Review of the Every Other Week - The Elder Scrolls : Skyrim

So, Skyrim. I'm a bit late on this review. I apologize for that. But here it is! I remember dedicating days upon days into the previous Elder Scrolls game : Oblivion. Every game in this series has been exponentially better than the last in almost every way. Skyrim is no exception to that. Bethesda's attention to detail is incredible. This game completely wins the "games as art" argument. It's beautiful and completely easy to lose yourself in. Which is exactly why it took me so long to get to writing this review.


Like Oblivion, you start the game as a prisoner, who by some stroke of fate is released. Last time it was a hidden wall in a dark dingy prison cell that a fleeing king had to use, this time a giant fucking dragon shows up and burns the shit out of the town that's about to execute you. Your adventure begins here.


A - Atmosphere
G - Gameplay
G - Graphics
S - Sound

A - From the amazing landscape to the entrancing music; this game does nothing but pull you in from the moment you start your adventure in a cart riding to the nearest town to get your head chopped off. Each area in this game is well designed, the dungeons especially have improved since Oblivion. Each has it's own unique feel to it, on top of that, the enemies respawn so you can re-visit them for extra loot. The sheer amount of things to do in this game is overwhelming, and you'll find it very easy to completely lose yourself in the world and it's characters. After the first half hour you'll find your quest log completely full of things to do. These aren't cookie-cutter quests either. They all have interesting stories and results. My favorite among them involved me in a drinking contest, I end up blacking out and end up at a temple across the map from where I started. The rest of the quest involves you trying to figure out what happened. The music along with the snowy mountain tops and the echoing dragon roars combine to create an appealing environment that's all too easy to become immersed in. I know I wouldn't mind living in this world. Not to mention the story. I was skeptical at first as to how the dragons would work into the story. I was convinced it would end up being cheesy. But it was anything but that. The story is easier to follow than Oblivion's, and much more interesting as well.   -10/10

G - Unfortunately I can tell you right now, gameplay is where this game suffers. Where as the menus and basic fighting have vastly improved, the framerate is absolutely horrible, at least on the ps3. They've yet to release a patch that fully fixes it.  But it's completely disappointing playing this game for a few hours (that amount of time is meager in the land of Skyrim) and seeing the framerate dip below 10fps. When the game does work correctly it's awesome. Fighting is made more fun by the brutal finishers your characters have now and everything feels more fluid. The Dragonshouts add even more fun and chaos to everything. Everyone knows by now that yelling "Fus Ro Dah" at villagers produces hilarious results. It feels like everything has improved in this iteration, especially the menus. The skill menu is well thought out and executed. Everything is laid out in constellations and you can clearly see how your character is going to play when you max out his level. There's also a myriad ways to actually play through Skyrim. There's the obvious swords, axes and magic; but people have taken the game to extremes by playing only unarmed, and by not even killing anyone throughout the entire game.  Skyrim has amazing gameplay that is horribly hindered by it's awful framerate -8.5/10

G - Skyrim is a beautiful game. The environments are vast and gorgeous. Climbing mountains is just as fun as swordfighting and throwing magic spells around, just because of how beautiful it is. There is the occasional texture pop-ins when you're out in the tundra, but whether you're in the tundra or simply admiring items and weapons in the menu, this game looks amazing.  The character models have vastly improved since Oblivion as well. Faces look much less cartoon-y and the khajiit, argonian, and orc races look much more appealing as well. Skyrim's attention to detail does nothing but impress from the moment it starts -10/10

Above: Skyrim, Below: Oblivion

S - One of my very few problems with The Elder Scrolls : Oblivion, was that many of the characters shared the same voice actor. You could be in the same room as two npc's that share the same voice. It kinda took you out of the immersive experience. That's been greatly remedied this time around. You'll once in a while hear the same voice actor, but that's from town to town, and in a game as gigantic as this, that's forgivable. Aside from the voice acting, everything sounds great. The music is beautiful and does nothing but fit in with the gorgeous environments. From the power behind the dragon shouts to the echoing roars of the dragons, this game's sound design is incredible. -10/10

The Verdict - 9.5/10
Skyrim is an incredible game. If not for the framerate issues, this game would be perfect. Regardless, it's still a classic and if you haven't played it you owe to yourself and the wonderful developers at Bethesda to try it. The love that they put into making this game shows.


Coming up : (These reviews will be disputed and I know this...)