What a game, WHAT A GAME!

User Rating: 10 | The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim PC
There are different reviews, but this is my review. So, shut up =). Just kidding.

Calling Skyrim an awesome game is a major understatement. I am 38, full time job and getting tired honestly with all these crappy games that are coming out every few months. One is linear, another looks like crap, the third one just not catching your interest at all. And most of them are freaking shooters. How many damn shooters can you make a year? When will they get old? Lets thank Bethesda for getting off that 'traditional' habit of releasing shooters and finally releasing something else. And oh what a game it is.

Anyway, back to the awesomeness of Skyrim. What can I tell you? Where should I start? Oh well lets use the dumb process of game reviewing and start with character creation. So in some point in a game at about 5 minutes in they let you create your character, so you select your race and character customizations, hair, eyes blah blah. Is it good? yeah its fine if you ask me for an RPG that nobody can actually see your face anyway, so who cares right? Its not like someone will stop in their shoes and stare in your face comparing their number of wrinkles with yours. So its perfectly fine. Enough choices to give customization freaks a bit to play with.

So after you done they will try to chop your head, so yes, the rumors that the game starts with your execution - ARE TRUE! The game tutorial has enough action to teach you basic things about the game. You jump here, you swing your weapon there, the equipping part may be a little bit confusing to a complete newbies but eventually you'll get it.
Especially if you play with Xbox controller like I do - controls will come, just keep trying all the buttons and remember which one does what :). Skyrim has probably the best graphics I've seen in any RPG game. Yeah, I've had someone recently compared graphics in Skyrim to Battlefield 3. So he showed me totally crappy screenshot of Skyrim, so what? Does it mean game graphics arent the best? Learn to take pictures, noob! :) I am kidding of course, but really graphics are amazing in Skyrim and my gallery has some awesome proof to that: https://picasaweb.google.com/116237264008694896900/Skyrim#. Eat that, Battlefield3 fans!
If you still don't like it then go play Battlefield 3 or something where you like the graphics. Actually don't! Even if you don't like the graphics you won't find better RPG anywhere in the world.

Thats quite a statement right? Right. And I totally stand behind it. The quest and dungeon system will keep you coming back to Skyrim again and again. So called "radiant quest system" allows this game to stand out from the boring, linear system of progression that you can find in oh so many other RPGs (all of them?). Skyrim is different. Game actually tracks your progression and based on what you do it offers you new quests through couriers, notes, dynamic events that happen around the world of the game and who knows what else. I've been playing about 50 hours and I can't get enough of that, maybe there is just too much to do. The whole system is called "Radiant AI" and 'radiant story/quests" is part of it. You can read more here http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Radiant_A.I. and here http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Radiant_Story.

Some people may say - same old crap! Well yeah, how else you supposed to tell the story. So the main story of course is just a set of very fun quests. But the additional of radiant events, which i would call - dynamic events in the world adds enough new ingredients to this salad of RPD to make it the most unique we've been playing in years.

Which leads to a next part of this awesomest (I know there is no such word) RPG - complexity. Now what does your RPG soul desires? World of Skyrim is so big you can practically leave in it and it will replace literally your real life if you don't have any that is, or if your wife/girlfriend would allow. YES, some people say that they got married in Skyrim so they no longer need a girlfriend and some of them play without pants. I guess thats how real RPGs have to be played. If you want to really feel it, feel your role in RPG game - just take them pants off already!

But still every time I sit down (with my pants on) I think of about 15 things I might wanna do tonight and I end up only doing 3-4 things because hours go by like minutes. Either its crafting equipment, decorating your house, collecting ore and leather, collecting junk from corpses for improvement and money making, alchemy, dungeon crawling, dragon hunting, enchanting, chasing women around the world deciding which one will you marry etc etc etc... (don't tell about the last one to my wife).

Everything in Skyrim takes hours to do. Even though there is a fast travel through POIs that you've visited at least once, the world and objectives are so complex that it will take you hours to complete any task you put for yourself to do, unless of course you decide to just kill chickens on the street, or take your pants off. But hey, they are someone's chickens so be ready for some beating... or killing. You can't even steal anything without attracting anyone's attention. Well, I am not a thief class, I've tried to steal a metal ingot from smelter, and some lady yelled at me saying "hey thats not yours, give it back!" Next thing I know - ingot is gone. And If I've killed I would have found that ingot in her inventory. Yup, thats how nasty these NPCs are. They will take your last shirt off of you...

