FUS RO DAH!

I am a pretty big fan of video games, especially open-world fantasy role playing games. One of my favorite games is Skyrim, the fifth installment of the Elder Scrolls series. 


This series began in 1994 with its first game, Arena. After Arena came Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion, and finally Skyrim. Personally, I have only played Skyrim and Oblivion, but I don’t really want to go back in time, because I want to be fair to older games and compare them to their time, but in my mind I think I wouldn’t like them because of the newer ones amazingness in comparison.

Arena. Image courtesy of Gooofull.

Daggerfall. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

Morrowind. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

Oblivion. Image courtesy of The United Federation of Charles.

Skyrim. Image courtesy of about.com.

Skyrim is a game based in, well, Skyrim, a country on the northern part of the continent of Tamriel. If you haven’t noticed the other times I’ve said it, I am obsessed with fantasy. That is one reason that I love open-world fantasy role playing games. They allow you to become engulfed in another world, one of fantasy and, you know, MAGIC! Everything is better with magic. One of the other awesome points of it is that it is based in more of a medieval land, with castles and soldiers, and then you have the dragons, wizards, vampires and so many other magical things.

The story is that in this land, an ancient dragon know as Alduin is “brought back” from the dead, and begins to resurrect other dragons. Your story begins with you as a prisoner (a tradition throughout the Elder Scrolls games) and as you are about to be executed, Alduin flies in from the sky and attacks everyone. You escape through the keep, and make you way out into the world, finding that you are “dragonborn.” In Skyrim, there is an ancient art that lets you shout the dragon language and use magical powers, letting you shoot a wave of fire, frost, force (FUS RO DAH!), and many other abilities. Being dragonborn lets you absorb the souls of slain dragons to instantly learn shouts.

Back to Alduin, eventually you have to kill him, but on the way (or after, if you are me and are a completionist who has to do everything) there are seemingly hundreds of small side quests. These side quests range from “Get to the end of this dungeon, get this item, solve a mystery, escape, and return to the quest-giver,” which can take a fair time to complete, to simple things like “Pickpocket the ruby from this  person, and return to the quest-giver,” which can take five minutes.

I personally have completed Skyrim almost 100%, and the one thing that I don’t really like about role playing games is that though they are not boring at all for ages, once you finish everything, they are extremely boring, unlike FPS’s that are not too fun from the start, and though they get boring quickly, you can easily get back in them in a few minutes. It is the same with my brother. We both absolutely love Skyrim, but we never play it any more because there is nothing left for us to do.

But to make up for that, the thing that is so amazing about these games is that it seems like a real world. You can go pretty much everywhere. There are few any doors that you can’t open, if any at all. Caves, ruins, towers, barrows, and so many other features are scattered throughout the world. The story and lore of the world is so fleshed out, they have books about history of the world in game. This means that it takes a really long time to reach that level of completion and understanding at which point the game starts to get boring.

One thing that I am really, really looking forward to is the Elder Scrolls Online. This is a the next installment of the series, made by a different company, Zenimax Online Studios instead of Bethesda Softwares, but everything else is pretty much the same. I want this because it is an Elder Scrolls game, but instead of just you playing, it’s online. Not to mention that it also includes the entire continent of Tamriel, rather than just one province. This game has areas that have never been seen before, player vs. player combat, an all out war between three alliances for the throne, and of course, a daedric prince, Molag Bal (think of him as the devil) trying to pull Tamriel into his realm of Coldharbour. I also see it as a sign that this game will release on my birthday. My anticipation towards my birthday just multiplied by googleplex…

Image courtesy of vg247.com.

Anyways, have you ever played an Elder Scrolls game? Do you want to? Say in the comments below. See you next time!