The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Developer(s)	Bethesda Game Studios
Publisher(s)	Bethesda Softworks
Director(s)	Todd Howard
Composer(s)	Jeremy Soule
Series	The Elder Scrolls
Engine	Creation Engine
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows PlayStation 3 Xbox 360
Release	November 11, 2011
Genre(s)	Action role-playing Open world
Mode(s)	Single-player (first-person and third-person view)

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is a role-playing video game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is the fifth installment in The Elder Scrolls action role-playing video game series, following The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. It was released on November 11, 2011 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Skyrim's main story revolves around the player character's efforts to defeat Alduin, the firstborn of Tamriel's primary deity Akatosh. Alduin is prophesied to destroy the world. Set two hundred years after Oblivion, the game takes place in the land of Skyrim, which is in the midst of a civil war after the assassination of the High King. The open world gameplay of the Elder Scrolls series returns in Skyrim; the player can explore the land at will and ignore or postpone the main quest indefinitely.

Gameplay

See also: Gameplay of The Elder Scrolls series

The nonlinear gameplay traditional in the Elder Scrolls series is incorporated in Skyrim. The player can explore the open world of Skyrim on foot or on horseback, and fast-travel to cities, towns and dungeons after they have been discovered. Quests are given to the player by non-player characters (NPCs) in the world, and through the Radiant Story system, the quests can be dynamically altered to accommodate for player actions which may influence the quest's characters and objectives. The Radiant Story system further directs the player's interaction with the world by setting unexplored dungeons as quest locations. When not completing quests, the player can interact with NPCs through conversation, and they may request favors or training in skills from the player. In addition to scripted quests certain ones will be dynamically generated, providing a limitless number to the player. Some NPCs can become companions to the player to aid in combat. The player may choose to join factions, which are organized groups of NPCs such as the Dark Brotherhood, a band of assassins. Each of the factions has a headquarters, and they have their own quest paths which the player can progress through. The economy of cities and towns can be stimulated by completing jobs such as farming and mining, or harmed by sabotaging industrial buildings.

Character development is a primary element of Skyrim. At the beginning of the game, the player selects one of several human, elven, or zoomorphic human races, each of which has different natural abilities, and customizes their character's appearance. A perpetual objective for the player is to improve their character's skills, which are numerical representations of their ability in certain areas. There are two skills divided evenly between the three schools of combat, magic and stealth, and training until the necessary required experience is met, results in the player's character leveling-up. Previous Elder Scrolls games made use of a class system to determine which skills would contribute to the character's leveling, but its removal in Skyrim allows for a preferred play-style to be developed naturally. When their character levels, the player may choose to select a skill-specific ability called a perk, or store perks for later use. Upon levelling fifty times, the player character can continue to level and earn perks, but the rate of levelling is slowed significantly.

A heads-up display appears when any one of the player's three attributes are being depleted. Health is depleted primarily through combat and can be restored by spells, potions, or resting; the loss of all health results in death. Magicka allows for and is depleted by the use of spells; it is regenerated naturally over time, but it can be restored in similar ways to health. Stamina determines the player's effectiveness in combat and is depleted by sprinting, jumping, and power attacking, but can be restored in similar ways to health and magicka. The player's inventory can be accessed from the menu and items can be viewed in 3D, which may be essential in solving puzzles found in dungeons. The player's effectiveness in combat relies on the use of weapons and armor, which may be bought or created at forges, and magic, which may also be bought or unlocked. Weapons and magic are assigned to each hand, allowing for dual-wielding, and can be swapped out through a quick-access menu of favorite items. Shields can be used either to fend off enemy attacks and reduce the damage intake, or offensively through bashing attacks. Blunt, bladed and hacking weapons can be used in close combat and each have specific advantages and roles; as an example, the player can perform power attacks with each weapon. Magic can be used in the form of spells; each of the eighty-five spells has a different function, such as the regeneration of health or the depletion of enemy health. The bow and arrow may be utilized in long-range combat, but the bow can be used as a defensive melee weapon in close combat. The player can enter a sneak mode and pickpocket, or deliver sneak attacks to unsuspecting enemies. If the player drops unwanted loot, such as a shield or item of clothing, some NPCs will attempt to pick the item up, some even asking the player's permission to take the item.

