Control Review: Skyrim
I, Dalton Lewis, confess a delight for video games, especially those made between 2005 and 2014 or so. I feel like video games from that era have a great deal of story and character and really speak to me. I’ve been playing the Elder Scrolls games since the second one, Daggerfall, was released when I was a freshman in college in 1996. The games still hold up, with Skyrim being the most recent one of them, a game that is widely considered to be one of the greatest games of all time.
I know why: story and choice. In this game there are tons of characters, each with an interesting story and personality and needs. There’s Jarl Baalgruff of Whiterun, desperate to save his hold despite attacks from within and without. There’s Cicero, a fool desperate to become the lead assassin and do whatever his beloved Night Mother says — even though she speaks to the PC and not Cicero. There are vampires and werewolves, lords and commoners, and everyone has a personality.
Choice — you can go anywhere and do anything in Skyrim. There’s the Companions, a sort of fighters guild with a secret. The Thieves Guild and the Dark Brotherhood let you be as nefarious as you want. The thieves’ missions give you a totally different style of game than a straight up fight, giving the player a chance to sneak and use wit instead of killing as many people as possible. The Thieves Guild has a curse or something — it’s down in the bottom of its life when the PC joins up, and the PC has to investigate. The Dark Brotherhood wants help with one of the most ambitious missions these games can give you. If you want to be a hero you can become the Dragonborn and try to save Skyrim from Alduin, a scary big dragon who attacks you. Whatever your choice you start the story as a prisoner, the same way every one of these games starts.
My favorite missions are the Civil War missions, a series of violent conflict between human men. Some want to rebel from the Empire of Tamriel in order to have religious freedom, whereas the Imperials want to protect a larger Empire and want peace with the high elves. I enjoy both sides of the conflict. I really think that this set of missions gives the player a wonderful set of choices. There are no good or bad guys on either side, just people disagreeing about how to run the country. I play these stories over and over, enjoying the hell out of all of them.
Obviously you expect this game to get a good review — it’s considered one of the top video games of all time. Is it the best video game of all time? I don’t know. I’m not sure. I know that I love the game and have played it for 352 hours at last glance over the last eight or so years. I just don’t know if it’s the best ever — Mass Effect 2 has better characters and a cinematic story that may be a better story and character set than Skyrim. I don’t know — I don’t think any one game can be the best.
I’m getting old — I’m 41 years old right now. I don’t buy as many new video games. I don’t get them. I don’t understand how these modern games have so much to them — they seem like the wrong sort of game for me. I don’t know. I think that I should try to play more new games, giving them the chance to be something really special. I want to try to expand my view of what games can be amazing. I also would like to note that Starcraft 2 is another game that is one of the best games of all time — because it is a great esport and strategy game that also has a great story and playstyle. Still — Skyrim is an excellent game, wonderfully made, full of delight.
Thanks, and take care, friends.