You only attract guards attention if you commit crime repeatedly on similar occasions. So don't steal. Well i still got that ingot. Ran away to the cave a bit away from the camp and hid in it, she tried to follow me but she must have gotten afraid to go into a cave and there was also a dragon flying nearby, so I think I've served a purpose of arranging her meeting with the Maker ahead of time, even though unintentionally by a simple innocent obsession over metal ingots. I am a smith after all so whats a life of one poor camp dweller comparing to a whole ingot, right? I knew you'd agree with me!

Speaking of dragons, they are a huge part of the game. Everything actually kinda revolves around the dragon thing in Skyrim. You start as a poor nobody who's head is about to be chopped off for who knows what crime (I still don't know why they've tried to chop my head off) and end up being a super dragon-like hero, who can shout very colorful words at others and do all kinds of things to them. Shouting has much more sense in world of Skyrim than anywhere else. So if you like to shout like I do from time to time (the best way to shout is alone, you can do it as loud as you want) then this game will be even more fun for you. Your shouts can even control weather, who would thing of that right? :)

Dragon encounters also serve as an open world mini-boss fights so to speak. Its a very fun short encounter that usually ends up with dragon falling off the sky and submitting to your will of wanting him to die and then you suck his soul out, almost like in "Mortal Combat" and Shan Tsung remember? "YOUR SOUL IS MINE!" Well, except that your character doesn't say anything. He has a quiet personality, but very dangerous on short distances, with all kinds of weapons and spells. You are supposed to know what you doing of course, otherwise dragon-spraying will end up
badly for you. So keep a good bow and a few arrows handy, but they eventually swoop down from the sky anyway and will position themselves very nicely so you can land quite a few mortal hits on their heads :). Dragons I mean, not arrows.

Nice puppies, know how to end their life when time comes. On the other hand you can't really fly like them so chasing them in the air is not an option so they come to you eventually to bite your head off. And thats when you strike a final blow! BAM! And its always good to have a companion with you, depending on what class you playing they are a very nice way to make you feel important in Tamriel. Thats what world in Skyrim is called, stupid! I kid again.

Speaking of companions/followers/housecarls, there are quite a few in world of Skyrim for every color and taste. Dark and white, elf and human, male and female with all kinds of variations, with exception for male and female of course. Those are set in stone. Well you can have a dog as a companion, but it will still end up male or female, so whatever. Companions are quite dumb in Skyrim but it doesn't make them less fun... OR sexy. Yup, there are sexy ones too. Check out the Huntress of the Companions. Thats my favorite, I think I'll marry her while my wife is looking the other way.

Anyways guys, I could go on and on. I can tell you one thing though. Every time I have to turn the TV off and go to sleep I think about another little dungeon or another little this and that and then I'll go, and every time I wake up I think about bashing bad guys with my shield and smacking them on the face with my fish, I mean my axe. I love everything about this game. Thats how excited I am. And glad that finally something was developed and released that caught my attention and will provide many more hours of fun.

Skyrim has probably one of the best replay values in any other game you've played. It has so many locations and quests that you can return again and again. Change your play style and game will bend accordingly. Some things won't change others will, thanks for radiant AI system that Skyrim is so popular with. And of course dragons. Who will ever get tired killing dragons either you are a warrior, mage, hunter... Or even a sneaky thief. And finishing moves a-la Dragon Age makes hunting dragons just so much more fun.

So tighten your belts, buy yourself some time from your wives/relatives/bosses and give yourself a big favor - play Skyrim, its THAT good. I suggest to play it on PC on ULTRA settings, with Xbox controller and preferably on a big screen TV. Your impressions will last for weeks. Trust me!

Also don't just play a few hours. Play at least 50 hours. Skyrim actually opens to you as longer you play it. Some people play a few levels and complain about level scaling, lack of fun etc. Skyrim grows on you and longer you play it the more it grows until you just can't stand how good this game is. Also there is no scaling like in Oblivion. Mobs only scale to you for main story-line, the rest just mobs, there are tougher ones there are weaker ones. If you come back at level 20 to the place where wolves presented challenge at lvl 5 you'll be one shot killing them at 20. And so on. BYE!