The Elder Scrolls. One of my favorite gaming series of all time.

Let's start with a brief history lesson.

The first game in the series, was Arena. This game, released in 1994 on floppy, was Betheseda's first foray into the world of the Elder Scrolls. The setting took place in the entirety of Tamriel, and obviously the graphics were nothing special. Although for the time it was groundbreaking. The game was incredibly difficult when I started playing it. It took me a while before I got good enough at the game to avoid dying every 2 seconds. If you do a quick google search you can get a legit, free, legal copy of this game. You may require a DOS Box emulator to run it however.

The second game in the series is known as Daggerfall. This one was released in 1996, just two years after Arena. Like Arena, the game world was large, although this time, the gameplay was restricted to two areas on the world map. The two regions you may venture to are High Rock and Hammerfall. Nothing overly special, but you should play this for yourself as it is also free and legal via google search.

The third and fourth games however, are not legally free yet. So I'll explain them a little more in depth.

The third game in the series, The Elder Scrolls 3- Morrowind was the first truly great Elder Scrolls game. It was released in 2002, 6 years after Daggerfall and was the first foray into TRUE 3-D. The game takes place in the province of Morrowind, home of the Dark Elves, or Dunmer. The story can be largely ignored, but the main thing to be understood is the Daedric Prince, Azura, has awakened you to your destiny, which is basically killing this one person who I will not spoil the name of, and bringing peace back to the surrounding province. The most notable thing about Morrowind is how despite being smaller than Arena and Daggerfall in size, the map is much higher detailed, with manually made terrain (the terrain in the previous 2 were auto-mapped). You can play this game on either the Microsoft XBOX, or on Steam. It costs 10 dollars or so on Steam and is a veritable steal. Most computers can handle it, so I'd reccommend this game for anyone looking for Skyrim-lite.

The fourth game is a lot more high spec. Development started in 2002, and ended in 2006, with what became one of the true greats for Betheseda. Released in 2006 for the 360 and PC, and 2007 for the PS3, The Elder Scrolls 4, Oblivion, saw much needed improvements in the Artifical Intelligence. I don't truthfully care for this game, so I won't go TOO into detail on it. Mainly, this game starts with you in the Imperial Dungeon, and escaping. You just HAPPEN to run into Uriel Septim VII (the emperor guy) and because it's destiny, he helps you escape. He dies though. Oh no. This is the first time we see major scripted events. There were some in previous games, but this was the first time there was any scripting on a grand scale. Once you escape you can do whatever you want, which I advise. The story was largely mediocre I felt, but if you care to go through it, you will go into Oblivion your fair share of times.

Now... onto Skyrim. I don't need to give much background info on this game, as it's clear to you what it is. Why else would you be reading this review? To keep it short, Skyrim is one of the most hyped games, likely of all time. Now... onto the review where you will witness my wetdreaming love of one of my all time anticipated games.

Graphics - 10

I give the graphics a 10. Not because the graphics are the best I've ever seen, or because everything was so beautiful, but because for the first time in an Elder Scrolls game I bought into what I was seeing. It felt real enough to me that I was willing to look past things like Spriggans, and Horkers, and fireballs shooting at me, and embrace that this was possible somewhere. It was a great mesh of fantasy and reality, and the graphics played a large part in that. I think this is proof gaming has evolved to a stage where the graphics will transcend reality. This game is the start of that. Yes, there are problem points, but in the big picture, you can largely look at the game world and think they did alright.

Sound - 10

I refuse to back off on my claims that Skyrim deserved some kind of award for the awesome score they put together. It's largely unappreciated, but the sound only adds to the feel of the game. When a person asks me what I look for when I play a game, I answer them with one word. Atmosphere. The atmosphere is completed with the perfect sound track that was bundled with this game. And the theme that plays when you fight dragons? Never thought I'd actually enjoy something that much.

Addictiveness - 10

500 hours. That's all I'm going to base this off of. I've been playing this game for a total of 500 hours. My filesize is humongous and it's lagging like hell. But I'm still playing.

Why is that? Because it's really just that good.

Depth - 10

I may sound like a broken record with the 10s, but it won't stop here. 500 hours I've played and there are STILL things to do. I don't care what anyone says about Elder Scrolls games. When you get down to it, they know how to make a finished product. It's amazing how much you can jam into a game.

Story - 8

I'll stop the 10s here. I didn't care for the story. Hell. I didn't even START the story until about 300 or so hours in. I did the first required things and went my own way. I finally finished the story, loved it, and thought it was well made. It wasn't perfect of course, but it was enough to warrant a look. The true greatness of these games come from the experience you make. Not the experience they give everyone.

