The Good:

In the history of RPG video games, there has been a concerted effort to represent, through gameplay, what someone might be picturing in their head when they read a fantasy novel, such as “Lord of the Rings” or “A Game of Thrones”; or possibly what one might envision as they play a pen and paper RPG with their overweight, virgin friends as they keep the soda, taco bell, and health care industries afloat. Skyrim engages the player so completely that a player can lose themselves for hours upon hours in this rich and varied environment; Skyrim ebbs and flows with a natural pace and beauty.

Undoubtedly, there will be others that will be better. However, currently and maybe for some time going forward, Skyrim is the most perfect fantasy action storm… just perfect. The gameplay is not perfect in and of itself, no game can be, and it shares some limitations with its predecessor, Oblivion, however the strides forward Bethesda has made outweigh any specific problems the game might have. As a full picture, this game whole-heartedly deserves the perfect scores that major game publications were paid-off to write.

The elusive “good” video game story (characters, quests, interactions, dialogs) is masterfully pulled off, in a very Elder Scrolls way. In contrast to Oblivion, Skyrim is much less goofy and stilted though. It’s not the same 5 voice actors voicing every character, with overly Shakepearian British accents. Instead, the player is presented with what seems to be a fairly accurate portrayal of a Nordic tinged English, which in turn helps establish the plausibility of the events and characters. People don’t seem to revolve around you, they simply exist in the world. For those who love to read the extensive lore, the same books filled with back-story lay all over the place, as it was in Oblivion.

The job Bethesda does on the setting and environment in Skyrim is to video games, what an iron chef can do to his meal, or a Rembrandt can do to his painting. Nothing wows me more in this game than the environments. Keep in mind I’m not talking about raw graphical prowess, like what one might see in a Crysis engine game. I’m talking about that “X” factor that captures the FEEL of a place, and captures the intrinsic beauty of a high mountain path, or a rocky waterfall, it’s just mesmerizing.

Various other improvements have been made to Gameplay, such as companions AI is much better and they won’t die immediately upon fighting anything toughet than a pixie, nor are they invulnerable easy buttons. When they run out of health they get staggered and lose threat, instead of being murdered. That works for me.

The talent/character leveling system is amazingly seamless, and very different from Oblivions complex, clunky system. Instead of having predetermined classes, the user picks one of three Uber-classes, and then proceeds to fit into a progression grove, by playing a certain way. For instance if I sneak a lot and shoot bows then that is what I will get points in; the higher my points the more talents that are specific to that ability open up for me to place talent points in. The result is very natural and simple, and fun.

The Bad:

The Combat is not perfect. I think the Penny Arcade guys pointed out this hard truth to me first, and I had to examine it. (http://penny-arcade.com/2011/11/11/skyrim) I won’t say it’s bad, because it fits the game just fine, and it’s still fun and engaging. Honestly, it’s hard to get a combat system to feel perfect, when you have other things you have to focus on such as story, map expanse, HD textures, etc. All in all it’s better than Oblivion. Blocking works as a tactic now, and sneaking is balanced; certain movements, such as backing up and jumping feel a lot more organic, but there is still something there that is not quite…perfect. Fighting, especially sword-play, feels a lot like two kids with those fake light-sabres slapping at each other until one person yields because their hands got hit. On the bow side of things, If you play a stealthy, DPS ( High-damage) role you’ll find yourself unable to use the hit and run tactics you could in Oblivion to make up for poor armor. This can be both good and bad, in that melee creatures are not as easy to kite( In Oblivion if you had the room you could kite the meanest of creatures too easily), but on the other hand there is no good way to JUST use the bow. Players will have to have a weapon to pull up, as well as some way of slowing the enemies’ aggression (shouts or spells work here).

Also, much like in Oblivion, the difficulty curve can be odd at times. A wolf is easy to kill, but a frost sabre cat is so meaty that it can be near impossible to kill, causing the player to go from piling up health potions that have no immediate use, to all of the sudden having to empty their stock, in the same quest, again I’m not sure if this is truly a bad thing, as much as something one must get used to. (http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2011/11/09)

The Transcendent:

I think the thing that steers people away from a game like this most are the time-sink aspect, as well as their being too open a path of progression. Skyrim does a lot to reign in the second problem by pushing the player down a very clear path, while also giving the player the option of exploration, as opposed to Oblivion’s disjointed assemblage of endless dungeons and un-connected questing. It’s not too ren-faire goofy either ( as far as I have played), and definitely makes the player feel powerful by giving the player large and challenging obstacles, such as dragons to conquer, using very cool weapons magics and shouts many times in interesting combinations.

The shouts add a visceral quality to casting, making the player feel more a god than a bearded wizard, twinkling his hands as he casts lightning bolts. Rather the character shouts odd, mean sounding words of power that effect the world, and the things around him in a violent and cinematic way, which is a very entertaining addition to the gameplay, and story presentation. Magic effects also seem much improved, as well as magicka usage pacing. In Oblivion, players start out with terrible spells that drain magic quickly. In Skyrim even your week spells LOOK cool, and sometimes used in conjunction with other things can be helpful beyond their obvious application, such as setting things on fire, etc.

I compare the game a lot to Oblivion, because in a lot of ways when you play the game, you can see all the things the Devs can now do, that they weren’t able to accomplish in Oblivion. Where Oblivion was a much beloved game, that was ambitious, fun and flawed, Skyrim is all those things, MORE ambitious, less flawed and it will undoubtedly be more beloved by more than just me in the years to come.

You will need a lot of time to play this game, but the progression is much more greased and easy to follow, allowing the user to manage gameplay time a little better. I can play the game for about an hour and feel like I have made progress, as opposed to Oblivion where I could play for weeks and feel like I’ve only thrown a pebble in the pond.

The game will be remembered as a benchmark for Action RPG games. It’s too perfect in all the important ways to not be. Expect lots of DLC to come, as has been the case for all Bethesda games to date.

Bethesda further solidifies themselves as a major force of triple AAA titles with triple AAA quality. Their games only look to get better as opposed to being Activisioned into Oblivion (see what I did there).

Solid 9 average

And finally the character faces are not ugly!