The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, The latest entry in Bethesda Studios' award-winning Elder Scrolls series, is a freeform RPG with many of the pros and cons of Bethesda's games. Such as their genuinely beautiful worlds, their mediocre at best writing skills, or their belief that everyone has to be able to become the leader of every guild ever made. You explore, gain skills, adventure, dungeon crawl, do quests, meet interesting people and creatures, and kill them for profit.
The combat system is a major step up from their prior entry, Oblivion, Losing the floatiness and lack of impact from each blow, and gaining the ability to dual wield While you can use axes, swords, daggers, maces, and even spells in this way, you lose the protective ability to block. Additionally, weapon balance is better than ever, each type having slightly different damage and speed to give players an incentive to try new things.
The skills have been streamlined massively. All the weapons have now been condensed into archery, one handed, and two handed. Armorer has been changed into the more nebulous Smithing, and Mysticism as a category has been rolled somewhat into Conjuration.
Some of these perks include:
Get the key to a lock you have picked.
Never break a lock pick.
Able to bribe guards.
Decapitate enemies.
Zoom in and slow down time while aiming a bow.
Do 15x sneak attack damage with a dagger.
And many many more.
Another change is the removal of the Armorer skill in exchange for the new Smithing skill, which allows you to upgrade and craft new equipment, and even jewelry. The system is surprisingly fun, giving a real feeling of accomplishment for finding a rare ore out in the middle of nowhere.
Also new are the Shouts, an ancient draconic language capable of magical effects. From throwing a burst of force at them, to breathing fire or frost, or even calling down lightning on all who stand against you. You unlock them by killing a dragon and absorbing its soul, usually after a knock down drag out fight. My one complaint with these fights is they are more geared towards heavy armor and weapons users once the dragon is on the ground, while thieves and assassins are left to try and pepper the dragon with arrows while ducking in and out of cover.
"I'm doing this for the guild or my own personal honor."
"I'm doing this because I'm an asshole, or I'm doing it in spite of the fact that I'm an asshole."
"I'm doing this because I want to get paid."
Generally the responses are the same general non-commital "eh", meaning you can basically be nothing but an asshole to everyone in the guild and yet they'll treat you generally the same. Though I must stress, it is much better than Oblivion, where you weren't even the main character, or Fallout 3.
Now, rambling aside. Time to rate how much it is worth, in my opinion.
Currently on steam, you can purchase Skyrim for $60.00
I personally enjoy this game quite a lot, and with the modding community attached to it, it is easily worth sixty dollars. Though if you can't afford it, wait for a sale or the Game of the year edition.
~
E-Tank
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