Video Game Review: Skyrim

Let’s talk about Skyrim.

It’s an old game, I know. About a decade old. 

To me, it’s the beginning of an era. It opened the world of gaming in more ways than one.

For one, I exclusively played Legend of Zelda games since I married. The last game I played on the Playstation was Final Fantasy VIII, and after that, I got a GameCube, a Wii, a Wii U, and a Switch. I even bought a 3DS to play A Link Between Worlds. For years that’s all I played, Zelda Games. I played and replayed Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker and Twilight Princess (and even Skyward Sword, once). I then finished Breath of the Wild, twice. 

I also didn’t play much. Only two or three hours each weekend. My husband wasn’t a gamer and that left very little playing time for me. 

Before the Switch, when I finished Twilight Princess the second time, I felt I needed to try something different, but still open world. So I researched online for games a Zelda fan would enjoy. Skyrim came up. Apparently, it was the best game ever. Or so the reviews I kept reading said.

The game wasn’t available for the Switch, so my husband bought me a PS4 and the game (yes, I am loved 💗), and we brought it home.

But guess what? I didn’t get to play Skyrim. My husband had come back with a new toy, and he wanted to try it out. For the first time since he had graduated from college, my husband went back to gaming. He loved Skyrim. 

Now, I tried it, but I found the controls clunky. I didn’t get very far, perhaps only a few minutes, and decided it wasn’t for me because I couldn’t see the character the same way I could always see Link. (I much later discovered there was a way to do this, but bear with me).

Then Breath of the Wild came out and it was amazing. After my second play-through, I wanted more. But I didn’t want to play it a second time. So, I found Skyrim was now available on the Switch. 

I downloaded it and began playing. I discovered I could see the character while playing by changing the settings. And finally, I loved the game. It was so amazing. It took me years to finally get out of the Zelda shell and come out to play. 

Now it’s time to tell you what I think about Skyrim.

STORY: 

Skyrim is the story about your random character becoming the Dragon Born. It’s one of the few games I have played where the character is no one in particular. In Zelda, you’re Link, in Tomb Raider you’re Lara Croft. In Skyrim, you’re no one. And you can choose to be whoever you want, starting from the gender, to the race, to the way you look. 

As you complete the main quest, you learn more about the Dragons and what it means to be the Dragon Born. You learn new skills as you find Dragon Born related symbols, too. One of the things I like the most about this game is that you can choose to finish the main quest first or leave it until you run out of side quests. It’s a fun game overall.

QUESTS:

The more quests you complete, the more experience points you receive. I like to advance on level before I try the main quest, so I love side quests. They are fun. In Skyrim, you get A LOT of side quests.

GAMEPLAY:

The gameplay is a lot like Zelda, which I was excited to find out. you can have a sword and shield (I used an ax most of the game, which didn’t let me get a sword. It was slower but efficient), you have your arrows (you can find many different varieties with different hit points), or you use magic (I rarely used magic. In fact, I finished the game without really using magic, and I thought that flexibility was great). 

Your character can run (unless you’re carrying too much weight), jump, and ride a horse. You can also teleport to certain towns, which helps whenever you loot some enemy and you need to get rid of your weight by either selling or storing your items (because you can eventually buy a house and build a house).

You get the option of changing your armor and weapons however you like. You can also receive special items that give you special abilities as you complete the quests. You are also always on the lookout for herbs and materials you need to forge/improve your armor and weapons, and to brew potions that can help with health/stamina or cure any ailment.

Skyrim has great gameplay overall. I really enjoyed it.

THE MAP:

For some reason, I judge games by their maps. I like being able to know where I am in the world and where I’m going. Skyrim did a good job of this most of the time, but not always. Sometimes, I would know where I need to go, but I couldn’t go there. There would be a mountain or a secret path that isn’t on the map and I would wander about for a while until I found the way. 

That’s not something I look forward to in a game. But, oh well. Not all the games are perfect.

Skyrim’s map is revealed as you go into an area, which is fine. Then, the warp point areas are shown (like towns, cities, etc). It is always clear where you are, but not always clear where you should go.  Most quests do tell you where to go, I was happy to find. The rest, I would either look online or just forget about them.

Also, sometimes I felt like I was going in the right direction, but it turned out I wasn’t. It was a little annoying at times. But it could also be because I’m not a great gamer. Ha!

OTHER:

With each level up you get more experience points, more magic points and points to spend in your abilities. The ability chart is REALLY big. That’s good and bad. You could improve your weapon or armor, or you could improve your ability to persuade. There were a lot of options for each, which made it complicated to choose. In order to complete one web, you needed to ignore many others. It was still ok, and I enjoyed leveling up.

You also get your dragon born abilities with time. You do this by completing quests or by finding dragon inscriptions on walls. I really didn’t use a lot of these, I would use the same ones over and over. It just got too overwhelming for me, but I was glad to have the options.

One of the things about Skyrim is you get to fight dragons. In the beginning, you don’t get to fight that often, but eventually, the dragon population seems to grow. These dragon attacks appear to be random, and the best thing about killing these dragons is the loot (and the experience points, of course). Those dragon bones sell for a high price, and then you can buy other useful stuff. I know you could also forge a dragon bone armor, but I didn’t have the patience for that. Dragon bones are heavy and they don’t let you run, LOL.

OVERALL Skyrim is an excellent game I would play again if I had the time. It is currently third on my list of Best Games of All Time.

Cheers!