4EVER's adventures in the land of Skyrim

Well, here we are. After extensive playing and thinking, I've finally come to a conclusion. I am finished with Skyrim. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't hate this game...I just...Well, let's start shall we?


Skyrim takes place in the province of Skyrim where a whole bunch of fantasy races live and thrive. You are a prisoner about to be executed. You are saved when a dragon, thought to be long dead, comes and interrupts your death. You escape and from then on, you do whatever. This opening is the only cinematic part of the whole game, whereas the rest of the storytelling is done by talking to people. Yup, I just love standing completely motionless and watch a character's mouth flap. Whenever this talking is done, it feels so artificial. You pretty much mash "A" until the speech is over and you can go run away. So much of the voice acting is poor and there are maybe...ten voice actors across the land of Skyrim. Also, it hurts that the script is poor as well. I spoke to a child and he said: "You're new around here, so I'll go easy on you. But don't get on my bad side" A KID SAID THAT? Really? A freaking child of maybe ten years of age??????? On the plus side of presentation, the graphics are awesome. Seeing the mountains in the distance make you feel emerged in the universe and character models for things like the frostbite spiders make you swear you were really there. Basically, everything in Skyrim looks really pretty. Except for children. They are just plain weird. 


The gameplay in Skyrim consists of exploring, fighting and crafting. As you traverse the huge (and I mean huge) land, you'll come across enemies that range from wolves to Dragon Priests. Unfortunately, combat is simple. If you use magic, you pretty much just walk backwards and spam your powers. Swordplay consists of swiping, then moving backwards, then swiping again. Every now and then, you need to do a power attack to break somebody's guard, but that's really all there is. Archery isn't really something I explored so I won't talk much about that. Sure, combat involves the occasional dragon shout or the use of a special power, but that's all there is. But, it's still fun, especially magic. I enjoy fighting a lot actually. Exploring will lead you to places that have some treasure or armour to plunder, which is cool. You might even stumble across a section of a story while exploring. Crafting is done in many different ways. You may blacksmith, where you require certain ingots and materials to make new stuff or improve it. Enchanting grants an item certain powers and alchemy makes potions to be used offensively or as restoration. It's very deep and clever. The story will sometimes take you to places like temples or dungeons which really get to me. The music plays the same track over and over again while it attempts to put in interesting puzzles. Nope. It doesn't work.


With all this "awesome" exploration and complexity, why don't I like this game? At first, I didn't have an answer. So I took the dog for a walk and had a long think. Then I realised; Skyrim lacks two things important to any book, TV show or game. Excitement and character. I don't know how, but Skyrim fails to be exciting. You never have a sense of urgency or drive. Take something like Mario Galaxy. That is exciting because of the pure rush you get when running up walls with Yoshi or platforming above a black hole or fighting a boss, or just about anything. Of course, you can relax and tool around on Starship Mario as much as you want, but when you commit to a level, it's serious. You jump and run through perfectly designed levels and have a great time. In Skyrim...you just sort of walk about...and see and enemy and then beat the enemy. The combat doesn't reward you or make you feel epic like in Arkham City and there is no drive to complete these quests. They all feel like; collect x, kill y or destroy x after killing y. And this isn't exciting. Sure, there's no doubt that I had some thrilling moments throughout my time in Skyrim, but they were soon replaced by a lack of atmosphere and drive. Here's the other problem. I don't care about anyone in the game or feel any drive to do anything. Nobody is interesting or engaging thanks to the script and storytelling and nothing feels special. I don't feel like I'm tearing through thieves, I feel like I'm killing three of X. Look at Animal Crossing. No, it's not exciting, but it's not meant to be. You like the characters, you care about building your house and most of all, you care about this little town (I named mine "Town" Clever?) But in Skyrim: "oh, Riverwood might burn down...too bad"

Now, Skyrim isn't a bad game, with the following it has, how can it be? But it just doesn't grab me. Goodbye Skyrim. I'm going to go play Deus Ex for a few hours. Or maybe Arkham City.