Game Changer #41 – The Skyrim Checklist
My name is Jared Whittaker, one of the hosts and Audio Chewbacca of the Super-Fly Podcast and PCW! Welcome to Game Changer, a weekly burning missive about all aspects of video gaming with a little bit of opinion thrown in for fun. Proceed with caution and tread lightly, gentle gamers. It’s going to be good time. Like the first time you saw Super Mario 3 good time.
2011 has been a pretty unbelievable year for video games. Red Dead Redemption. Dead Island. Modern Warfare 3. Battlefield 3. Mass Effect 2. Dead Space 2. Killzone 3. LA Noire. Dead Island. Gears of War 3. And a boatload more that I’m sure I’m missing. All were great games and had great experiences. But the game that I’ve been most excited about this year was The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim. As a veteran Elder Scrolls and role playing game player, I was blown away at the first sight of the trailer on Spike’s Video Game Awards in Febuary. The news that dragons would be showing up in the game made my head explode. My now infamous story of playing Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion for 671 hours, (at last count) is legendary in it’s absurdity. People often ask “How could you play ANY game for that long?!?” The game is unbelieveablly deep with so much to do and see that the game becomes a difficult hole to get out of. And with the release of Skyrim, it’s starting all over again. So for this week’s Game Changer, I figured that I’d let people know what I’ve been up to in the game so far and what I’m looking forward to doing in the hundreds of hours I’ll likely be playing this monstrous adventure.
This is me in Skyrim. Can't tell the difference, right?
Taking in the sights
The first thing I noticed about the game this time around is that it is beautiful! The Elder Scrolls games in the past have looked really good visually, but this time around, Skyrim looks AMAZING!! There’s been times that I’ve just looked around at surroundings and taken screencaps of the view. The draw distance is pretty awesome on PC. The giant mountains in the background beckons you to climb them and see how far up it goes and what you might find up there. One of the problems with Oblivion was that the environments weren’t that different from one place to another visually. In Skyrim, the environments differ greatly from one place to another. In the mountains, at times, it literally hard to see because of the snowfall. The forests are beautiful, looking like fall if fall was a thing that still happened around where I live. It’s an amazing thing to see.
I've been to the top of the mountain......
You fight EVERYTHING!!
Combat is a must in a game like this. And the amount of different ways to fight threats you encounter is pretty staggering. You can go straight up hand to hand, one and two handed swords, bow and arrows, magic, the works. I’ve been using a two-handed sword mixed with destruction magic and archery. To make things more interesting, Bethesda included the killcams from their other game, Fallout 3′s V.A.T.S. system when you make a critcal hit. The shock of shooting an arrow and the camrea following it to the victim or having two axes in hands and cleaving off a bandit’s head had me screaming out loud and was one of the most visceral gaming experiences I’ve ever had. The amount of different enemies is pretty staggering. Couple that with fighting them WHILE you’re constantly looking out for random dragons flying around that will attack EVERYONE in the fight and it makes for a tense environment. Having to fight four dudes at once and then had a dragon crash the party, that’s a game changer for sure. I don’t think that I’ve run faster in any game. Which leads to my next point….
What happens when you mess with me in Skyrim.
You can get killed by EVERYTHING!!
While totally frustrating at times, I kind of like that fact that you can just get killed at any moment in this game. While Skyrim does level up some enemies as your character levels, there are places in the world that have enemies that will kill you. I mean kill you quickly. I’m on level 11 and bears, Spriggens, Ice Wolfs and any amount of multiple bad guys is enough to kill you. I like the fact that you don’t ever feel safe at anytime and that there are places that if you are not ready to go to, the game will let you know fast. Some games, it’s cool to walk into an area and waste everyone once you get to a current level. In this game? It ain’t safe, sir. You will get killed if you don’t keep your eyes open and have the right weapon or spell loadout ready. It’s a more deliberate way of playing the game, but more realistic and fulfilling when you clear a room full of bandits with just a little bit of health left.
There are all kinds of things out there. Be careful.
I go to work, baby.
One thing that works very well in Skyrim is the job systems. I never cared about smithing in the least, but when I started it for a short quest, I couldn’t stop sharpening my swords and making new armor for myself. Hunting is fun and much easier when you use force electric powers. Killing people in the Dark Brotherhood is pr…..well….I shouldn’t talk any more about that. The jobs are so much fun and really adds to your adventure. That’s the part that really makes the jobs worth doing. Having an end result where you get something for jumping through the hoops of working is the best way to go. I’ll be making ebony swords, armor and boots pretty soon. All black everything.
