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Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Developer: Bethesda Softworks
Genre: RPG
ESRB rating: Mature
Release date: November 11, 2011
In the early days of the Xbox 360, new adopters found one game to rule them all. The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion was released in the Spring of 2006 (a scant six-months after that console heralded this new generation of game systems), and it proved to be one of those bridge titles that united the hardcore RPG elite with the mainstream. Western RPGs have always held court in the console space but unlike the welcoming PC world, they remained a modest, niche success. Since Oblivion’s successful release, big, brawny role playing games have slashed their way to the tops of sales charts. Since then, Fable, Mass Effect and the Fallout series inspiring more and more players to drag dungeons, slay dragons and journey there and back again. With news that the next iteration of consoles is being prepped by the Big Three for debut over the next few years, Bethesda’s latest Elder Scrolls release, Skyrim, makes for a nice bit of symmetry – potentially a fitting swan song.
The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim opens 200 years after the events in Oblivion. At the outset, players choose there gender and select from the ten available races utilizing the expected robust character creation toolset. In the early moments, the game is on rails as Bethesda hammers down the dramatic stakes. Amidst a crippling civil war that has rocked the Skyrim region, a new, dire threat has emerged. After centuries of slumber, fearsome dragons have returned to the world. With factions warring for control of Skyrim in the wake of the King’s assassination, this new development upsets the geographical and political landscape. War is hard enough to wage without the omnipresent fear of fiery death from above. Into the rising tempest, your character plunges. Soon he (or she) may emerge as an important cog in the machinations, as in the grand Elder Scrolls tradition, the choice is up to the player to decide whether to follow their destiny or simply ignore the main plot and live the hard life of Skyrim.
 Skyrim builds off of the narrative drive established in Oblivion. While the Elder Scrolls series has always been known for its open-endedness, allowing players to explore the world and play the game in whatever way they choose, it was Oblivion that took large steps in implementing a compelling core plot without disrupting the persistent world around it. Story quests could be picked up and chased down at any point while players were free to wander off the beaten path should they find some shiny new obsession to hunt down along the fringes. Or, if a player was content to simply pick flowers and make potions for a living, that livelihood (among so many other options) was available to pursue as well. Both Oblivion’s quest and story scripting proved that Bethesda could organically plant an overall plot, one that the player helps shape, without taking anything away the feeling of freedom that set this franchise apart from its more linear counterparts.
While Skyrim does not represent the revolutionary leap that Oblivion was over the meandering Morrowind, it certainly stands as a huge evolutionary step for the series. Everything that worked well in Oblivion is back in Skyrim, and Bethesda takes pains to craft a game that doesn’t simply echo past accomplishments. Jaws dropped when Oblivion capped its extended prologue with that eye-opening gaze at the whole, wide world that stretched beyond the player once you scurried through those claustrophobic sewers. It’s a move that the studio’s follow-up, Fallout 3, mimicked to similar success. Skyrim may open with another carefully choreographed introduction, but the studio refrains from going to that well once again, intent on ladling out just enough information about the political strife, the dire threat building and your hazy role in it all to push you forward before releasing the reins. In that, they continue to perfect their handle on world-building – realizing that as many players love to have a reason to fight there are others who just want to get lost in the world. Once the player has a handle on their character, they are free to go wherever they please while the main plot remains identifiable and within reach for those who want it.
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HELL..yeah. This is what I so hoping to hear, and if its that good out of the box on a console, well..wait till the Darns, Martigans and company get their crazed modding mitts on the PC version. Fallout 3 was the last PC game I really enjoyed – still haven’t gotten around to FO3 Vegas yet. Might have to beat on it while Skyrim gets further de-bugged
Thx, Ed.
“Hap-py days are here a-gain..”
I tried Daggerfall and found it too big/empty. I tried Morrowind and had a similar experience. Oblivion was ok, but even it felt…just really big and also kind of empty.
I think, really, that the big issue I have with these games is that my avatar is just some silent, passive, lonely wanderer. That works decently in the Fallout games, but the Fallout games also frequently give you NPC party members so the game feels less “empty.”
I guess, for me, the sprawl is always a bit intimidating. It’s nice to hear that this game feels more focused, but I suspect I’ll probably grab this one when it goes on deep discount sale. Plus, with these games, I find it’s better to wait for the version that inevitably ends up including all of the DLC and patches and such.
Much better on PC!
That was the best review ive ever read. It gave me chills reading through it. I’m so excited to get this title tomorrow. Thank you.
