Elder Scrolls V. Skyrim is a RPG set in Elder Scrolls world. The game has a long intro video that lasts for several minutes before the typical RPG format starts. After the exceedingly long cut scene that cannot be skipped the player is able to create a character. The character creating offers several species of both human and beast. From reptilian Argonians to Nords to Orcs the species are just the first step of the in depth character customization.

After the selection of species of creature or race of human then the customization begins. Everything from height and weight to gender are chosen in the subsequent steps. The choices are superficial after the species is chosen much like the customization of the faces.

All the character customizations are reminiscent of older RPG’s like Dungeons and Dragons, with the race being given special attributes but things like hair color taking on little importance. After the customization the game allows the player to create a name or continue on with the default name of the prisoner.

The game starts off after another cut scene involving a dragon who attacks. The dragon attack springs the character from their pending execution. The player is forced to go through a dungeon either alongside the other escaped prisoners or with the captors who had intended to execute the prisoner. Leading to the question why go with the side that wanted your head? At the end of the dungeon and cave system the player can follow their companion into a nearby town or they can just wander away. Either way the player will continue to level up and unlike other RPG’s of the same type there is no classes to choose from the character can level up by using the skills the prefer to use. These skills comer everything from smithing to lock picking to using destructive magic.

The skills are improved by using them and when leveling up assigning skill points into their skill tree.

Along with skills the player decides were to add other points in one of  three areas magic, stamina, of health. The areas are increased by ten every time they are selected.

The game is advanced by completing quest lines. There are two main types of quests, the main plot line quests and the secondary quests. In order to complete the game the player has to follow the two main quest lines. Due to the nonlinear nature of the game the play can ignore the plot lines and just do side quests for the various NPC’s and guilds.

Granted by doing this the play is unable to defeat dragons.

The game is populated by various enemies from vampires to dragons and everything in-between. All enemies drop items that allow the player to advance either by purchasing other items or by creating new items.

The game uses both magic and physical force to defeat the various monsters like older RPG’s the only difference is that both can be used at the same time in Skyrim from the very start of the game. The game also adds on a mechanism of shouts that are gain from defeating dragons and finding word walls. The shouts can be powerful attacks or helpful aids in questing.

In completing the gameplay for the session report I spent my time avoiding the main quest line with a character that was a Nord and snuck around using magic to kill things.

I avoided the quest line but completed the dungeons in the starting area just to get a good feel for the game in relation to other RPG’s and games studied in class. While the dungeon crawls provided a small distraction they got tiring since no real goals were obtained alter the flow of the game providing less enjoyment. I did after a while break down and complete the main quest line for just long enough to be able to kill dragons in order to get their powers. For a while the shouts did provide some amusement just because I was defeating monsters with yelling at them.

Overall the game is a decent game and allows the player to experience RPG’s in a solo situation. The game sadly offers far less variety then traditional RPG’s like dungeons and dragons and far less creative solutions to battles. The game in general is fun to play but the shout mechanism gets tiring since for a good portion of the game it seems all you are doing is just yelling at things.