The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim

The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim is a role-playing game with action elements in an open world. It was developed and released by Bethesda for PS3, Xbox 360, and PC on November 11, 2011. It is the fifth game in the The Elder Scrolls series, continuing the events of the game universe, offering new gameplay mechanics and possibilities for both the series and the RPG genre.

The updated Creation Engine made Skyrim a benchmark for visual quality for several years ahead. The game amazed with its large seamless world and its quality detailing — each of the climatic regions is recreated as realistically as possible, with characteristic landscapes, vegetation, and animals.

Modern technologies of global illumination, reflection, light and shadow play, numerous effects like depth of field or surface wetting, a colorful particle system were used at the time of release, but outdated animation techniques were employed. Level designers maximized the ambiance details of the interiors.

The game universe of The Elder Scrolls is rich and diverse, as it combines myths, tales, and beliefs of humanity with fantasy and legends. In the Elder Scrolls series, magic coexists and even intertwines with technology, different races coexist together, and the setting combines early medieval times with fantasy.

The game's action takes place in Skyrim, one of the most dangerous provinces of Tamriel — a large continent on the fictional planet Nirn. The region is inhabited by hardy Nords — a collective image of Scandinavians, unafraid of cold, dangerous enemies, and difficult trials. Skyrim's bestiary is extensive — from mammoths and giants to undead, dwarves, and ancient gods.

Skyrim is a province with diverse but predominantly mountainous terrain, intersected by hills, passes, and high ridges. Few valleys are occupied by large cities, the rest of the territory is almost uninhabited. About a third of the map is constantly covered in snow; there are also lowlands and swamps, rivers and lakes, tundra.

The underground life is shown on a new level — there are many mines, tunnels, dungeons, and even entire cities with their inhabitants and terrifying secrets in the mountains of Skyrim.

According to the Elder Scrolls chronology, the plot of Skyrim begins in 4E 201, 200 years after The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion. The war between the Empire of Man and the Aldmeri Dominion ended 30 years before the events of Skyrim with a humiliating peace treaty for humans. The Stormcloaks, a group of Nords led by veteran Ulfric Stormcloak, rebelled against the Empire and killed the High King of Skyrim.

The jarls' stewards split into two warring factions. Some want the province to secede from the Empire of Man, others advocate for maintaining unity. In the heat of the civil war, the player's character is sentenced to execution, and the axe is already raised above his head. Next in line is Ulfric himself.

Seconds before the executioner's strike, a dragon attacks the watchtower, burning everything to the ground, and the hero miraculously manages to escape. He learns that he is a Dragonborn, the one who can defeat the dragon, and Skyrim is being terrorized by flying fire-breathing beasts.

Discovering their destiny, the hero begins to slay dragons, learns Words of Power and Shouts — ancient magic that requires no preparation to fight the dragon king Alduin and stop their large-scale invasion.

Side quests also won't let you get bored. The war between the jarls for the future of Skyrim continues, the Empire sends an expeditionary corps to suppress the rebellion, the assassin guild operates in the shadows, werewolves and vampires solve their problems at the expense of ordinary residents of the region.

The class system in Skyrim is essentially absent, the player can develop their character as they wish, even against logic. At the beginning, the game offers to choose the character's race and gender. There are 10 playable races in Skyrim — humans, elves, orcs, lizards, cats, and others, each with its own set of unique talents and a bonus to certain skills.

Talents allow you to speed up the recovery of magic, health, grant temporary invisibility, reduce stamina consumption, and so on. Some are constant, others activate like a magical ability; some are determined by the hero's race, others are gained by reading books, during quests, or by transforming into a werewolf or vampire.

Skills allow you to pick locks, wear better armor, use rare weapons, cast spells, enchant, and so on. Skill growth is determined by the frequency of its use, for example, by first picking easy locks, you can quickly progress to harder ones. Practicing alchemy can produce potions with increasingly stronger effects.

Abilities are new ways to utilize a skill or some bonus while using it. For example, frequently using conjuration, a mage will learn to shoot fireballs or freeze a target, and a blacksmith will forge higher quality armor. Lockpicks will no longer break, and an archer will learn to shoot continuously.

In Skyrim, the player is completely free, after completing the prologue you can head in any direction to explore the world, get into and out of trouble, complete random quests, fight monsters, make new friends, and develop your character to the limit (there are no restrictions for this, but the higher the level — the longer you need to play).

Or you can follow the storyline playing the role of the Dragonborn, establish relationships with jarls, engage in political intrigues, join guilds and secret organizations, find companions, some can even become life partners, buy and furnish estates.

Full completion of Skyrim will take about 300 hours, while the storyline offers options for replay: depending on the player's actions, some characters may die and not play their role in the story. Some quests will close or open, and the player may discover new territories previously unexplored.