What do you do first? When you emerge from the gloom of the opening dungeon and see Skyrim stretching out before you, it's the first decision you have to make. You've heard that you can find work in the nearby town of Riverwood, but that's just a suggestion. You can go anywhere and do anything. The world is yours.
It's the moment that has always defined the Elder Scrolls series. That palpable feeling of freedom and adventure as you gaze across a vast, beautiful landscape. Skyrim is not a great leap from Oblivion, or even Morrowind, but it is the finest chapter in the series to date: an unforgettable journey into another world, and a bracing emancipation from the linearity that typifies modern gaming.
For tips read our Skyrim guide.
One of the biggest changes is how you create your hero. By the time you'd escaped the sewers in Oblivion you had already decided your class and base stats. When you start Skyrim, the only things you get to choose are your race, sex and appearance. The editor is fantastic, frankly, with a wealth of sliders and presets, as well as something sorely missing from Oblivion - a large selection of beards.
We create a tall, imposing Nord, the native race of Skyrim, with broad shoulders, piercing blue eyes and blonde hair. Each race - of which there are ten - has its own special ability, which includes passive effects that are always active, and spells you can use once a day. Nords, for example, have 50% frost resistance and a Battle Cry ability that makes enemies flee in terror, while Argonians can breathe underwater and cast Histskin to rapidly regenerate their health.
Still, besides these initial bonuses, how your character develops depends entirely on how you play the game. Say you use greatswords a lot in combat; this will see your two-handed weapon stats improve every time you strike an enemy. Or maybe you prefer to keep your distance and use bows; every arrow that hits its target will improve your archery stats.
Our Nord is skilled with one-handed weapons and destruction magic, meaning we can toast enemies with fireballs while simultaneously using melee attacks. You can mix and match weapons and spells by assigning them to each of your hands, which are controlled independently, and while every combination has its own strengths and weaknesses, it's a smart, intuitive system, and allows you to create multi-class characters on the fly.
Which is particularly useful, because most of your time in Skyrim is spent in battle. And yet, because there are so many ways to play - and so many spells, abilities and weapons to combo - every encounter feels different.
The same kind of variety marks out the magic too. You begin the game with a selection of basic, low level spells, but more can be learned by purchasing books from mages, or finding scrolls. It's worth the investment.
Each of the four schools - alteration, destruction, illusion and restoration - have individual strengths, and combining different types of spell can make you incredibly powerful. You can paralyse enemies and hack away at them as they lie frozen and helpless, then bring them back to life and have them fight alongside you. Or you can just focus on keeping yourself alive, restoring your health and buffing your armour between swings of your sword.
Comments
65 comments so far...
MPH on 10 Nov '11 said:
Not going to read the review (I want to discover everything for myself) but a top score. I'll be playing this tonight when I get in.
BenThomasFoster on 10 Nov '11 said:
Holy shet batman this game has met expectations. #2
juliancallan on 10 Nov '11 said:
Yes. Yes.
YES.
Atinetro on 10 Nov '11 said:
I got interested in this game about a whole 30 minutes ago when I actually watched some gameplay, read into the lore and all that. I must say, it looks amazing. Waiting until I get a new graphics card in December, and this baby will try it out
Moribundman on 10 Nov '11 said:
How long before someone whinges and says they won't buy it because you didn't give it a 10?
Hopefully this will be waiting for me tonight. Even though I know Game blatently LIED about mailing it at the weekend...
splitter on 10 Nov '11 said:
MPH - it's a good review and has very little in the way of spoilers, (and you can tell when they are coming so are easy to avoid), so you may want to take a look.
FinalBillybong on 10 Nov '11 said:
Great news! My 5870 decided to fail on me! What perfect timing. Just orderd a 6870 to arrive tomorrow! It better bloody do to, I couldn't stand playing this on my back up card (3850), it just wouldn't do it justice!
Also, the score I was expecting. Can't frickin wait to get lost in this game for the next few years!
monkeyd_93 on 10 Nov '11 said:
Excited to see the other reviews. For some reason im glad i purchased the hardcover CE of the guide now
Nikh23 on 10 Nov '11 said:
Hooray! Never liked the fact that you couldn't make a grizzly beardy Nord in Oblivion.
Going home to visit the parents tomorrow for a few days - I'm going to have to find room in my bag to take my Xbox with me so I can play it ASAP. Cannot wait!
