As in the previous games, character creation is a joy. You can choose from among Argonians (that's lizard-folk), four types of humans (Imperials, Nords, Bretons, and Redguards), Orcs, three kinds of elves (High, Dark and Wood) and the feline Khajiit. Each race has its own history, agenda and of course, different types of skill bonuses.
In the first few minutes of the game you choose your race, design your characters look and pick a name. Notice I didn't say pick a class. Because Skyrim doesn't have classes. At all. This has been true of the Elder Scrolls games for a while, but Skryim doesn't even have Primary or Secondary skills as the last two games did.
This freedom is dizzying, and so unlike most western RPGs.
Here's how it works. There are three sets of skills in the game: The Path of Might (Smithing, Heavy Armor, Block, Two-Handed, One-Handed and Archery); The Path of Shadow (Light Armor, Sneak, Lockpicking, Pickpocket, Speech and Alchemy); and The Path of Sorcery (Illusion, Conjuration, Destruction, Restoration, Alteration and Enchanting). You take a gander at the skills, decide which ones sound fun to you and start developing them.
And how do you develop them? Not by spending traditional skill points. Nope, the approach the game takes is stunningly organic: you develop skills by using them. Spend a lot of time swatting at enemies with one-handed weapons and watch your One-Handed skill go up. Make a lot of potions and see your Alchemy skill increase. It's that simple.
The game doesn't even have Experience Points. Wait, an RPG without XP? That's right. You level up after you've increased any combination of skills a certain amount. (The higher the level of skill-up, the more it contributes to your level progress.)
When you do level up, you get to do two things: add a point to one of three core statistics (Health, Magicka, or Stamina) and you get a Perk to spend. Perks give you bonuses to target skills by either improving them directly or giving you special abilities.
It's a fantastically useful, natural and intuitive system, made even nicer by the beautiful Skills interface. To examine your skills, you simply look up into the sky. Each skill tree is a constellation and as you pick Perks, the various stars in the constellations light up. Its lovely and elegant.
Bethesda even gives you freedom with the format of the game in that you can play either in traditional First-Person or Over-the-Shoulder Third-Person. I found myself bouncing back and forth between both views quite a lot, as each worked better in different situations.
In the first few minutes of the game you choose your race, design your characters look and pick a name. Notice I didn't say pick a class. Because Skyrim doesn't have classes. At all. This has been true of the Elder Scrolls games for a while, but Skryim doesn't even have Primary or Secondary skills as the last two games did.
This freedom is dizzying, and so unlike most western RPGs.
Here's how it works. There are three sets of skills in the game: The Path of Might (Smithing, Heavy Armor, Block, Two-Handed, One-Handed and Archery); The Path of Shadow (Light Armor, Sneak, Lockpicking, Pickpocket, Speech and Alchemy); and The Path of Sorcery (Illusion, Conjuration, Destruction, Restoration, Alteration and Enchanting). You take a gander at the skills, decide which ones sound fun to you and start developing them.
And how do you develop them? Not by spending traditional skill points. Nope, the approach the game takes is stunningly organic: you develop skills by using them. Spend a lot of time swatting at enemies with one-handed weapons and watch your One-Handed skill go up. Make a lot of potions and see your Alchemy skill increase. It's that simple.
The game doesn't even have Experience Points. Wait, an RPG without XP? That's right. You level up after you've increased any combination of skills a certain amount. (The higher the level of skill-up, the more it contributes to your level progress.)
When you do level up, you get to do two things: add a point to one of three core statistics (Health, Magicka, or Stamina) and you get a Perk to spend. Perks give you bonuses to target skills by either improving them directly or giving you special abilities.
It's a fantastically useful, natural and intuitive system, made even nicer by the beautiful Skills interface. To examine your skills, you simply look up into the sky. Each skill tree is a constellation and as you pick Perks, the various stars in the constellations light up. Its lovely and elegant.
Bethesda even gives you freedom with the format of the game in that you can play either in traditional First-Person or Over-the-Shoulder Third-Person. I found myself bouncing back and forth between both views quite a lot, as each worked better in different situations.