I’ve spoken before about The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and why I love it so much, but I want to talk about how that game provides the perfect mantle for creative storytelling. Yes, there is a storyline to follow, a clash between man and dragon, and there is an enormous abundance of smaller tales to uncover ranging from pretty much everywhere in the fantasy galaxy, but no two player’s story is the same. This is largely to do with how you play, but more of it depends on what you do, and your own imagination. Are you the kind of gamer who creates detailed backstories about your characters, or do you watch them shape themselves into the character they want to be? I’m more of an on-the-fly kind of guy, let’s see what happens and roll with it. No game does it better than Skyrim.
Untold Legacy
I spent more than three-hundred hours with my Dark Elf, Misty Clarity, in Skyrim, and I’ve got more than three-hundred hours left to get through. You can count all the main quests, the guilds and the side missions all you want, but a gigantic chunk of my time was spent simply adventuring, crafting items, learning the tools of the various trades of the five schools of magic, lock-picking, building and smithing. The beauty of Skyrim is the freedom of choice. Sure, you need to plough through an on-rails section to learn the controls, encounter some of the various horrors in the wild and understand the dragon threat and the growing civil war of the land, and I would recommend at least learning your first dragon shout before properly questing out in the wild, but even before then, when the game drops the safety ropes and leaves you alone to wander, the game opens up. You’re an adventurer, soon to be Dragonborn, and it’s now time for you to start your story. My Dark Elf was very much a hybrid character. I preferred bows and arrows, stealthy ninja-like tactics and using destruction, restoration and conjuration magic to get the job done. Sword and shield reserved when things get hairy. I rarely used two-handed weapons or heavy armour. Agility and lightness is what I like. So, what of the guilds operating in Skyrim did I favour most?
The Dark Brotherhood, the assassins of Skyrim. That alone is a potential way to play the game for hundreds of hours. Skyrim has mechanics built in to create small quests for you as many times as you want. There’s always a person who has jobs for you, and yes, they will repeat themselves, but there’s such a large pool of them for just one particular theme that you don’t really notice it. For the Dark Brotherhood, the small jobs required me to go somewhere, talk to an informant and kill a target. Proper quests will be more in-depth than that. In between questing, there’s the incredible amount of locations to discover, and they will unlock further quests. But, one of my favourite additions to the game was the Hearthfire expansion which brought in building and further housing. I spent hours gathering the supplies needed to build a house in the woods of Falkreath, getting lumber, purchasing glass and straw and mining and smelting iron. In that house I displayed my trophies, weapons I’d found, the uniforms from my greatest foes such as Miraak, the first Dragonborn, his armour displayed in my house for my wife and two adopted daughters to gawp at. Yep, I had a family. My chests were arranged so I knew where everything was. Inventory management is a must for me in RPGs, and I loved going back home to do admin before my next adventure. Its small things like that that make the world believable, and you just want to stay there, despite giant spiders in the woods. Eugh.
The Dark Brotherhood, the assassins of Skyrim. That alone is a potential way to play the game for hundreds of hours. Skyrim has mechanics built in to create small quests for you as many times as you want. There’s always a person who has jobs for you, and yes, they will repeat themselves, but there’s such a large pool of them for just one particular theme that you don’t really notice it. For the Dark Brotherhood, the small jobs required me to go somewhere, talk to an informant and kill a target. Proper quests will be more in-depth than that. In between questing, there’s the incredible amount of locations to discover, and they will unlock further quests. But, one of my favourite additions to the game was the Hearthfire expansion which brought in building and further housing. I spent hours gathering the supplies needed to build a house in the woods of Falkreath, getting lumber, purchasing glass and straw and mining and smelting iron. In that house I displayed my trophies, weapons I’d found, the uniforms from my greatest foes such as Miraak, the first Dragonborn, his armour displayed in my house for my wife and two adopted daughters to gawp at. Yep, I had a family. My chests were arranged so I knew where everything was. Inventory management is a must for me in RPGs, and I loved going back home to do admin before my next adventure. Its small things like that that make the world believable, and you just want to stay there, despite giant spiders in the woods. Eugh.
Timeless Memories
There are so many things I love about Skyrim, and some of them are as simple as walking through the beautiful world listening to that enchanting soundtrack. Nothing to fear, not even the glimpse of a faraway dragon looping a mountain in the distance. There are those times you won’t ever forget, like stumbling in the Rift for the first time and realizing that it’s full of Frostbite Spiders, and they will terrify you to your very soul. Or, how about your first fight with a dragon, and not the one that’s scripted in the story, but a proper serendipitous battle when you were heading for somewhere else. Did you go to the nearest tavern and tell the strangers about it? Did you dragon shout in the cold night to prove you were the Dragonborn? Or did you just walk on by after the dragon’s death, like a badass and ponder what to do next? Skyrim is one of those games that rarely breaks you out of its world. Yes, the game will crash, a marvel actually that it doesn’t more often, and sometimes mammoths will launch into the air for no reason, and the people in cities don’t tend to do much other than stand around or walk a few paces. It doesn’t matter, immersion and authenticity is weaved in its very fabric, and you just can’t help but believe you’re a hero, or a villain in this snowy land.
Leaving Skyrim behind is one of my deepest regrets with upgrading to the Xbox One. Sure, I can fire up the 360, but that’s effort. I want a game that can pull me in with its stories, and yield the chance for me to make up my own. Dragon Age: Inquisition comes to mind, but I need to finish off Far Cry 4 before I can move on, a game I’ve neglected I’m afraid. That’s one of the things that makes games so goshdarn great, they make amazing platforms for storytelling. Talking about Skyrim makes me immediately excited to get back into it, who cares about giant spiders? If anything, they add to the overall experience, even if it makes me shake and cringe and whimper when they slowly crawl out of the dark, mandibles and all. It’s one of gaming’s triumphs, a testament to last-generation’s brilliance, and who knows, maybe Fallout 4 will land upon us this year and everything will be OK. That and Half-Life 3. Please.
Songs of the Week:
Leaving Skyrim behind is one of my deepest regrets with upgrading to the Xbox One. Sure, I can fire up the 360, but that’s effort. I want a game that can pull me in with its stories, and yield the chance for me to make up my own. Dragon Age: Inquisition comes to mind, but I need to finish off Far Cry 4 before I can move on, a game I’ve neglected I’m afraid. That’s one of the things that makes games so goshdarn great, they make amazing platforms for storytelling. Talking about Skyrim makes me immediately excited to get back into it, who cares about giant spiders? If anything, they add to the overall experience, even if it makes me shake and cringe and whimper when they slowly crawl out of the dark, mandibles and all. It’s one of gaming’s triumphs, a testament to last-generation’s brilliance, and who knows, maybe Fallout 4 will land upon us this year and everything will be OK. That and Half-Life 3. Please.
Songs of the Week:
- 'Long Live the Queen' by Frank Turner
- 'Recovery' by Frank Turner
- 'Wind Guide You' by Skyrim Official Soundtrack
- 'Skyrim Atmospheres' by Skyrim Official Soundtrack
- 'Dust and Echoes' by Halo: Combat Evolved Official Soundtrack
- 'Rock Anthem to Save the World' by Halo: Combat Evolved Official Soundtrack
- 'Midnight City' by M83
- 'My Love is A Weapon' by Skrux ft. Delacacy