Overall - 9.7

I want to call this the best game I have ever played. I really do. I've been told that is unadvisable since I'm in a "honeymoon" stage with the game. I've been married to it for 500 hours now and have not grown tired of it. So when will this honey moon stage end?

Until then, I'm putting this at least in my top 5 games ever, and definitely advise a look if you are looking to lose your soul for a couple months.

I'm growing tired of typing though. I had so much more I was going to say, but decided to cut it short since 90% of it is just me rambling about minor things like how beautiful the apples are, or how detailed the ingame books are.

Well, you told me you would answer a few questions when you finished the game a long time ago, so I will ask now. First, I want to know about the main quest story compared to Oblivion. First, is the story better? Second, does the story take more than an hour and a half to complete like Oblivion? Does the main story have more plot twists, better development, and more exciting events?

My second question is on the leveling up. In Oblivion, eventually, going to sleep to gain a level becomes pointless because all enemies level up every time you raise your overall level. At some point, some enemies are a little stronger than you technically. If Skyrim levels up enemies as you level up, did they at least make it to where it is still beneficial to increase your overall level all the time?

Last, how are the guild quests? I love becoming the head of all available guilds.

rcarter2 :

I prefer Skyrim's story, but that's not saying much as I didn't care for Oblivion's. The story can be completed fairly quickly... but only if you use fast travel. I hate fast travel.

Leveling up is also different. When you raise a skill it adds to your level progress bar. Once it hits the end you level up by pressing the menu button and looking UP at your skills. You can add a perk and 10 to either Magic, Health, or Stamina. Most enemies in Skyrim are leveled, but I think the game gets easier as I level up. The exception are dragons which get tougher ALL the time.

The guild quests are great. I love the Dark Brotherhood, Civil War, and Mages Guild the most.

I really like to hear that the leveling system is better. One thing that drove me nuts about Oblivion was that aspect. Normally, in an RPG game, when you are stuck, you go level up to make yourself stronger and the part you are stuck on easier. With Oblivion, when you reached a certain level, it seemed that everything go harder the more times you leveled up. I did efficient leveling where I got +5 for all attributes I wanted to bump up every time I leveled up, and the game still got harder the more I leveled (not that Oblivion was hard in the first place, but still).

I am pretty sure that Skyrim will be the next game I purchase. I purchased Batman: Arkham City like I said. Completed it and now will move to Skyrim when I get a couple more paychecks.

rcarter2 :
I was ignorant of the enemys leveling up so i raised pickpocket to 100 and as a result, was getting owned by all enemys, i had to use bows to take them out which massively leveled my archery, and i developed my 2 handed enough so i could actualy hold my own.
It was actualy fun how hard i made it though, it meant i had to think it through.
I have a major objection with this game though.
Bugs.
I cant do the thieves guild quest line, it messed up and now i cant get the missions.
My save is now 13mb, this stage results in ocasional lag, the game makers dont actualy know the cause so as yet no patch for that. They claimed the last patch fixed it for many, but apparently it caused things like backword flying dragons for others.
Guards, i have buged here, if a guard confronts me and i choose il pay my bounty or il go to jail, it freezes.
I have no means of paying off bounty.
In holds where the bounty is low i can bribe them, persuade them or demand they let me go because im a thane.
In places like marcarth (spelt wrong probably) my bounty was too high for this to work, as a result i have to kill any guards that respawn, my bounty there stands at 70,000 septims.
Because i cant be arrested i cant do that strongholds main storyline, il need a 2nd playthrough.

thenumberone :

If I may interject.

The only bugs I've gotten so far are file size based lags and a glitch with the Companions Quest... but that's because I was stupid and cleared EVERY f***ING DUNGEON OUT BEFORE I STARTED THE QUESTS :|

As for the filesize, I hear there's a patch on the way so lag will get better. The cause is obviously file size, and it's probably bookshelf related.

Also, I know the leveling thing... I got my smithing, lockpicking, and sneak all up to level 100, and it was a PAIN for like 5 levels till my heavy armor and one handed skills got better.

legacyme3 : then you are very lucky =/
i got another glitch whereby a hold reverted to its former jarl...
i only clear dungeons through missions, i heard items etc might not be there if its a re-visit.
i got 2 handed up to 100 a while ago so i switched to 1 handed to keep things interesting, only about 71 now.
About half my skills are 100 now, which means re playing for the thieves guild will be annoying.
I cant remember what mission was from the companions (the 1st mission given by a member) so iv been working through a backlog of 100 quests, down to about 20 now.
Apparently the game has a file for arrow creation but they forgot to implement it or something, considering how much i use my bow that is majorly annoying too.
Oh and i acidentaly became a vampire, i might cure that.
Its pretty stupid. You can only feed on people who are sleeping and it dosent kill them, or wake them up.
Still, its fun, im going to finish my mission backlog, do the companions quest line, then get back to hunting daedric artifacts, theres some great ones.
I hope they patch this soon though.

