Legendary Skyrim Review
Now before we begin I must point out that I Have played Morrowind GOTY Edition on PC way back when and loved it. Never fully beat it but loved the experience none the less. As well I have played Oblivion GOTY Edition on PC and PS3 as well neither time fully completing the storyline. Just to inform you I’m just going to hit all main points of the game.
With that said I was excited to see what Bethesda had in store for us waiting in Skyrim. Once I put the disc in and it loaded, I found myself hands bound and on a horse drawn wagon with three men. One of them was bound and gagged, Someone mentioned the true high king. Not knowing what that meant or who these people where it’s never good when you’re bound to a horse drawn wagon and everyone seems to be there for doing something illegal. For the Sake of Talos I have no idea why I would be with these people, but non the less I found myself there.
Upon arriving at Helgen there were Imperial Soldiers and we all step off the wagon. Upon stepping off the wagon the Captain had a list and starts calling names. As each person got called he mentions what their crime is/was. I start to get kind of excited to see how Bethesda played this out with me ending up here but he looks up and asks what I’m here for and that’s when Bethesda does it they prompt with the character creation tool (which has always been a HUGE draw for me in the Elder Scroll Series and Bethesda Titles anyways) But I digress, After morphing from Orc to high elf to Nord to Imperial from Male to Female from tattoo’s to scarred and from black to white hair I decided on this play through to try a Nord Female. And after all this switching and morphing He doesn’t even seem phased. He just proceeds and informs me basically to make my peace with talos as I await my death. In my head I’m thinking LAME Bethesda doesn’t even give me a cool background to start with, but that’s alright I will make my own. Upon walking to the chopping block I witness a guy be beheaded right in front of me. Then it was my turn, just like that.
So upon laying/being pushed unto the chopping block and as the headsmen raises his battle-axe to behead me a Dragon appears and everyone starts to scramble. I stand up and run for my life with another prisoner who leads me into a nearby tower. As I reaching the middle of the tower the dragon breaks in and spews flames inside. He moves on I and jump from the tower into a damage house next door. Upon exiting the house I was met by an Imperial soldier who informs me if I want to stay alive to stick with him. So as we make our way out of Helgen there comes a point where I’m following the soldier and we run into the first prisoner who saved me, both guys tell me to follow them and they both go their separate ways.
Now choosing who you go with isn’t the end of the world but it does depend on which quest you get. By choosing to go with the Imperial Soldier you are given a quest to join the Imperial Army in Solitude and by going with the Prisoner you’re given a quest to join the StormCloaks Rebellion. Doesn’t really matter because you can always decide against it and head to solitude to join the Imperials even with the StormCloaks quest or vice versa.
After escaping Helgen you are sent to riverwood to speak with a person that your savior told you to speak of ( a blacksmith if you chose the Soldier or a Female by a river if you chose the Prisoner) Upon reaching RiverWood and speaking with the person they ask you to continue to Whiterun and warn the Jarl of the inpending Dragon onslaught and ask for soldiers to be sent.
When you arrive at Whiterun guards inform you that no one is going in and after a short while in a dialog box you are allowed in with news of the Dragons returning. After running through Whiterun on your way to DragonsReach you finally get to the Jarl. You inform him of the news from Riverwood and he asks you to fetch some items for his dragon researcher. By doing several quests for the Jarl of whiterun not only will he reward you with the Title of Thane and your own housecarl but he also permits you to buy property in his city. After finishing a fetch quest he asks you to go help his soldiers at a tower defeat a dragon. With the Dragon Slayed you consume its soul and everyone freaks. People ask you to shout which is optional but I always do. Upon shouting and returning to the Jarl to inform him of my dragonborn shout abilities. You hear another shout asking for the Dova. The jarl then informs you of the Grey beards the people who used to train the dragonborn in the time of alduin.
You then arrive at the greybeards they inform you that you may be dragon born and put you through some tests of learning shouts. After learning the shouts they send you on a fetch quest to retrieve something, and as arriving at the end of the dungeon you are informed someone has beat you there and already taken the relic. But they have left a note in its place. After reading the note you are informed to go to riverwood once again and rent a room at the inn. After doing this a lady enters the room and asks you to follow her. She explains she is a part of the old Blades guild who used to help the dragon born.
After listening to Delphine she sends you on some quests to prove you are dragon born and to search out an old member of the blades in hopes he has more information on what’s happening. You will find him in Riften and you have to help him get back to Delphine. Completing the reuniting of the friends you three set out on a mission to take over an old blades base. After clearing the old base your informed the Greybeards haven’t told you everything and you are informed of their leader. Upon learning of this they send you back to the greybeards and you start on a mission to meet their leader Paarthurnax.