Welshybhoy91 on 10 Nov '11 said:
Mine arrived this morning. Game usually deliver the day before for me
Took today and tomorow off. Going to put a couple of stone on this week i think
pRM8 on 10 Nov '11 said:
00:01 cannot come soon enough for me!
I'm going to go and watch Star Wars the original trilogy on blu-ray, that will get me closer to unlock then I'll play some BF3 to keep me awake until midnight.
MPH on 10 Nov '11 said:
Good stuff, thanks. I'll take a look now. I've been stung so many times in the past when reading reviews that now I tend to (more often than not) look at the closing comments. The worst was a review for FFVII which detailed a very major part of the story from the first disc. The same publication also revealed where every jump scare was in RE2 along with the story without putting any spoilers alerts up. Suffice to say I stopped buying that mag.
Clusks on 10 Nov '11 said:
So glad this is coming out now. BT have really messed up my Internet so I can't play on Xbox Live =( But this will more than fill the void hopefully!
gearyboy on 10 Nov '11 said:
A huge range of beards? F@ckin' A!
Similar to Oblivion and Morrowind? Oh well, that just means I'm going to love it then...
Wonder if the fact that it shares a lot of familiar aspects to the earlier ES titles means that hundreds of embittered gamers will be storming off to Metacritic to give it a big fat 0 out of 10?
ensabahnur on 10 Nov '11 said:
Good call, and by that i mean the original trilogy. I watched The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones on blu-ray over the last few weekends and they're still pretty poor movies, Phantom just keeps getting worse the more times you watch it. Ohh well at least Revenge of the Sith is decent film and won't be a chore to watch before i move on to the originals (and best!!).
appyday on 10 Nov '11 said:
A large selection of beards? IM IN!!
MrPirtniw on 10 Nov '11 said:
I fink I lik COD betterer.
Sounds great- although I put a lot of time into Oblivion I have to say the game is dull as hell. Probably due to the repeated voices, music, scenery and cr@p combat but this has got me verrrry interested. Just wish I had a spare 300 hours.
Codename21 on 10 Nov '11 said:
Wooohoooo! My copy of this game has arrived in the post today!
I play Elder Scrolls games by carving my own path into the world, creating my own story, and usually have little interest in the main quest. I practically moved into Morrowind and Obivion....Unfortunately, given that there is an estimated 300hrs + in this game, and the functionality to have unlimited quests thanks to the RadiantAI/RadiantStory built into it I don't rate my chances of playing this, as I can't see how it is going to fit in with me moving house and having a 9mnth old child....
immyh on 10 Nov '11 said:
This a really bad review and im surprised the editors allowed this to go through. No review should ever spoil a game for anyone and by mentioning ways to cheat or break a game such as the dragon battles is really unforgivable and you have ruined the game for me and potentially others. I hope you will edit and remove that part of the review.
PlanesOutcast on 10 Nov '11 said:
Given the Dragon are at the centre of the story and the new feature so promoted, I would have thought having negatives about their AI and how exploitable they are would have brought the score down by more than 0.5!
Killermancarro on 10 Nov '11 said:
It's up to you to ge the most out of a game and not down to others to hide issues with the game.
If you want to have a hard fight with a dragon, leave your bear and horse at home and start negotiations off with a bag of skittles. That's certainly going to make the battle harder for you!
TheCrimsonFenix on 10 Nov '11 said:
I'm still a bit on the fence about it, me being Mr. Negative. Hopefully you'll be posting a follow up article answering everyone's questions about the game as there have been a lot of great questions that have yet to be answered.
flowerday11 on 10 Nov '11 said:
Got it today at lunch time, quickly installed it on the xbox and then created my character, found it odd there was no blue war paint?! I wanted to recreate the iconic Pict war paint from ancient Scotland, oh well, no big loss. Read you can change appearence later in the game...wether this is true or not is beyond me...
Played about 10 mins and it feels good, will take a bit of getting used to the controls but i am seriously looking forward to sinking my teeth into some serious game time tonight!
DAEDALUS79 on 10 Nov '11 said:
As a few others have said, wont read the review as I want to discover everything myself. Please please please Thor let my copy come tomorrow, HMV have well and truly scared me by dispatching it today
Desert Fox on 10 Nov '11 said:
Never played an Elder Scrolls game, but this one's looking good and recieving mega praise it seems. One question though, do items and weapons have a durability stat? I hate it enough when stuff breaks in real life, let alone when my pretend sword breaks mid-battle and needs repair.
