Meet Skyrim

Gamescom 2011 ended yesterday. This kind of exhibitions are usually full of expectations for games-fans and players, and I always look at reports trying to understand how to invest my videogames-budget in the months to come. There are a few titles I’m following with great interest since their announcement and I would like to share my hopes, hype and thoughts about them. The first one is The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Skyrim is the fifth chapter in The Elder Scrolls saga. I’ve played Morrowind (TES III) and Oblivion (TES IV). I’m particularly keen on role-playing games and computer role-playing games, and I’ve been disappointed by my last two gaming experiences (Dragon Age 2 and The Witcher 2), so I’m now waiting for TES V with great hope.

I enjoyed Morrowind a lot and Oblivion far less (expecially in the long term). Skyrim is expected to be a much improved Oblivion: starting from its predecessor’s basis (more than detailed character building, free-to-roam world, ability improvements as you play, single-character playing, and so on), it should be something more complete, more entertaining and more deep. In one world, more “real”, a feeling that we crpg-lovers are always looking for in the games we play.

In order to achieve this “realism” (that is, of course, “realism” in the world of play), Bethesda took some interesting decisions that have been confirmed as great in the first reviews by those lucky writers who had the possibility to see and try the game at Gamescom and other exhibitions.

1. Class-free system – Playing Characters in Skyrim will have no class. This is something that I find really intriguing, since I always found class-centered games somehow constricted and “narrow”. In Skyrim all you have to do is play. While playing, your character will use his/her abilities and therefore will improve them and level up. When the character levels up, you can either invest in mana, stamina or health points. Furthermore, you will have 1 experience point that you can use for perks (that are related to your character’s abilities).
2. More depth in the world of play – It has been promised that 120 dungeons will be in Skyrim, each having its own features, its own histories to tell and its own quests to give. Entering a dungeon in Skyrim should be like entering a micro-world where anything can happen. This should improve the gaming experience, making it funnier to roam the world as game go by.
3. More attention to NPCs’ lives and reactions – NPCs should be alive and kicking in Skyrim. They will have a life of their own, indipendent from the Playing Character. So, when you will enter a village, for example, you will find people busy with their own activities and not simply waiting for your arrival. Furthermore, people will have personal feelings toward your character, so that if you do something wrong to them, they will remember it and they will not be so willing to let go information. In some cases, NPCs will also be able to join you to help with some quests.
4. Crafting, mining, enchanting and cooking – These are features in a crpg that are usually underestimated, but that crpg-lovers consider primary. In Skyrim, enchanting, for example, will make it possible to break magic items that are no longer usable in order to learn the spell they were made from.

Some two weeks ago, a long Skyrim gameplay video has appeared on YouTube. The video was reported to be leaked during Quakecon. If you had the opportunity to see it (I had!), since it’s no longer available, you had certainly been astonished by the huge improvements with the graphics (a new engine has been used for Skyrim) and by … well … dragons! Dragons will be a very important presence in the main quest. Playing Characters will meet them, fight them, kill them in order to achieve new powers. Anyway, not much about dragons has been told till now, since I presume Bethesda wants to hide them to the release date.

My expectations on this game are very high. Let’s just wait 11.11.11!

P.S.: not only I love videogames. I also have the tendency to buy them in their Limited Editions or Special Editions or “Whatever-you-may-call-them-to-make-them-look-gorgeous” Editions. Nevertheless, I already gave up the idea to buy Skyrim in its Collector’s Edition since I think it’s too expensive for what it offers. Judge by yourself.

2011

08/22

POSTED BY

Fabrizio Trotti

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Games

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videogames

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