Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

40 to 100 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Grows on you"

A lot of games earn the unflattering distinction of being catalysts of social destruction. Is the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim any different? No, not really. Yet, if you can allow yourself to cave in, an immersive, rewarding experience can be found therein---an experience that is unlike any game in the market today. The fifth in the hugely successful Elder Scrolls RPG series makes its infallible mark in the fabric of the franchise, and just might possibly be one of the greatest video games ever made. Such a claim is open to contention, but based on my own experiences with Skyrim, I don't think I've ever played a game of such magnitude, and it is unlikely I'll find one quite like it ever again.

One of the reasons I say this is because Skyrim is an open-world sandbox role playing game that draws various elements from previous games and makes significant improvements over its tried-and-true gameplay formula. And the sheer open-endedness of Skyrim is absolutely staggering. After you've created your character from a template of ten different races, you can begin writing your own story soon after you're freed from your constraints and spared the dire fate of execution at the very start of the game. It all might seem overwhelming at first, but this sandbox in particular is rife with numerous opportunities for individual character growth, story progression and making a name for yourself in a cruel and unforgiving environment. You don't necessarily need to worry about making the wrong or right decisions----anything and everything is pretty much fair game and, while Skyrim itself will not punish you for your actions, the consequences of your decisions can still weigh on you. Killing innocent civilians and stealing will place a bounty on your head. You can choose to pledge your allegiance to one of two powerful factions currently vying for control of Skyrim----the dominant Empire or the Nord-centric freedom-loving Stormcloak Rebellion. You can put off the main story portion of the game indefinitely and focus entirely on the majority of side quests that number well near 200----ranging from fetch chores to killing marks and even persuasion and threats.

Character development is fairly straightforward with opportunities to grow health, stamina and magicka as well as consign perks, yet it is just as complex as the land of Skyrim itself. Unlike the Elder Scrolls games of the past, Skyrim doesn't give you an explicit class template like a Warrior or a Mage. You're left to create your own unique play style through the use of skill constellations that determine speech, specific weapon efficiency, magic schools like destruction and restoration, style of item crafting, and much more. Perks are singular skills within each individual constellation branch that grant the player access to a variety of different abilities---like decapitation, reduced stamina exhaustion, armor bonuses, etc. Again, there's no right or wrong way to develop your character, but keep in mind that a poorly-developed adventurer will often run into trouble during later stages of the game, and once you've spent your perks and points, you cannot undo them. So long as you decide how you want to play by focusing on the particulars, you'll undoubtedly ensure a path of survival as the journey across Skyrim grows more and more difficult. And, through it all, your character---regardless of race or play style---is burdened with a precarious destiny of being a Dragonborn with an additional repertoire of Shouts that you find throughout the game. They will definitely prove to be helpful when brute force fails on its own. In fact, being a Dragonborn is the reason for the main story portion of Skyrim, but this fact alone isn't necessarily all that important in a gameplay sense---considering everything else the player can do outside of "fulfilling their legendary destiny."

Overwhelming as Skyrim is, the game makes it easy to negotiate and is surprisingly user-friendly. You can fast-travel between towns and dungeons that you've already visited as long as you're not encumbered (weighed down), and the user interface has been streamlined for easier navigation and stress-free item management. Quest tracking is innumerably helpful with distinguishable markers and customizable waypoints to help steer you in the right direction. You can hire NPCs to fight and journey with you, as well as employ the aid of mounts like horses for faster travel to uninhibited areas. Building levels isn't reliant on points and figurative numbers; but rather your personal experiences in the world through crafting new figments of armor, successfully completing quests, selling items, building up weapon and magic skills--among other things. This disposes the drudgeries of monotonous grinding that is clearly evident in other role-playing games, and actually makes the chore of earning levels enjoyable.

Skyrim isn't without its noticeable flaws. As numerous as the quests are, most of them feel like cookie-cutter copycats of one another, making them seem derivative. The most enjoyable quests, however, involve exploration of lengthy dungeons and interacting with NPCs, and some of the stories and dialogue make you feel as if you're a part of that world. Transitional load times disrupt the flow of the experience somewhat, but they aren't enough to break the game experience. And as of this writing, occasional bugs crop up that will have you scratching your head in bewilderment, and there are rare ones that will disrupt your game progress. Hopefully, Bethesda will continue to implement much needed patches to address these issues. Thankfully, the game automatically saves at various points so you won't have to worry about backtracking should (God forbid) something happen.

So much effort and time goes into experiencing the vast world of Skyrim that exploring everything that it has to offer will lay claim to every fiber of your social life. And simply finishing the main story portion of the game is entirely missing the point. Skyrim does everything in its known power to ensure that the player truly gets their money's worth, and suffice it for me to say, it succeeds in this endeavor. It may not exactly be for everyone, but Skyrim is certainly a journey worth taking.....if you think you're up to it.