The first article I ever wrote for The Spectator was about 2002’s The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. Unsurprisingly, it’s not my best work. I knew nothing about writing for a newspaper at the time. In fairness, I don’t think anybody expects their first article to be excellent. During my time on The Spectator, I started two new columns. The first, Quarter Muncher, is dedicated to video game reviews. My inaugural issue reviewed Princess Peach: Showtime.
My colleagues and I have since reviewed a number of video games. When the remake of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was released, I was on it, putting a review out for this column.
I’m writing my very last Quarter Muncher article. This is it. I began my journey at The Spectator with a Morrowind review. I covered Oblivion when it was re-released. And now, to put a neat bow on my career here, I’m going to review The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
Even those who are unfamiliar with video games have likely heard of Skyrim. It took the world by storm when it launched on Nov. 11, 2011, selling 3.5 million copies in its first month. Today, it has sold over 60 million copies.
For those unfamiliar, Skyrim is an open-world fantasy role-playing game (RPG). The player steps into the shoes of The Last Dragonborn, a character with the ability to permanently kill a dragon by absorbing its very soul.
Did I mention that dragons are back? They’ve been gone for over 1,000 years and have suddenly returned to Skyrim. The story revolves around honing the player’s Dragonborn powers to find the source of and end the imminent threat of the dragons, led by Alduin, the World-Eater.
In Skyrim’s lore, dragons don’t simply “breathe” fire, frost and so on — they “shout” it. They speak words of power into being. The game describes a battle between two dragons as “a deadly verbal debate.”
The relevance of this is that the player can learn to shout. By discovering the words of power and using the souls of slain dragons, the Dragonborn, too, can summon ice, fire, storms and even other dragons with the power of their lungs.
Of course, the Thu’um isn’t the only power at the player’s disposal — 18 skills level up as the player uses them. Each skill falls into one of three categories: combat, magic or stealth. The player can use as many or as few of these skills as they would like.
One could be a conventional mage, using skills like destruction to zap foes and conjuration to summon allies. One could also play a sneaky character who wears heavy armor and carries a giant hammer. That’s not recommended, but the game lets the player do it if they so choose.
Any Skyrim fan knows that I can’t mention builds without bringing up the community’s go-to — the stealth archer. Simply hit the sneak button, draw an arrow, fire it at an enemy and hide behind a wall until they stop looking for you. Rinse and repeat that cycle about 30 times, and the dungeon is cleared.
I like to play a nightstalker build — I use illusion magic to turn invisible, sneak up on an enemy and cut their throat from behind. The killcam and sound effect make me love this build more and more every time I play.
Skyrim has so much for the player to do. There are factions to join, such as the Thieves Guild and College of Winterhold. Characters across the land of Skyrim have all sorts of quests to offer, from finding an old heirloom to beating a guy up for looking at them funny.
And how could I talk about Skyrim without talking about the mod scene? The only two games with bigger modding communities are Minecraft, the best-selling game of all time, and Garry’s Mod, a game literally built around fans modding it.
To get personal again, why? Why did my final review have to be of Skyrim? Why wasn’t it of a recent game like Pokémon Legends: Z-A, or of a more iconic one, like Super Mario 64?
Skyrim is, without a doubt, the game I have played most in my lifetime. Across all platforms, I hover around the 3,000-hour mark. Not to mention that it’s (still) the most recent main entry in one of my favorite franchises.
No matter what’s happening in my life, Skyrim has been there for me. For the past 14 years, it has consistently been the one thing I’ve come back to, again and again.
Although I’m putting The Spectator and Quarter Muncher behind me, I will take my experiences with them into the future. And now, every time I play Skyrim (which, I assure you, will be plenty), I will recall my experiences on this paper.
Skyrim gets a 5/5.
Tolbert can be reached at [email protected]. He must now follow his own destiny.
