The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Way Too Late

I have been inspired by the recent way too late movie reviews around here and I’ve decided to apply a similar approach to games. This certainly has nothing to do with finding a way to justify the 139 hours that I’ve already spent in the game in the slightest. (Okay, maybe just a bit.) Look, the game came out before Dorkadia even existed and since I picked it up on a Steam sale a year or so ago, I’ve been fitting in a couple hours here and there whenever I’ve had time. It’s rare for me to find a game that holds my attention so well and it’s still got plenty more for me to explore and I haven’t even really touched the expansions.

I realize that 139 hours in Skyrim is a pittance compared to what many people have put in over the last three years. It’s been a kind of hobby for me to play it when I can. I hadn’t even realized quite how much time I’ve spent playing until I looked it up while writing this. I knew I had been putting off going after Alduin to finish off the whole Dragonborn story because I thought that might feel like I had completed the game and leave me less interested in playing. What surprised me is that the Steam global statistics for achievements shows that only 30% of players have gotten the Dragonslayer achievement for beating the main quest line. Perhaps that speaks to the limitless feel of the open world of the game. It was certainly easy enough for me to get distracted by a number of side quests, not to mention just exploring.

I freely admit that I’ve never even loaded up an Elder Scrolls before Skyrim, so I’m not sure how it’s highly sandbox feeling system compares to its predecessors. I’m sure the writing was likely just as good, but I was always turned off by the idea of a first-person melee combat game. However, after getting a first glimpse of Skyrim during PAX Prime 2011, I was convinced that it would be worth a try. You know, eventually. Like when the price dropped during a Steam sale as it turned out. I do feel a little bad about being late to the party on this one since I know several people that were pretty much all Skyrim all the time right after it launched. However, it turns out that plenty of people are still perfectly willing to get excited talking about it even if it’s been years since they’ve played. Starting a story with, “I was in this tavern and a guy challenged me to a drinking contest” brings a smile to faces and a discussion about how it felt to stumble across the quest line.

This is me at the word of power on top of another mountain…

The feeling that Skyrim evokes is the point of all of this. It’s not necessarily the best looking game, the UI is pretty atrocious, and it’s certainly still full of bugs, but the organic way that the world unfolds had a way of making me feel more immersed. Sometimes I embrace the sandbox feel and just go sightseeing and take pictures of myself wearing my frowny mask in front of ancient ruins. I’m never going to get that feeling from a Final Fantasy game or any MMO. Skyrim isn’t really a sandbox game and there are a limited number of quests, but it doesn’t feel limited when I’m playing it. The randomly generated encounters help a great deal, but having them sometimes tie in to previously completed quests is what makes it magical and memorable for me. My personal favorite was a guy who ran up to me days (in real time, quite possibly) after I completed the Sanguine quest line and tells me he got the hat from the bandit leader, but now he needs protection. Apparently, I had dared him to do it while on a black-out drunk bender with a Daedric prince. Oops.

Most people that I’ve spoken to about playing on the PC have suggested modding, but I decided that I’d play it more or less as intended my first time through. (I clearly hadn’t understood that there doesn’t need to be a second play through.) The one thing I did do was install the high resolution texture pack. Score one for the PC master race because it makes the game look so much nicer. But there are so many mods out there that I could spend the next year covering them and not even scratch the surface. Some of them change minor aesthetic aspects while others might as well turn it into an entirely new game. (I’ve personally had a lot of fun with a mod that turns arrows into small nukes, but decided to go back to a more vanilla play style.) Hopefully some day I’ll get around to trying a few of the more major makeovers, but I’m probably going to need to look over some review sites just to try choosing which ones.

Skyrim is definitely going to be staying in my gaming library for a long time. I’m certain that it will eventually stop making me feel all the good feels about an open world RPG, but until then I’ll keep getting excited about every unexplored cave I come across. Hell, I’ve barely touched the alchemy system and my enchanting still needs work. Don’t even get me started on my spellcasting. I’m told that spell slinging isn’t a viable option in the game, but there are mods for that. Who knows where the next 139 hours will take me? Maybe I’ll even end up needing to buy some DLC during the next Steam sale. Perhaps I’ll have to come back with a way too late Skyrim review part 2 unless, of course, I take an arrow to the knee and have to stop adventuring.