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The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

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The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
North American box art
Developer(s)Bethesda Game Studios
Publisher(s)Bethesda Softworks
Director(s)Todd Howard
Composer(s)Jeremy Soule
SeriesThe Elder Scrolls
EngineCreation Engine
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
ReleaseNovember 11, 2011[1]
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 being 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 is scheduled to be 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 a dragon god who is prophesied to destroy the world. Set two hundred years after Oblivion, the game takes place in the land of Skyrim in the midst of a civil war after the assassination of the king. The open world gameplay of the Elder Scrolls series is continued in Skyrim, as the player character 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.[2] 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.[3] Quests are given to the player by non-playable 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.[4] When not completing quests, the player can interact with NPCs through conversation, and they may request favors or training in skills from the player.[5] Some NPCs can become companions to the player to aid in combat, and some companions can be married.[6] The player may choose to join factions, which are organized groups of NPCs such as the Dark Brotherhood, a band of assassins.[7] 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.[8]

Character development is a primary element of Skyrim. At the beginning of the game, the player selects one of many human or anthropomorphic races, each of which has different natural abilities, and customizes their character's appearance.[9] 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 eighteen skills divided evenly between the three schools of combat, magic and stealth, and training ten times in these skills 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.[4][10] When their character levels, the player may choose to select a skill-specific ability called a perk, or store perks for later use. Upon leveling fifty times, the player character can continue to level and earn perks, but the rate of leveling is slowed significantly.[11]

Bethesda developed the Creation Engine for Skyrim. It allows for dynamic snowfall, and the integration of dragons in gameplay.[12]

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 rejuvenated naturally over time, but it can be restored in similar ways to health. Fatigue determines the player's effectiveness in combat and is depleted by sprinting and jumping, 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.[13] 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.[14] 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 different finishing moves with each weapon. Magic can be used in the form of spells; each of the eighty-five spells have different functions, such as the regeneration of health, or the depleting of enemy health and stamina through frost spells.[15] 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.

When exploring the game world, the player may encounter wildlife. Many wilderness monsters are immediately hostile towards the player and thus can be slain.[2] 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.[4] 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.[16] Not every dragon is hostile, and the player can interact with non-hostile dragons. Early in the game, the player character learns that they are Dragonborn, which allows the player to use powerful spells called dragon shouts. Twenty different dragon shouts can be discovered by visiting "dragon walls" in dungeons, and they are unlocked for use by absorbing the souls of slain dragons.[17][18] A regeneration period limits the player's use of shouts in gameplay.[19]

Plot

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.[17] In the preamble to Skyrim, the Empire began ceding territory to the Elven nations it once ruled, because there was no heir to the Emperor's throne. The Blades had no one to defend, and gradually died, were murdered, or secluded themselves from the rest of the world.[17] After the king of Skyrim was assassinated, a civil war broke out amongst 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.[20]

As with previous Elder Scrolls games, Skyrim begins with the player character as an unknown prisoner, on the way to their own execution for involvement with the Stormcloaks, the group founded by the king's assassin.[20] According to leaked gameplay, as your character is about to be beheaded, a dragon comes, destroying the town where your execution is taking place. 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 god of destruction. Taking the form of a gigantic dragon, Alduin is prophesied to consume the world with his servants, the Jills (a race of black dragons). The player character is the last Dovahkiin (Dragonborn), a dragon hunter anointed by the gods to help fend off the threat Alduin poses to Skyrim and Tamriel. Aiding the player is Esbern (voiced by Max von Sydow), one of the last Blades.[17]

Development

System requirements
Minimum Recommended
Microsoft Windows[21]
Operating system Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7
CPU Intel or AMD 2 GHz dual-coreIntel or AMD quad-core
Memory 2 GB RAM4 GB RAM
Free space 6 GB free HDD space6 GB free HDD space
Graphics hardware NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT 512 MB or ATi Radeon X1800 512 MBNVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 or ATi Radeon HD 4870 1 GB
Sound hardware DirectX compatible sound cardDirectX compatible sound card
Network Internet access for Steam activationInternet access for Steam activation

