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Skyrim

Oooh, boy.

I absolutely love Skyrim. I’ve been playing for two-ish years and yet to have a character above level 50, but I love it.

If you’re debating on buying it this Christmas, I’ll let you in on what you’re getting:

1. Beautiful Graphics

When you enter the world of Skyrim, everything is gorgeous. The trees are detailed down to the clusters of pine needles, the faces of the characters are smooth and realistic, the weather is immersive but not annoying, and the dragons are scaled intricately. I give it a 9/10 only because I’ve seen slightly more beautiful games in photos. Skyrim has a grittier, realistic animation style, and it’s wonderful.

2. Many hours of unique gameplay

Indeed, Skyrim is an open-world map of a country about the size of Texas and doesn’t seem like there’s much aim besides slaying dragons for any reason. But it is also the Companions, the Thieves’ Guild, and many other side storylines that aren’t really on the side. The guilds are immense and rich in development and you actually make a change in them, either for the better or for the worse is up to you. And, there are a few DLCs that flesh out your world only further after you’ve sucked the marrow out of the bare skeleton of Skyrim. I’ve played many characters, and the only repetitive thing is the opening scene; the rest of it is up to my own choices. Sometimes I take the normal path to Riverwood and Whiterun, other times, I go West to Falkreath and start my venturing there. It’s absolutely open world and every NPC has an interesting part to play.

3. Blood, Guts, Death, and Language

Like all things in life, there’s a rough patch in the glorious field. You can turn the blood off in the options, but if you don’t, there’s quite a bit of splatter (including on-screen or lying in pools or staining a wall). Guts, also, meaning whenever you enter a Hagraven’s lair, expect to see blood-covered eyeballs in bowls. If you have a problem with blood and death, don’t play it (the opening scene is literally witnessing/partaking of an execution). As for language, only a few common lines (spoken in passing or in battle) involve “damn,” and a few characters, but very few, use the word for female dogs. The game is rated M for a reason.

4. Detailed Character Customization

On a positive note, you can tweak your nose, colour your eyes, shade your upper and lower jaw differently, choose anything between scrawny or sturdy build, and much more for your character. You can change it later for a price at the Ragged Flagon.

5. Another Word on Guilds

You can be in all of them, your moral alignment matters not. You can be a law-abiding, glory-loving Companion of Jorrvaskr one week and the shadiest, slyest Nightingale the next. Every guild has an excellent storyline with character development and a hint at glory days. The only dull moment is afterwards, which I regret to say, when the fun quests at the beginning are over. But, there are endless task quests afterwards that help you build your skills, and, like life, an occasional exciting quest comes along (like dragon sitings, claiming cities politically, and finding cool books).

That’s all for now. I’ll probably relate my fan-fiction or a few of my stories later on.

Thanks for reading!

Emily

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