[Translation] Preview from computerandvideogames.com
Mind-Blowing Demo Version
What, is it still too early to call it Game of the Year?
In short: wow. Before E3, our readers named "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim" the most intriguing game showcased at the event. Having seen the first demo, we can confirm that the folks at Bethesda did not disappoint.
An incredible game — beautiful and vast, but significantly more accessible than "Oblivion," and if it doesn’t win a bunch of awards, we’ll eat our horse armor. And here’s everything you need to know...
The game could come out on PlayStation 4
The presentation started with Todd Howard admitting that Bethesda considered waiting to develop Skyrim until the release of PlayStation 4 and Xbox 720. "When we first started, we thought we could wait for the next-gen consoles to come out," he said. "But after releasing Fallout 3, we realized we could still do a lot in this generation."
The game looks absolutely stunning
The first thing we were shown was one of Bethesda's signature scenes: a hero (nothing specific was mentioned about character creation yet) stepping into the light and witnessing a breathtaking view of the open world. Skyrim is the northernmost province of Tamriel, with a strong Scandinavian flair. "We wanted to create the biggest and craziest fantasy world imaginable," Howard said. "And we focused on the details, from beautifully rendered shadows on plants to a massive mountain on the horizon that you can climb."
Which we did a little later, and when the snowfall began, Howard explained that the weather changes are completely dynamic. Everywhere you look, there are fine details, like the sparkling aura on the tip of a magical staff. The horizon is genuinely several kilometers away, thanks to a new graphics engine that has been completely overhauled since Fallout 3.
"I suppose many people working on engines primarily think about what they will have to draw," Howard said, "whereas we initially assumed we would be drawing anything." This is also the richest and most colorful world created by the company. "After wrapping up Fallout 3, our artists were just thrilled to be able to use green again," Todd joked.
The game will teach you how to use your hands properly
The main choice you will constantly have to make in Skyrim is what to wield. In the demo version on Xbox 360, the right stick was used for what the character holds in the right hand, whether it be a sword, shield, spell, staff, or something else, while the left stick did the same for the left. Equip the same spell in both hands and its power will be doubled. Or you can wield a graceful elven glass sword in one hand and a sturdy dwarven axe in the other.
Of course, it's also important to switch between what you have selected for each specific task. We saw the hero using charged fireballs to roast a menacing-looking frost spider and then smeared poison on his blade to brutally kill an NPC trying to flee with quest goods. The variety of spells, of course, is also impressive.
During our stay at the Frostgrave Mound, we encountered a group of tourists from the afterlife. We dealt with them by casting "Circle of Protection" with one hand (zombies like it just as much as cats like baths) and "Chain Lightning" with the other, which does exactly the same to zombies as it does to everything else.
Among other interesting spells was "Clairvoyance," which draws a ghostly path to the target (somewhat like a magical guiding laser in Dead Space), and "Frenzy," which makes enemies fight each other. The latter once led to an enraged orc tossing a comrade out of a window, which he managed to do thanks to the Havok Behavior physics engine. "I swear, I’ve never seen anything like it before!" Howard exclaimed. "Amazing."
Fortunately, not all creatures in the game are aggressive. In the tundra, we came across a giant lumbering somewhere, accompanied by a herd of woolly mammoths. And, um, then we hurled a fireball at them. Mammoths don’t like to burn and reacted with their tusks. When a giant joined them wielding a tree trunk as a club, things got pretty bad, but then suddenly a dragon swooped down on him, grabbing the big guy like a hungry dog with a sausage.
There are massive dragons in the game
The return of these scaly supernatural creatures to the world of Tamriel is a key part of Skyrim's main storyline, as well as an introduction to the most deadly adversaries in the game. "Dragons for us are like mini-bosses," Howard explained while the player desperately tried to zap a dragon-like Dremora with lightning from the sky.
"They’re not scripted, so often during the game I don’t know what they’ll do. We spent a lot of time on them in the last three years. We always wanted to see dragons in the game, allowing them to do whatever they want, just like all other creatures. Typically, you will have to sweat it out to bring down a dragon." And so it went. After we defeated the first one, a second, even larger, appeared. This one was clearly an ice dragon, and it seemed even angrier than the previous one — roasting some idiots with bows and swooping down so hard that the ground shook.
As cool as the dragons looked, we noticed one drawback in the demo version — the whole combat felt quite monotonous. We hope this is just for balance, because fighting dragons is a key gameplay element. When their bodies burn, the hero absorbs their souls to unlock high-level dragon shouts.
Essentially, shouts are special moves with various effects. For instance, "Storm Call" summons clouds in the sky from which lightning strikes all nearby enemies, while "Whirlwind Spirit" is a disguised time-slowing effect. New shouts can be learned by discovering a word of power on the walls of dungeons. Unfortunately, all we see on our walls is "Tracy is a slut"...
The game is absolutely huge (and it has horses)
Lead producer Craig Lafferty told us after the showcase that the main quest will take about thirty hours of gameplay, but besides that, the game offers an additional two to three hundred hours of adventures, including one hundred fifty dungeons. One hundred, damn fifty! What’s that sound? It’s the wails of all the other publishers realizing that many players won’t need to buy new games for a long time.
In contrast, "Oblivion" had fourteen voice actors working on it, while "Skyrim" has seventy, who recorded more than forty-seven thousand lines of dialogue. Howard also mentioned that five major cities in the game are handcrafted, filled with fine details, and citizens move realistically about their business. The only city we saw — Whiterun, which we spotted in the distance while fighting the dragon.
"This is the headquarters of the Companions," Howard explained, "the local guild of fighters. There are three main factions in the game — the Companions for warriors, the College of Winterhold for mages, and the Thieves Guild for, uh, cobblers... No, for thieves." Fortunately, you’ll be able to ride around Skyrim on horseback, since, in case anyone still had doubts about its staggering size, the camera pulled back immediately, revealing the entire picture from a bird's-eye view. The Americans we sat with just flipped out and started screaming. It’s hard to disagree with them.
Even the menu in the game is easy to use
Just like the gameplay system was overhauled to make it as accessible as possible (without sacrificing depth), the interface was also improved. "We tried to move away from the classic concept of examining a bunch of numbers," Howard noted. The result was thousands of beautifully drawn 3D items that you can view from different angles, like in Resident Evil, partly because they are beautiful, and partly because it’s useful. For example, the reward for completing the quest in the Frostgrave Mound is a golden claw.
If you inspect it carefully (hope you do), you’ll notice that the claw has the same symbols as the previously seen locked door. Because it is actually the key. And the skill tree, through which players enhance their character's abilities, looks even better. As you acquire new skills, the hero looks up at the skies and moves from one skill to another, connecting stars with lines into constellations. It somewhat resembles the crystarium from "Final Fantasy XIII," though Lafferty mentioned that they were inspired by Apple interfaces.
This will surely be Game of the Year
Because apart from "Uncharted 3", it has almost no competitors. Bethesda thoroughly shook us with the demo version, and honestly, much of what we saw afterwards paled in comparison. "Skyrim" seems to transport players into the world of "Game of Thrones" from HBO, full of melee and magic. Just without the sex. And who cares about that, as long as there's magic. More precisely, this: Skyrim itself is magic.
Translation by the author.
Thanks for proofreading go to Kavem, and thanks for the support to Sinmara.
P.S. My selfless collaborator Kvm who helped me polish the translation felt it necessary to express:
"After reviewing the text and screenshots, my faith in people grows infinitely. For there is not a word of lies! Don’t wait for the new consoles — indeed, such graphics will not be forgiven there. A big beautiful world, with GREEN paint — and also white, gray, and brown. That’s it, you’ve had enough beauty. Two hundred hours of additional gameplay — clear out all one hundred fifty dungeons! This game truly has virtually no competitors."