Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Skyrim: First Impressions

It's been a long time coming but the new Elder Scrolls game arrived over a  week ago, much to the joy of beloved Elder Scrolls fans world wide, (myself included). I'm 30 hours in and I've messed with peoples love life on two occasions, told off a little kid, killed two dragons and got into not one but two fist fights after just moments of walking in to a tavern. So all in all I'm having a great time in Skyrim!

No doubt about it, it's an awesome feeling when you escape prison or captivity and walk out into a new open world as a fresh level one character with an entire realm just begging to be explored. Exploration is something Skyrim dose very well, and it's all the more rewarding in a world that looks so darn good! You can't help but explore with little rivers winding though the landscape beneath the shadows of misty mountains, caves and castles hiding all sorts of secrets and loot.

Changes made from Oblivion are mostly very positive, all weapons are now more logically categorized as single handed, two handed and ranged. The new feature to have a one handed weapon (or spell) in each hand could have ended up as a gimmick but is actually a great new feature that works very well. The map has regained it's zoom feature, and a crafting system has been introduced for those that like to forge there own armour. Although maybe considered a minor thing I'm glade to see such an abundance of wild life that dose NOT try and eat you on sight! It just make the would so much more believable to have rabbits, foxes, dear, butterflies, eagles and more just part of the environment.

The sound effects and music are wonderfully done, from your foot steps in the snow to the sound of an arrow sliding across a bow. Another improvement over Oblivion I'm very happy to see is the visual effects of magic, making powerful spells look awesome compared to the very boring visuals seen in Oblivion.

As in all massive open world Bethesda games there are a few little glitches here and there. Nothing that will ruin the game, in fact some glitches are so funny gamers don't wont them removed! For example I've seen a mammoth drop out of the sky! And the skeleton of the first dragon I killed somehow "re-located" to fall on my head just as I exited Whiterun one day. This is just a few of the ones I've personally com across if you'd like to see some glitches in video, the people over at IGN have gathered some of the funniest of all from you tube on this page.

At this early stage of 30 hours of game play I've only just scratched the surface, but I can say this game is outstanding, if your even remotely thinking about buying skyrim then you should stop thinking and start buying, it's amazing.

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