Skyrim: Immersive role player and candidate for game of the year

11.11.11, a date which gamers all over the world had been waiting for since it was announced last year, as the latest game in Elder Scrolls franchise, Skyrim, was finally released some five years after its predecessor.

Previous games in the series, such as Oblivion and Morrowind were very well received by critics worldwide, which has led to the Elder Scrolls series becoming the archetype of role-playing adventure games.

Skyrim has a huge reputation to uphold and it does just that.

At the Eurogamer Expo earlier this year, I queued twice to play Skyrim and whilst I only played for a total of 40 minutes, I knew this game would take some beating to wrestle away the crown of game of the year.

 Playing the full version was an even better experience, right from the off it was a thoroughly gripping an engaging experience.

You start off as a prisoner, those who played Oblivion will see a theme emerging here, but break out during a dragon attack. You then have a massive world to explore, quests to complete and so much more.

It was estimated that there is over 100 hours of gameplay, which I can fully believe as after a day’s worth of play I‘m yet to even scratch the surface.

The combat is typical of the previous Elder Scrolls titles, hacking, slashing and blocking through waves of enemies. There is one addition, the ability to use dragon shouts, words of power which give you abilities to cause devastating attacks or give yourself perks.

The game looks brilliant too, with the landscape recreated in superb detail. At one point, from halfway up a mountain you can look down and see the vast expanse of the game world below you.

Also, the game looks great at a shorter distance, with blood splattering all over the screen in combat and impressive detail shown in closer surrounding environment.

To summarise, before release Skyrim was viewed as a massive game with huge potential and having played it, it is safe to say it lives up to the hype. Despite the competition from Arkham and Portal 2, both of which are excellent games, this is my pick for Game of the Year.