Bethesda developed the Creation Engine for Skyrim allowing for dynamic snowfall.

When exploring the game world, the player may encounter wildlife. Many wilderness monsters are immediately hostile towards the player and thus can be slain. The inclusion of Dragons in Skyrim affords a major influence on both story and gameplay. During the game's development, a team was set aside to work on Dragons and their interactions with the world. In the world, a variety of different Dragons are encountered either alone or in small groups. They are randomly-generated, meaning their numbers are infinite, and they can attack cities and towns at any time. Not every Dragon is hostile, and the player can interact with non-hostile Dragons. Early in the main quest, it is discovered that the player character is Dragonborn, which allows the player to use powerful spells called dragon shouts. Twenty different Dragon shouts can be discovered by visiting "Word-Walls" in dungeons, and they are unlocked for use by absorbing the souls of slain Dragons. A regeneration period limits the player's use of shouts in gameplay. Another significant change from previous games in the series is the elimination of weapon and armor durability; in which a player would periodically have to repair or pay to have items repaired or risk rendering them broken and unusable.

Synopsis

Setting

Skyrim is not a direct sequel to Oblivion, but a new chapter in the Elder Scrolls series, set 200 years after the events of Oblivion. Following the death of Martin Septim and the end of the Oblivion crisis, this heralded the beginnning of the Fourth Era. In the preamble to Skyrim, the Empire begins ceding territory to the Elven nations it once ruled, because there was no heir to the Emperor's throne, during a bloody war between the Empire and the Elven "Aldmeri Dominion". In the absence of Dragonborn emperors of Tamriel, the land is ruled instead by a warlord Emperor named Titus Mede. The Blades, the secret group of knights tasked with protecting Tamriel's Dragonborn Emperors, had no one to defend, and gradually died, were murdered, or secluded themselves from the rest of the world. The Emperor of Tamriel is instead protected by an elite security force known as the Penitus Oculatus. After the High King of Skyrim was assassinated, a civil war broke out among the native Nord race – the majority being those who wished for Skyrim to secede from the Empire, and the rest being those who wished for Skyrim to stay in the Empire.

As with previous Elder Scrolls games, Skyrim begins with the player character as an unknown prisoner, on the way to Helgen for their own execution for being mistaken as a member of the Stormcloaks, a rebel group founded by the king's assassin, Ulfric Stormcloak, the Jarl of Windhelm and pretender to the throne of Skyrim. As the player character is about to be beheaded, a dragon arrives, destroying the town and interrupting the execution. The player eventually learns that Skyrim's civil war is last in a sequence of prophetic events foretold by the Elder Scrolls, which also foretell of the return of Alduin, the Nordic Dragon-god of destruction. Alduin is prophesied to consume the world. The player character is the last "Dovahkiin" (Dragonborn), a Dragon hunter annointed by the gods to help fend off the threat Alduin poses to Skyrim and Tamriel. Among the individuals aiding the player is Esbern (voiced by Max von Sydow), one of the last remaining Blades.

Plot

Following the Dragon attack on Helgen, the player character can choose to escape either with an Imperial soldier or a Stormcloak rebel. After the escape, the player travels to the nearby town of Riverwood. The player is then asked to travel to the city of Whiterun, to request aid from the Jarl against the Dragon threat. The Jarl agrees to send a detachment of soldiers to Riverwood, and asks the player to aid his court-wizard in return, retrieving a Dragonstone from a nearby ruin known as Bleak Falls Barrow. The player discovers a Word-Wall in the process, learning their first "Thu'um", the shouts used by the ancient Nords to battle the Dragons.

