Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

100 or More Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Masterpiece"

Oh, The Elder Scrolls... Another game, another masterpiece. TES is without doubt one of my favorite Game series of all time. When I played Morrowind, I was amazed at its size, its scope, the quests. It was easily the best game I've played over many years. And is, till date, one of my most favorite game of all time. Then Oblivion came out, another brilliant game. Though I preferred Nerevar's story in Morrowind to the one in Oblivion. And then Skyrim came out, taking RPG gaming to a whole different level. The choices, the quests, the story line.. everything had improved.


1) Number of voice actors. Oblivion (and later Fallout) has recycled the same handful of voice actors making every other NPC sound the same. That's no longer an issue in Skyrim. Just as you would expect, different people sound differently. And the inclusion of Christopher Plummer! But there still are some issues, like the famous internet meme "An Arrow to the knee".. but IMO all this simply adds to the vastness of the game. Of course its impossible to have unique voices for each and every NPC in a game as vast as Skyrim.

2) Ability to switch weapons quickly. In your inventory screen, you can "favorite" weapons and spells. Those of us who like to mix things up (bow, magic, sword), absolutely hated digging through Oblivion's inventory. Now you can easily take your opponents down from the distance with a bow, then quickly switch to sword and shield for close combat action without ever seeing the inventory screen. And the addition of dual wielding. You can now wield a sword in one hand, and cast magic with the other. Or cast a powerful version of the same spell using double handed casting. Different variants. Brings a whole new touch to the combat system in the game, giving you a lot of variety.

3) Leveling is different. You no longer have primary skills, based on which you gain levels, and a whole list of secondary skills, which improved, but had minimal affect on your leveling. Now, any skill increase counts towards your levels. Which means that any action you perform has an impact.

Skills have also been trimmed down. Acrobatics, Athletics, Mercantile are all gone. Blade, Blunt, and Hand-to-hand have become One-Handed and Two-Handed. Armorer has become a real crafting skill, Smithing.

And the new perk system. Everytime you level up you can open up new options like stronger dual spells, decapitation, stronger swings, etc. Hence you can chose to level up what you feel is right, hence building your character of choice. If you start the game as an archer/thief, you can still change things around, and be an equally strong mage by mid game.

Though I guess the combat system could still have been improved upon. It can feel a bit too clumsy at times.

4) Which brings me to crafting. You can now chop wood (not trees, mind you), which you sell for gold. You can cook/prepare food. You can skin animals and turn that skin into leather. You can mine iron. And what do you do with all that iron and leather? That's right -- you make new weapons, armor, jewelry, or improve existing ones.

5) Sound and music are absolutely stunning. Environmental sounds are the best ever in a video game. Gusting wind, waterfalls, insects buzzing, wolves hauling in the distance -- the only way I could be any more immersed in action is if I actually felt the cold Nordic wind hitting my body. Once again, Jeremy Soule never fails to disappoint. The Skyrim tracks sound similar to the ones in Morrowind, calm, peaceful music. And I don't mind that one bit! Music, especially in dungeons, is more ambient now. It's definitely Soule's best work to date.

6) Overall, the biggest improvement is how alive the world around you feels. Salmon swimming upstream, fox running away from you, wolf chasing and killing a rabbit, butterfly gently flapping its wings, aurora borealis on a clear night sky. It's those little touches that make this game so special. Sometimes the view around amazes you. And you come across something surprising every now and then. The dungeons are well crafted as well this time around. They feel different. The dwarven mines, etc. etc.

7) Bugs still exist. Super powerful hits, flying animals, etc. etc. But for a game this huge, such things are definitely excusable? Plus, it kind of adds a certain fun factor to the game. While some bugs can get really annoying, some are really really funny. Guess there can't be a bug free TES game. But maybe its better this way.

8) The quests. Some of the quests in Skyrim are really really well written. Guilds are back as usual, Dark Brotherhood, Thieves Guild. Fighters Guild and Mages Guild replaced by the Companions and College of Winterhold respectively. Then there is the Skyrim Civil War going on, and you can join any of the 2 factions involved, The Imperial Legion or the Stormcloaks. The Blades are back. You'll fight a lot of Dragons, learn a lot of Dragon Shouts (a great new addition), later on you can even call a dragon to help you in fights! Overall, there is a lot of content, and what is really amazing, is that for a game of this size and scope, most of it is great. And even the main quest, I think the story was 2nd only to Morrowind. I guess I'm kind of a big fan of the whole Nerevarine story!


Do yourself a favor and get this game. I'd rate it as a complete 10. Though there are a few bugs, I've never found any game breaking ones. Honestly, I've had more restarts (stuck ups) in Red Dead Redemption (another great game) than in Skyrim. Though I played RDR on the ps3 and Skyrim on the PC. Its a brilliant game. Definitely the best game of 2011. And I'd still rate it better than all the games I've played in 2012. Definitely better than all the RPGs released this year. Bethesda Game Studios, has once again, released a Masterpiece.