Well..I just got some troubling news from a pal who works at..um, nvm. Let’s just say I got a quick capsule review of the PC version, and I didn’t like what I heard. For starters, Steam is all over this thing, and that means I may have to wait even longer to get it since I want the first couple patches out and Steam-free. Even more depressing, this is most certainly NOT a PC game in any way. Its a console port. How much of a port, you ask? On the menus there is hardly any mouse control. Its all keyboard – they haven’t even bothered to implement mouse navigation yet. Furthermore, its not just a lazy port in most respects..they used the Fallout Vegas menu system. That’s right: when you run it you don’t see Elder Scrolls fonts and menu styles, you get the Cold War style Fallout ones, which are universally associated solely with that franchise and nothing else. They also took out the incredible Oblivion character generator and replaced it with the very limited and uninteresting one from Fallout. He also says that the menus are extremely buggy. He also says the non-human races now look like aliens from Halo or something to that effect. My informant says he’s barely scratched the surface but everything so far is screaming “dumbed down lazy port” and “terrible changes that make no sense”. I hope somehow he’s either not getting the whole picture or the patches are already in the pipe. If Skyrim doesn’t offer at least the experience its predeccesor did I won’t bother with it, and Bethesda’s name will be mud with me.
I don’t like the way that sounds. RPS seemed to think everything was really cool though. Are you sure your friend isn’t playing some pre-release “unfinished” version? I guess we’ll find out in 4 minutes…
Launching it now!!!
@Raziel – Thanks for the kind words. Enjoy tomorrow and the next hundred or so days you sink into this beautiful beast.
@Alaric: I am praying to the Nine Divines that you’re right..that has happened once before (sort of), but it was a fluke. He’s never steered me wrong since. He also says that if they don’t push back Old Republic at least a month its going to be the biggest flop since FF 14, its so buggy.
Sounds like more reasons to wait for the “Game of the Year” edition.
Menus are terrible, designed by someone who didn’t know PCs existed. Although the mouse works just fine. Everything else is not too bad so far. I’m only 4 hours in though.
We are in DIRE need of a texture pack. DIRE!!! Also this “new” engine is the same old Gamebryo with minor tweaks.
I thought Alaric left?!?!?
Alaric left what?
I seem to recall tributes in your honor as you headed off into the sunset just a few short months ago. But you’re like that kid in high school who keeps coming back to see his old teachers years after graduation. Cut the cord and make us Half Life 3 already, would ya’?
I kid, of course. You’re always welcome here at Avault High.
I feel Alaric’s pain on the interface. When fighting, it’s not bad, but every dive into my pack for an item or spell turns into a engrossing game of menu hunt (on PC).
Still, I can’t say that it has not been worth the purchase. My beloved wife and I played it all day yesterday, and we are both satisfied with it.
I do wish my rig was better so that I could enjoy it at really high settings, but even at the mediocre ones I am using, it looks pretty good.
Remember – my review is based on the console version. I’m not a PC game player in any stretch of the word; the world I survey is from the couch. And from that vantage point, the game looks and plays great.
I know, Ed. We forgive you, for now.
We forgive you as one forgives a beloved grandfather who grew too ancient to remember that firing his shotgun at a TV is ill-advised. But it’s only a matter of time before we commit you to a home, so go get a good gaming PC, you old coot!
Alaric – ‘Git off my lawn.
Almost forgot, I’ll get a good gaming PC just as soon as Avault doubles my salary.
… oh wait a second?!?!?
EXACTLY!
As of right now your Avault salary is doubled! Now go, make good on your promise! Wouldn’t want all these people to think that you are an oath-breaking weasel, now would we? 
I just checked my bank account and you are correct, the amount they normally put in there has doubled. Or maybe it tripled? Or quadrupled? That zero is a tricky number.
Yes The Gamebryo engine is alas.. still being used. However the game that exists within its pathetic construct is definately improved.. graphically not so much but animations are much better.. the idle chat of npcs when your in thier vicinity seems a bit less retarded.. but the best part ?? Dude.. i killed a DRAGON !!! .. great fun and a challenge with the mechanics . I had a BLAST playing it . And once you get to that point in the story , well. the graphics just dont seem to matter near as much, Im just trying to figure out a way to hook up with the dark brotherhood again.
LONG LIVE SITHUS !!!!
BTW, Ed, how come you ended up reviewing it? I thought Michele really wanted it for herself.
You’ll have to ask Michelle that. I just do what I’m told or review what I’m sent; as my fine backlog of Hannah Montana reviews should attest.
Michele did, but it came down to getting the best man for the job.
And when he wasn’t available, they called me.
I want to see a PC Review , For myself though i can say this is GOTY material for the rpg Genre, I certainly hope there is reference to how beaware needs to pay attention to this game and learn something about RPG , and emergent storytelling.. as they have clearly forgotten.
@ Vapus: Ask and you shall receive. Jason P is on the case.
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