Upon returning to Whiterun, the player is asked to help defend the city from an attacking Dragon. After defeating the Dragon, the player character learns from the Whiterun soldiers that he may be a "Dragonborn", able to naturally speak Draconic, the Dragon language, and absorb their souls. After returning to the Jarl with news of the Dragon's defeat, the player is summoned to meet with the Greybeards, an order of monks who live in seclusion on the slopes of Skyrim's highest mountain, The Throat of the World, in their temple of High Hrothgar. The Greybeards further train the player in the "Way of the Voice", teaching the player more powerful Thu'um's and instructing the player on the destiny and role of the Dragonborn. As a further test, the Greybeards task the player with retrieving the legendary Horn of Jurgen Windcaller. However, the player discovers the Horn has been stolen. The thief transpires to be Delphine, Riverwood's innkeeper and one of the last surviving members of The Blades. Delphine and the player witness Alduin awakening a Dragon from a burial mound and successfully defeat the Dragon. Afterwards, Delphine helps the player infiltrate the Thalmor Embassy near Solitude, the headquarters of agents of the Elven Aldmeri Dominion, to search for more information regarding the Dragon threat. While there, the player character discovers the Thalmor are searching for a man named Esbern. Returning to Delphine, the player learns that Esbern is another Blade and an archivist of the Blades Order. Delphine then instructs the player to locate Esbern, known to be hiding in the sewers and ratways of Riften.

The player character accompanies the Blades in search of "Alduin's Wall", located in an ancient Blades fortress known as Sky Ruler Temple. The player character learns that the ancient Nords used an Elder Scroll against Alduin. To gain more information, the player meets the leader of the Greybeards, an ancient Dragon named Paarthurnax. Paarthurnax reveals that Alduin was not truly defeated in the past, but was instead inadvertently sent forward in time to the current period. The player manages to locate an Elder Scroll within the Dwemer ruin of Blackreach and uses it to travel back in time, learning the powerful "Dragonrend" shout to combat Alduin.

Armed with the knowledge of how the ancient Nords defeated Alduin, the player battles Alduin on the summit of the Throat of the World. Overpowered by the player, Alduin flees to Sovngarde, the location of the Nordic afterlife. The player learns that Dragonsreach, the palace of the Jarl of Whiterun, was originally built to trap and hold a dragon. The Jarl of Whiterun refuses to allow the player to utilize Dragonsreach and possibly endanger the city while the civil war between the Stormcloaks and the Imperial Legion still rages. With the help of the Greybeards, the player calls a council between General Tullius and Ulfric Stormcloak, successfully calling for a temporary armistice while the Dragon threat exists.

The player summons and traps a Dragon named Odahviing in Dragonsreach, learning from him that Alduin has fled to Sovngarde through a portal located high in the mountains, at an ancient fort called Skuldafn. Odahviing, impressed with the player's Thu'um and ability to capture him, agrees to fly the player to Skuldafn, claiming Alduin has shown himself as weak and undeserving of leadership over the "Dovah"/Dragons. Upon arrival at Skuldafn, the player travels to Sovngarde and meets with Ysgramor, the legendary Nord who, along with his Five Hundred Companions, drove the Elves out of Skyrim. Ysgramor informs the player that Alduin has placed a soul-snare in Sovngarde, allowing him to gain strength by devouring the souls of deceased Nords arriving at Sovngarde. The player meets up with the three heroes of Nordic legend who defeated Alduin originally, and, with their help, confronts Alduin in Sovngarde and destroys him.

