So what is Skyrim?

[Neverhoodian]

Skyrim is the fifth installment in the stellar Elder Scrolls series of first person, open world fantasy RPGs. The series takes place on the vast continent of Tamriel. Every game has focused on a different area of Tamriel, and in this installment it's Skyrim, home of the Nords (a hardy breed of humans reminiscent of the Vikings). Until recently Tamriel was governed by a human Empire that was in many respects a cross between ancient Rome and medieval Europe. A number of other races inhabit the land as well, including orcs, elves and anthropomorphic lizards and felines.

The Elder Scrolls series is perhaps best known for allowing the player unparalleled freedom of choice. This is first illustrated by its extensive character customization, allowing you to be any race and gender you want. After that you get to pick what you want your character to specialize in. Want to be a warrior? A mage? A thief? Your own personal hybrid class? It's entirely up to you.

Once these decisions have been made, the game goes, "okay good, now here's a huge world for you to explore and basically do whatever the hell you want. Have fun!" While there is always a main quest of sorts and a final goal to achieve, pursuing it is entirely optional. The rest of the game is spent playing however you want, whether it's living off the land, wheeling and dealing with merchants, creating your own super-powerful spells, joining guilds, fighting monsters, etc.

 

[rokkolpo]

It's one damn sexy game.

Everyone knows this.

 

[Sodoff]

.. Its been on the front page of the Escapist for months.

Trolling troll is bored?

Or lazy **** is lazy.

Also VIKINGS AND DRAGONS!!

 

[Sneaky Paladin]

No, they're asking a video game community about a video game instead of trying to figure it out for themselves on what could be a fairly misinformed basis. Honestly, it makes sense.

OT: Basically, picture a 1st person hack and slash RPG that has been developing more and more over the years. There's also several varieties of magic, bow&arrows, and customization and sandbox gameplay that's just full of...Wow. I'll tell you right now my opinion is biased, I love the series. It gives you an absolute insane amount of things to do, in an enormous fantasy world with beautiful aesthetics. On the PC there are fan-made mods that allow so much content to be added to the game it's insane. And now the latest installment is fixing the biggest issues the series had. It's adding more voice actors to the...like...5 total in the previous games. They're making the combat waay more interesting with finishing move animations, dual wielding weapons and spells, etc. And now there are dragons. DRAGONS. That bit should speak for itself. So yea, that was probably a bit vague but hope it helped.

Helped very much. Thank you - I should probably read up on Elder Scrolls though - I guess

You should because Skyrim is the bees motherfucking knees with awesome. It will suck you in with how fun it is.

 

[Tiger Sora]

A viking / barbarian paradise. Now with dragons and duel wielding.
And I can't wait for it to come out.

 

[eggy32]

... So, hold on, you expect us to tell you what Skyrim is instead of using google?

Lazy, much?

I'm going to refuse to tell you, just like everyone else should.

...So, hold on, you expect us to just tell him to google what Skyrim is instead of us explaining it?

Lazy, much?


OT: Skyrim is too big to explain all at once. It is a fantasy RPG in which you can do pretty much anything. There are 10 playable races, some that are based off humans, 1 is a lizard/humanr race and another is a cat/human race.
They each have their own abilities and stat bonuses too.

Bascially there's a huge open world with hundreds of quests you can do if you like, or you can just go and explore the vast terrain and loot caves and kill bandits. Or if you're feeling evil, loot houses and kill civillians.

Or fight, goblins, or fling some magic spells at a dragon or two.

Oh and Lore too. There's loads of it. The Elder Scrolls has an immense amount of history within the games. A lot of it is interesting to just read about, even if you haven't palyed the games.

www.uesp.net

Check that place out, it's the Elder Scrolls wiki.