Skyrim was conceptualized shortly after the release of Oblivion in 2006.[22] To the team, it is considered a spiritual successor to their previous project Fallout 3, which was released in 2008, and Skyrim did not begin full production until after Fallout 3's release.[23] The team of sixty people who worked on Oblivion grew to about one-hundred people by the time Skyrim entered full production.[23] The game was directed by Todd Howard, who joined the studio in 1994 after the release of The Elder Scrolls: Arena, and who led the production of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, Oblivion and Fallout 3. When development for Skyrim commenced, the team wanted to start over and build their own technology for the game.[22] The resulting game engine was dubbed the Creation Engine, which was based on the Gamebryo engine used for Oblivion and Fallout 3,[12] and will be utilized in the production of at least one of Bethesda's projects beyond Skyrim.[24] 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".[25] 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,[26] but, as Howard felt, the current technology did not hold the team back at all.[25] 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.[27] 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 was utilized for Skyrim and allowed for greater detail than what had been allowed for by SpeedTree.[17] For example, with Bethesda's own technology, the team were 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.[5] 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.[5]

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.[5][28] 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;[17] depictions of violence involving children in video games is a controversial and largely-debated issue.[29] 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".[16] 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.[30]

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.[18]

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.[19] 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 atypical representation of classic European fantasy lore.[9] 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.[27] However, instead of placing the player in an alien world like Morrowind's, the team opted to "walk the line" between Morrowind's and Oblivion's art directions by juxtaposing a familiar fantasy setting of forests and mountains against a world with an unfamiliar culture.[25] 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.[4] 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.[25] 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.[31]

Audio

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 native language.[32] The language, Draconic, was created by Bethesda's concept artist Adam Adamowicz, and he developed a 34-character runic alphabet for the game.[18] 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".[16] 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.[33]

As with the previous two entries in the series, the soundtrack to Skyrim will be sold exclusively via Jeremy Soule's distributor Direct Song.[additional citation(s) needed] Following a tweet from Pete Hines, Vice President of Public Relations and Marketing at Bethesda, stating "The OST would take 4 CDs" [34], a 4-disc CD set release was spotted by Digital Song customers during an account display error [35]. "Day One" preorders from the German equivalent of Amazon.com also include a 5 track promotional Skyrim soundtrack sampler [36]

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.[37] 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.[17] 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".[38] 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.[39] 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 created from cloth, 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.[40]

