I am sure Digby is correct that you can do fine as pure Mage. However, I restarted as as Orc dual wield heavy armor and life is vastly easier. My 8th level melee is significantly more powerful than my 12th level mage to the point that I am going to up the difficult level from normal to expert.
The same fight that took my 12 lvl mage 4 or 5 deaths to complete (against another mage) took my only one try (and a bunch of potions) to complete. I don’t think that mages and destruction are underpowered as much as I think the melees are underpowered. Even bosses die after only a couple of hits it is pretty rare that fights last long enough that stamina is a big problem.
Stupid question of the night:
Does Skyrim have anything that would be deemed particularly offensive to my kid’s mother? (sex, drugs, rock & roll, etc.)
And no, that generally doesn’t include impaling hapless goblins on a spear in an act of green genocide.
Pogo
4503
Skooma. Sweet, delicious Skooma.
I suppose some of the ritualistic sacrificial tables, skulls-on-spikes types themes are really the only “offensive” things I can think of.
Pogo
4504
edit: double post, not deleting to prevent page ghosting
Lh_owon
4505
Naturally I’ve only scratched the surface of all the content, so take this with a grain of salt, but I think it’s fairly devoid of sex. Even the occasional innuendo is very tame, and I think the most sexy sex thing I saw was some bare-breasted statues. Same deal with drugs, there’s the classic Elder Scrolls one but that’s thoroughly tongue in cheek.
I would say however that it can be pretty grim visually and thematically. Lots of portrayals of (or generally the aftermath of) sadistic torture rituals and the like, lots of blood and gore, grisly murders and the like. I don’t think any of it is genuinely disturbing - Elder Scrolls tend to make even the darkest subjects not seem too terrible - but that stuff is definitely there.
It’s the only M rated game my wife gave me the thumbs up to let my son play. There isn’t any sex or anything, the violence is all comic/fantasy style (though the critical hit kills can be pretty brutal, they are brief and not disturbingly gory), and there is no real lanuage I can recall, so if there is any its very brief. No nudity or anything like that.
There is alchohol but it’s down played, it’s not like Fallout 3 with addiction and drugs being a part of the gameplay or anything, either.
Depending on the kids’ age I’m sure its fine.
Depends on how old your kid is, I guess. Most of the ancient ruins are pretty spooky. And the Dark Brotherhood quest line is pretty grim, albeit optional. And there are two quests in Windhelm that go to a pretty dark place. But there’s no sex, nudity, or even suggestive dialog.
Tony_M
4508
When your kid talks to Hrongar get him to say “It might be a tumor…”
Well, your character witnesses a beheading (of a human character) at the start of the game and there are quite a few gory/grim situations portrayed throughout. It’s not gratuitous but it is an integral part of the gameplay. If she is likely to find that sort of thing objectionable then you may want to vet it yourself first to see how you feel about it.
JeffL
4510
Yeah, most is no worse than you’d find in a PG movie, though you’ll see some things like the animation when you sneak up behind someone and kill them with a dagger and get the throat cutting animation. But I think it would be fine for most kids. The worst might be some younger kids having nightmares about skeletons waking up and coming after them.
RepoMan
4511
Video game players tend to experience increased agency in their dreams – I distinctly remember a study on this. Gamers fight back against monsters in their dreams. Most people don’t.
Tony_M
4512
I still run away from the monsters in my dreams. Maybe I’m just not gaming hard enough.
LOL - you guys are funny. Yeah, sounds like it wouldn’t be an issue. He’s in high school so it’s not like this isn’t being talked about at the lunch table (and is actually how the game ended up on a wish list for the holidays). I was going to hold off until a GOTY edition for myself, but now that he’s wanting it I figured I’d get the low down from the experts ;)
It’s not me that would have an issue with it, but I get grief (and by extension, so does he) from unusual angles due to the dual households so I don’t want to introduce a new catalyst. From all of your descriptions, it sounds like this shouldn’t be a problem.
Guys, don’t take this the wrong way but… it’s fine if the game has the occasional beheading, burnt corpses, ritual murder victims and finishing moves which are ultra violent (throat slitting, impaling a guy with two swords, etc) but hey, that’s okay 'cause there’s no sex, nudity, or even suggestive dialogue… really?
I’m far from a prude or moral cop and I’m not trolling you guys but this whole view (violence is ok if not gratuitous but SHIT THERE’S SEX COVER YOUR EYES!) is really, REALLY, a staple of american culture. And it just makes me giggle because it’s hypocritical as fuck.
That said, and if I’m right in assuming that high school means roughly a 15 year old kid, it’s hard to perceive a kid of that age that doesn’t know what sex and/or violence is and of all games currently in the market, well, Skyrim is rather “light”.
We really don’t need reminding. US television is wall to wall death murder corpse cop shows. You belittling the fucked up priorities of our society isn’t enlightening.
I really don’t understand these numbers:
The biggest entertainment release in history (MW3) only has a third of the players of Skyrim? I hope Bethesda are drowing in profits. Or at least enough to hire writers.
MW3 doesn’t require Steam does it? Skyrim does. Better to compare it to Civ5 or Shogun2 at launch.
PC exclusives you mean? Good point. I keep forgetting Steam <> The whole world.
