An Extraordinarily Late Review of Skyrim We Forgot to Put Up Last Week (Sorry)

THE ELDER SCROLLS V: SKYRIM
Platform: PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is many things. It's the purest expression of the stereotypical D&D fantasy setting in computer games. It's Bethesda's recovery after the ridiculous mechanics of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and the embarrassing narrative of Fallout 3. It's the real reason I'm upgrading my computer this weekend, and it's all I want to do for the next month. Alas, the life of a game reviewer—I get to play games professionally, but when I encounter one I love, I don't get to spend nearly as much time with it as I want.

Anyway.

Skyrim is an action/RPG/sandbox fantasy game in which you create a character from one of nine playable races and… surprise, surprise, no classes, because it's entirely skill-based and your skills level up by using them. You are then promptly dumped into the back of a cart on the way to your own execution by beheading. Skyrim, the setting, is Fantasy Viking Land, although with very little coastal raiding. Mountains are tall and craggy and covered in snow, and rushing rivers cut valleys in which the Nords of Skyrim have made their holds. Skyrim suffers under the boot of the oppressive Cyrodiilic Empire, although for reasons that are more complex than first glance (short version: elves are dicks). Also dragons are returning and they herald the end of the world.

Whatever race you choose, you'll be the Dragonborn, a mortal born with a dragon's soul. With this power comes the ability to absorb the souls of other dragons you kill, and take their power to learn Thu'ums, or dragon shouts. Dragons in Skyrim don't so much exhale fire as yell it into existence with their magic language, and so can you!

You're free to ignore the primary quest line, which is actually the dragon thing and not Skyrim's civil war, but unlike most sandbox games, the side quests here are as deep and fully-voiced and expensively art-directed as the main plot. Most of the longer side quests involve playing with the game's various factions—fighters' guild, thieves' guild, mages' guild, assassins' guild, Imperials, rebels. Plus there are a shit-ton of random dungeons and things to just stumble into while exploring the game's huge beautiful setting.

Unlike Oblivion, the game mechanics are actually good this time. Use skills repeatedly to gain ranks in them, and gain character levels as you gain ranks. There are no attributes, just skills, which is good because attributes in this context wouldn't serve a purpose other than punish you for managing them suboptimally. (I say that as a published tabletop RPG designer, by the way.) Left trigger is left hand, right trigger is right hand—you can equip two-handed weapons, dual weapons, weapon-and-shield, weapon-and-spell, spell-and-shield, or dual-spell. You can buy perks so that equipping the same spell in both hands and using both at once gives you super-casting, although actual numbers analysis will reveal it's not too super.

Some of the content is level-variable, like dragons, which attack you randomly as you're wandering the countryside and are always politely of a level appropriate for you to defeat them. Other content, like, say, the giants which can be seen wandering the valleys herding mammoths, are set at fixed levels. This does lead to hilarity—after your first couple of encounters with dragons and giants simultaneously while you're still at low levels, you may start to wonder whether Skyrim needs a Dragonborn at all, or whether maybe you should just pay the giants to slaughter all the dragons for you. Overall, though, the level variable content is well-handled. Oblivion had a problem where all content was "level-appropriate,"which meant you were constantly riding a power curve and had to take care not to fall behind with suboptimal decisions. Here you just sort of have to watch out about not pumping your smithing and sneaking too high without keeping your combat skills up. It's not perfect, but it works well enough and makes dragon fights and exploring random dungeons viable.

Mind you, I'm less worried about the mechanics than I could be, because I'm playing on PC, and that means mods. Bethesda is hugely supportive of modders, and so Bethesda games always get great modding scenes. As I type this the game's been out for six days. On day two I'd already modded my copy with something to up-res facial textures and clean up blocky bump-mapping on noses and chins, and Bethesda hasn't even released the modding tools yet. Also available on day two was a nude mod, if you like that sort of thing.

After years of work, the Oblivion mod community actually managed to upgrade that game to "almost playable," for me, so given that I'm already in love with this one… well, I have high hopes. Even if you only have a console, though, the game out of the box is great.

Here's a quick shot of my character, by the way. The gear she's wearing is substandard given my play style, but I like how the robe and hood makes her look like she's dressed for trudging up mountainsides in blizzards.

Previously – Mega Gauntlet

This review was based on a retail copy of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim purchased on Steam.