Development

System requirements

	Minimum	Recommended
Microsoft Windows
Operating system	Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 (32 or 64 bit of any)
CPU	Intel or AMD 2 GHz dual-core	Intel or AMD quad-core
Memory	2 GB RAM	4 GB RAM
Free space	6 GB free HDD space
Graphics hardware	Direct X 9.0c compliant video card with 512 MB of RAM	Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 or ATI Radeon HD 4890 1 GB
Sound hardware	DirectX compatible sound card
Network	Internet access for Steam activation

Skyrim was conceptualized shortly after the release of Oblivion in 2006. Works on Skyrim did not begin until Fallout 3's release in 2008; developers considered the game to be a spiritual successor to both Fallout 3 and previous Elder Scrolls games. The game was developed by a team of roughly 100 people composed of new talent as well as of the series's veterans. The production was supervised by Todd Howard, who was the director of many titles released by Bethesda Softworks. Skyrim is powered by Bethesda's own Creation Engine which is the company's new engine. Bethesda has officially stated that the engine will be used at least in one more project apart from Skyrim. After Fallout 3's release, the team devised numerous design objectives to meet for Skyrim, and as Howard described, the team "got all those done and kept going". Had the team not been able to meet their design goals with current hardware, they would have waited for the next generation and released Skyrim then, but, as Howard felt, the current technology did not hold the team back at all. The Creation Engine allowed for numerous improvements in graphical fidelity over Bethesda's previous efforts. For example, the draw distance renders farther than in previous Elder Scrolls games; Howard furnished an example where the player could stare at a small object such as a fork in detail, and then look up at a mountain and run to the top of it. Dynamic lighting affords shadows to be created by any structure or item in the game world, and while Bethesda utilized SpeedTree to produce flora in previous games, the Creation Engine utilized by Skyrim allowed for greater detail than what had been allowed by SpeedTree. For example, with Bethesda's own technology, the team was able to give weight to the branches of trees which affected how the tree blew in wind; in addition, the technology afforded wind to affect the flow of water in channels such as rivers and streams. Because of the large presence of snow in Skyrim's game world, the technological upgrades were applied to weather effects and allowed for dynamic snow fall upon the terrain, instead of snow that was rendered as a textural effect in previous games.

The team made use of Havok's Behavior toolset for character animation, which allowed for a greater fluidity between the character's movements of walking, running and sprinting, and also increased the efficiency of the third-person camera option which had been criticized in Oblivion. The toolset allowed interactions between the player and NPCs to take place in real-time; in Oblivion, when the player went to interact with an NPC, time would freeze and the camera would zoom in on the NPC's face. In Skyrim, NPCs can move around and make body gestures while conversing with the player. Children are present in the game, and their presence is handled similarly as in Fallout 3 in that they cannot be harmed by the player in any way since depictions of violence involving children in video games is a controversial and largely-debated issue. Skyrim makes use of the Radiant AI artificial intelligence system that was created for Oblivion, and it has been updated to allow NPCs to "do what they want under extra parameters". The updated system allows for greater interaction between NPCs and their environments; NPCs can perform tasks such as farming, milling and mining in the game world, and will react with each other, such as by fighting over loot that the player has dropped.

Within Skyrim's universe is the use of 'dragon language'. The alphabet was constructed to look aesthetically dragon-like, hence the use of claw-like markings.

The team set the game in the province of Skyrim, designing it by hand. While similar in size to Oblivion's game world Cyrodiil, the mountainous topography of the world inflates the game space and makes it more difficult to traverse than the relatively-flatter Cyrodiil. In designing Skyrim's world, the team opted for a different approach to what was taken with Oblivion; art director Matt Carofano considered the more surrealistic approach of Skyrim's world design as a departure from Oblivion's generic representation of classic European fantasy lore. Howard expressed the team's desire to re-encapsulate the "wonder of discovery" of Morrowind's game world in Skyrim, as the return to the classic fantasy of Arena and The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall in Oblivion meant sacrificing a world with a unique culture. As a way of creating diversity in the world, the team divided the world into eight sectors, known as holds, and attempted to make each hold feel topographically unique from another; in addition, the team wanted to reflect the socioeconomic background of the NPCs by making some of the world's locations elaborate and wealthy and others poorer and lower-tech. Focus was put into making of each the game's ten races feel unique; Howard considered that the player's choosing of a race and gender at the beginning of the game was a more important decision than it had been in previous Elder Scrolls games because the culture of Skyrim's world was rooted in racism and sexism. However, he iterated that the player's decisions on race and gender did not have major game-affecting consequences as it simply added "flavor" in different NPCs dispositions towards the player, and was not meant as a way of locking players out of particular quests. Efforts to making Skyrim's world feel hand-crafted extended to the team abandoning the use of generated landscapes as they had done in Oblivion.

