"I'm not really into all that wizards and dwarfs nonsense" I told a friend when he talked about the new Elder Scrolls game, a series I had no interest in and even less knowledge of. The connection to the Fallout games though meant that I knew the basic gameplay would appeal to me since I like the idea of RPG but not the incredibly detailed stats packages that most come with – selecting equipment, taking notes and digging in menus I'm fine with, but too much detail I'm not. As a result I picked this game up, still not totally sure that I would like the loss of guns and dark comedy that I got with Fallout 3 and NV.
Very quickly I was into the game because I love getting caught up in the exploration, getting quests, finding stuff, building up my character and so on, all to the point where I really didn't progress the story very much until I had already played about 100 hours. The amount of quests is ridiculous and most of them do actually give you something to do other than just travel somewhere and come back. There are quests like that (the Thieves Guild "job" quests get tedious before you complete them) but they are the minority. The actual story is probably too short (ironic complaint for a game that I put down after filling the last few months and eating well over 100 hours); I left it at the end of Act 1 and when I returned to it I was surprised by how quickly I moved through the remainder of it to the end. I was also a little bit disappointed that the story did seem to stand alone and that it was easy to lose the plot if I spend ages doing lots of side-quests which rarely seemed to connection. Fallout NV got the mix better in terms of the storyline as so many side quests supported the story. It still engaged me because the vast majority of the quests were really enjoyable and provided lots to do and experience, just that they did fragment the story a little for me.
In terms of the gameplay, it is accessible to the majority, which means lots of fringe players will be upset. So, for example, I would have liked the dungeon puzzles to have been harder, but I know they were still OK so as to be fun for me but not frustratingly hateful for those that don't like puzzles! The levelling up system makes a lot of sense to be – if you keep doing something, you'll get better at it – works really well as an idea and in practice. I know it upsets "proper" RPG players who prefer limits on who you can be and lots more stats, but I felt it worked – I didn't pick who I was at the start, my character grew based on how I played – so my magic stayed weak because I never used it, unlike other games where you just assign points to a skill to make it better. The gameplay is varied but well balanced – so yes there is trading and making potions, but there is exploring, battles, talking to others, puzzle-solving etc – nobody seeking just one thing to be perfect will be happy, but again this is why the game is accessible and enjoyable to more players.
Graphically the game is beautiful. The load screens when entering a new area are fine until you're doing lots of rapid travelling, but in the open world of Skyrim you can walk for hours and hours and hours without ever seeing a loadscreen. The world ranges from snowy mountains to open green pastures and it all looks great. I did miss the humour of Fallout with this and the rather worthy talk of gods and kings didn't always win me over, but it still worked. The voice work is good and I accepted things like "all guards have the same voice" because such compromises makes room for more detail in other more important ways.
Overall Skyrim has good variation in gameplay and is engaging. The world is full of quests and experiences, with so much to do and explore that you will be playing this for days, not hours. Perhaps not for everyone and perhaps not as perfect as the hype suggests, but this is still a very good and very engaging and once you get into it, you'll be playing it for a good long time.
