Skyrim Review

This is the first time I've played an Elder Scrolls game, ever. I know, I am not in a great place since I don't know the whole story, but really, this is a review - a novice can review anything, all you need is to understand the object, place, game, etc, you're reviewing. I will be reviewing this game as an adventure game and see if it betters all other adventure games out now.

Skyrim was created by Bethesda, the chaps who made Fallout 3. Bethesda are basically known for making the best and greatest adventure games of all time; I doubt any other brand could say they have more skill when it comes to it. Skyrim has already hit 20 awards by gaming magazines.

I love Fallout 3, so when I started playing Skyrim (after intros), I saw a lot of the same features in Skyrim as in Fallout 3. The weight system; the weapon drawing; facial construction. With that said, Skyrim has got a much different, perhaps lower paced battle feel. The graphics are much better than Fallout 3 or New Vegas. The conversation system is the same as Fallout 3's too and the game is very open to do whatever you want, whenever you want.

Obviously, the main difference between the two is time period. Elder Scrolls is placed way back before weaponry and contains magic; Skyrim is basically a different world. Fallout 3 is placed in the nuclear apocalypse of America, 200 years after, with a sort of 1950's retro feel to it. With Fallout, you get advanced shooters, on Skyrim, you get cool shouts and magic.

Saying that Skyrim is just another weirdly ancient version of Fallout would be one heavy understatement though. It's nothing close to how Fable II is to Fable III; Modern Warfare is to Black Ops or Red Dead Redemption is to GTA4. It is completely it's own game, and even gamers that have played Fallout deny Skyrim to be anything like it.

For this Hub review, I'll go through the basic things we want in a game; seeing if Skyrim really does achieve it's notable 10/10 rating it got from many mags, newspapers and online gaming forums.

The story begins with a dragon attack, then somehow you become good friends with a chap that was ready to see you die ten minutes ago. You go on your quest, to defeat a man named Alduin and rid Skyrim of his evil. The Imperial Army and Stormcloaks are in the rage of a civil war whilst you battle your way through the campaign - you may join one allegiance of your choice. I kept that uncannily vague for a reason; I don't want to spoil it.

The story is one of brilliance and twists and turns along the way. Many encounters with various characters and many encounters with ferocious enemies. You may find it slightly annoying if you're not one for running back and forth delivering messages, because a few missions do need you to do this.

I find that in every cave you go into, you seem to always have a simple exit, weird really, how you seem to never enter through the simple way - but rather fight through endless hordes. Bah, I'm blaggering, it obviously makes the game more enjoyable.

The best part of the story is just the huge amount of quests and characters you meet. I would say 2% of the Skyrim world is used up by the main quest, the rest is left to amazing, different, alternative things to do.

Almost every area in Skyrim holds and incredible story. From the people, to the quests, to the side-quests, to the work, to the goods on offer, all places have something worth wandering around for. Every village and even every settlement has many different characters and you can do a grand amount of things, including stealing, forging, fishing and purchasing goods.

The areas that are not settlements do the opposite, you come into almost no random encounters (or at least I haven't) and you're attacked by enemies that become very consistent and almost boring. That being said, I'm sure we don't all wish that the areas we're least likely to venture to, are to be the best and most densely packed, with crazy and amazing characters/scenes.

Skyrim does deliver a brilliant adventure and brilliant battles. You cannot even question the amount of skill put into the game by the developers, it is great in almost every way and adventurer would want it. I really do love the size of some of the settlements and the way they've created villages; makes it feel so much more real life.

Skyrim has, like Bethesda always has, a speaking system which allows you to converse with the other character through chosen messages.

Like most Bethesda games, Skyrim has developed the same way of speaking as Fallout. You can converse with one character at a time, delivering sentences of your choice from a range of topics. The character will then reply with what he thinks about your sentence and you can either carry on that topic, or stray into another. Most main characters create a great source of understanding if you are ever struggling on the game.

The personalities of characters is a very balanced subject, where the main characters have good personalities that are built upon by graphic images of them and great voices, the less than important characters reveal a more dull and unimpressive side of the game. They show a repetitive way of speaking, with almost every one of them talking of a particular event when you try to engage with them. You also cannot open a dialogue with them, so it's basically them saying something then wandering off.

Skyrim boasts a wondrous graphical quality, with an array of different colours all perfectly scripted to look just right. The rivers that flow around Skyrim are amazingly captured, with shallow to deep blues. The whole of the game is crafted perfectly, with little to no thing out of place. Towns and villages have a great harmony of real-life to them and come with an abundance of different characters.

The characters voices rarely overrule each other, with one person always speaking at a time. You may catch glimpses of another group conversation while you're having your own, but it doesn't overrule the conversation you're having. Conversation between you and the other character is good, it shows that Skyrim has great script writing, although, at some times, the conversation may strand off into something off-topic and some characters appear too dull, even in times of grief or anger.

All in all, display and quality is another feature Skyrim can tick off as being near to perfect, I find no real quarrels with it. There is one thing that gets on some gamers nerves, the repeated sentences some characters will say, such as 'I used to be an adventurer like you, then I took an arrow to the knee.'

With Skyrim being a moderately slow speed, both in pace and in battle, you will find if you use larger items it'll take longer to strike them (naturally). Comparing it to games like Left 4 Dead, you can say Skyrim is almost ancient in it's pace in battle. The game is quite slow, no matter what weapon you use - that doesn't make it a bad game though.

The game is brilliant for 1 to 1 combat and even a bit more; although too much can stretch the pace and you may find yourself being attacked from four different angles and not being able to turn around in time. Understandably, Bethesda has noted this and made sure you aren't fighting a whole town of people (if you don't want to).

The feel of the game is brilliant and the amount you can do on Skyrim is seemingly endless. With a huge world and plenty to keep you occupied, I guess you can say it's a brilliant game for adventure lovers.

In my view, game of 2011 - no question. Skyrim doesn't just offer you a great story line, it doesn't just offer you a great outlook, no. It gives you everything an adventurer gamer asks for and more, it gives you open, large canvases of space, battles, armies, settlements and characters. It gives you brilliant variety of weapons, skills and enemies. It is a superb game, worthy of the 10/10 stars. Bethesda has really done itself proud, and I believe it will always hold onto it's best adventure producers medal. Forever.