Revisiting Skyrim
I started replaying The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim again recently and I forgot just how much I enjoyed the game.
In the past few years, I’ve been fairly… disconnected with gaming. Sure, I was an avid gamer in my teens and early 20s. I had kids and that occupied a lot of my time. I switched jobs a couple times, started school again, gaming just fell to the wayside. Gaming is a passtime rather than a way of life for me, but I didn’t have much extraneous time to pass. Runescape and Rollercoaster Tycoon were about the only recurring games I played, and only because they could be played in short sessions on my phone, so the barrier for entry was pretty low.
Having recently finished school, I’ve found substantially more free time. Not to say that I have as much free time as I did in high school, but I do have a few spare moments here and there to explore some old passions. I played through Super Mario Wonder with the kids and really enjoyed that. We try to get in a few sessions of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe or Super Smash Bros Ultimate a few evenings each week. It’s nice to get some time with a controller again.
Still, something was missing. I wanted to play something different, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I was skimming through the library’s collection of Switch games, and I noticed they had a few copies of Skyrim with all the DLC included. I hadn’t touched Skyrim since I got the platinum trophy for it on May 21, 2013. It seemed like a reasonable game to replay after a decade, since it was so critically acclaimed and I remember enjoying it during college. I put in a hold and picked it up.
Skyrim, man. I forgot how good it was. I had watched a few speed runs of it in recent years, but clipping through a wall with a bowl to escape the first encounter with a dragon and getting a horse pointed straight up to build up insane speed and run through the game in some weird glitch state just aren’t the same. Playing this game casually is an experience that doesn’t look anything like the speed tech that runners use, and I didn’t realize how bad I missed it.
I played for maybe an hour in that first session, getting through the initial few objectives until the game sets you loose. I made a Khajiit build with a focus on stealth and archery. Unlike many people who have played through Skyrim with many different builds across dozens of attempts, I only ever played it a single time. When I got it on PS3, I made a Nord Spellsword and played through to completion. In the years since then, I have discovered that I like more of a stealth build and ranged weapons of a hunter are much more aligned with my play style. Magic? Who cares about spells? I’d rather just creep up from a distance and take you out with a single arrow.
I started getting in a short session most evenings after the kids went to bed. Maybe 30 minutes, just enough to hit an objective or two, find another few markers on the map. The first few steps into the dungeon to find the Golden Claw really set the hook for me. I was sneaking in and heard bandits talking up ahead. As soon as they were in sight, I drew my bow and got a stealth kill on the first. Before the second could find me, I drew my bow again and dropped him. Just like that, I was in for the long haul. I knew I would at the bare minimum be playing through to the fight with Alduin.
Skyrim hits all of the best dopamine receptors for me. That steady drip of map markers to find just keeps me coming back. The combat is fun and rewarding, but not specifically very difficult. The environments are lush and full. I love exploring, and Skyrim does that so well. I’m so glad I picked it back up. Replaying this old favorite has been such a rewarding experience.
Now that I do have the time to play a little more, I have to decide what I want to play when I’m finished with Skyrim. Fortunately, the library makes it easy to try new games for free, rather than sink money on something I hope I’ll like and be forced to play through it to get some kind of return on my investment. I don’t want to just replay all of the games that I enjoyed from a decade ago, I do need to try out some of the newer options. I own Resident Evil 6 that I purchased as a bundle a few years ago and played maybe an hour of. Plus, the Metroidvania genre seems to be having a bit of a resurgence, and that’s my favorite type of video game without a doubt.
We’ll see where life takes me. I do think I’ll keep some sort of more adult single player game on the back burner to play here and there when the kids aren’t watching. I can play through Zelda or Metroid games with an audience, but I don’t exactly want to instill the values of indiscriminately slaying every evil human I come across and scalping animals to make leather armor and independently destroy the economy of Whiterun. The kids can discover those joys on their own in a few years.
In the past few years, I’ve been fairly… disconnected with gaming. Sure, I was an avid gamer in my teens and early 20s. I had kids and that occupied a lot of my time. I switched jobs a couple times, started school again, gaming just fell to the wayside. Gaming is a passtime rather than a way of life for me, but I didn’t have much extraneous time to pass. Runescape and Rollercoaster Tycoon were about the only recurring games I played, and only because they could be played in short sessions on my phone, so the barrier for entry was pretty low.
Having recently finished school, I’ve found substantially more free time. Not to say that I have as much free time as I did in high school, but I do have a few spare moments here and there to explore some old passions. I played through Super Mario Wonder with the kids and really enjoyed that. We try to get in a few sessions of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe or Super Smash Bros Ultimate a few evenings each week. It’s nice to get some time with a controller again.