After arrriving at the throat of the world you learn of paarthurnax and some of his history. While listening to paarthanax you learn of a shout that’s supposed to land any flying dragon and of the elderscrolls. This is when he informs you that you need to speak to either the greybeards or the blades. speaking to the blades and informing them of paarthurnax they inform you that if you want to receive their help you must vanquish paarthurnax but an alternate to this is taking the path of the greybeards who if you kill paarthurnax will not help you. In doing this play through I decided to spare paarthurnax and talk with the greybeards. Which I stray from the plot, upon talking to them they send you on a mission to the magic school to learn of the elder scrolls. Upon finding some information out and battling through a dungeon and through puzzles, you obtain the elder scroll. Upon getting the Elder Scroll you go to the throat of the world and read the scroll.
After reading the scroll you are sucked into the past and you watch as Skyrim warriors of old, you learn the secret shout called Dragon Rend commonly known as Fus Do Rah. Upon reading and learning the shout paarthurnax will inform you of the secret of whiterun. Upon learning the secret it is up to you to get the Jarl of Whiterun to allow you to use his dragon trap. He only will agree if you can get the stormcloaks and the imperial legion to agree to a truce while you try and save the world from impending doom! So you go and speak to both of them, they agree to meet with the greybeards. Upon this you have to either side with one or try and stay neutral. After the meeting and the truce is set you can head back to dragons reach in whiterun call the dragon and capture him.
Upon capturing the dragon he agrree’s to take you to the portal for Alduin into sovngarde. Make sure at this point you have a ton of all potions you need and all the armor because there is no coming back. Upon arriving at the mountain you have to fight your way all the way up the mountain to the portal which is protected by none other than Ebony soldiers and warriors and 2 dragons. After defeating them you can activate the portal and jump into sovngarde.
After reaching the hall of valor you will have to battle a guy to prove you belong in the hall of valor. Once inside you will speak to the legendary warriors you saw when you learned dragon rend, and of course they are excited for another chance to destroy Alduin.
After Defeating Alduin the Warriors of old congratulate you on your accomplisments and the “gentlemen” who you had to battle to gain access to the hall of valor approaches you. He then offers to shout you back into the living and informs you that it’s not your time in Sovngarde. Upon returning to the world of the living you are at the throat of the world with all legendary dragons including paarthurnax if you let him live. At which point the main storyline for the game comes to an end and you’re free to adventure, and continue side quests and exploration.
But that doesn’t Mean that it’s over O NO Bethesda has HOURS AND HOURS and Days and Weeks worth of side missions just in the Main game.
Upon doing a quest for the main story line you are told of the thieves guild and invited to join them.
Upon joining the Thieves Guild you are thrown into a guild that is much full of secrets and falling apart turbulence. After following the quest line you will eventually learn of a betrayal and of the nightingales you set out on a mission to expose the truth of the head guild master and bring the honor of this guild back to what it was and is meant to be. I won’t say much more because i don’t want to spoil these side quests Just know that this side quest was one of my favorites.
The Dark Brother Hood also known as the assassins guild was also a decent but creepy quest line full of fun but annoyance as well.
Once i started this side story line i was informed of hits that were placed on people and i really enjoyed the story line it laid out with the night mother and everything but towards the end and at the end of the actual story line i was upset that the night mother consistently send you out on missions sure it’s fun for a while but i’m tired of seeing this quest in my quest box. Other than this small annoyance the actual character development that took place and not to mention my new awesome trusty stead it was well worth the hassle. O poor Cicero.
And my Favorite side quest line is you guessed it!
The Companions not only could easily be everyone’s first side quest story line but i believe to be the most fun. After joining you are set out to take care of some issues around whiterun and a few other places before being asked to assist a shield brother on a quest. While battling next to your shield brother you flip and switch and clumsy you gets locked in a cage. OUT OF NO WHERE there are voices looking out the cages door you notice a group of silverhands arch nemesis to the companions are there to kill your shield brother. but what can you do but sit there and watch as he has to battle them by himself. Lucky for him he has the secret of the companions inner circle running through his blood. With not giving to much more away you are set out on a path now to join the inner circle and find a “cure” for Kodlak Whitemane deciding if you want the cure is your own choice.
The Glitch.
After beating Skyrim 5 times and playing around i set out to find glitches and test them out. So i uninstalled all updates and set out once again to defeat alduin while finding glitches testing glitches and raking in as much gold as i could. Before i started i researched all known glitches and came across one Simply called Oghma Infinium Which sounded familiar and remembered the book from my previous play through’s. Anyways needless to say here is the Video for how to utilize this glitch.
Any ways after reading and watching this glitch i decided it would be something i wanted to try out once i got to that section. So i set out to get there ASAP. Once i did this glitch i finished the game and continued exploring the world.
