something I learned from other games was usually a pretty solid strategy for the first time through one of these games). In addition to my warrior skills I’m working on smithing, speech, and lockpicking (my guess is that having no lockpicking skills is pretty limiting). Smithing is handy for improving your arms and armor. If my character didn’t have the gift of gab, it wouldn’t be me. I don’t know that I could entertainingly play a character that deviated from my own instincts too much (in D&D-type games I am completely unable to play characters with evil alignment, for example). A bit of enchanting and alchemy thrown in for making enchanted equipment and health and defensive potions, respectively. So far that strategy is working out pretty well.
Initially, I found the frequent screen artifacts I encountered (funny things in the display of graphics) off-putting. I think they’re caused by a combination of the limitations of the game and my graphics card’s driver. I’m sort of used to them now. By comparison with the Bioware games I’ve mostly played I find the non-player characters a little underdeveloped. That tends to reduce my commitment to the game.
At this point I don’t know whether to just keep plugging away the way I have been, hurtle to the end of the game, stop playing this character entirely and restart the game to build a new character with a completely different set of skills. The game is maintaining my interest enough that I probably won’t just abandon it.
Sounds a bit like early Everquest in terms of the landscape. Back when it had no maps and retrieving your body if you died was sometimes a real chore. PVP?
Steve
No PVP (although there’s some speculation that custom mods could produce a PVP version).
It has several levels of mapping and something called Fast Travel which enables you to go quickly (in real time not game time) from one known location to another. When you die, the default behavior is to go back to the last save/autosave.
I haven’t had a chance to play in about a week, but I think I’m about level 40 now. I have a wife, my own house and still have a lot of Skyrim left to explore. For combat skills I’ve been focusing on stealth, archery and 1-hand weapons. I’ve also done smithing, along with some enchanting an alchemy.
Oh, btw, with the most recent patch I’ve had graphics issues as well. Not sure what the reason is but it’s only mildly annoying at this point.
I bought a house early on—it’s handy for stashing stuff in until you need it. My next major purchase will be a horse. It probably should have been my first major purchase. You can haul more stuff quickly with a horse.
I can’t play these games for the most embarrassing reason: I get motion sickness moving through video games.
Then you’d certainly have a problem with Skyrim: it’s quite vertiginous. Did you get motion sick easily as a child? That was a problem for my wife. She occasionally wisecracks that she’s thrown up on most of Southern California.
In her case it’s some combination of a processing issue and a vision issue. She has double vision that’s corrected via special lenses.
It’s something that developed later in life. I actually love roller coasters but I’ve slowly developed seasickness. A catamaran trip in Hawaii was torture. It’s a question of time limit. A two minute roller coaster is no problem, a half hour game or boat trip can be unpleasant, and it can take a while to get past it.
A house for stashing stuff? The problem with these games is you feel like a medieval homeless person wondering a world of wonders digging through debris and trash for items of uncertain worth. Who stole my magical shopping cart of convenience?
I’m debating Skyrim as my next buy so I’ll be interested to see if you keep up the momentum. I haven’t played Oblivion but I spent many hours on Morrowind. I remember Morrowind took me a few tries to get into.
I just finished Mass Effect 2 and 3 which were amazing (can never go wrong with Bioware!).
Skyrim seemed to me more like a realistic, single-player World of Warcraft (not a compliment). I agree with Sam – from what I’ve seen of the game, the NPCs aren’t as fleshed out and the dialog not as important as Mass Effect. Regardless, *if* I had a good gaming rig I would likely play Skyrim!
In 2009, I played Oblivion. FUNNEST GAME! When Skyrim came out, I was STOKED. I played, and I played, and I played. Now, level like 66, have a wife, house, and a horse. Now, I got Oblivion Game of the Year edition. Skyrim’s fun, but Oblivion’s BAWS. I go back and forth. Mass Effect, Battlefield, Modern Warfare, and Halo in between. *Sigh*, I love video games
I’m one of those who plays the game for the environment more than the clash’n’bash. That made me not a great match for WoW as it became a game that could only be realistically played as a member of a guild. Just call me anti-social, or maybe just an introvert.
I’m liking Skyrim so far. I absolutely agree that the NPCs are lame, but there are so many of them that you need to interact with that it’s not a total waste. The world itself is excellent. There are masses of plug-ins and mods that make it even more interesting.
But the gameplay isn’t really thrilling. I’m a Lvl-22 glib sneaky pickpocket with a decent-for-the-level sword.