Barry316 on 10 Nov '11 said:
I think i've read that instead of weapons and armour getting worse they'll actually improve the more you use them.
pRM8 on 10 Nov '11 said:
Yeah I watched the 'other' episodes yesterday, episodes 1 & 2 are just not that great at all but Revenge of the Sith makes a few strides towards what the originals were like.
Anyway come on stupid time, go faster!!
Oh and here's a review from PCGamer if anyone is interested, its a good read.
http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/10/the-e ... im-review/
Skarfester on 10 Nov '11 said:
Its a shame they didnt focus on making the combat fun and varied in this game. I think if they had done that, then this game would easily be a 10.
TheCrimsonFenix on 10 Nov '11 said:
f**k the fence, got the game.
humanhand on 10 Nov '11 said:
Can't wait to get it!
sulli456 on 10 Nov '11 said:
I'm confused I thought this was the new game where you fight to outmaneuver your opponent on the battlefield using the destructive powers in your collection of magical scrolls. The collectible card/board game hybrid.
My whole world has been turned upside down.
The_KFD_Case on 10 Nov '11 said:
Sold! (And then some!)
bjjcjc on 10 Nov '11 said:
http://myona.com/2011/11/10/ps3-wins-xbox-360-skyrim/
Not to start a fanboy war, but If this comparison video is anything to go by, then it is noticably better on the PS3 which makes a change.
verynaughtyboy on 10 Nov '11 said:
I'm not really a fan of this sort of game played through the first-person view. Does anyone know if it plays well through the third-person view or was that option a bit of an afterthought?
TheCrimsonFenix on 10 Nov '11 said:
Personally I'd say it's an improvement over the third person camera in Oblivion (what with the terrible animation making it look ridiculous) but not by much. You could probably get some where with it if you reeeally wanted to but at the end of the day this is clearly meant to be played in first person.
Third person gameplay video here if you would like it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUbrjx0FZBo
flash501 on 10 Nov '11 said:
Still waitin for the bloody courier to deliver mine.
HURRY UP, DAMMIT!!
The Sandbag on 10 Nov '11 said:
Got my copy today, and the first mission beats Oblivion's hands down. Problem is, I didn't really edit my character, just picked the race, so am doing the same mission again so I can edit him a bit better. But for now, kudos Bethesda!
Reegeee on 10 Nov '11 said:
I can normally never tell a difference with those waste of time videos but I can with that one. It does look noticeably sharper on the PS3 but it still looks really good on the 360 too so it's win win.
I was thinking I wasn't going to bother with this cos I never find the time to play these stupidly long games but I've come to the end of Arkham City quicker than I normally would (Not cos it's short, just cos I can't stop playing the bastard), so I'm going to need another single player game and this looks like it fits the bill.
bjjcjc on 10 Nov '11 said:
Think I am going to plump for the PC version
ecanorun on 10 Nov '11 said:
I was going to buy it for Xbox but after watching the video, I shall be getting it on PS3. The difference is quite noticable.
Random Hangman on 10 Nov '11 said:
And now a sad story...
There I was at work when I received an email saying that my Amazon order would be delivered between 13.23 & 14.23 and someone would have to be in to sign for it. Rang the wife who said she'd be here and when I came home, lo, there was a glorious Amazon package. Like an excited child on Christmas morning I tore open the package, virtually salivating at the joyous evening ahead roaming the glorious landscape of Skyrim.
And what was in the package? "Return to OZ" on DVD that I'd bought for someone following a long standing joke! "Return to f**king OZ"!!! I can't believe it. It wasn't even something I want to watch.
AND my Amazon status is still "waiting to despatch".
I could weep...
Warrior24_7 on 10 Nov '11 said:
Did ANY big game reviewed by anybody NOT get a 90 or greater?!! Nothing to see here, move along.
flash501 on 10 Nov '11 said:
Random Hangman on 10 Nov '11 said:
Thanks for the empathy, Sir... Let's hope the dogs behave this evening or it's collie casserole tomorrow
TheCrimsonFenix on 10 Nov '11 said:
Those Wheelers are creepy as f**k on toast.
humanhand on 10 Nov '11 said:
That's why I started going to the store to get my copies of AAA games on release days. You can't trust the onliners.
Sangor on 10 Nov '11 said:
Can't wait to play, just waiting on the steam unlock.
Joe90_Remy700 on 10 Nov '11 said:
yup, that was me for the last while, then i read alot more into the game and decided a few days ago "fek it, i'll trade in a few for this" only downside is there's no midnight release near me, so i have to wait till 8am. but then i get a good few hours in before the wife comes home for lunch...
