Bugs, glitches and balancing issues aside, finally a sequel this year that's worth your time and money.
With the recent scare of games having to come out on multiple discs because of a lack of considerable and careful implementation and development, I hadn't read much about Skyrim simply because I just wanted to play it without having it spoilt for me. So when I opened the box to find that the game was on one disc, I was already impressed and quite happy. What impressed me further was the shear depth of the game. I installed it to my hard drive on my Xbox and to my surprise it only took up 3.8gb. I found it weird, most games take up around 6gb and yet this game is basically one of the biggest games ever made and it's only 3.8gb installed. Later I discovered that the game runs on a cache system where everything is needed to be constantly streamed from the disc otherwise you get some low res textures on your characters hands and in parts on some of the environments. So I had to uninstall the game and try again. The decals are pretty bad and the edge of buildings do come across as more Oblivion than a step up. It is unfortunately in the graphics where Skyrim comes up a little short. Sometimes there are absolute mind boggling moments such as looking up a tall mountain and watching the clouds sneak past it, the small rivers in the sunshine and even the swamps add an atmosphere that is very immersive. But certain bits and bobs, mainly from the corners of buildings and some very plain, plastic looking snow really let the game down. Whether it's something that will be fixed in a patch has yet to be seen but really this doesn't come across as a step ahead of Oblivion but rather a step next to Oblivion. Of course as you play the game you forgive it for its little troubles because it's just so incredibly large and adventurous that some parts were always going to suffer because of it.
What's impressive is that, even though it's questionable at points in terms of graphical details, the game still holds its own amongst other modern games of today. It's more than twice the size of most of the games that get released and still manages to fit itself on one disc. It does ask the question as to why Mass Effect 2 had to come out on 2 discs when it's level of detail is nothing compared to Skyrims intense depth and mammoth world. It feels like pretty much every character has a quest for you and every building can be gotten into one way or another and when you consider there's over a 100 places to visit (maybe over 200), you begin to imagine just how many people there could be to talk to and how many tasks there could be to do. After acknowledging this you realise that this is what an RPG should be and how big an RPG of today should be. If only Rage had this sort of depth to it, kept its impressive graphics and animation and came out on one disc, it would have easily have been a major contender for the game of the year (also if it sorted out its story and shameful ending) but Skyrim already feels like you've got your moneys worth.
But Skyrim doesn't stop there. It's not just about talking to someone to get a quest it's about constant change, choice and being unpredictable. People are unpredictable and you don't really know how some are going to react to tasks you do or things you say until you try. It's this element of constant exploration and change that makes the game unique and totally in a whole other league to all the other games released this year. I just finished clearing out a cave only to be faced with a group of 3 thugs sent to find and kill me. Nothing to do with the current quest I was on and the place where I was, just unpredictable and totally cool. I've been playing the game for around 40-50 hours now and have barely touched the surface on the actual main storyline. The thing is I don't care. There are so many small storylines to be found in Skyrim that makes each of the quests quite compelling with the depth to character and direction for each. There's so much variety in the voice work, I wonder how Bethesda have been able to store just the audio on one disc let alone everything else. It's simply superb craftsmanship through development and implementation. Nothing you have played this year is like this and I very much doubt anything you play next year will come close either.
The detail doesn't stop there though. You can pick up and collect lots of different, various weapons, armor, ingredients and items that sometimes can be useful and other times can be questionable as to why they're there in the first place. I don't know about other players of the game but I'm not particularly interested in picking up a bowl or an embalming tool that is worthless and pointless - maybe something that Bethesda doesn't need to add to make the experience that tiny bit more authentic next time. Still so much of what you do find can be useful either early on or later in the game when you've furthered your skill range.
It's hard to talk about a game that takes on so much in terms of different places with different people. Each main city is governed by a Jarl that is basically another way of saying mayor or a low in power King and each one has a different opinion on the war between the Imperials and Stormcloaks. They also have their own problems surrounding their cities and some are considered of greater importance to the overall story than others. You can only imagine the different points of views you get from place to place and Jarl to Jarl making it quite fresh in the way that the game hardly repeats itself in terms of political reasoning and socialising throughout the world. I guess the only thing missing which is neither here nor there really, is knowing how good or evil you are depending on the choices you make and people you kill or offend. But this might be edging too closely to Mass Effect and Fable way of play, plus it's not needed here. Some events and missions you do and there outcome are constantly refereed to by guards in and around cities so you are made to question, sometimes, your actions and whether you did the right thing or not. This sort of self questioning is quite unique to Skyrim as not everything is black and white like choices found in Fable or Mass Effect.