References

  1. ^ "Bethesda Softworks Announces The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim". www.prnewswire.com (Press release). Bethesda Softworks. 13 December 2010. Retrieved 13 December 2010.
  2. ^ a b Reilly, Jim (11 January 2011). "New Elder Scrolls V Skyrim Details". IGN. Retrieved 13 January 2011.
  3. ^ Onyett, Charles (31 March 2011). "The Elder Scrolls Evolved: What's New in Skyrim". IGN. Retrieved 3 April 2011.
  4. ^ a b c d The Game Informer Show (3 February 2011). "Todd Howard Skyrim Q&A". Game Informer (Podcast). Game Informer. Retrieved 6 February 2011.
  5. ^ a b c d Bertz, Matt (17 January 2011). "The Technology Behind The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim". Game Informer. Retrieved 17 January 2011. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |web= ignored (help)
  6. ^ Howard, Todd; Nesmith, Bruce; Carofano, Matt (6 July 2011). "Skyrim Fan Interview". Bethesda Softworks LLC. Retrieved 18 September 2011.
  7. ^ McCarthy, Al (5 August 2011). "The Dark Brotherhood Confirmed for Skyrim". Attack of the Fanboy. Retrieved 18 September 2011.
  8. ^ Reparaz, Mikel (2011). "Dragonborn (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim)". PlayStation Official Magazine (047). United States: Future plc: 48–57. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  9. ^ a b Hanson, Ben (26 January 2011). "The Art Of Skyrim". Game Informer. Retrieved 12 February 2011.
  10. ^ Staff (8 December 2011). "First 'Skyrim' Info And Screens Surface". TheSixthAxis. Retrieved 8 December 2011.
  11. ^ Cottee, James (6 February 2011). "Skyrim to Feature Branching Perk System, Horse Armor". Games On Net. Retrieved 6 February 2011.
  12. ^ a b Francis, Tom (12 December 2010). "Confirmed: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim will use an entirely new engine". www.pcgamer.com. PC Gamer. Retrieved 12 December 2010.
  13. ^ Bertz, Matt (28 January 2011). "Inside Skyrim's Menu System Overhaul". www.gameinformer.com. Game Informer. Retrieved 28 January 2011.
  14. ^ Plunkett, Luke (7 January 2011). "The Next Elder Scrolls Has New Combat & Levelling". kotaku.com. Kotaku. Retrieved 7 January 2011.
  15. ^ Bertz, Matt (24 January 2011). "Skyrim: Building Better Combat". www.gameinformer.com. GameInformer. Retrieved 24 January 2011.
  16. ^ a b c "The Future Of Fantasy (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim)". PlayStation Official Magazine UK (055). United Kingdom: Future plc: 70–81. 2011. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  17. ^ a b c d e f g Miller, Matt (2011). "Emerging From Legend (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim)". Game Informer (213). United States: GameStop Corporation: 46–60. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  18. ^ a b c Miller, Matt (20 January 2011). "Skyrim's Dragon Shouts". Game Informer. Retrieved 22 January 2011.
  19. ^ a b Seiji Nakamura (21 April 2011). ""Interview with 'The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim' executive producer, Mr. Todd Howard"" (in Japanese). Game Watch. Retrieved 21 September 2011.
  20. ^ a b "Alduin's Wall". www.gameinformer.com. Game Informer. The Sons of Skyrim (interactive page). Retrieved 12 January 2011.
  21. ^ "Skyrim system requirements announced | Bethesda Blog". Bethesda Blog. Retrieved 25 October 2011.
  22. ^ a b Howard, Todd (8 March 2011). "Welcome Back Elder Scrolls". Bethesda Softworks LLC. Retrieved 20 March 2011.
  23. ^ a b Bethesda Blog (16 December 2010). "The Bethesda Podcast Episode 6: Enter the Dragon". bethblog.com (Podcast). ZeniMax Media Inc. Retrieved 23 December 2010. {{cite podcast}}: External link in |website= (help)
  24. ^ Cullen, Johnny (25 January 2011). "Future Bethesda titles to "take advantage" of Skyrim engine". VG247. Retrieved 25 January 2011.
  25. ^ a b c d "Video Interview mit Todd Howard" (in German and interview in English). Gameswelt TV. 24 April 2011. Retrieved 28 September 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
  26. ^ Robinson, Andy (3 August 2011). "No PS4, Xbox 720 before 2014, says Skyrim boss". ComputerAndVideoGames. Retrieved 28 September 2011.
  27. ^ a b Evans-Thirlwell, Edwin (9 March 2011). "From Morrowind to Skyrim: how Bethesda built its latest gameworld". Official Xbox Magazine. Retrieved 20 March 2011.
  28. ^ Onyett, Charles (24 March 2006). "The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - PC Review at IGN". IGN. p. 4. Retrieved 28 September 2011. Though the game offers a third-person mode, don't bother using it save for checking out your armor. It's nearly impossible to fight with the camera pulled back, and some of the third person animations look unrealistically silly
  29. ^ Campbell, Colin (4 September 2011). "Editorial: Do You Want to Kill Children?". IGN. Retrieved 28 September 2011.
  30. ^ Raven, Chriss (8 January 2011). "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Details and info". TGN TV. Retrieved 8 January 2011.
  31. ^ Channell, Mike (2011). "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim". Official Xbox Magazine UK (070). United Kingdom: Future plc: 30–45. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  32. ^ Hanson, Ben (14 January 2011). "The Sounds Of Skyrim". Game Informer. Retrieved 14 January 2011.
  33. ^ "A star-studded cast". Bethesda Blog. 27 September 2011. Retrieved 28 September 2011.
  34. ^ Twitter / @DCDeacon: @robertwery That's just th ...
  35. ^ Skyrim soundtrack coming soon as digital download at directsong.com : skyrim
  36. ^ Amazon.de Video Games: The Elder Scrolls: The Old Republic Day One ~ Limited Edition]
  37. ^ Skyrim's unveiling to the world. ZeniMax Media / Spike VGA. 13 December 2010. Retrieved 13 December 2010.
  38. ^ Farrelly, Steve (22 June 2011). "AusGamers Todd Howard Skyrim Video Interview and Transcript". AusGamers. Retrieved 1 October 2011.
  39. ^ Gilbert, Ben (26 August 2011). "First two Skyrim DLC packs heading to Xbox 360 first". Joystiq. Retrieved 1 October 2011.
  40. ^ "QuakeCon 2011: Skyrim Collector's Edition Announced!!!". Bethesda. 5 August 2011. Retrieved 1 October 2011.

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