While one team member was charged with designing dungeons in Oblivion, Skyrim's 150 dungeons were designed by a small team of eight people. Bethesda employed over seventy voice actors to record the voices of NPCs in the game; the total number of lines recorded for NPCs is over 60,000. The cast includes Christopher Plummer, Max von Sydow, Joan Allen, Lynda Carter, Claudia Christian and Michael Hogan. Skyrim features 244 quests and over 300 points of interest.

Music

The team employed Jeremy Soule to compose music for Skyrim after his work on Morrowind and Oblivion. He composed "Sons of Skyrim", which is the game's main theme and was recorded with a choir of over thirty people, singing in the game world's dragon language. Creative Director Todd Howard envisioned the theme for Skyrim as the Elder Scrolls theme sung by a choir of barbarians. This became a reality when the idea was passed by Soule, who recorded the 30-man choir and layered three separate recordings to create the effect of 90 voices. The language, Draconic, was created by Bethesda's concept artist Adam Adamowicz, and he developed a 34-character runic alphabet for the game. The lexicon of Draconic was expanded as needed; as lead designer Bruce Nesmith explained, words were introduced to the lexicon "every time [the studio wanted] to say something".

As with the previous two entries in the series, the soundtrack to Skyrim is sold exclusively via Jeremy Soule's distributor DirectSong; on November 4, 2011 a physical-only release consisting of 4 audio CDs was announced, coinciding with the launch of the game. All copies preordered before December 23 will be personally autographed by Soule. Following an October 17 tweet from Pete Hines, Vice President of Public Relations and Marketing at Bethesda, stating "The OST would take 4 CDs", a 4-disc CD set release was spotted by Digital Song customers during an account display error. "Day One" preorders from Amazon.de also include a 5-track promotional Skyrim soundtrack sampler.

Release

Skyrim was first announced at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, California on December 11, 2010. The center was the host of Spike's annual Video Game Awards; Howard appeared on stage during the awards and presented its announcement trailer, which introduced the game's story and revealed its "11-11-11" release date. It was the cover story for the February 2011 issue of the Game Informer magazine, wherein journalist Matt Miller wrote a fifteen-page article that revealed the first details about the game's story and gameplay. Asked about downloadable content (DLC) packages in a June 2011 interview, Howard expressed that it was the team's intention to release DLC packages after having done so for previous releases; he revealed that it was the team's goal to release a lower number of DLC packages that were larger in content than those released for Fallout 3, as he felt that releasing a larger number of low-content packages was "chaotic". Via a press release, the team announced that the first two planned DLC packages would release on the Xbox 360 via Xbox Live a month ahead of PCs and the PlayStation 3 system. At the 2011 QuakeCon conference, the team unveiled Skyrim's special edition package. Bundled with a copy of the game is a map of the game world, a 12-inch figurine of the game's antagonistic dragon Alduin, as well as a 200-page concept art book and a DVD feature about the making of Skyrim.

In October 2011 pictures of many pages of the manual of the game were leaked, later followed by footage from the introduction, revealing some more details. By November 1, 2011, a copy of the Xbox 360 version had been leaked and made available through the internet, allowing people with a hacked Xbox 360 to play Skyrim 10 days before its official release. In the Netherlands, the game has been available for purchase since November 7. On the 10th of November stores in Australia began selling the game ahead of its 11th of November release date.

