The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

This game is great, This is a game where you cant just go and do the main story line just in one go, you have to work your way up there, there are 81 levels. you can choose to have your character however you see fit, being a fighter, ranger or a mage, or all 3. If you complete the main story line im sure that there are over 300 more quest to do amazing fun, never got board of it

Many games have open worlds, choosing to give the player a seemingly unlimited freedom to go wherever they want, whenever they want. In my opinion, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was the pinnacle of this genre. It's open ended world was unrivalled, filled with immense detail, quests to chose from and character types to create. The fifth iteration of the series, Skyrim, effectively lives up to its' forbearer's legacy. Many flaws from the ageing Oblivion are gone, improved upon tenfold, while some still seem impossible to eradicate. Nevertheless, Skyrim is now the new, greatest open world game available.

At the very beginning of Skyrim, as in all Elder Scrolls games, you are allowed to make your own unique character. It is here where a lot of time can be spent, trying to decide which race your character will be, what his/her name will be, what skills they will likely have and of course what they look like. This is the portion of the game in which you're allowed to use your imagination to forge your own 'character', defining how you'll react to other npc's throughout the game and how you will play the game. The customization options are some of the best around, allowing very unique characters to be made rather quickly and efficiently.

Once your character has been made, you'll soon be thrown out into the world of Skyrim. It is at this point, that the game is truly in the hands of the player. You'll have a main objective quest which you could head straight to, or, you could decide to wander for a little while, going into a near by cave when it gets dark to look for shelter, or you could decide to travel to the town on the other side of the map, or you could enter a small village and become embroiled in the townsfolks issues, you could solve quests to get a new sword from a shop you walked past or rather unfortunately for some, you could end up on the other side of the law, banished from a city or worse still, in prison. The point is, just as in Oblivion, you have unlimited freedom to explore and this is a magical gaming experience, the kind that only Bethesda has been able to create thus far.

There are many improvements this time around. Firstly, the graphics in Skyrim are superb and they out-date Oblivion by years. Just as Cyrodill's grassy forests and country paths generated a sense of mysterious wonder and magic, Skyrim has also been successful in defining its own representations. The snowy mountains, clear rivers and low grasslands all give Skyrim a realistic atmosphere of cold, unforgiving terrain, wildlife and adventure. Also, the combat this time improves upon that of Oblivion. The simple step of opening up two hands for combat instead of just the one, means that fighting in Skyrim is much more fluid, customizable and exciting. You can dual wield two different spells, hold a shield and a sword, have a spell and an axe and so on. Another element of Skyrim which was greatly criticised in Oblivion, is that of the behaviour of npcs. In Cyrodill, the computer controlled inhabitants whom you interacted with all stood like rigid statues, boring their stares deep into your eyes whenever they talked. Such unnaturalness deeply hurt the game's sense of immersion and thankfully this time around Bethesda has headed its critics and characters now move around whilst talking, showing different facial expressions to match those of their speech.

However, as great as Skyrim is, there are several issues which stop it from becoming a masterpiece. I can't help but feel that because the game is so huge an undertaking, some elements have suffered. The game at times simply isn't intelligent enough. One time, riding my horse to escape from a necromancer, I stumbled upon a camp filled with rebels. I was wearing full Imperial armour at the time and so when you waltz into an enemy encampment wearing the uniform of their sworn enemy, then you'd be forgiven for expecting repercussions of some kind, violent or otherwise. Unfortunately, the npc rebels I encountered were more akin to those of Oblivion, standing still not the least bit concerned. I of course rode on and continued my adventuring, but at that particular moment all sense of immersion lay broken in a heap on the floor. There are many examples of this kind of thing. Stealing something from someone's home, or murdering a townsperson are all forgotten as long as you pay a simple fine. Also, many of the npcs in the game seem to forget that every day they stand in the same place and say the same thing... Once again, the game simply isn't intelligent enough. One other issue regards a gameplay element which could be better refined. There are many different factions to join throughout Skyrim and I'm sure you will join one at some point or another. I did and having started at the bottom of the rung as a rookie initiate I accepted that I would have to carry out the dirty work, the tough jobs and the message errands. Once however I reach the same or even higher level of my former superior I expect the game to give this meaning. Vary the mission structure or game design so that my character can now call some shots. Unfortunately, in Skyrim you could become Emperor of the known Universe but you would still have to deliver a quick message to someone, a task which you performed as an underling. Where's the advancement? The game just isn't intelligent enough.

Finally one consideration which must be addressed is the longevity of Skyrim and the entire genre of open world games as a whole. Once a mission is complete, a quest is done or a faction chain of missions is over, that's it. Go and speak to the people involved in these events and they will speak to you, but they will only ever repeat the same dialogue over and over. You will quickly become bored of this. Although it feels like you never want to admit it due to the nature of the game being open ended, but it quite simply is possible to 'finish' Skyrim, just as it was possible to 'finish' Oblivion. Play it enough and eventually there will be little to do. This of course is after having played the game for well over 150 hours, a time count most games would dream to achieve, yet nevertheless this sense of finite gaming time, of the clock ticking down makes the game feel less open and more linear than you might hope. Some may say this might be an unrealistic and foolish criticism but I think that with some different game mechanics, which target how character s interact with you after given quests, then this game genre might be able to take the rough edge off of 'finishing' missions. If game developers could find a fun way to extend your overall duties as a faction leader after the main challenges are met then games like Skyrim would truly become open ended masterpieces. I've finished Skyrim, but I couldn't go back, quite simply because I've been there and done that. If however I went to the thieves guild headquarters and the game assigned randomly generated npcs for assassination each day however, I might stick around for longer for example. Instead when you go the Assassin's guild headquarters, you get nothing. Hopefully this will change with a little more intelligent game design which pushes you beyond the core initial experience. This would for sure allow open ended games like Skyrim to become masterpieces.

I really enjoyed this game, which may be surprizing because i'm not really an elder scrolls fan. I really enjoyed the main story quest but with me being a fallout fan the side quests seemed pointless. Amazing game but personally the side quests seemed pointlest apart from the odd 1 in 10 which i enjoyed. Still a great game but please atleast rent it first because if you don't like certain parts of it its a bit of a waste of money.

Probably the best game I've ever played of this genre. Obviously you can't compare a game such as this one to Call of duty, Battlefield, etc etc as it's a completely different genre. Rent this game or just buy it! You won't regret it and it will keep you entertained for months and months. Every play through is different and just a slightly different choice in character creation can change the rest of the experience for you. This game is just too good :)

This is one of the best games i rented it for about 3months before i finally bought it great game