The quests you become involved with are truly different to one another in terms of length and size. Some things will take you no more than 15 minutes to beat whilst other quests can take 2 hours and more depending on whether you've discovered the location or not. There's not a formula for each cave or fort either, you never know what to expect which just makes the whole exploration and adventure that bit more interesting and compelling. Skyrim is very hard to stay away from as it edges you on to discover more and become a god-like being of immense power.
It's not just in the questing where things feel genuinely dynamic but in your characters progress too. Starting out with a character creation system that the Elder Scrolls games are renowned for, you can customise your character to totally suit what you want to explore in terms of race and combat. There are tons of skills to master and many different options to choose from, just what one should expect from a modern day RPG. The only thing I do grumble about is that there are no barbers throughout the world to allow you to change your hair, beard or even face paint like in Fable. So once you create your character, that's your character and there's no reaction from from computer controlled individuals who comment on whether you look evil or good etc but they do seem to notice if you're wearing nothing. The only reason I grumble about this is simply because I had no idea Skyrim was going to be the size it is and being able to further your personalisation of your character throughout the adventure would've just pushed the realism and fun factor up a couple more points.
Unfortunately though, I can't go through a review without some scathing and it's a shame that Skyrim does indeed have its own issues in terms of bugs and balancing. First off, like the installation bug I mentioned near the beginning, this is only the tip of the iceberg. Some quests I currently have active can't progress any further due to a bug that doesn't realise that you already have an item you're about to be asked to get. Mine comes in the form of a book and a magical staff, both are separate quests and neither characters who dished out the quests give me the option to give them the items in question. Also another quest required me to save a woman from some caves. The caves are clear and she can get out but she is stuck by the caves exit, so far by the exit that I can't actually reach her before traveling out of the cave. A little frustrating to say the least. Also I'm not sure that this is meant to happen or not but I've killed dragons who just don't give up their soul, is it yet another unfortunate glitch? Other bugs I've found include enquiring or investigating the Bards College and have nothing to go on when talking to the appointed character. Finding the Red Eagle sword never seems to end despite having found it twice over. And returning to the Jarl of Riften after having bought a home there to receive my Thane status. I think you'll agree, someone on the quality assurance list didn't quite play the game very thoroughly.
Bugs and glitches aside, there are also issues with the balancing of the game. You can focus on different skills in the game and when leveling up you can select various different perks to focus on within different skills. For example if you wish to be a better master of the one handed weapon then you up your perks in that skill set allowing you to most likely create a harder more powerful attack. Combat perks aren't too bad but the difficulty of combat is already fairly easy despite your level. But the main issues with the skill sets comes from the likes of sneaking, speech (bartering and persuading) and lockpicking. The reason being that speech is barely an issue regardless of your skill level because so much money is dished out that trying to get things cheaper isn't worth the perk points. Sneaking can be fortified through the right pair of boots with the ability to sneak completely silently and also seem to be affective at hiding you too. Lastly lockpicking is genuinely very easy and only challenging when you're faced with an expert or master lock but then lockpicks are found all the time and are very cheap to buy so you're never short of them. Other skills like Alchemy, Enchanting and Smithing are also very easy to get up the ranks in and this effectively means, you could quite easily become very tough, very quickly within only about 5-10 hours of playing. It's hard to say though, whether making raising your skill levels in different areas longer or more challenging would really be the answer to solving the problem or rather just slow down the rate of which they go up. It seems as though it's hard to balance such an aspect but it also feels like if it was to be made more challenging then the game would maybe be too big and take too long to complete making the experience a tiny bit more daunting than it already is or even worse, a little boring.
Like usual though, we do put our faith in Bethesda for providing the game of year once again. It does go above and beyond expectations even if it feels a little more Oblivion than we would've liked. Bugs and glitches will be fixed in the times to come, there's no doubt, but the games balancing of skillsets and money are slightly unfortunate aspects and along with the graphics in parts, are Skyrims only downfalls. Combat gameplay could've had more depth involving different moves rather than left trigger to block and right trigger to attack. But, overall the feeling of exploring, discovering and getting involved with the world and the people of Skyrim is one unmatched this year and probably for a few years to come. There's no denying the fact that this is how gaming should feel today. Games should be on a scale like this, have as much depth as this and be as rewarding as this and yet only one gaming series seems to do it every time it comes out. To say it's a masterpiece would be a mistake because it's not perfect but it's one of building blocks towards perfection and towards a masterpiece. Quite simply, it's an amazing game and definitely the best game to have been released this year.