“The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim” is a very peculiar game.
It has both a lot of direction and almost none at all, a strange paradox created by a metric ton of things being thrown at the player.
There is so much to do it’s almost suffocating. While playing the game it is completely normal to feel like you’ve done nothing at all, even though you’re the Archmage of a college, Thane of various holds and hero of a rebellion.
Despite the specter of the game’s main story line constantly hanging overhead, Skyrim is an incredible amount of fun. Players can get away with ignoring the point of a character’s existence and just live a life: It’s never been easier to say “screw you” to a game before and not be punished for it.
Another thing “Skyrim” does is give everyone a different experience. Some people spend all their time crafting things, almost as if their character decided all the grandeur and heroics wasn’t their style, so they just settled down.
Me? I’m a glory-seeking foreigner who does everything he can to gain as much power and influence as possible. Oh, I’ll help you, but you can damn well expect I’ll be hanging around to get a reward and a place in your inner circle, if not steal your organization out from under your feet.
Conflicting ideologies don’t matter to me either. Not only am I the leader of a magic-despising group of mercenaries, but I also run a college of mages. How does that work? I have no idea, but the fact that I can do it excited me to no end.
“Skyrim” is not devoid of issues, but they are small issues. The biggest hallmark of the game, the dragon hunting, loses its luster after slaying four of them with increasing ease. Dungeons start to feel the same too. It can become a little tedious, but then again, so can real life — and the point of Skyrim is to emulate that.
Not everyone is going to like “Skyrim,” though (even if they should). Some might find it too aimless, or the side quests too mundane, but anyone who refuses to play is missing out on more than entertainment — they’re missing out on an experience.
With quite literally enough content to keep a player busy for more than a year and the freedom to play however they desire, “Skyrim” is going to go down in the books as one of the most immersive games of all time.