During the first day of release, Steam showed over 230,000 people playing Skyrim concurrently. In the first week of release, Bethesda stated the total sales through the following Wednesday at an estimated $450 million USD, with 7 million copies of the game shipped.

Reception

Reception

Aggregate scores

Aggregator	Score
GameRankings	(X360) 95.10% (PC) 94.80% (PS3) 86.00%
Metacritic	(X360) 96/100 (PC) 95/100 (PS3) 93/100

Review scores

Publication	Score
1Up.com	A-
Computer and Video Games	9.5/10
Edge	9/10
Electronic Gaming Monthly	10
Eurogamer	10/10
Famitsu	40/40
G4	5/5
Game Informer	9.5/10
GameSpot	9/10
GamesRadar+	10/10
IGN	9.5/10
PlayStation Official Magazine – UK	7/10
Official Xbox Magazine (US)	10/10
Wired	10/10
Destructoid	10/10
Joystiq
GiantBomb
GamePro
The Guardian

Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the Xbox 360 version 95.10% and 93/100, the PC version 94.80% and 95/100, and the PlayStation 3 version 86.00% and 95/100.

IGN gave the game a rating of 9.5 out of 10, stating "It's a mesmerizing game that draws you into a finely crafted fictional space packed with content that consistently surprises... playing Skyrim is a rare kind of intensely personal, deeply rewarding experience, and one of the best role-playing games yet produced." The Guardian gave the game 5 stars (out of 5), stating "The reason for this is that Skyrim is one of the most gargantuan undertakings gamers will experience all year. The sheer size of the adventure, both in terms of its environment and in the amount of activities available to the player, is mind-blowing."

Destructoid gave the game a 10/10 citing that "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is every single reason to love a Western role-playing game, condensed into a single comprehensive experience with nothing lost in the conversion process." Wired.com also gave a perfect score of 10 out of 10, writing "The game's greatest accomplishment is that it is a paradise of escapism, a lavish love letter to immersion. Diving into Skyrim's world feels both thrilling and comforting, like riding a rollercoaster or swimming in the ocean. There is very little padding. There are very few scripted quests that aren’t worth experiencing." Edge gave Skyrim a rating of 9 out of 10, saying that "in the instance of breathless excitement, triumph or discovery, you invest completely in its world." GameSpot also rated it 9 out of 10, adding that "Skyrim performs the most spectacular of enchantments: the one that causes huge chunks of time to vanish before you know it." Joystiq gave a perfect score of 5 out of 5 citing, "This is the deepest, loveliest world ever created for a single player to explore". AtomicGamer gave a review score of 10/10 saying "While other games this year have delivered tighter storylines and intense multiplayer action, nothing satisfies my gaming needs quite like Bethesda's core studio of developers can." A review score of 5 out of 5 was given by GiantBomb.

The PC version received similar praise, but the user interface was heavily criticized as being designed for console controllers as opposed to the traditional keyboard and mouse setup. Official PlayStation Magazine (UK) gave the PlayStation 3 version a 7/10, praising the game but critiscizing the technical issues and feeling that the game was in an unfinished state. Japanese magazine Famitsu gave Skyrim a score of 40/40, making it the first western video game to receive a perfect rating from them.

Technical issues

Skyrim was launched with a multitude of technical issues ranging from small to large scale problems. Some examples include a texture down-scaling issue on the Xbox 360 version when the game was run from the hard drive; crashes, slowdown and frame rate issues on the PlayStation 3 version when save files exceeded 6 MB; and various crashes and slowdowns on the Windows version. The PlayStation 3 save file issue was also present in both Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas.

An update (Version 1.2) was released on November 29, 2011 to fix some of the game's issues; however, some players reported new bugs in the game following the patch, including more frequent game crashes. Patch 1.3 was released on December 7, 2011 to improve stability and fix problems introduced in version 1.2.

External links

• Official website
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim at IMDb
• The Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages:Skyrim wiki on The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim