As most people know (who know me), I’m a big fan of good computer games, especially ones that are deeply absorbed in roleplaying. I loved Fallout 3 (even with all of its flaws), and I’ve probably played most of the major online MMORPGs, although I’ve missed out on a few recent ones. Shortly before Skyrim, I was playing Star Wars: The Old Republic, which was a nice break from the whole World of Warcraft thing. I vowed I was done with WoW, and this time I’m pretty sure I am. However, a month or so into TOR, and I really didn’t feel like firing up the game again. I also knew there was a new game that was just released, and I was aching to give it a spin.<\/p>\n
Years back, I played the greatest RPG of all time, in my opinion, and that was Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind. That was the first real game that let you totally lose yourself in their world and have a great time with it. Their sequel Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion was also ground-breaking, but to be honest, it just never did it for me. However, Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim has reclaimed its throne as the king of computer rpgs.<\/p>\n
I’ve been playing it for the last week or so (bought it last weekend), and after a few bad starts, I now find myself completely immersed in that world. What makes it so much fun is that there’s not a lot you can’t do in that world. You can buy property, get married, go on a murderous rampage, become a god amongst men, or just spend your time cooking food. Aside from fishing (which for some bizarre reason seems absent in this game), there’s not a lot you can’t do.<\/p>\n
Last night, I bought special equipment for my new house and then took my trusty companion Uthgerd (or whatever her name is) with me to clean out a vampire’s lair. We got through to the very end, and then in an epic battle with the leader of the vampires, Uthgerd died. Unfortunately, you can’t resurrect a character in this game, so she was dead for good this time. I could have gone back to an earlier saved game, but it was such a battle to get to that last vampire that I decided her sacrifice would have to be worth it. I went back to the local town, hooked up with this warrior dude npc that was looking for adventure, and Uthgerd was “replaced” with somone new. I felt kind of bad about it, as she’d been with me since I was literally level one (I was level 11 now). That’s how immersive a game like that can be. I actually felt bad that I left her dead in that lair somewhere across the map. Not a lot of games can really leave you feeling that sense of loss.<\/p>\n
And that’s what makes a game great. Or one of the things. It’s not just hacking and slashing that makes a great rpg. It’s losing yourself in that world. It’s when you have a conversation with an npc and then you remember that npc next time you run into him, and you actually have a feeling about that person when you remember the previous encounter (“weren’t you the guy that was a dick to me when I came here last time?<\/em>“). Those are the sorts of things that evoke a sense of enjoyment when you play a game like this.<\/p>\n Over the years, very few games have ever reached that level of immersion with me. Every Fallout game I’ve ever played has succeeded at this. One of the earliest computer games, Phantasie I and then Wizard’s Crown (both by SSI), did this. Starflight 1 did this for me, where I actually cared about my crewmates on my ship. Each member of my team had a personality, even if the game didn’t advertise that they did (I kind of filled in their personalities just by the amount of time I was playing with them as part of my team). The Ultima series did this as well, to a point. And then games really started to develop complete storylines with characters, like with Neverwinter Nights.<\/p>\n And then things kind of went the wrong direction, where the games started filling in the interaction stories for you. One of the reasons I really didn’t like Dragon Age (by Bioware) was because they went through way too much work to fill in the interaction stories so that I wasn’t experiencing it…I was just watching it. The Witcher felt that way to me as well, almost to the point where I felt I was just clicking random buttons while the game was actually playing through the story.<\/p>\n Which is why a game like this is so welcome to a creative game player. They put in some of the story for you, but in the end, your imagination fills in the rest. And that’s what I consider to be really good storytelling. Sometimes they can do too much, but other times, like Skyrim, they seem to just get it right.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As most people know (who know me), I’m a big fan of good computer games, especially ones that are deeply absorbed in roleplaying. I loved Fallout 3 (even with all of its flaws), and I’ve probably played most of the major online MMORPGs, although I’ve missed out on a few recent ones. Shortly before Skyrim, … Continue reading Visiting a New World All Over Again–A Review of Skyrim<\/span>