Here is my review:
While most reviews start with the basics, you already know that stuff. So, let’s get right to it.
MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD.
Atmosphere and Story: While an improvement over Oblivion, the world of Skyrim is still much too devoid of life, personality and spirit. Some of this arises from major cities having between 15-20 buildings and being so small as to be completely crossed in under a few minutes, but not all of it. The cities and towns of The Witcher are similarly small, but somehow seem much more alive by comparison.
The Nordic theme has been praised to date, but let’s be honest: the Nordic theme is pretty darn cool in real life. It doesn’t mark some triumph of art direction to look at real, existing Nordic design and transpose it to a virtual world. And even by that standard, it’s been done better. Vanguard’s Varanjar and their home city of Halgarad used a similar theme and are much more....majestic...than that found in Skyrim.
The story is a rehash of the Chosen One theme, though the mechanism of words of power and dragon souls is well done. Certainly, finding a word of power is one of the highlights of the game.
As has happened too often in the Elder Scrolls series, scripted events and NPC actions happen much too independently of main quest events, causing an unnecessary sequence of confusion. Two quick examples. First, after escaping from the first dragon attack, your companion gives you a lead on where to head for help and then tells you very clearly that the two of you need to split up. Yet, the game is clearly designed for the main character to remain with this sidekick to the first town, and if you follow the clear guidance to split up you will miss out of an introduction into the first quest area and one of the game’s main features, the guardian stones. Second, upon your return to Whiterun after felling the first dragon opponent, a mighty shout is heard throughout the heavens, summoning you to a sacred location. Unfortunately, a minor dialog between some Redguards and town guards occurs at the same time, as well as the standard Elder Scrolls NPC greeting-by-proximity from another set of town guards, resulting in three things happening at once, none of which elicit any response or reaction from anyone whatsoever.
Graphics: The graphics are serviceable, but are nothing especially noteworthy, with the possible exception of the aurora borealis in the night sky. In some places, most notably in snow-covered stone or wood, it retreats to Ultima Underworld level, inexplicably.
UI: Remarkably, the UI makes you long for the days of Oblivion. Which, when you really think about it, may be Bethesda’s most remarkable feat to date.
Combat: The combat marks a strong improvement over earlier Elder Scrolls titles. Being able to use a shield in real-time to block, bash or screen is a very immersive feeling and more than once I’ve felt like I was in a real fight for my life. I especially like that a shield block doesn’t automatically mean you take no damage at all, a nice benefit for those who like to use slow but powerful two-handed weapons.
Magic is very well done, with the conjuration spells especially having a real feel to them. One test character I made focused on conjuration and raising zombie bandits on the fly during a pitched battle was not only a cool experience, but a very markedly different experience from the same fight as experienced by my war-axe-and-shield Nord warrior. Combat is fun, immersive and visceral.
One problem that should be addressed via a patch, however, is the weakness of ranged combat. I’ve had three enemy archers draw a bead on a lightly-armored character and he barely felt it.
Character Development: A real weakness in the game, once again making one wish to return to the days of Oblivion. Each character is interchangeable, with the Orc and the Breton each as likely to pick up heavy armor vs magic, though some inherent abilities do shape the character as more suitable to a given role. I suppose one could characterize this as “freedom,” but to me it takes a lot of the charm out of it.
The “perk” system is generic and lacks even a quarter of the personality of the perk system in Fallout. Want a heavy fighter? Choose upgrades on the Heavy Armor skill to watch your armor rating go up 20% per rank. Want a mage? Choose upgrades on Destruction and cast those spells for half price. It’s all very predictable and never seems to involve any tradeoffs.
I understand the attraction of a skill-based system, but to keep one while doing away with classes or core skills really renders much of the development meaningless. It also significantly reduces the attractiveness of side-quests.
Crafting: Crafting, including alchemy and enchanting, is quite fun, though simple. Spending perk points in areas like Smthing results in very significant increases in ability. The system won’t please people seeking any complexity, but it is a nice enough side-game.
Bottom Line:
A solid C+
A serviceable game, but nothing exceptional or noteworthy, with flashes of brilliance overshadowed by a lifeless game world, unresponsive NPCs and cookie-cutter main characters.
any idea what the "official" take is on Camoran's speech about Nirn being Lorkhan's Daedric sphere? I vaguely recall MK implying it to have been bullshit.
