Fantastic Fantasy

In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, the world revolves around you.  You create the story, and the game follows. I highly suggest you buy an alarm clock together with Skyrim. That way you won’t forget to eat and sleep.

Skyrim is a phenomenal, fantastic and immersive experience that feels like so much more than a game. Try it – the only ones regretting it will be your family.

By Jakob Fischer

I looked at the old man. Unmistakingly speaking with the voice of actor Max von Sydow, he explained to me how I was destined for great things. How the fate of Skyrim was in my hands. How I was special. A Dragonborn, with latent powers inside me, beyond anything I could imagine. While I listened to the old man explaining how my powers were connected to the dreaded dragons, I steeled myself for the things to come. The great deeds I knew I had to perform. But most of all I prepared myself for a fantastic adventure that was just about to take shape and define itself, with me as the centerpiece, the main star of the story.

Skyrim, the fifth installment in Rockville-based Bethesda Game Studios Elder Scrolls series, pulls you into its nordic-inspired medieval fantasy setting right from the start, as you, the main protagonist, is forced to attend your own execution. Needless to say, your head stays on your shoulders, and you quickly discover that you are perhaps not the ordinary person you thought you were. 

Available on both Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows PCs, Skyrim features a vast open world, filled with forests, plains, mountains, lakes, waterfalls, hills, towns, cities,  caves, dungeons, castles, and all other kinds of beautifully rendered scenery you can imagine, and expect, of a fantasy world. It is also full of living (and not-so-living) beings which make the world feel truly alive. It is also cramped with hidden places of mystery and adventure, for you to discover during your travels and adventures. Many games have these characteristics though, and many games feature truly stunning visuals as well. So, you might ask, why is Skyrim special?

Where Skyrim really shines compared to other games of the genre, is that you create the story. In many other games you often end up feeling restricted, and is often forced to follow a certain path. This is not the case in Skyrim. Here you are free to go wherever you want, and do whatever you want. If you don’t feel like living up to your ancestry, the game doesn’t force you to. 

Basically, if you want to just explore the mountains, enjoy the scenery and pick flowers, you can do that (beware of bears though – and worse). If you want to pursue riches, explore caves, dungeons and ancient temples, and perhaps try to earn enough treasure to buy a fine mansion in a city, then the game lets you do just that. If you want to be a shadowy thief, breaking into people’s homes and steal their belongings (and perhaps their lives), then you can do just that – at least as long as the city guard doesn’t catch you red-handed. And these are just a few examples of the possible paths the game facilitates for you.

I must admit that Skyrim is one of the most addictive games I’ve tried in a long time. The game really pulls you in. It’s like reading the Lord of the Rings, mixed with a pinch of nordic mythology, except you are the hero and shape the story, and the world around you reacts to everything you do. On top of this sensation of really “being there” and the world lying at your feet, Skyrim has enough plot hooks in every scale across the spectrum which you can pick up on or ignore as you go along. This fine balance in the game means that you never find yourself bored. Somehow, there is always something to do, somewhere to go, things that you just have to do before you turn off the game and go to bed – and don’t say I didn’t warn you. 

Yes, Skyrim really is that good.

Of course Skyrim isn’t completely perfect. The interface which shipped with the game has received some critique from players, and it does feel slightly awkward and clunky. I think that’s just something we’ll have to live with, and a problem I’ve seen before in games that are developed for both consoles and PCs at the same time. The other issue that many younger gamers comment on is the complete lack of multiplayer features. But this cartoon, which compares massively multiplayer game World of Warcraft with Skyrim, points out precisely why: By level four you are collecting apples and killing boars in World of Warcraft (along with a horde of other players doing the same) - at the same level you are slaying a dragon and ripping its soul through its neck in Skyrim. 

And that’s exactly the point and why Skyrim is such a phenomenal singleplayer experience: You are the hero – not just one among a mass of players like you.