Skyrim intrigues at E3
During E3 I was given a chance to see a demo of Elder Scrolls Skyim. The demo showed of the landscape, the simple yet effective UI, the combat mechanic with both magic and melee combat, towns, npc interaction, dungeons, combat with dragons etc.
Starting out at the demo we saw that third person perspective had being greatly improved upon older Elder Scrolls games with texturing getting a nice boost.
When the UI was shown off and was a simple setup where you choose map, item, weapon and magic. Selecting what you needed was easy just use the d pad to find it. Item, weapon and magic layouts was that items where split into their various categories for example one handed weapons, the damage type of the magic etc. you could also put your favourite items into a favourite tab.
So moving onto the combat portion, we saw 1 handed weapons (duel handed too), 2 handed weapons, shield, magic (1 and 2 handed). To use your right handed weapon you use the right trigger and for left handed weapon/shield you can use the left trigger, this setup makes combat appear to be easier to use. For magic attacks you can use 1 on each hand and there is a neat feature when if you have the same on each hand you can fire a more powerful attack for example if you have a lightning based attack on both hands you can combine them to make one powerful attack. Your shield is used for defensive purposes for example blocking melee weapons and arrows.
Moving on in the demo we where brought to a small lumber town were we where told you can you the local furnace to smith and we could also chop lumber for a little extra cash. We where shown a small bit of talking communication with an NPC where you had your choice of 3 things to say, but the interesting thing was even after you backed out of the interaction the NPC would continue to talk to you until that NPC finished its conversation. On the note of the NPCs they seemed not to static and bland looking for example the NPC that was talked to continued to work on using a sharping stone and outside of that you saw that the town was alive with a children talking about a dogs name and a lumber mill worker doing his job and of course outside of the town there was a horse you could take and ride away (I guess no one cares when you are nova king).
Going onto the landscape portion we were shown how it changed when the character was shown going up a mountain and you saw the landscape slowly turn as you go up and up from a green lush landscape to a snowy landscape, at the demo we were told it is done dynamically and so the snow is not brushed on and so the transition is smoother.
Now the demo moved to a Norse Style dungeon. The dungeons contain different challenges for people. As you explore the dungeon you encounter difficult bosses in the demo first saw a giant spider monster where lightning wasn’t hugely effective on it but when the character switched to fire more damage was done and the spider was taken down, then you reached a locked encoded door and the character had to use an item he found earlier to help him solve the code and then he beat another boss. Lastly in the dungeon he showed of an ability that helps you when you are lost via a staff which shows you a path on where you are supposed to go.
Runes can be used by the Nova King, Rune magic is incredibly powerful and are placed on the ground like traps to snare enemies. We also see shouts which like Runes are magic based and got from absorbing dragons you have killed or in the case of a dungeon that was done in the demo it can be gotten at the end of a dungeon on a wall.
So Skyrim has a huge number of dragons and yes you can fight them,the demo showed of combat with a Fire Dragon and an Ice Dragon and revealed that fact that Nova King can use dragon breath (which is a shout magic) which was used to good effect to try and take down the dragon, in the combat it was shown that you can get other NPCs to help you in taking down big monsters like a dragon. Continuing with the dragon combat and when you injure the dragon enough they can crash land spectacularly, when you finally kill the dragon you absorb him like I staked earlier.
In conclusion Skyrim looks like it is the strongest contender for game of the year. The dragon fights looked suitably amazing from the first encounter to when they are killed and destroyed. My one real dislike was the fact dungeons and combat felt to easy but hopefully that was just because of the demo.
Author: Ash Meehan
Hi, I’m the creator of SG Gaming Info. When I’m not working on my writing or creating content for this site’s YouTube channel, I like to relax and enjoy character driven story games.