The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is the fifth in the open world RPG series by Bethesda. After a quick scripted intro scene where you find yourself as a prisoner on the way to being beheaded, you discover that dragons have returned to Skyrim. 10 minutes later and having escaped from the dragon you are given complete freedom to explore the world. At first, it is overwhelming because the game doesn't railroad you at all and you are truly free to do whatever you wish. It is extremely easy to get sidetracked since you'll get numerous quests just from talking to people along the way to a destination. This is in addition to the main story quest. As you're travelling from town to town, you'll find dungeons that you can't help but explore, with it ending up being bigger than you expected.
Pulling up the map will astound you at how big the world truly is. You would stop and think that you have traveled pretty far but turns out it was only a small section between the two towns. Skyrim is a huge game and very easy to spend hours losing yourself in it. There is a compass at the top showing the general direction to locations and quest markers. You can fast travel at any time to previous locations. While it is a big world it is far from seamless. Understandably, bigger towns require a loading screen to get in, but more annoyingly are the loading screens to enter buildings. You don't want to sit through loading screens just to check out what a store might have yet you are forced to. If you have autosave turned on (and this is highly recommended due to the likelihood of crashes), then loading screens are even longer as it has to accommodate the saving process.
The first time you are let loose upon the world will stun you with its expansive beauty. The game looks great, from the sun shining down upon the plains to the snow covered mountains, it's full of vibrant detail. That being said, despite the heavy amount of patching, the PS3 still struggles to run the game. From the beginning of the game, you will get occasional framerate drops and whenever the game autosaves, it freezes the action for a second or two, which is very distracting. As your file size gets bigger, it gets more likely to be stuck in a loading screen when entering a new area or shop... forcing a restart of the PS3. It's not game-breaking, just extremely annoying. The game can be played in first-person or third-person view. Although it is harder to aim in third-person since it still uses the crosshairs to aim, it is welcome for people who are prone to motion sickness.
You pick your race in the beginning but then you can slowly explore what you want to specialize in. You map abilities to the two shoulder buttons, and there is a quick select such that you can equip different "favorite" abilities during combat, which is helpful. You basically aim the crosshairs at the enemy and then press the shoulder button corresponding to whichever hand to attack. You can equip a number of one-handed or two-handed weapons, as well as magic such as fire and lightning attacks. In addition, as you explore and discover special words, you'll gain the ability to use Shouts, which is mapped to the trigger button. These are also magic type attacks but unlike spells, you do not need to use Magicka.
Leveling up is done by usage. The more you use something, the more that skill will increase. Then as the skill increases, so does the experience for your level. Once you gain a level, you get to select a Perk, which is a supplementary ability for any of your skills. Inventory management is based upon the amount of weight that the character can carry. All items have a specific weight, and if the total weight exceeds your current limit, then mobility is heavily restricted and you can only walk instead of run. You can also pick up a slew of useless items such as buckets and spoons. The main story quests involve you returning to Skyrim, somehow as a prisoner on the way to being beheaded. However, a dragon, long thought to be lost in Skyrim, appears. You soon discover that you are a Dragonborn, someone who can absorb the power of a dragon after they are defeated and gain the ability to use Shouts.
As the Dragonborn, you are destined to defeat the dragon leader terrorizing the land, Alduin. You travel the lands of Skyrim in order to improve your skills, master your abilities and gain enough strength. Dragons will randomly roam the land too and the first time you fight one, it's an epic rush. It is a solid story but some unskippable dialogue (in that you cannot skip to the next set even if you have already read the subtitles) is a tad bit annoying. While the story doesn't have epic set pieces and is always told via your character's viewpoint, there are a lot of varied objectives which keeps things interesting. While the game as a whole is huge with plenty to do, the story quests are surprisingly short. You're able to finish it in less than 10 hours if you really push it, and it ends somewhat anti-climatically.
The story quests are only a tiny portion of the game. There are nine other major questlines as well as a plethora of smaller standalone quests and Radiant Quests, which are repeatable quests. In the major questlines, all of which rival in complexity and quality to the main story, you'll become the leader of thieves, a dark assassin, a master of magic, get turned into a werewolf and find deadly artifacts. Each major questline easily takes 5-10 hours to finish. There can seem to be a never-ending number of standalone quests too and while the objectives are varied enough, it eventually boils down to fast-travelling to the destination, talking to a NPC, clearing a dungeon to defeat an enemy or obtain the item, and returning to the quest-giver. Thus it will soon get tedious (but this will probably be at least 30-45 hours into the game).
A thing to note is that after the vastness of the open world, the dungeons feel awfully cramped since they are usually comprised of linear corridors. Every so often, you might get into a larger area but it can get quite boring and tedious after you've played through a lot of them that they start to feel the same. Most of the dungeons are either caves or ancient ruins, filled with enemies and limited exploration. The amount of things that you can do in Skyrim is astounding. You can smith, alchemize, steal, pickpocket, lockpick, get married and own a house. There are plenty of combat styles from sneak attacks, to magic to archery to one-handed and two-handed weapons. You can use heavy or light armor, charge in and tank enemy attacks or stay afar to snipe them. It gives so much freedom in how to approach the game.
Due to the freedom, enemies are all scaled to your level (apart from a few scripted dungeons). This means no matter what order you play the quests or where you explore, it should be doable at your level. With such a big world and complex game mechanics, glitches are expected. While main questline NPCs cannot die, all others can, even those who gives you random quests and merchants, which can be extremely annoying. Friendly fire is a thing and while fighting a dragon, even if you do much as touch a guard who is fighting at the same time, they'll suddenly stop targeting the dragon and gang up on you instead. Overall, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is a crazily huge game. It offers so much freedom in how the player can approach in playing the game. Even the vanilla version alone without the DLC provides hours and hours of content. You might think you'll get into the game and smash out the main questlines first but it is so easy to get sidetracked from the get go. Skyrim is truly a RPG that immerses the player into its world.
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