The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim – Review – Xbox 360

200 years after the hero and Marcus Septim save the province of Cyrrodil in the land of Tamriel, to the North in Skyrim, the Nords have a problem of their own. A new hero emerges, he is a Dragonborn, one who can speak to and understand dragon-tongue. There is a civil war brewing between the Imperial Legion and the Stormcloaks. You are forced to take a side; can you stop the enemy and the dragons?

Gameplay: The game is a multiple-viewed RPG.  You can choose from ten different races including:  Nord, Redguard, Dark, Wood, and High Elf, Imperial, Breton, Argonian, Orc, and Kahjit, each having their own special traits and abilities.   The open-world relatively the same size as Oblivion but due to verticality has much more content. There is no level cap, the game will let you keep ranking up until each skill is maxed out at 100. Each time you level up, you can choose which trait you want to add ten points to its total.  Your decision is Health, Magicka, or Stamina.  You also get one point to add towards skills that include lock picking, speech, weapon handling, and any “school of magic”. The new layout of the upgrade menu is huge compared to the last game, and a little confusing.   Before you can choose certain skills you need to use that type of skill until you reach level whatever it says on the skill, then you can buy it.  The menu is in tree format.

To use magic, you have to open your inventory menu and select which spell, and then when you are done, you need to reselect your weapon if you have a double handed weapon, which is sort of inconvenient if you are in an intense fight. However, the game does let you favorite anything in your inventory so you can switch without going through all of the menus.

There are four difficulties in the game, though at points, if you haven’t leveled up enough, you will get beat badly.  There aren’t that many horses, but at most major cities you have a stagecoach that will take you from city to city for a fee.  For every location that you find, you can fast-travel back to it if you aren’t near enemies.  There are a few different factions in the game: Storm cloaks, Legion, Dark Brotherhood, Companions, Thieves Guild, and Mage’s College.  Each of them you can join, except for the Stormcloaks/Legion which you need to choose one or the other.  The Dark Brotherhood and the Thieves Guild return from Oblivion. The Brotherhood is the assassin’s Guild. The Companions are the equivalent of the Fighters Guild.  There are 15 different Daedric Ruins, finishing their quests nets you some cool weapons and armor. The story mode isn’t very long, three chapters, though if you go through all the side quests etc. You will have around 100 hours of gameplay.

There is a compass on your HUD, if you are close to anything like a settlement or shrine it will show on the compass.  White meaning you already found it, black meaning you still need to.  The active quest markers will also show on the compass, but will get confusing if you can’t tell the difference between the marker and landmarks.

The “Dragon Shouts” are a new feature.  Since you are Dragonborn, you can do special spells besides the schools of magic. They include abilities such as: Fire Breath, Marked for Death (depletes armor), Slow Time, and Whirlwind Speed (run faster than normal).  They are spread throughout the world, and are identified by markings on a wall, and if you listen closely you can hear the monks chanting.  There are three levels to them, each tier being longer with each mark you find.  In order to activate each shout and its tiers, you need kill a dragon, and you automatically absorb its soul. Each mark you find needs a soul to make it work.

The game allows you to have multiple followers or mercenaries to help you on quests, though it depends on what type, like you can have a dog and a human following you, etc. They are more of a hindrance I think, as sometimes they won’t even follow you around, and they die easily, or at least go into the submission position of giving up.

Sound/Graphics:  With Oblivion being recorded with only 11 voice actors, the jump up to over 70 is refreshing. Voice actors include: Robin Atkins Downes, Lynda Carter, Michael Gough, Christopher Plummer, Max Von Sydow, and Joan Allen.  The graphics are great at times, but other times they are not. Looking over the world from a high vantage point may awe you but enemies blend in with the scenery.  Since the elevation changes so does the weather, from snow to rain to sun.  Sometimes there are white out conditions where you can barely see.  When you kill people, sometimes there will be a killing cut-scene. Load times vary at times.  Sometimes when you kill dragons or other things, they will spin crazily.

Overall:  If you liked any of the Bethesda games, RPGs, or Sci-Fi games, this game will amaze you.  The developer continues to make one of the best games every year.

Pros:

• Great story
• Graphics

Cons:

• Minor issues, just might be personal preference though also
• Length

Score: 9.5 out of 10

Popularity: 36% [?]