It is good that I am reading this thread before buying it. I will know not to make these mistakes when I get to playing it. 

Leggy: I had a question about your latest post here. You said you experienced a bug in the Companion's Quest because you cleared every dungeon before even doing quests. What exactly happened that made going through all the dungeons a bad thing? Is it like what thenumberone said where something that was supposed to be there was not there because you already cleared the dungeon that the quest has you go through? And it looks like the guild quests will be among the first things I complete just to avoid anything bad happening like that.

rcarter2 :

My advice is to do the Main Quest first.

Then do guild quests after.

Once you do all the guild quests, explore.

The problem is when a dungeon tied to a quest is cleared prematurely, the item tends to not be there later.

Just wondering, why would your advice be to do the main quest first? Would it be less fun for me to do all side quests that I can find before doing the main quest, or is it just a matter of finishing the main quest before my file size gets too big and starts lagging on me? Or is it because the guild quests are better than the side quests, as you said earlier, and it's best to save them for last?

rcarter2 :

Lag.

It's killer after so many side quests. The main quest should be enjoyed lag free.

Geez Leggy. I doubt even YOU'VE beat the game... It's practically endless. Have you gotten all Gauldur Amulets yet?

Which is better, Warrior or Mage?

If mage, what's your favorite type of spell
If warrior, what's your favorite type of weapon; Mine is Archery.

Did you start at easy, master, or what?

I tried master but it's ludicrious.

catfight09 :

Yeah. I got the Gauldur Amulets.

I prefer being a Warrior Mage, but Mages have it easiest.

I like Chain Lightning
And my favorite weapon is sword and shield.

I started at master.

Gee.... Kudos to you. I wouldn't be able to stand using master difficulty. By the time I realized that the difficulty affected leveling up (I was on easy). I plan on restarting. It seems that adept is my kind of level. It takes too long to on master as well.

This is a great help seeing as i have yet to get the game. But seems like every bit of it is worth it. I liked the review. It's interesting to learn about the lag as well, it's also now probably the biggest save file to date that I have heard of.

Awesome review. I love how you talk about the games soundtrack which is pretty epic. A friend has an Xbox copy of the game so I get to play it A LOT! For me the game play is pretty amazing and my friend hasn't found any bugs so far except for the usual teleporting and falling through a wall that bugs most games.

This game is meant for Xbox or Ps3 because on PC  the graphics are horror they stink.

FalcoDude : Actually, the game is basically made for the PC. The PC version can have the best graphics out of all three systems, so I'm assuming that the one you played on was on low settings. They are even releasing a creation-kit for the PC version for the series's modding community.

That's a pretty good review, Legacy. But how could you not mention any arrows going into any knees?! Haha, regardless, you seem to have played it more than I have if you clocked out at 500+ hours already. I can see where you're coming from by giving the story a lower score, because Bethesda's never been good at conveying events. It's always you awkwardly stuck there watching things happen. Also, what do you think the most annoying enemies are? I don't like fighting Draugr Death Overlords, Giants, or Dragon Priests. They take too many hits for my weakling thief at close-range.

Sephitard9001 : Its not the graphics its the render up close,I play on MAXED OUT settings and the close render isint good, on the other hand the consoles close render is clean and nice.  my gpu is x2 6970 by AMD
.

Nice review including history of the series and everything. I completed the main storyline then just got bored and went on my own quest of finding the coolest armour then crafting it to make it godly like with 100 smithing, enchanting and potion making to make the best armour. Inspiration from a few videos on youtube and I was on my way, still a work in progress though I've been pretty damn busy lately. As for the sounds I would definitely give it a 10 as well, its true that the music actually changes when your near a plot twist or event. The shout writing on the wall for example, when you get close the barbarian choir gets a lot louder, then backing away from it quietens those barbarians down when my  sister first played she just kept moving back and forth from the wall to turn their singing on and off, once you get the right distance away it can be quite funny. In conclusion though nice review haven't actually seen many about contemporary recent games even though this came out a while back now, or maybe I'm not looking hard enough. Either way good job :p