The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Coordinates	°′″N°′″N
Title	The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Caption	North American box art
Developer	Bethesda Game Studios
Publisher	Bethesda Softworks
Series	The Elder Scrolls
Release	November 11, 2011
Genre	Action role-playing, open world
Modes	Single-player (first-person and third-person view)
Ratings
Platforms	Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Director	Todd Howard
Composer	Jeremy Soule
Engine	Creation Engine

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 . It is scheduled to be released on November 11, 2011 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Skyrim is set two hundred years after the events of Oblivion, in the land of Skyrim. The province has erupted into civil war after the assassination of its king. Concurrently, the god Alduin, who takes the form of a massive dragon, has arisen to destroy the world. The player character is one of the last living Dovahkiin (Dragonborn), and must fend off Alduin and save Skyrim from destruction.

Gameplay

Skyrim retains the traditional open-world gameplay found in the Elder Scrolls series. The player is free to roam the land of Skyrim at will, either on-foot or on horseback. Within Skyrim lie five major cities, numerous smaller towns, expanses of wilderness and mountainous ranges. Each town and city has their own economy, which the player can manipulate or sabotage if they so choose. The player levels up by raising skills. Eighteen skills are present in Skyrim, and the class system from Oblivion has been removed. Perks are skill-specific abilities, organized in a system of branching groups called "skill trees." Each rise in level allows for another perk to be picked. There are 280 perks, and leveling is now possible past level 50, but at a highly reduced rate. The on-screen heads-up display only appears when the player's health, stamina, or magicka are being depleted. Items and equipment layouts can be saved to a quick-access menu, and the pause-screen inventory menu is presented in a compass-style overlay;

Weapons can be created by the player at a forge, and are assigned to each hand individually, allowing for dual-wielding. At the cost of stamina, the player can sprint and jump. Shields can be used with a bashing attack, and timing is required for blocking with a shield. Blunt, bladed, hacking and stabbing weapons each have specific advantages and roles; as an example, the player is granted the ability to perform finishing moves. There are over eighty-five spell types, which can be used in ranged and close combat forms. Spell types have specific qualities; a frost spell slows and drains stamina, while a fire spell causes prolonged damage through burning, and may also ignite the environment.

Skyrim makes use of the Radiant AI artifical intelligence system created for Oblivion, which 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. NPCs can interact with the player character through conversation, and can request favors and training for the player, or challenge the player character to a duel. Events such as dueling are randomly-generated encounters, taking influence from Bethesda's previous game Fallout 3. Skyrim introduces the Radiant Story system, which governs quests and how they function. Side-quests are dynamically altered based on the player's actions, and are tailored to the player's abilities and progress within the game. As an example, the player might be sent off to a dungeon that has not been previously explored, and face enemies that are defeated most effectively with the player's preferred combat style.

Through a course of events, the player character learns that he/she is "Dragonborn." There are over twenty different dragon shouts to be gained throughout the game, and they become more effective as the player absorbs the souls of slain dragons. A minority of non-player characters also have the ability to use dragon shouts.

Synopsis

Plot

Skyrim is not a direct sequel to Oblivion; rather, it is a new chapter in the Elder Scrolls series, set two hundred years after the events of Oblivion.

As with previous Elder Scrolls games, Skyrim begins with the player character as an unknown prisoner, on the way to their own execution. which is around 16 square miles (41 square kilometers) in area. Within Skyrim lie five cities, larger than Cyrodiil's cities, as well as smaller townships and expanses of wilderness. Much of Skyrim's topography is mountainous, and dragons are frequently encountered when exploring the wilderness. There are over 150 dungeons scattered across Skyrim, and when the player enters a dungeon for the first time, the monsters within lock to the player's level permanently, even if visited later at a higher level. Fast-travelling is a returning feature, allowing the player to instantly travel to any marked location that has been previously visited.

Development

Skyrim was conceptualized shortly after the release of Oblivion in 2006, and began production after the release of Fallout 3 in 2008. It was officially announced at the Spike Video Game Awards in December 2010, when executive producer Todd Howard appeared on stage to present a trailer which also announced its "11–11–11" release date. It appeared as the cover story for the February 2011 issue of the Game Informer magazine, wherein its story and game content were first revealed. The language was conceived by concept artist Adam Adamowicz, who developed a 34-character runic alphabet for the game. The lexicon of Draconic was expanded as needed; as lead designer Bruce Nesmith explained in an interview with PlayStation Official Magazine UK, words were introduced to the lexicon "every time [the studio wanted] to say something". The draw distance renders farther than in previous Elder Scrolls games; speaking with Official Xbox Magazine (OXM) in March 2011, Howard described an "all-the-way" draw distance. As an example, he described how the player can "stare at a fork, or an apple, and then look up and see a mountain, and [...] then run to the top of that mountain". The game engine allows for dynamic lighting, affording shadows to be created by any structure or item. Character and creature animations in Skyrim are generated with Havok's Behavior toolset. It allows characters to fluidly cycle between walking, jogging and running, as well as increasing the efficiency of the third-person camera.

The art design of Skyrim is described as being "very different" from Oblivion, as stated by art director Matt Carofano. He described Skyrim's predecessor Oblivion as being "standard European fantasy", and so a design objective for Skyrim was to make the game world feel realistic. While Oblivion's dungeons were created by one designer, Skyrim's dungeons are created by a team of eight designers. With character design, efforts have been made to make each of the races unique from each other. In addition, character creation has been furthered from previous Elder Scrolls games, introducing new customization options, such as pre-built beards and faces, warpaint and scars, and otherwise simplifying facial construction.

References

External links

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim official website

Skyrim Wiki

The Elder Scrolls V Blog

Skyrim Category:Fantasy video games Category:Games for Windows certified games Category:Open world video games Category:PlayStation 3 games Category:Role-playing video games Category:Upcoming video games Category:Upcoming video games scheduled for 2011 Category:Video game sequels Category:Video games developed in the United States Category:Windows games Category:Xbox 360 games