The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One of the first games I bought when I got a PS3 was Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, a critically-acclaimed role-playing game that looked like it would finally fulfil the potential of such games of taking you into a believable ‘other world’ and letting you explore it at your own pace rather than pushing you along from one set-piece to another. And it did just that, which made the anticipation even bigger for its sequel Skyrim. It doesn’t disappoint.

Skyrim takes you to another part of the Elder Scrolls universe (called, perhaps unsurprisingly, Skyrim), a Scandinavian-type place full of Nords and dragons and snowy mountains. With graphics even lovelier than Oblivion, it’s a hugely enticing landscape to wander around, particularly those snowy areas, which are breathtaking at times. The story pits your character (whatever race or gender you choose) at the heart of a civil war and in a world where dragons have returned to wreak havoc, and the world is crying out for a ‘Dragonborn‘ to defend it. Guess who that is…

One of the few problems I had with Oblivion was that the ability to move around its landscape and pick and choose what quests to take up meant that it was possible to get so far from the main plot that it felt like it wasn’t even relevant. However, Skyrim immediately keeps you engaged with the role you have to play in the world you’re in, and even though I’ve only scratched the surface of the game so far, I feel very much a part of the main plot already and I want to learn more about it, as well as exploring the towns, meeting the people and slaying the dragons.

Unfortunately, the shadow of Mass Effect 2 hangs over it a little for me, and while the random people you meet in Skyrim are slightly less repetitive than those in Oblivion, they are still not quite as engagingly unique and fleshed-out as those in Commander Shepard‘s world. I’ve not met any so far whose death would mean as much to me as some of those at the end of ME2 did, but I suppose that is inevitable in a game where you are very much on your own rather than part of a team like you are on the Normandy.

Despite little niggles like this, Skyrim is an immense game that does everything Oblivion did, and does it better. My heroic character is more of a hack ‘n’ slasher than a mage or a wizard, I don’t have the patience for alchemy or reading magic books, but that’s my choice and so is it my choice to be a nice guy rather than a rebel. There’s so much of Skyrim to discover yet, so time to saddle up and ride off into the woods again…

Written By James Ellaby

Editor of New Adventures In Hi-Fi, writer of content, digital communication type person and lover of all kinds of music, films and TV both high-brow and trashy.

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