KGK Dragon’s Reviews:
Sharpen your sword and string your bow. Possibly the most successful release from Bethesda Games Studios and Bethesda Softworks, the multi-award winning title of 2011, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Scavenge and explore the fifth main installment to the Elder Scrolls Series, following the renowned Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion title.
Story & Environment
Elder Scrolls V, follows the Dragonborn, Dovahkiin, in their quest to free Skyrim from the returning threat of ancient dragons and civil war. The story takes place in the midst of a Civil War within the northern territory of Tamriel in the region of Skyrim. With a lengthy 34 hours worth of Story Mode content alone and excluding DLC content and side content. But, going even further beyond with all of what Skyrim has to offer, players may find themselves amidst 200-700 hours of playtime completing every single side quest, clearing dungeons, caves, and strongholds, and finally exploring every location on the map. Explore Skyrim for all it has to offer, meet new people, make new companions, and find new places and hidden treasures to discover.
The misty and snowy mountains surrounding Skyrim give the explorable land a true feeling of the chilling territory of Northern Tamriel. With plenty of caves, fortresses, ruins, dungeons and more to explore, Skyrim gives lovers of adventure the perfect atmosphere of fantasy, dread, and glory.
Gameplay
The choices for players on how they tackle the world of Skyrim is vast, offering unique builds such as a mage, swordsman, archer, or tank. There’s no shortage of choices players can make in regards to their Skyrim experience. This has allowed speedrunners to run through the main story and make the 34 hours worth of Skyrim’s story take less than an hour.
With a plethora of skill trees, players can max out whichever weapon they prefer, whether it be ranged, two handed, or one handed, Elder Scrolls V leaves little to be desired in terms of its combat, even over 20 years after the game’s initial release.
DLC: Dawnguard
Even with the vast amount of hours it would take to explore all of Skyrim, the story is pushed further with the release of the Dawnguard, Hearthfire, and Dragonborn DLCs. These DLC come included with the newer releases of Skyrim such as the Special and Legendary editions.
The Dawnguard DLC offers a new take on the darker side of Skyrim, bringing in the world of Vampires, Vampire Hunters, and Werewolves. With 12 quests and 9 side quests, players can expect another 19 hours of completion for all Dawnguard has to offer. This includes two new skill trees, weapons, a companion, and weapons. One skill tree being a Vampire Lord skill tree and the other being a lycanthropy. With this newer and darker side of Skyrim, players can choose to side with the vampires, unlocking the powers of a Vampire Lord and unlocking blood magic and night-based powers. Otherwise, players can choose the counterpart, choosing to be a vampire hunter with the Volkihar, sporting new weapons such as the crossbow and anti-vampire tactics or even choose Lycanthropy, roaming Skyrim as a werewolf.
DLC: Hearthfire
As the second DLC expansion for Skyrim, Hearthfire takes a different take on Download Content, offering new homes to buy outside of cities known as Homesteads. With the new option to buy land, players can develop their own homes, expanding beyond just four walls and a roof, creating rooms, towers, even furniture and specialized storage and trophy rooms for your Skyrim family. NPCs can be added, offering a more lively atmosphere to the halls and rooms of your homestead. Although, beware of locations of such Homesteads as they can prove to be unsavory to spouses for being in the wild and outside of the safety of city walls. One can even be found not far from a sacrificial site, which isn’t quite the desired sight…(Unless you’re into that sort of thing, then by all means.)
DLC: Dragonborn
As for the third DLC of Skyrim, it brings an entirely new location to the world of Elder Scrolls V. Instead of taking place in the snowy landscape of Skyrim, the Dragonborn DLC takes place on the Island of Solstheim, an Island tucked away to the North Eastern area of Tamriel after receiving word of another Dragonborn on Solstheim to hunt down Miraak, the first Dragonborn in existence. Adding even more content to the fifth title of Elder scrolls, players can expect a day’s worth of content completion, reaching just under 24 hours. This DLC offers new enemies, weapons, and abilities including the ability to befriend and ride dragons.
Mods
With as much content as Skyrim adds, players can push their games even further beyond with the use of mods. Contrary to what most gamers would believe, Bethesda has been known to lean into these choices of modding, even allowing console gamers access to modding through the inclusion of a mod download menu for their console versions of titles such as Skyrim and Fallout 4. Mods pulled directly from the Nexus website. The console versions of Skyrim set aside storage space for players to download mods, offering 5GB of space to add mods to their games.
Players can change the environment, add weapons, skills, clothing, armor, and even change dragons into Thomas the Tank engine.
Summary
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is a game that can only be truly appreciated through experiencing it firsthand. With so many things to do and explore, people can spend years searching through the world of Skyrim to explore all its secrets. With loads of content and seemingly more endless content with the offering of mods, Bethesda’s 2011 release of Skyrim offers a world of fantasy, adventure, and magic. For players who take a liking for ranged, close, or magic combat, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is a must-try.
Pros
Hundreds of hours of content
Mod support for Console release titles
Unique character building allows for unique play experiences
Mod support allows for endless content availability
Cons
The usage of Mods makes Skyrim easily breakable
The constant re-release of Skyrim through multiple different versions have left many players and lovers of the Elder Scrolls series torn
Skyrim, even 10 years after it’s initial release, still faces soft locking glitches that can often prevent players from progressing through the story
Many quests can became broken if progressing too fast and fast tracking certain spots which is why Quicksaving and manual saving is encouraged
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