Still Enjoying Skyrim

I have been playing The Last of Us and Skyrim for my last few play sessions. I have to say Skyrim can still enchant and amaze me. Yes, the gold dust has been cleared away to an extent. We have been through a whirlwind of Skyrim coverage from its launch up until its re-release, in the form of a legendary edition. I can't let myself be caught up in the retrospective, haughty posturing of some peoples present opinion on Skyrim. Especially since it took some of those same naysayers hundreds of gaming hours to come to such a pessimistic opinion of the very game they once cherished.


I have put some odd hours into Skyrim, it was an addiction like no other. A place where one could express the station of their choosing. One could choose the role of a thief, cunning and agile, or the headstrong warrior, traditional, aggressive, and proud of the swaying sword. I have played a multitude of styles. Preferring, for the most part, to go for a hybrid build, where I would have a greater swath of options. My dark elf thief/assassin has pilfered countless manors throughout Skyrim.But, even after all this time, since Skyrim launched in November of 2011, I still find something of relative novelty. I run across a cave and in that cave I spot a squatter of some virility and a key of some importance.I find a grove, a grove with some oasis like quality, a grove secluded and untapped by the Romanesque imperial empire. 




Skyrim was, even in the light of time, crafted with some level of care. Yes, I get that it was buggy, but I would argue that the basic scope of Skyrim and its open-ended mission structure should be commended for its ambition. Its graphics--on consoles--are, at this point, average, sorry, they are. But, they are not so sullen by the comparative wealth of optimized late-generation games that they could be considered  hard to look at or bad. The initial magic of the rushing springs, leaping salmon; the rolling hills revealing lush valleys and sparse tundras; the craggy cliffs of steep mountain sides; or the deep, deciduous and golden, fall-like woodlands.  The areas of Skyrim once compelled exploration from the sight of their almost natural beauty, but now, as if relinquished from a binding illusion spell, the many areas of Skyrim seem more artificial and structurally manufactured.


Of course, graphics are not the end all of a great game. What matters in the end is the level of enjoyment that can be derived from a sense of play, a sense of exploration; of mechanics, solutions, challenges, hidden content, etc.. I continue to play and discover a sense of place, a sense of freedom that cannot be cultivated in very many games. I do feel--at times-- drained on the experience, fatigued by the wounded combat and plastic-like weapons. Its the creation and molding of a personal experience and that experience in a deftly crafted country-side that continues to intrigue, and captivate me in Skyrim. Not the story per se, nor the graphics or combat, but the idea that you are immersed in an expansive space, with emergent narratives painted by the players volition, orchestrated against a cloth left aloft the looms of your onus. It's no Mass Effect or Deus Ex, in terms of alterations along the narrative happenings, but it allows an approach to role-play that is as basic an understanding as it gets. Pick a name, a physical appearance, and set-off, knitting your own quilt with the strings of your quests. We have all completed the guild quests and ignited the embers of a new empire, but it is our own sense of relevance within the fibers of Skyrim's make-up that pushes us to craft, level, grind, and continue to quest some two years later.



Thanks for reading. Stay tuned.