Kicking off the frenzy of activities at E3, I made my way to the Bethesda/Zenimax booth for a look at the highly anticipated Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. The latest in the fantasy role playing game series was originally considered to be for the new generations of consoles but developers realized that could be many years off and instead looked to find a way to bring their ambitious project to life.
Using a new engine known as the Creation engine, Skyrim has jaw dropping graphics and detail. From the shadows made by plants to the highly detailed mountains in the distance I got sense that I was watching and living world in action.
During our video preview of the game, we were told that the game has weather that comes randomly and will add to the landscape by scattering snow in random places that are not pre scripted. By having rocky outcroppings near streams with patches of snow, I got the impression that this was as close to a real world weather system and landscape as we have seen yet in any game.
After showing us a town and how you can interact with the various NPC characters as well as the branching storytree that allows you to pick quests and the path of any conversation you have, we mounted a horse and headed for a set of ruins.
Here we met one of the games surprise moments when a randomly generated dragon appeared to battle us. After a brief exchange, we ducked into the dungeon and took out two bad guys.
The combat system in the game allows you to have items in both hands. You may opt for a shield and a weapon, two weapons, or a weapon and a crafting hand to cast spells. More ambitious players may use both hands to craft even stronger spells.
Combat was brutal and impressive as being able to impale your blade into an enemy or cleave them with a war axe was a sight to behold.
After battling a giant spider the video showed how to examine objects to learn clues from them such as a combination to a locked door.
A nice new wrinkle to the combat system was a shout ability that allows players to project a sonic blast to disable enemies.
The menu system seems highly detailed and easy to use and allowed the player to acccess his inventory and view his items in HD detail.
The developers said they were not discussing the class systems in the game as yet but told us the video we saw was from early in the game.
The game can also be played in either a third person or first person perspective and throughout the presentation I was blown away by the graphics and extreme detail of the game.
While RPGs have never been one of my top genres for gaming, I have enjoyed several over the years and from what I have seen, Skyrim is one that I will be spending a lot of time with when it is released.
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