The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is probably the biggest game of the year. With the exception of Dark Souls, this game has more content in it than any other game this year. Perhaps even in the entire life cycle of the XBOX 360. The game provides the player with so many options on how to play and what kind of story to create that it is hard to imagine a better example of an open world game. Even with a bunch of outlets doing 12 hour marathons of the game when it came out there are still SO MANY THINGS to discover in the world of Skyrim.
There is, of course, a main storyline quest. But most players will find the temptation far too great to wander off the path of the main quest and go off and do the other million offer things there are to do. There are dragons to slay, dungeons to explore, and of course countless wolves and bandits to kill. This version of the world of Tamriel is so detailed and so amazingly lush that feeling as though your living in the game is pretty easy. The last game that was THIS immersive for me was Red Dead Redemption. I think it does an even better job than Rockstar did with the immersion in this title. Another thing it has in common with Red Dead is a soaring soundtrack. That even after many hours doesn’t get annoying or too repetitive.
Skyrim is decidedly unlike many of the other games in the Elder Scrolls series in there is a deep structure running through the game. Meaning that it isn’t just the main quest that has incredible moments and drama of the highest caliber. But the side quests have this as well, including the fact that many times your actions in the world will be informed all most completely by these side quests which were normally, for the most part, forgettable in previous installments. While some of the guild quests in Oblivion were fun and memorable, they were usually rather short and in most cases didn’t effect the main story or even character development very much. However, in Skyrim, guild quests can effect the main quest and they certainly have a lot to do with character development.
For most players, I think that Skyrim will still be mostly undiscovered even after they are tired of discovering it. Not that this game is boring in any way, but doing roughly the same thing over and over can wear on anyone. I’m just glad that for the most part, the story in Skyrim is SO GOOD that this will probably only happen after at least 30 hours or so. Me, I’ll happily play this game to the end and after. I’ve got two characters and I’m looking to max level both of them. Which according to friends means I’ll be investing around 80+ hours before I’m done. Who needs World of Warcraft?
Many critics have pointed to Skyrim as the mark that players love an open world make your own fun experience. In a time when developers are beginning to believe that players only enjoy a guided, short, rollercoaster-like experience. I would never bet on that theory as this experience generally is a very poor value. While the open world experience is very value rich. Some fans do have issue with open world games as they usually feel like they are pulling the story out of the game rather than being told the story. Which I can agree with, however, the design of the game is the key here. The player should be given a large suite of choices but not feel as though they are wandering around looking for something to do; rather than finding something ELSE to do on their way to the main activity. Elder Scrolls Skyrim is definitely one of the most important games of this console generation.
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