Nostalgia Factor: Medium. I’m a massive geek for Bethesda Studios games.
Difficulty: Easy. Most character builds will carry you through the game without issue.
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Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Fallout 3 definitely hit some sort of a bullseye in my gamer’s heart. There’s something about the design of these major Bethesda games that just nails this sweet spot for me – creating a character, exploring a sprawling 3D world, interacting with hundreds of characters with thousands of lines of voice-acted dialogue, immersing myself into an epic fantasy or sci-fi tale, seemingly endless sidequests and things to do. Bethesda has found the recipe for a perfect “Mo” game.
For years, Oblivion and Fallout 3 sat atop my top-5-games-of-all-time list. But every time Skyrim came up in conversation, I had to embarrassingly confess that I hadn’t played the game yet. Well, I remedied that problem a few years ago. I played Skyrim, and I loved it. 120 hours later, I “finished” Skyrim, meaning I completed the main quest and most of the side quests (minus a few tedious fetch-quests that I chose to skip).
Skyrim looked great in 2011, and I can still appreciate how it looks today, but I understand that many struggle with the aging visuals, even with graphical mods. Yet, Skyrim is still an incredibly immersive experience. I think the dialogue heavy way they deposit story into the game through random NPCs and quests is very captivating. Bethesda succeeds at making me feel like I’m in the world of Skyrim.
It really is such a huuuge game. I did get a little fatigued with the misc/radiant quests and even a few of the larger side quests, so I mostly stuck to quest lines with more of a narrative. I really enjoyed the DLC quest lines, Dawnguard and Dragonborn. The main quest and the civil war quest lines were also well done. Most of the Daedric quests were interesting, and the Winterhold and Companions quest lines had a bit more narrative depth than most of the other side quests.
The music of Skyrim is celestial. I may have spent more hours listening to the Skyrim soundtrack at work than actually playing the game. It truly is an incredible work. These orchestral pieces are transcendent. It needs to be noted, some disturbing allegations against the composer have come to light, and this has soured many on the lasting legacy of the soundtrack.
Of course, you can’t write about Skyrim without mentioning the historic Skyrim modding community. There are mods that fix broken things in the game, mods that update graphic textures and lighting effects, mods that replace dragons with Thomas the Tank Engine characters, and so many mods that add community-created content into the game. Mods have turned this massive game into a seemingly infinite game. If you want to keep existing in this fantasy world, there are many mods that can keep your adventure going for hours upon hours.
A friend of mine said this to me about Skyrim, and it really resonates: “Skyrim trades depth for breadth.” I can definitely see that after my 120 hours. There’s just so much to do compared to Oblivion. Most of Skyrim’s content is good, though there does seem to be more filler and less intentionality with some of the filler quests. It’s taken some thought, but I don’t think that Skyrim dethrones Oblivion for me. I probably still carry too much Oblivion nostalgia. Still, in spite of the bugs, Skyrim is an impressive open-world experience, and fans of story-rich immersive RPGs will have a grand time.
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