Okay, I admit, I took a very long time to getting around to completing the famous game known as Skyrim. Released in 2011 by my buddies at Bethesda, it is the fifth major entry in the new Elder Scrolls series. I played Morrowind, the first game, back in 2004 on Xbox. I heard about it and saw a review on Adult Swim while watching cartoons at night, and it looked interesting with how realistic the world was. In Morrowind, you could make your own spells, choose your own occupation, get any house to live in that you could find, and go anywhere in the huge world.
I completed the extra content when I finished the long journey, and it was satisfying to get very powerful during the course of the game. I remember developing a levitation power that I used to fly over mountains towards the end of the game. And there were so many ways to go about things. You could levitate, or you could develop a spell that let you leap like the Hulk with a slow-fall attribute that allowed you to land safely, almost like flying. It was endless what you could do.
After that game, Oblivion was the next entry, and they began railing things in. You could still create spells, but you had to join a college of a particular school to unlock that ability. The combat was good in that game and it was an enjoyable experience. I heard great things about Skyrim, and I had completed Oblivion just around the time it came out. I had a copy some time ago, but sold it. I then purchased it again on the Nintendo Switch, eager to see what it had to offer. I was please in some areas, but had some issues.
They once again railed in you ability to be free in this game. Right from the beginning, I have to say I was disgusted with the eradication of certain spells. The main one missing is any form of levitation spell. the game has no spells that allow you to traverse the mountainous terrain at all. And it has plenty of hard to travel terrain. In fact, a long-time issue with this series is that you will have a hard time finding a location on the map. You follow directions, and wind up staring at a wall of a mountain having to spend potential hours getting around it. Sometimes there is no clear way to get up the mountain until you find some super hidden door. Even a leaping spell would have been welcome, but they took great care to eliminate any spells that allowed increased mobility which is ridiculous. Then many of the spells you learn are useless, such as the Dragonborn spells.
To backtrack, you start this game as a prisoner, not very different from other games in the series. You are summoned by Jarl leaders of the local villages for being believed to be a Dragonborn descendent of dragons. You are used for your ability to slay the powerful creatures. You begin working for some of the village leaders and there is far less freelancing in this game than others. I found that combat, which was as usual, stiff, forced me to rely on summons. I've never used summons in any other Elder Scrolls game, yet in this one, you absolutely must. In fact, it will be almost all you do, because fighting options are so stifled otherwise. You take damage heavily, there is supreme end lag on all movements, and your recovery state is slow, facing often dozens of enemies at once.
I must say the dialogue and story archs were interesting, from the different factions that hired you, to the greybeards, and even some common side quests. There were many powerful moments to be found in the game with gripping scenes and plots, including missions that had no bearings on the overall plot. It kept you engaged, and I spent quite a few hours doing just those. There were Dragon missions where I befriended the dragons and helped them with tasks. Missions going into Dwemer ruins to retrieve artifacts were always tense, because the Dwemer were an ancient civilization with advanced mechanical weaponry, and their science was being exploited by the Falmar. The ruins would alway be enormous, and the missions would take hours with many puzzles along the way. It was rewarding, but you would always run out of supplies while stuck in the middle of those journeys with no way to turn back, and an unusual boss at the end.
Some of the boss battles, mainly the ones near the end were enjoyable, and perhaps done better than other games in the series, but I would have appreciated more variety and options. There is an alchemy system in the game that never made sense to me. No matter how I experimented with chemicals and plants, I never went beyond the same 2 useless elixirs. I did get pretty strong at the end of the game, and some of the shouts you learn as part of the Dragonborn powers were cool. I wish spells were more effective, and that the spell creation system was kept as it was. I did enjoy finishing the story, but the world is not the hugest and there is not as much content as they say. It will be a while before I play it again. It's a good looking game, with not much incentive to explore. A walled in score of 8/10
