Skyrim-pressions

You know, I said I was gonna look at Discworld next, and I shall get to it soon, I promise! I loaded it back up, and found my save was gone, so I have to play the whole damned thing again. Its no bother though, because its all kinds of funny!

In the mean time, I thought I would chime in with my thoughts on Skyrim so far. Obviously, there shall be spoilers, so click on at your peril...

So far... well... yeah, its pretty great! The world is just fantastic, the landscape ranges from vast mountains to secret nooks. Each region has its own identity, and landmarks are visible for miles around. I'm actually glad of the fast travel system, where I usually shun such things. A simple journey from Whiterun to Windhelm took me five attempts, and roughly four hours, because I just kept getting distracted. Each time some tantalizing cave, or bandit camp would draw my attention away, until I was fully encumbered with the fat loots. So back to Whiterun I went! And when the dragons start showing up? Pockets full of dragon corpses. But I digress.

The characters you encounter are varied and well developed. Every trader and townsperson has their own motivations, and their own personalities. Part of the fun of a new town is pottering about, meeting new people, finding out whats going on everywhere. Whiterun is as carefree as Windhelm is oppressive. Riften is as shady as Markarth is majestic. You get a feel of a proper world from the denizens of Skyrim, and the surrounding lands are namedropped not only constantly, but with relevance. Windhelms class divide enhances the characters of all within, even the great Ulfric Stormcloak himself. It sheds a new light on his motivations, when he is so blind to the problems in his own keep. (its worth noting at this point that I've not done much of the main quest, so who knows what could happen there)

Look at this nonchalant asshole...

And what summation of Skyrim would be complete without a word on the stars of the show, the goddamn dragons. Your first encounter with one is intense, and panic ridden. There is nothing you can do to fight him, and you get hard lesson in the power they wield. It makes your first combat encounter that much more tense, as you have seen the sheer power these beasts wield. The fights are grand, and manage to feel like set-pieces even though they are mostly generated at random. A dragon crashing to earth five feet from my face remains one of the most "holy shit" moments I have ever played.

Its the randomly generated things that have stood out the most for me so far. Happening upon highwaymen, or some Thalmor escorting a prisoner, or a fight between two bears and a giant, who all turned on me the second I tried to help out the giant. In fact, the bears come up a lot, like when I fast travelled to a cabin, and a bear piled out of the cabin, all "HEY GUYS HOWS IT GOING!?" Or what about the time when I was travelling with Lydia, and one snuck up on us, scaring me half to death, making me nearly Shout Lydia to death. In fact, losing Lydia in the middle of a dragon fight was one of my saddest moments in gaming, full stop. I'm not sure if its a bad thing that Skyrim has that as its number one moment for me so far. Is it a criticism of the scripted elements, or a praising of the procedural elements? Time will tell.

Now I'm not done with Skyrim yet, not even close. I've only really met the guilds, only scratched the surface of the main questline. The incidental stuff could keep me occupied for weeks, and it probably will. I think my journey will be proceeding well, but slowly...

If the damned bears would just LEAVE ME ALONE FOR TWO FUCKING SECONDS!!!

Next time: Possibly Discworld. Who knows, my schedule isn't particularly disciplined right now :D