The Elder Scrolls games have always made a huge splash in the gaming community getting acclaim from
both critics and fans, so what can be said for the newest installment? After making a huge splash at E3
(like every Bethesda release), The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim was finally released. So did it deliver? Yes… yes
it did, Bethesda hit it out of the park with Skyrim making vast improvements to their already incredible
series. It is an RPG with no multiplayer and a very open world so unlike most reviews I won’t grade
based on Single player or multiplayer (because there is none) but instead grade it on its Story Line, the
quality at witch that story is portrayed, overall gameplay quality, and graphics. Now, here is my totally
non-fanboy review. (It is totally biased)

First off the Storyline and its’ quality, like all Elder Scrolls games you are free to make it your own, but
that is not to say there isn’t a set of main quests. Skyrim is engulfed in an all out civil war the Empire is
losing its power and to top it all of dragons are coming back to life and causing for serious problems.
You are the Dragonborn a mortal born with the soul of a dragon thus making you the only person able
save the world from the brink of destruction. The story great having a large amount of lore and meaning
behind it all making for an immersive experience that keeps you involved and coming back for more.
Another thing that sets the Elder Scrolls series apart is their length, and Skyrim is no different with the
main quest line being upwards of ten hours for a single play through if you don’t explore or get off task
with side quests. With a few hundred hours worth of side quests and a changing storyline Skyrim is good
for quite a few playthoughs.

Now for the gameplay, Skyrim is running on Bethesda’s Creation Engine making all the character
animations much more fluid and natural that in the previous installment. Because of this new engine
combat is a more of a focus and an overall more involved experience than in previous games. Some
gameplay mechanics have been removed and some have been added witch depending on your play
style which may or may not affect you. The game for lack of a better word has been simplified down to a
more refined state. Classes are no longer present in the game, in their play there are now skill trees that
are based on how you play the game with all skills having an effect on leveling giving an overall more
free experience to do what you like. While the gameplay changes my take some time to get used to if
you played the previous games, but they do breathe new life into the series and are a welcome addition.

Graphics in Skyrim are good but not at the level of games like Battlefield 3. While most gamers find that
graphics aren’t that important when it comes to RPG’s like Skyrim I still find that they are an important
part of the experience that the game tries to bring you. There were some low res textures on the Xbox
360 after a fast travel or after the game finished loading that quickly adjusted, but it still took me out of
the experience for a moment. Other then the occasional texture pop in the graphics did their job and
had amazing draw distances even at substantial distances.

Now for all the good things that Skyrim has there are some small bugs that does cause problems
throughout the game such as corrupted save points and missing walls. More than once I had to turn
off my Xbox and restart it after it froze during a loading screen due to a corrupted save. The missing
walls also did their part to cause problems, in one of the main quests I got stuck because the floor of a
building was missing and I simply fell though the map in an endless loop I had to delete the save point to
fix it. It was a bother to find so many bugs and glitches in such a short amount of time playing.

Despite its bugs and graphical glitches I overall loved the game and the work that Bethesda put into it.
Skyrim was a great addition to the Elder Scrolls series and in my opinion took it in the right direction.