Preview: Elder Scrolls V

As the ability to release games on dates with the same number day, month, and year is nearly at an end, the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has positioned itself to be one of the last, taking over 11/11/11. This makes it a rare Friday release, as opposed to the typical Tuesday on which most forms of media come out.

Scan the forums of any major gaming website and there’s an army of supporters already saying it’s going to be Game of the Year.

While that’s tough to judge without actually playing the game, past history of Elder Scrolls games points towards another gaming treat, and what they’ve shown so far of Skyrim indicates RPG gamers have an awful lot to look forward to.

While word has just come out that the game can potentially be beaten in around two hours (by an internal tester at developer and publisher Bethesda doing a speed-run), the typical player who takes advantage of all the map has to offer, investigating for all hidden treasure and doing all the sidequests, can look forward to well over 100 hours of gameplay.

So what’s going to be filling those 100 hours exactly?

While not a direct sequel, Skyrim is set in the province of the same name on the continent of Tamriel, familiar to longtime Elder Scrolls fans. Set 200 years after the events of Oblivion, the death of the Empire’s heirless emperor and the assassination of Skyrim’s king have thrust Skyrim to the brink of civil war, with said war prophesied by the Elder Scrolls as the event before Alduin—the god of destruction in the form of a dragon—returns.

As convenience would have it, you play as the last of the “dragonborn”, who possess the ability to battle dragons and use their powers. You’ll be aided by the last of the Blades, Esbern, as you quest to quash the threat posed by Alduin’s return.

In player development, while you will start off choosing a race, the design team has eliminated picking a character class, instead offering schools of combat, magic, and stealth. They were in Oblivion, but they get upgraded in a more powerful and customizable way. Each has several skills which can be trained in to advance your character’s level, and the lack of a character class allows for more personalization to the specific combat style you’d like to have. You can focus almost entirely on one school to rapidly become master of it, or form a blended style utilizing two or three schools.

You can play as a good guy or a bad guy, with NPCs and town guards changing their reactions to you. Even the economy can change, as beneficial actions like farming can help boost a sagging town, while destruction of a moneymaker can depress it.

As always, interacting with those in the game environment is critical to success. NPCs you meet may join on your quest, and some can even be married. But most important are the ones that offer either information on completing your main quest or a chance to complete a sidequest that’s sure to boost your coffers and get some more skill. A single town can provide hours of new objectives offered by residents, business owners, or tavern patrons for you to complete.

A huge focus on development was placed on the dungeons you’ll find littered around Skyrim. Dungeons in Oblivion were bland and fairly forgettable. Now all dungeons have had tremendous attention paid to them, with the goal of making them memorable and filled with unique challenges and varied design styles. The hope is that players who may have started skipping Oblivion's random dungeons due to their sameness will actively want to explore the rumored 150 of them crammed into Skyrim.

But even when in the wilds you’ll be tested, as some animals and monsters will always try to make a meal of you, while others may shy away for fear you may be hunting them (and sometimes they're right!). At the top of the food chain are dragons, though not all are hostile and some may simply attempt to interact with you. Of course, those hostile ones are the ones you’ll need to be careful around, and they might attack you or fly on by for a run at an entire village.

The biggest gameplay mechanic to help fight those dragons (and anything else giving you a hard time) is learning “dragon shouts” that offer all manner of powerful abilities. Taken either by absorbing the soul of a slain dragon or learning them from walls of ancient ruins, they grant the power to buffet enemies back, breathe fire, slow time, and more.

Some well-regarded stars have tagged along for the ride in Skyrim. Among them, Max von Sydow will voice Esbern, while Christopher Plummer lends his sound to Arngeir, a Greybeard Elder.

In addition to the standard $60 regular edition, there is also a collector’s edition. Bethesda claims it’s truly limited in number, and at the price point of $150 it may as well be, as it’s clearly for the most rabid of fans. It includes a cloth map of Skyrim, a statue of dragon Alduin, a 200-page art book, and a ‘making of’ DVD.

There are also plans for DLC, but learning a lesson from the five tacked-on adventures released for Fallout 3, not all of which were that great or well-received, Bethesda plans to release a smaller amount of extra adventures that are much larger in scope.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is scheduled for release from Bethesda on November 11 for Xbox 360 and PS3. Rated M for Mature (Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes, Use of Alcohol).

Jeff is currently playing The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap; follow him on Twitter at JKLugar.