The Elder Scrolls V : Skyrim

Before we talk anything about the ‘in’s and ‘out’s of this game, let us first paint a picture of the sheer magnitude of gameplay ahead of you; gameplay time is in excess of 300 hours! That’s a lot of evenings and weekends, so be prepared to sacrifice your social life, or just straight lose the respect of your boss when you hand in that holiday request slip explaining that you simply must take a week off to slay dragons and be an all-round hero of Skyrim (or evil bastard depending on how blackened your soul is).

The good news is, it’s totally worth it. Not only is Skyrim epic and graphically stunning, it’s also unbelievably gripping – in terms of storyline, character progression and general freedom to be whoever you want to be.

Having played this game simultaneously with a fellow Maxim Chap, we really got a feel of just how different the gaming experience is for each individual player – from the detail involved in selecting your race and all-round appearance, to the choice you have in the way you interact with the people of Skyrim, and the way in which your character will develop. For example, we ended up getting a bit too far in the good books with the Thieves Guild for our liking, and found our character doing all kinds of ‘not to be proud of’ side missions, pickpocketing and breaking into homes. Wondering “is this really what we want to be doing with our virtual life?” we soon returned to boosting our magic skills, beefing up our swordplay, and back on the, erm, straight and narrow.

Basically.

Everything here is personal and relative to your style of play: the leveling up is done in such a way that whatever you spend more time doing, the better you become at it. The more you use your bow, the more accurate and deadly you become with it, the more often you cast a spell, pick a lock or axe a bandit in the head and so on, the higher your experience in that particular field – so you will see your warrior, mage or sneaky little thief progress in that way.

As you level up, you’ll get that satisfying feeling that you really are beginning to get somewhere, maybe not immediately, but you’ll certainly notice the difference in how you take on your first dragon encounter, spending half your time cowering behind your shield or a rock to when you’ve got a good five or six dragon slays under your belt and you’re running straight at them with a sword in one hand and an axe in the other! This, however, doesn’t mean that dragon encounters get boring – you just get better equipped and generally a lot harder.

The game is very much classic Bethesda in that regard, with missions and people forever unfolding before you the more you explore the ever-expansive map. You’ll be continually reminded just how far you have left to go. The loading screens display characters, items and beasts of Skyrim that you can bump into along the way. At just upwards of 30 hours in, the majority are still new, even to us.

For those that have played the previous games from Bethesda, Fallout 3 and Oblivion especially, you’ll fall straight into this with real comfort as the controls are the same, and the item/control screens flow easily so that for the amount of time you are sorting through items, equipping weapons, learning spells and concocting potions is all laid out in a relatively foolproof fashion.

The odd bug does find its way in, but we say this only because we feel we have to. It’s rare. But occasionally you may get the odd shaky screen or your current NPC might get stuck behind a rock and you’ll have to revert back to a previous save point. But that really is as far as our criticism can go. With a game of this size and depth all in terms of negatives are virtually immediately forgiven and forgotten.

In short: suit up, select your weapons of choice and embark on an adventure that really will take you into another world. Did we mention that later on in the game you can even buy a property, select the furniture and get married? That’s after you’ve sown all your wild oats, of course. Buy a horse, explore the mountains, caves, temples and castles...

Remember to save regularly, and enjoy the stunning backdrops and satisfying combat that will keep you busy well into 2012 and beyond. Skyrim is epic, classic, gripping and generally lots and lots of fun.