Manjushri on 10 Nov '11 said:
Only about 5 hours until it unlocks on Steam - can't wait!
Cogglesz on 10 Nov '11 said:
I Got it on steam, didn't want to risk not having it today, currently at 72%
Cazy008 on 11 Nov '11 said:
Errm..In all honesty, I still don't 'get' this game. Even after a 9.5 and listening to a bunch of screaming fans, it just hasn't clicked with me.
sweatyBallacks on 11 Nov '11 said:
"This is not a revolution in the series, rather an evolution............."
Why do reviewers f*cking ALWAYS use this cliched review term in every. other. damn. review?!?
Please stop.
Samildanach on 11 Nov '11 said:
Eh.....I know I'm probably a bit late to the party here and all, but I'd like to know if there's more than 5 people voicing the NPC's this time? Not that it'll stop me getting the game, but I just don't want to be talking to a guy who looks like Grizzly Adams and eats fresh bear foetuses(is that a word?) out in the wild who talks exactly the same as some bloody Lord of the Manor!! It gets annoying after a while.
SpandexArmstrong on 11 Nov '11 said:
ugh it runs like ass on PS3. Its all jerky & feels slow. The characters are ugly as sin too! But I do love the world of Skyrim & the music is great.
Time for new consoles so we can play these games as originally intended;)
divinebeetle on 11 Nov '11 said:
Going to be playing this as soon as I finish work this morning.
Sounding good so far
The_KFD_Case on 11 Nov '11 said:
Yes. If you read some of the (many) articles on Skyrim leading up to this review, you'll find the details. I don't recall the exact amount yet significantly more effort has been poured in to voice work for Skyrim than was the case for Oblivion. That's not to say you won't encounter similar sounding voices; in a game of Skyrim's size and the restrictions of time and resources, it is unlikely that you won't encounter some NPCs that are voiced by the same voice actor.
Sammy_bham on 11 Nov '11 said:
Got it midnight last night at gamestation birmingham. 2nd in the que!
got free strategy guide, game music cd and other goodies (wont mention brink...)
thanks to gamestation / bethesda for that!
Keyran-Solo on 12 Nov '11 said:
Absolutely amazing game, can't stop playing it! Unfortunately I have to for work reasons
Couldn't stop playing it yesterday, there's so much to do right off the bat. This game is awesome defined.
Breetai on 14 Nov '11 said:
Easily GOTY.
My god - this game is E-P-I-C.
skyvisco on 15 Nov '11 said:
had no idea what this game was or what the series was until a few days ago. was with my friend when he picked it up. watched him play a few hours of it. and was completely hooked. when I have enough money I'm going to buy this.
MissJones on 15 Nov '11 said:
Man, I LOVE this game... sadly though, It's not quite the same sense of awe I got from Oblivion, and it's not because it's on the same system 5 years later either. What I am talking about are menu interfaces seem out of place, too modern looking to perfectly meld with the game. Same with the music as well. The music, although beautiful and well written doesn't really capture the mood of the scenery and gives an unbalanced feel... that said, it doesn't kill the game at all, it just makes it not feel as immersive as Oblivion, which for all it's flaws was perfect.
Reegeee on 15 Nov '11 said:
Not sure about the music but I've read a lot of people having problems with the menus and them not showing the complexity well enough. I was scared away from the earlier games cos of the damn complexity of the menus so it seems this game has been designed more for people like me in mind. I get that might p**s veterans of the series off as they'll just see it as a step backwards.
Even to me it's not quite right. I loved the Fallout 3 interface as that managed to be clear without drowning you in numbers, but this one seems to be almost trying to do away with the numbers entirely. You need the detailed numbers to show what path you want to take though, just not as mind boggling as Oblivion. It must be hard to get this balance right though, and it's hard to complain when the game is such a masterpiece.
hedgehog1 on 21 Jan '12 said:
There was a time when you didnt release a game that hadnt been beta tested properly.The inclusion of a multi autosave does not excuse this, it just papers over the cracks. That aside in comparison to oblivion skyrim feels a little dumbed down in some ways - build yourself a tank and slab your way through most quests - gone are the bonuses in the brotherhood quests for a job done like an assassin would for example.
psychoticus on 26 Feb '12 said:
love this game.
Gatix on 27 Feb '12 said:
I don't play RPGs, I tried playing this with a friend and then I never let go of the controller LOL One of the best games ever made. And how the hell did they managed to compress that content to 5gb?!