This is just some of the fun stuff that has really grabbed me in the game. To be fair, I haven’t really scratched the surface of the game. But, it is, in the early stages, an amazing game. I’m having a lot of fun with the game. I’m sure I’ll be updating you with more about my adventures in Skyrim. What do you think? Do you love it? Do you hate it? Let us know.
Keep gaming.
Jared Whittaker plays a lot of games. Not as much as he’d like, but as much as time and money will allow. If you want to play some games with Jared, you can find him on Playstation 3; PSN tag: JFX. He is also on Steam and Battle.net as JFX316 and while he doesn’t have an Xbox 360, he has the coolest Gamertag in the world: Obiwan Jaborni. Feel free to add him as a friend or email him at JWhittaker@PanelsonPages.com. and on Twitter as JFX316
Filed Under: Columns • Game Changer
Visually it’s absolutely beautiful. In ES4: Oblivion I really wasn’t a fan of the combat. It just felt clunky and random, and while you could play in the 3rd person POV you could tell the game wasn’t designed for it. Skyrim improved upon that, but it’s still not 100% there yet. A lock-on feature would help greatly
The 3rd person play is very much improved from Oblivion. It’s MUCH easier this time around in Skyrim.
As for lock-on, I say leave it to games like CoD. Aiming in Skyrim is based on skill. If you can’t hit targets with a bow and arrow, you’ll have to improve your skill in the game. With parks and practice, you can unlock slowdown and zooming in while aiming later on as you go forward.
I was referring to actual hand to hand combat being awkward at times. Trying to pan the camera and your character while trying to switch to a view that actually lets you see the opponent makes me want to scream sometimes. That’s not really based on skill, it’s a matter of getting accustomed to an outdated game mechanic. Fans of the series are probably used to it and see no fault, but as a newcomer to the franchise, it loses points in that area.
@ D-rock why would u need a lock on feature its not a hard game you should’nt need one unless you have down syndrome…..imo
Well, in the effort to bring a realistic approach to the game, the combat aspect suffers from too much micro-management. I just want to swing and hit something. I don’t want to swing while panning the camera and hitting 3 buttons at once while standing on my head during the 3rd full moon of the year just to stab someone with a dagger.
great article man! I’m playing the PS3 version, which while i’ll admit the PC version is much better, is still a great improvement over Oblivion for sure. really loving this game, to walk into a dungeon with a sword in one hand and a destruction spell readied in the other is a thrill!
After a good full week of playing, and reaching a character level of 35ish and a few skill levels of 80+, here’s my thoughts of the game overall.
**Pro’s**
The score – right from the initial menu, the opening theme is POWERFUL. I haven’t even started playing the game yet and it already feels epic. Leveling up sounds like a celebration. I think that’s where most games suffer, not investing enough time in the music. They hit it out of the ballpark here.
Graphics – already mentioned, the game is visually beautiful when it comes to the environment. Breathtaking views and realistic climate & terrain changes.
Content – We just had a discussion recently about the price of new games being outrageous. I think I can safely say with Skyrim, you’re getting your $60 worth. I spent a week playing this and I barely scratched the surface of the main storyline. Side-quests galore!
Skills – Skyrim has a much sleeker skill building mechanic than Oblivion and actually makes choosing your skills kind of fun.
**Con’s**
Combat – Not a huge gripe, but recent RPG’s I’ve played have just done it better.
Character graphics – Designing your characters features still seems alittle outdated. Perhaps they cut back on the graphics here to make a more realistic environment? Granted we don’t see much of the characters face, but still, it was a disappointment when I saw it.
Menu commands – Maybe our system was just glitching or maybe it was the game itself, but using the quick menu during combat caused us quite a few woes at times. Trying to switch to a new weapon during combat left of barehanded and during a dragon fight that’s not a position you want to be in! Even when talking to townsfolk the menu would freeze.
Weapon Enchantments – In an effort to bring as much realism as possible into the game, the developers need to realize IT’S STILL A GAME. It’s supposed to be fun, and there are some areas where the micro-management kills that. When I enchant a sword, I don’t want to worry about collecting tiny gems and then killing random monsters to trap in said gems so I can recharge my weapon so it works properly. Betheseda, if the weapon is enchanted, just leave it enchanted FFS! “Hey that awesome weapon you just made doesn’t work right anymore because you swung it twice”. Lame.
Overall, it’s a great game and we’ve been having a blast playing it. During an interview with one of the developers he said “sometimes our desire to be as real as possible get’s us into trouble” and I think that’s evident in some areas. But as a newcomer to the series, I’m officially a fan.