Still, something was missing. I wanted to play something different, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I was skimming through the library’s collection of Switch games, and I noticed they had a few copies of Skyrim with all the DLC included. I hadn’t touched Skyrim since I got the platinum trophy for it on May 21, 2013. It seemed like a reasonable game to replay after a decade, since it was so critically acclaimed and I remember enjoying it during college. I put in a hold and picked it up.
A week or two went by before I got the opportunity to play at all. Between household responsibilities and the kids hogging both Switches, I just didn’t get a chance. When I finally sat down to play it one evening, I didn’t really expect to get hooked. I would play through the intro segment, maybe run through a dungeon or two, and probably send it back to the library then. I had no anticipation that I would stick to it for any substantial duration.
As the opening cinematic played, with a gradual fade from black with a point of view perspective from the back of a horse-drawn wagon, I got hit with a deluge of nostalgia. That first night playing after the midnight release on November 11, 2011 was like yesterday. All of the memes that ended with that familiar fade in were like a language that all gamers spoke. I had forgotten just what a cultural phenomenon this game was. All of my friends were playing it. The midnight release was without a doubt the largest and most popular that I had participated in. And the fact that I got the very first copy sold from the Dorman Center GameStop, it’s a weird little trivium about me that a generation of gamers can resonate with.
As the opening cinematic played, with a gradual fade from black with a point of view perspective from the back of a horse-drawn wagon, I got hit with a deluge of nostalgia. That first night playing after the midnight release on November 11, 2011 was like yesterday. All of the memes that ended with that familiar fade in were like a language that all gamers spoke. I had forgotten just what a cultural phenomenon this game was. All of my friends were playing it. The midnight release was without a doubt the largest and most popular that I had participated in. And the fact that I got the very first copy sold from the Dorman Center GameStop, it’s a weird little trivium about me that a generation of gamers can resonate with.
I played for maybe an hour in that first session, getting through the initial few objectives until the game sets you loose. I made a Khajiit build with a focus on stealth and archery. Unlike many people who have played through Skyrim with many different builds across dozens of attempts, I only ever played it a single time. When I got it on PS3, I made a Nord Spellsword and played through to completion. In the years since then, I have discovered that I like more of a stealth build and ranged weapons of a hunter are much more aligned with my play style. Magic? Who cares about spells? I’d rather just creep up from a distance and take you out with a single arrow.
Stealth bow.#Skyrim #NintendoSwitch pic.twitter.com/0qta4ZkLak
— Jake Hennett (@JakeHennett) December 9, 2023
I started getting in a short session most evenings after the kids went to bed. Maybe 30 minutes, just enough to hit an objective or two, find another few markers on the map. The first few steps into the dungeon to find the Golden Claw really set the hook for me. I was sneaking in and heard bandits talking up ahead. As soon as they were in sight, I drew my bow and got a stealth kill on the first. Before the second could find me, I drew my bow again and dropped him. Just like that, I was in for the long haul. I knew I would at the bare minimum be playing through to the fight with Alduin.
Skyrim hits all of the best dopamine receptors for me. That steady drip of map markers to find just keeps me coming back. The combat is fun and rewarding, but not specifically very difficult. The environments are lush and full. I love exploring, and Skyrim does that so well. I’m so glad I picked it back up. Replaying this old favorite has been such a rewarding experience.
Dragon slayer.#Skyrim #NintendoSwitch pic.twitter.com/jkE1LBZDt6
— Jake Hennett (@JakeHennett) December 11, 2023
Now that I do have the time to play a little more, I have to decide what I want to play when I’m finished with Skyrim. Fortunately, the library makes it easy to try new games for free, rather than sink money on something I hope I’ll like and be forced to play through it to get some kind of return on my investment. I don’t want to just replay all of the games that I enjoyed from a decade ago, I do need to try out some of the newer options. I own Resident Evil 6 that I purchased as a bundle a few years ago and played maybe an hour of. Plus, the Metroidvania genre seems to be having a bit of a resurgence, and that’s my favorite type of video game without a doubt.
Hunter.#Skyrim #NintendoSwitch pic.twitter.com/34OtSMaQWJ
— Jake Hennett (@JakeHennett) December 9, 2023
We’ll see where life takes me. I do think I’ll keep some sort of more adult single player game on the back burner to play here and there when the kids aren’t watching. I can play through Zelda or Metroid games with an audience, but I don’t exactly want to instill the values of indiscriminately slaying every evil human I come across and scalping animals to make leather armor and independently destroy the economy of Whiterun. The kids can discover those joys on their own in a few years.
Great post! I played through Skyrim in a similarly interrupted way... was away from gaming for almost 10 years, but finally started BG3 (I played tabletop D&D, BG1+2, NWN et al, and Pillars of Eternity just last year--good for that old school isometric). Are you in BG3?
ReplyDeleteI have not yet played BG3, but I am super interested. When I get a Steamdeck or build a gaming rig, I expect it will be one of the first titles I play.
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