I began Skyrim with lower expectations that most people. I played a significant amount of Oblivion, and judging by the progression from Morrowind to Oblivion and the industry trend of games becoming ever-so-linear, I guessed that Skyrim would be good, not great. After playing the game for well over 100 hours, I can finally get a feel for the game as a whole, even though I know I did not experience everything that the game has to offer.

After the opening sequence (which was pretty cool to say the least), I got my first taste of dungeon action. Within a few minutes, I could already tell that the fighting system was going to be fun. I never thought the fighting system was terrible in the previous two Elder Scrolls games, but each had flaws. Even though the fighting in Skyrim is not perfect, it actually makes you want to go find creatures to fight. I began the game with the idea that I was going to be a warrior and dual-wield some one-handed weapons, but my character ended up becoming more of a hunter-type (bows and arrows). This transformation happened because the game never committed me to any particular play style. Towards the latter-half of the game, I reverted back to dual-wielding at certain points when it was the most effective method for dispatching enemies. I also used a shield with a one-handed weapon, a two-handed weapon, and some one-handed weapon/spell combos. Although you can choose one fighting style and stick with it, this game gives you the chance to create your own hybrid fighting style. I have not played a game that executes this concept so well, and it deserves recognition for it.

I spent the first two days exploring the environment. As I was travelling between cities, I would find myself staring at the scenery. There were many instances where I would have to show someone else the beauty of the world. The developers even accounted for the movements of the air, and I am not referring to the snowflakes blowing around. If you stop to inspect the trees and bushes, you can see the ever-so-slight movement of the branches, which made me feel like I was truly in a living, breathing world. The peaks, valleys, streams and villages made this a world I wished I lived in (the Dragons were pretty neat too).

After ‘experiencing’ the world, I began the quests. I started with a few of the main quests, and then completely abandoned the main story for the next 80 hours. Similar to the previous games, you can join particular factions, each of which has a unique questline. I started with the companions, which is Skyrim’s version of the fighters’ guild. It had some cool aspects, but it took less than ten quests to complete the storyline. Needless to say, I was disappointed. I continued on to the thieves’ guild, which was much more satisfying. The questline was much longer, and it was here that I discovered how awesome it was to be a thief in Skyrim. All of the sneaking around eventually made its way into my fight sytle, and I felt like Rambo; sneaking around in the shadows, picking baddies off with a bow. The only thing that was missing was the explosive arrows. However, back to the matter at hand, I discovered that maybe the companion questline was just a fluke, so I ventured off to find the College of Winterhold. This questline was extremely short and rather uneventful. So far the faction questlines are one for three. I found some of the Daedric quests, and I must say I enjoyed the short but clever scenarios each Daedra put me in. You will most certainly find yourself in a moral dilemma in some of these quests. Let’s just say at one point I ended up in a last-man-standing free-for-all. At this point, Bethesda is at a 50% success rate for the side quests, so it was time to check out the Dark Brotherhood. The Dark Brotherhood questline was about the same length as the thieves’ guild questline, and it was fairly satisfying. All of the abilities I learn from the thieves’ guide quests came in handy for my ‘contract’ missions for the Dark Brotherhood. I proceeded to the civil war questline after this, and it ended in a predictable fashion. The concept of the Stormcloaks against the Imperials was fairly well executed, but I wish there were Lord of the Rings sized-battles. Maybe Bethesda can pull that off with the next generation (imagine a battle like that in Hammerfell). My overall impression of the side quests were favorable, but it seems that the content could have been as epic as the world itself, so I would be lying if I said I was not disappointed a little bit.

When most of the side quests were complete, I figured it was time to jump back into the main quest. The concept (dragons all over the place) was good, but the execution was not as deep, or as long as I expected. Don’t get me wrong; you do some sweet stuff and fight a few challenging battles, but there was not enough substance in this area of the game. When I start from scratch again, it will not be for the main questline. You can blow through the main story in a relatively short amount of time (think ten hours). It is a good thing that Bethesda did not base the game on the main story, because there would be a sea of pissed off people.

The dungeons in the game are rather large, for the most part. After about number 50, it did start to get a little tiresome, but how many different ideas can you come up with for dungeons? I give the developers some credit here, since there is a decent amount of variety and you fight enough different creatures to keep it fresh. There were definitely some difficult parts, most of which were caused by attracting multiple enemies. You are rarely left clueless on where to go or what do to if you do a little bit of observation throughout each dungeon. I remember trying nearly every combination of symbols to open a door, but later on I felt dumb when I figured out the answer, since the answer was actually pretty simple. I do have to say that I miss some of the more challenging aspects that used to be in dungeons in older games (I’m thinking Ocarina of Time), but this complaint does not apply to Skyrim alone, but most games these days. I did notice various glitches throughout my time in dungeons (failed loading, getting stuck between objects, and magically reappearing at the beginning of a dungeon after I fell down about 100 feet), but I cannot say if these were strictly platform issues or glitches that made it into every version of the game. With such a huge environment, I am not surprised that I ran into glitches, and it did not negatively affect my overall opinion of the game.

Overall, I am glad that Skyrim turned out to be a beautiful, engaging, and open game. Even with its flaws, it gives me hope that other developers will take notice and give us some changes that move away from linearity (*hint hint* nearly every RPG maker today). The questlines were not as strong as Oblivion, and it was missing some of the touches that made Morrowind such an awesome game, but I will still endorse Skyrim as a game that deserves the attention of anyone who plays video games in this era. If you are late to the Elder Scrolls bandwagon, now is a great time to hop on board.