Hey guys today we're going to be doing something a little different from my usual reviews, usually my reviews are in the thousands of words per review, today i'm going to try and limit it but provide as much information as I can without making the review extremely long, this is the first one so there may be some hiccups, so i'd love any and all feedback about this, being one always up for a challenge Iv'e decided to pick an extremely long game with a lot of content first, so hopefully I don't leave to much out, anyway lets jump right into it.
Welcome To Skyrim.
Setting and Story
Skyrim takes place in the northern realm of Tamriel in the aforementioned Skyrim, a civil war is brewing between the native nords and the invading forces of the High Elf Thalmor from the Aldmeri Dominion, at the beginning of Skyrim your character is placed front and center in this war as you're caught and scheduled to be executed along with the leader of the Nords, Jarl Ulfric Stormcloak who "used his voice" to murder the former High King of Skyrim after he capitulated to the Dominion, as you're set up to be executed a massive dragon appears and attacks both sides, as you escape you're given a choice, side with the stormcloaks or side with the empire, either of which will change the game world forever.
After some time in Whiterun, the main character will eventually butt heads with a dragon that is attacking the outlying villages of Whiterun, they're sent to aid the whiterun defenses in tackling the dragon, to everyones surprise the main character dispatches the dragon relatively quickly, then something happens, the main character absorbs the dragons soul from it's body turning it to ash, upon their arrival back in whiterun people begin to whisper the name Dragonborn, a legend from the past that can speak the devastating language of dragons, while walking through whiterun a booming voice is heard throughout skyrim and the Jarl informs the Dragonborn that the mysterious greybeards of High Hrothgar have summoned them.
Upon reaching the top of the mountain, they inform the Dragonborn of what they can accomplish and train them in the ways of the voice, the greybeards tell them of the legendary world eater dragon Alduin who attacked during the execution is back and with him the whole world hangs in the balance in it's up to the Dragonborn to stop them, they will have to delve deep into Skyrim's past and fix the problems of now if they have a chance of defeating Alduin and restoring peace to Skyrim.
Game Play
A single play through of Skyrim can take hundreds of hours, a true open world experience there isn't a part on the massive map that isn't relevant in some way, while the main quest can be rather short, it's the journey over the world that eats up most of your time, there are hundreds of individual quests in Skyrim and thousands of people in the actual game world, these quests range from small things like collecting supplies and delivering them, to becoming the master of the Thieves guild or fighting in the civil war for your side.
Players have a large list of choices in how they play their game, through the leveling system you can tailor make your character to your enjoyment, from bows and daggers, to two handed swords and destructive magic, there's even room for things like speech,crafting, Alchemy, enchanting, lockpicking and sneaking, all of these side skills will enhance numerous of your "main" skills, if you're a two handed sword wielding warrior, you'll want to level up the heavy armor tree as well to absorb damage, and the smithing tree to unlock the most powerful weapons.
As the Dragonborn however, you will gain access to numerous different "shouts" that can alter the game is played, for example the most known one "Fus-Ro-Dah is a powerful shout that can launch enemies into the distance and disarm them, sometimes even killing them if you're high up, but there are wide host of different shout's that allow you to control animals, vastly increasing your attack speed, slow time down to a crawl and even summon a dragon that you can command, the various shouts are usually found deep in the forgotten parts of the world, so it pays to explore.
An amazing open world experience
Skyrim is massive, and with it's hugeness comes an onslaught of content, every single part of the massive open world has something in it, even the parts you don't expect, like the lone icebergs floating off the coast or up hard to reach mountains, Bethesda have lovingly decorated the game and put hundreds of hours of content into it which can take you in a variety of different ways, the quests themselves can range from pretty standard to outright weird, they also range in terms of time, some taking a few minutes, others taking a few hours to complete and the best part is, these are all over the world map.
While not all quests affect the game world, some can radically alter it in big ways such as the civil war, participating in the civil war can see entire cities change hands, leaders killed off and the aesthetic of the world change depending on your choices, likewise the Dark Brotherhood quests will see you become the best assassin in all of skyrim, culminating in an assassination quest that charges the course of history for all of Tamriel, you're given ultimate choice within your own Skyrim and how you choose to do it is up to you, but regardless of your choices the massive world will be changed forever based on your actions.
Critical Review and Reception.
Skyrim has been released(and re-released) for over 10 years now, while the game may slowly dwindling down, it's still very big in the gaming world, Bethesda have a knack for creating massive open world games brimming with content and Skyrim is no different, the game play is enjoyable and expansive, the content is bulging and the general aesthetics of the game are very visually pleasing, this gets even more apparent with the huge modding community that Skyrim has that can literally add thousands of extra hours of content to the game as well as introducing new weapons, items, quests, massive graphical overhauls and even stupid things like turning all the dragons into Thomas the Tank Engine(Yes really).
All though Skyrim has run it's course, it serves as a testament to open world games and how enjoyable they can be when a development team really pays attention to detail and tries to get as much content into the game as possible, i myself have had multiple different playthroughs of Skyrim and i'm still not really bored with the game, the replay value of Skyrim will be there for another decade, and if bethesda keeps releasing it that's all we'll have until the inevitably Elder Scrolls 6.
Whatever your opinion about Skyrim is, it's still an amazing game that people cherish and still play to this day and one that I don't see going anywhere, anytime soon.
