The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim review on Nintendo Switch
| BASIC GAME INFORMATION |
Year of construction: 17 November 2017
Genre: RPG / 3D / 1st Person / 3rd Person
developer: Bethesda Game Studios
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
The fantasy saga The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which has won over 200 Game of the Year awards, comes to Nintendo Switch. Live another life in another world... anywhere, anytime. Bethesda Game Studios' iconic open-world adventure where you can be anyone and do anything can now be enjoyed anywhere. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim for Nintendo Switch includes all new exclusive features. This includes motion controls for battles and lockpicking, gear and clothing from The Legend of Zelda, and amiibo support.
Fight ancient dragons, conquer mountain peaks, build a house and start a family, master a profession, magic, or learn martial arts. The game world will dynamically adapt to you. Play the way you want and define your character with your actions.
| GAME ENGINE |
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition It is based on the Creation Engine game engine. Creation Engine is a game engine developed by the American company Bethesda Game Studios for use in its own projects. The first computer game built using this engine was 2011's The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
The Creation Engine was developed primarily for use in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, the fifth (2011) installment in The Elder Scrolls series of role-playing games. Previous games in the series, in particular, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion from 2006 and several addons for it, as well as other games from the company (for example, Fallout 3 from 2008) worked using the licensed third-party Gamebryo engine. The same company's Morrowind (2002) runs on Gamebryo's predecessor, NetImmerse. The Creation Engine, created by Bethesda Game Studios, is based on the Gamebryo engine code developed by Emergent Game Technologies and Numerical Design Limited, which can be explained by the company's desire to use familiar, proven tools.
Since Skyrim is a role-playing game that involves a large game location open for free movement, when developing the engine, the authors paid great attention to the ability to display territories with a large drawing distance. The graphics engine was created so that objects were lit more realistically than before, and water rendering was of higher quality. Considering that the province of Skyrim, in which the game of the same name takes place, is located in the north, the authors paid attention to the realistic treatment of snow. The system automatically, depending on the terrain, generates the right amount of snow for trees, stones and bushes.
Instead of SpeedTree, a third-party technology that was used in the previous game in the series to visualize trees, the authors of the engine created their own software solution.
The artificial intelligence of the characters encountered in the game is controlled by its own system - Radiant AI, which was also used in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. For the new part, the authors have significantly improved artificial intelligence, intending to create the illusion of the life of the citizens of Skyrim: they have breakfast, go to work, go to a pub, etc. The story management system, called Radiant Story, allows developers to mix hand-crafted quests with quests that can be randomly generated from different environments, and quests can appear in different orders and vary depending on the playstyle.
Third-party Havok Behavior technology is integrated for character animation. On February 7 of the same year, the developers also released the Creation Kit level editor, which allows users to create their own modifications for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. The editor is available in a version only for a personal computer.
On June 3, 2015, developer Bethesda Game Studios announced a new part of the Fallout role-playing game series - Fallout 4, which also uses the Creation Engine game engine, but an updated version that uses the so-called. physically based rendering and dynamic volumetric lighting. In addition, support for modifications (and the release of tools for them) was announced, which, being created on a PC, can also work in the version of the game for the Xbox One console. According to developer Todd Howard, Bethesda Game Studios is considering, through discussions with Sony, releasing the toolkit also for the PlayStation 4. Creation Kit 2.0 for Fallout 4 became available on April 27, 2016.
| TECHNICAL INFORMATION |
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has version 1.1.14. When purchasing a game in a store Nintendo downloads it to a MicroSD card or internal memory.
The total size of the downloaded game is about 17.7 gigabytes, which is even larger than the PC version.
| CONTROL |
The control settings are standard, as for other consoles. Absolutely all buttons are used.
It is also possible to control the bow and sword by swinging the Joy-Con. Although the usefulness of this function for a sword is questionable, it is more convenient to aim with a bow than with sticks.
| SETTINGS |
But there are no graphics settings in the game, all that is available to us is the interface settings.
Well, then let’s see how the game differs from the PC version.
| MODES COMPARISON between Nintendo Switch and PC |
Now let's compare it with the PC version of the project. “Very low”, “medium”, “low”, “high” settings were taken as the basis.
As we can see, the game is inferior only in terms of lighting quality; on the latest version of the PC it is more complex.
Well, in the second case, we also have more simplified lighting.
Well, in the third case, in addition to the lighting, the depiction of the distance of the grass also suffers, but all the same, the picture is as close as possible to the PC version.
| COMPARISON OF TV PORTABLE MODE |
In this review, we presented comparisons of the rendering quality of stationary and portable modes:
As we can see, switching to portable mode has virtually no effect on the quality of the picture - bravo developers!
| OVERALL GAMING IMPRESSION |
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim plays great on Nintendo Switch. Of course, those who are used to a keyboard/mouse combination on a PC will have a hard time for the first couple of hours, but then you quickly get used to the controls and the game is a lot of fun.
But the game has become outdated over the years, has rather primitive game mechanics and can no longer be called a standard of quality, but all the same, a project of this scale in a portable device is amazing.
| GAME PROCESS |
Well, below are the first 20 minutes on the console itself:
Disadvantages:
- the game has been out for quite some time and is intended for the most devoted fans, or for those who missed it at one time
- price
Advantages:
- the world of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim in portable mode!
- excellent visual component
- portable mode is practically not inferior to full-fledged TV mode
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Rating 82% [13 vote(s)]