While exploring i had a Warrior in all Ebony Armor approach me. He asked if i wouldn’t Duel him for an honorable death and i accepted. Now i don’t know if this always happens on Vanilla Skyrim (Skyrim with no DLC’S) Or if it had something to do with the fact that i had just Downloaded thee DLC entitled DragonBorn. anyways i obliged and accepted his challenge. Now i do know this next piece was due to the DLC but once i exited Whiterun i was attacked by Mirak Occultists. Needless to Say once i finally arrived to duel there was no option for it so i just attacked and he brought all his fury. After battling back and forth and not getting anywhere i had to think quickly on how to kill him. I equipped my unrelenting shout and backed him up to a cliff and shouted him right off of it. Luckily when he hit the first ledge he kept going because his health bar was still pretty full. But on the second fall his life bar disappeared. So i went on to search him out. and 10 minutes later i found his corpse.After completing this quest i set out to destroy what or who sent the cultists after me.I must say that i wasn’t to happy to find out that you can’t actually just get on a dragon and fly it around openly. BUT this DLC was worth the $20 some i spent on it and here is why. It added 6 extra hours of straight story line additions and epic battles. the Awesome new shouts it added are amazing and the new land it opened to my exploration is like none other. As well the items the enemies of this land seem to drop are helping vastly with my collection of Skyrim Septiums. When i load myself up i have to visit Riverwood, Riften, Solitude,Whiterun and sometimes a few others to sell all my goods. And keep in mind i’m maxed out on speech and have invested in each person i sell to. I found myself at 100k septiums at the time i entered this DLC and over 200k once i was done with the main story line I haven’t spent any more time going back their yet to explore because i wanted to try out the Dawnguard DLC as well. After doing the Oghma Infinium glitch i was well aware of the one called Hermaeus Mora’s. Which is a common name in DragonBorn DLC. Hermaeus Mora’s has a huge role in the power of Miraak and is once again the key to obtaining all the power needed to defeat Miraak. I would highly recommend this DLC to anyone looking for additional quests and a great story line along with a creepy feeling of loneliness that this one brings as with this new land you feel like an outsider and people aren’t afraid to remind you.
After defeating Miraak and making my way back to the Skyrim providence i was informed by a currier about a meeting at the dawnguard fort that my attendance was wanted. So after heading to the fort i met a farm boy who seemed afraid but wanted to be thought of as a man so was there to fight for the dawnguard. After starting the dawnguard quest line i went out and killed a few vampires here and there. Then came a quest that i was supposed to search out what the vampires wanted with a certain cave. Upon killing countless vampires and there minions i reached a puzzle and after completing the puzzle i unlocked a door that a woman had been locked away in but not just any woman a Vampire. And upon her stepping out i noticed what seemed to be an Elder Scroll on her back. After conversing with her for a while i learned she had family and she wanted to go see if they were still there. Upon entering her families castle her father offered to make me a pure Vampire. but i declined and was informed never to show my face again. After returning to the Fort and explaining what had happened they obviously were tweaked that i let alone let this vampire live and that i helped her get home. After doing a few more quests and returning to the fort i was summoned upstairs and to my surprise she was there and not only to that she was there to help us. She told me of her mother and the evil her father was under. I agreed to help her in finding her mother and so we set out to break into this Castle her father built and to find and save her mother. After fighting Vampires and Gargoyles we entered the castle courtyard and upon inspection found the sun dial had been disassembled so upon re assembling it we uncovered a hidden stairway. After entering the hidden room and battling her mothers traps. We found a HUGE library and a book telling of another world. Serena and I entered the alternate world by trapping part of my soul in a soul gem. Upon finding her mother she informs us that she had another Elder Scroll and promises to get it if i do a few things for her in that realm so i agreed and Serena and I set out to accomplish this goal. After getting the scroll from Serena’s mother we promised to kill her father and return for her after. Once we got that done we had to go and get my soul gem so i could be whole again. Upon doing so we exited that realm and entered the real realm. Upon reading the elder scrolls it told us how and what weapon to seek out to destroy her father. Upon acquiring the legendary weapon The Dawnguard and Serena and I set out to wage war on the Vampires.
I feel as though this DLC is a MUST have for any Skyrim fan. Not only did it add extra story line to the Main province of skyrim but it also adds a taste of the battle between the imperials and the stormcloacks with a special addition to being a vampire you get a special Vampire Perks tree as well if you’re a Werewolf you get a werewolf perks tree. Along with DragonBorn as well there are many small perks like higher priced armor for sale or lighter armor to sell so you can carry more.(as vampires don’t wear real armor but robes but some robes can be fairly pricey)
So i also Purchased HearthFire DLC which i had a ton of expectations of. BUT i haven’t really put much time into it. I DID however build my house! BUT sadly that’s as far I’ve gone. ONCE i explore the more options and details in this DLC i will revisit this review and edit this section!
