Completed: Skyrim

Well sort of, considering it's an open ended open world role playing game. In a game like this there comes a point when you begin to wonder what it would be like as a different character. You find yourself with more gold than you could ever spend, probably more than the net worth of the entire country. You own a house in every city. You're head of the Fighters Guild and head of the Mages Guild. You barely have to touch a bandit before their heads fall off and they fall over dead and even a dragon only takes three or four hits. You're rich and overpowered and running out of things to do. Sure there are an infinite number of procedurally generated quests you can do. The Jarls will always have bounties which need to fulfilled, the mages always have books which need to be retrieved etc. However most of the full story quest have been completed and nearly everyone in the country owes you a favor. That's point I'd got to with my first character in Skyrim so I figured it was about time I finished the main quest line. So I headed off to gain entrance to Sovngarde so I could finally destroy Alduin The World Eater.


Of the five Elder Scrolls games I don't think there is any doubt that this is the best one. Sure it still has some flaws but Bethesda have done a great job building on what made the previous games great and not being afraid to cut things which didn't work so well. The graphics and sounds are all excellent and I don't don't think I experienced a single crash-to-desktop unlike the previous two installments. By the end my character had reached level 43 and as I mention had pretty much achieved everything I wanted him to. There are still many thing I have not done but I didn't feel like they were suitable for this character. In terms of D&D stereotypes I was basically playing as a paladin. A do-gooder magic knight, rescuing damsels, returning stolen treasure and destroying the undead. It was not appropriate for this character to be joining the Thieves Guild or the Dark Brotherhood for example. This is one thing which annoyed me with the main quest line. There is one point which basically forces you to initiate contact with the Thieves Guild and start their quests. Of course you don't need to continue any further but from then on it's stuck in your journal as unfinished. My character wouldn't want to steal a ring and set up someone else, he would have wanted to arrest everybody involved. That wasn't an option though.

There were some interesting choices to be made with other factions though. There is a war going on between the Imperium and the Stormcloaks and you have the option to choose a side. The Imperials paint the Stormcloaks as terrorists while the Stormcloaks think the Imperials are oppressive. They both made very good points and I spent the whole game unsure of who I should pick. Games seem to be doing that a lot more these days. Avoiding the traditional good verses evil and going for something much more more complex. In the end it turned out that choosing neither and walking the neutral line was a perfectly valid option which made it easier for me. Just like the thieves and assassins making that choice is something I will leave for a second playthrough. So for now Marcus the Nord has retired to his home in Whiterun with his wife. He should probably take that armour off now I guess!