The Elder Scrolls V – Skyrim

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is a 2011 action role-playing game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is the fifth main installment in The Elder Scrolls series, following The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2006), and was released worldwide for Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 on November 11, 2011. A port for the Nintendo Switch was released in November 2017 alongside a separate virtual reality-only version titled Skyrim VR. Skyrim was developed using the Creation Engine, which was rebuilt specifically for the game. The team opted for a unique and more diverse open world than Oblivion’s Imperial Province of Cyrodiil, which game director and executive producer Todd Howard considered less interesting by comparison.

Imperial soldiers have captured Ulfric Stormcloak and are preparing to execute him, along with the player who was caught up in the skirmish and mistakenly believed to be a rebel. Before the player can be executed, Alduin appears, attacking the imperial outpost and thus rescuing the player. The player escapes and warns Jarl Balgruuf of Whiterun of the dragon attack. When another dragon attacks and is slain, the dragon’s soul flows into the player character, causing the nearby guards to call them “Dragonborn.” The Greybeards summon the Dragonborn to the Throat of the World with a deafening shout, where the Dragonborn begins training in the Way of the Voice.

Delphine, a member of a secret society called the Blades who were known as dragon hunters, intercepts the Dragonborn on a training quest and arranges for the Dragonborn to infiltrate the Thalmor Embassy in Solitude, on the (mistaken) suspicion that the Thalmor are responsible for the dragon attacks. There, they learn that Esbern, a Blades lore master obsessed with the prophecy of Alduin’s return, is alive and hiding somewhere in Riften. The Dragonborn rescues Esbern in Riften as Thalmor agents also try to capture him. Esbern leads them to an ancient Blade temple and a massive engraving depicting Alduin’s prior defeat.

Esbern deciphers that the ancient Nords used a special shout that forces a dragon to land and experience the concept of mortality, thus rendering Alduin and any dragon weaker, unable to fly, and vulnerable. Arngeir does not know the shout, which is called Dragonrend and violates the Way of the Voice. Arngeir sends the Dragonborn to Paarthurnax at the summit of the Throat. Paarthurnax reveals that no one living knows Dragonrend, but theorizes that the Dragonborn could learn it by looking through time at the throat of the world, the site of Alduin’s banishment. To do this, the Dragonborn retrieves the Elder Scroll used in the banishment from a massive subterranean Dwemer city. The Dragonborn returns to the summit and learns Dragonrend. Alduin attacks.

The Dragonborn uses Dragonrend, and together with Paarthurnax, overpowers Alduin, who flees. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is a fantasy action role-playing game, playable from either a first or third-person perspective. The player may freely roam over the land of Skyrim, an open world environment based on Scandinavia consisting of wilderness expanses, dungeons, caves, cities, towns, fortresses, and villages. Players may navigate the game world more quickly by riding horses, paying for a ride from a city’s stable, or utilizing a fast-travel system that allows them to move their character immediately to a previously discovered location.

At the beginning of the game, players select their character’s gender and race, with 10 choices for the latter, including races of humans and fantasy races such as elves and orcs. The player chooses the character’s appearance; this is not necessarily permanent, however, as an in-game mechanic allows for changing the appearance later. Characters have three primary attributes: health is how much damage the character can take before dying, magicka is depleted to cast spells, and stamina allows the character to perform heavy “power attacks” or sprint. A status bar for each attribute appears onscreen when the attribute falls below its maximum value.

Attributes regenerate over time and can be refilled faster by drinking potions, casting regenerative spells, or through various enchantments. Characters gain experience indirectly, via leveling up skills. The 18 skills are divided evenly among the three schools of combat, magic, and stealth. Each skill has its own experience bar, which increases when the character performs an action in-game related to the skill. For example, crafting a dagger increases the Smithing skill, and dealing damage with a bow increases the Archery skill. When a skill’s experience bar fills, the skill levels up and the bar is reset. After enough skills level up, the character levels up, enabling the player to increase the maximum value of one of the three attributes and providing a perk point. Perk points can be spent immediately on a skill-specific perk or stored for later use.