The long awaited addition to the Elder Scrolls games is finally out! But is it worth the wait?
Bethesda’s latest addition to the Elder Scrolls franchise is certainly something to be wary of. Although the previous installment, Oblivion, was almost universally loved and won many awards, it had many game-breaking flaws, such as the notorious level scaling of enemies. Has Bethesda learned from their flaws and changed the formula to make the game more enjoyable? Having poured hundreds of hours into the game and have yet to advance the main quest, I would certainly say so.
The world of Skyrim is beautiful. Although the game still uses the same engine as some of Bethesda’s older titles (Fallout 3, Oblivion), the tweaks made to the engine certainly makes the game look otherwise (although the game’s handling of corpses still causes some issues with the world)..With a few tweaks to .ini files, the world of Skyrim can be enhanced to look a lot more beautiful and detailed. NPCs have also been given a facelift when compared to older games under Bethesda’s belt. While there are still the occasional character that suffer from a case of face-planting, most characters the player will encounter look a lot more natural,albeit some blocky texture issues. Voice work has improved from the previous Elder Scrolls, although there are more than quite a few of the NPCs that sound familiar(The general goods traders is one glaring example).Music, for hte most part, is very atmospheric, and really brings out the mood, whether you’re dungeon crawling or exploring the wild, unforgiving lands of Skyrim.
The game seems to be best enjoyed by most at the game’s default difficulty of ‘Adept’. Although enemies continue to scale in level alongside the player, the scaling now follows a formula similar to Fallout 3, which means that hard enemies are meant to be hard, but easy enemies will for the most part remain easy (no more bandits in glass armor!). For the most part, all challenges are difficult, be at the same time rewarding. Magic and stealth mechanics have been given an overhaul, and combat feels a lot more visceral with the addition of random special melee animations when finishing enemies off.
Overall, aside from a few technical problems that plagued the game during launch, as well as voicework that could be improved on, Skyrim is a solid role-playing game that won’t leave fans of other Elder Scroll titles disappointed. Whether you’re in it for the story or the free roam, Skyrim will not disappoint. Additionally, given enough time, the game’s modding community will be able to create beautiful new content for the game, which is where Bethesda games truly shines.