One of my personal worries about Skyrim was going to be the dragons. Could a dragon fight truly be done properly within the game play mechanics normally found in the Elder Scrolls games? Well, no, was the answer, but the dragonborn shouts are the solution to this problem. Another important facet: the dragon battles are not scripted. They can happen randomly in the wilderness. We saw our demo player walk out into the open and see some giants and mammoths. Opting to pick a fight with a 100 foot tall walking humanoid isn’t necessarily the smartest thing, but it did show off some of the capabilities of the game’s mechanics and rendering. The interesting turn of events here was when a dragon randomly joined the battle, slaying the giant with ease and then setting his sights on the demo player.
The dragon was able to keep the player at bay through flight and fire-breathing until a higher vantage point was reached. Arrows and magic spells were still just barely doing damage so the demo player decided to use the storm call shout. This brought the heavens themselves into the battle. A sunny bright day almost immediately turned to an overcast nightmare. The shout had brought down a thunderstorm upon the dragon, electrocuting him enough so that he could no longer fly. This is a pivotal point in dragon battles – you have to weaken them enough so that you can take the fight up close and personal. With no option to fly away, magic and swordplay is much more effective close range. It also seemed a shield was almost required to prevent being burnt to a crisp and to divert flames to a location besides your face. In the end, a kill animation showed our dragonborn demo player taking the final blow to the dragon’s skull, finishing him. These dragon battles are major victories for you in Skyrim, because you absorb the souls of defeated dragons, enhancing your abilities and shouts.
But enough about the bloody combat details – what about the living, breathing towns, villages and castles of Skyrim? They’re still here in all their glory, but they’re even better than before. Each town and village has a fragile economy. One you can either support or try to destroy. For example one small village we saw in this demo was heavily dependent on logging and a sawmill. You can affect prices of things in the town if you decided to sabotage production at these mills. So if you’re short a septim or two, some less socially acceptable avenues to lower prices in a town are available to you.
