First Impressions: The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim

So I did make it out for the midnight release for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim on Thursday night and I was a little surprised to see so few people. I guess I was expecting somewhat of a line like we saw with Halo: Reach, but I suppose that is entirely different animal all together. Still, there was a decent collection of guys that were far more into this game then even I was, as hyped as I thought myself to be.

Watched three guys hugging and jumping up and down like a bunch of little school girls or something, which was odd. Watched another guy rip the game open before he even left the store, just to pull out the map inside to show off to his friends who also got the game.

I don't feel so bad anymore...

Anyhow, shockingly I've put away about 10 hours into the game today and it was just about ten minutes ago that I came across my first dragon (and finally unlocking one of the dragon shouts). I was kind of expecting it to happen sooner, though I'm not complaining in the least that it happened when it did.



I've kept reading from the various previews and articles about Skyrim how awesome it was to simply get lost in the world. But honest to truth I was off and wandering mere minutes after the introduction/character creation portions. It is so easy to just sidetrack yourself into stuff that just feels like its apart of the main story. Hell, I find myself quite a far way away from the town I needed to be in to advance the story (Whiterun) and I was more then happy to uncover bandit camps, random Orc chicks with attitudes (showed her who the boss was, even stole her armor after she was downed...) and who knew giants could be so damn powerful?

One shocking bit for me was learning I actually had magic, which I spent a good portion of the ten hours of play, not using at all. I was under the impression that I needed to find the college for magic before I could use any such spells, but boy was I wrong...

Crafting items, weapons and armor seems easy enough to do, though I wonder how easy that will remain as the game presses on. Granted I am only able to make the most basic of stuff, I was half expecting the creation parts to have a mini game attached to them ala Fable 3, though I'm glad that was not the case here.

As far as the bugs in the game, I thankfully only encountered one game freeze which happened about 10 or so minutes after I got out of the introduction section. There is some hiccups and pauses here and there, but it seems mostly because the game is auto-saving during those times and it isn't really noticeable (at least for me) after a while. I did see a mammoth atop a pine tree though...

One last bit to share is a weird little encounter, which may or may not be a spoiler I can't say. I've not see anything else materialize because of this, but anyhow...

I was leaving out of Whiterun after finishing up some business with the Companions (interesting choice in a group name) when I was attacked by a trio of hired mercs. Now after trying various ways of fighting these guys, the results always ended up the same: My character with his face planted firmly in the dirt. City guards be damned, they didn't do a damn thing to stop this brutal mugging/murder of my Nord warrior. One of those tries involved them joining my attackers and they kicked my ass because I happened to take a swing at some old lady who felt it was a wise idea to walk into a skirmish.

So after a handful of tries, I decided it was high time to try out something new, something different. I so go digging through my accumulated junk and find a scroll for a fire spell of some sort. With it equipped, I run here and there and could seem to get the spell to work for me and I was nearing death yet again. So finally, after holding down the trigger buttons for a bit, I let them go and BOOM! Huge blast of fire and my assailants are dead, along with 2 city guards and a couple of civilians. Needless to say, I was quickly attacked from all sides by whatever other guards in the area and I quickly surrendered and was arrested.

Gah, writing about it is making me want to play more even while knowing I need to be up early for work in a few hours. Hell I just got to the point where I am now acknowledged as the Dragonborn! Shit just got double interesting! Plus I'm wondering where the stuff concerning the Companions will lead, considering who they really are and all.

Restraint.... I must have... restraint....!

Totally awesome this is...!

And for the record, the statue of Alduin is freaking awesome! Did I also mention I'm am absolute sucker for all things related to dragons? I'm almost glad there aren't more games that have dragon statues as a part of a collector's edition. I'd really, seriously lose my mind (and money)...