The Top Seven Things I Love About Skyrim

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I have just spent a deliriously happy weekend with Skyrim. And after several hours, several levels, and a whole heap of charred corpses left in my wake thanks to a Redguard with a taste for war axes and Sparks, I had a pretty good idea of what I was in for here. And what I was in for was no less than an absolutely peachy time. So peachy, in fact, that I managed to make a little list. And you’re getting this one sooner than normal, just in case you had a mind to try a copy of sweet, sweet Skyrim and weren’t quite sure. And with that, I bring you a little list, a little early, of the Top Seven Best Things About Skyrim.

7. One handed blocking

For those of you out there who favor your weapons one handed, whether because you like to use shields, you like their speed, or you like to have a spell in the other hand, congratulations, because you’ll get one handed weapon blocking right here. Unlike Dead Island, you can parry, and as far as I’m concerned, that’s a great thing. Of course, it would have been better if I could exercise that one handed block with a spell in the other hand, but still: I’m just glad to see parrying back up and operational.

6. Menu system

One thing that really surprised me about Skyrim was the sheer number of operations there are out there. Lots and lots of menus to work with…the map menu, the inventory system, the spells menu, and the level up system among them. Skyrim tasks them all to one button–at least on Xbox 360–and allows you to navigate to your submenu of choice with your analog stick. I liked this method; it took a little getting used to to figure out just which set of menus I wanted, but after a little practice I was quickly jumping back and forth between my bow and my healing spells.

5. Lots of random stuff

One thing that I was really wishing for out of Skyrim, and you might remember as much from my earlier list, was to see a whole lot of random places show up. Bandit caves, abandoned forts, that sort of thing. And my oh my, did I get them. In spades did I get them. I tell you, just trying to walk from Whiterun to Rorikstead was like trying to live with an anthropomorphic ferret living in my skull. Every time I saw something, the ferret in my brain would scream “Ooooh, what’s THAT?” and would briefly seize control of my central nervous system to jerk the analog stick in that direction before logic could reassert itself and say, no, we’re going to Rorikstead. Worse yet was the times when logic relented and said, well, we COULD use a few more fast travel locations, and then, the sidetracking began. It took me the better part of two hours of killing bandits and investigating forts before I finally managed to walk into Rorikstead from Whiterun. And I thank Bethesda for an awesome experience.

4. Adjustable difficulty

Another welcome feature of the newest round of the Elder Scrolls franchise was the ability to increase–or decrease–the difficulty involved in fighting in Skyrim. I love being able to perform modifications like that, so I can see the biggest utility range here. For those who like a challenge, they get it. For those who just want to roam and find stuff, they get that. Whether you’re a full-on noob or a top-rank vet, you get your experience of choice.

3. Loads of Morrowind shout-outs

Speaking here for a moment as someone who absolutely loved Morrowind, it was terrific to see so many shout outs go out to the original Xbox title. Necromancers? A Dance in Fire? Maybe it’s just been a while since me and Oblivion had our last go-round but I sure don’t remember that from the fourth installment. The third installment, now, that I do remember. And tackling Dreugr in the barrows is also a third installment experience I remember very well thanks to my time on Solstheim. Plenty of terrific shout outs to Morrowind here, and I’m terribly happy about this.

2. Even better graphics than Oblivion

When I first saw Oblivion, I knew, full well, it was going to be light years ahead of Morrowind, if for no other reason than it was on a next-gen system. Imagine my astonishment to discover that Skyrim was actually substantially beyond Oblivion, and they were on the same system! The water effects were amazing, as was the fire–I was actually setting some things on fire with Sparks, if only briefly–and I spent a lot of time being impressed by the whole lot of scenery experiences I had in Skyrim.

 1. Dragons

No top seven about Skyrim can possibly come without a mention of the dragons. Impressive to look at, delightful to fight, and providing a patently delirious joy when they actually go down (not to mention a huge pile of loot for bagging one–bones alone are worth five hundred per, if I remember right), make the dragons not only a key plot element of Skyrim but a sheer joy to behold. Nothing makes you feel more sure of yourself in a fantasy world than watching a dragon’s skin turn into crackling ash which flies away with the cold Skyrim winds…unless of course you ignore the PSAs and go hunting giants.

There were plenty of great things about Skyrim, but this has to be my top seven things. I’m sure I’ve missed more than a few great features, and I’m even more sure there are plenty of Skyrim players out there who want to weigh in and tell me what I missed (like the tiny size of the Day One patch, for example), and the comments section is waiting for you to head on down and tell me the great things about Skyrim.

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