Skyrim is teeming with some of the most tremendous vistas in video game history. From the soft solemnity of Ancestor Glade to the imposing majesty of Dragonsreach, Skyrim isn’t just s🐎tunning in the immediate sense of the word - it is also aesthetically diverse, stylistically versatile, and thematically coherent.
Perhaps more so than anywhere else, though, my favourite place to revisit in Skyrim is still the spellbinding ancient haven of Blackreach, buried deep below the derelict and dangerous dwarven Tower of Mzark. As our features editor Andy Kelly recently discussed in his piece on 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:why Skyrim is so enduring, tꦇhis is a world that focuses on el🐟iciting feelings of adventure and exploration - Blackreach is, by far, one of the most powerful epitomes of that.
Put it this way: you’ve just spent close to an hour trudging through the industrial steampunk framework of aಞ long-deserted dwarven city, where steel sings to the ever-spinning whir of cogs and pistons. All of a sudden, the world explodes in front of you: as you spill into the Blackreach basin, you are surrounded by iridescent fungi and impossible natural architecture. Colour and noise blend with darkness and silence to create a sort of ethereal balance hovering between nature and machinery. It is, in every sense of the term, a magnificent mosaic of all the individual elements that make Skyrim so enduringly excellent.
Most of all, though, Blackreach is mysterious in the truest sense of the term. The unique Crimson Nirnroot grows here and only here, while hermit alchemists live - or lived - out their days pursuing solitary scientific endeavours. Falmer roam lurching bridges and winding stairs, their chitinous pets being confined to pens of blood and bone. Magnificent waterfalls tumble over impossible mushrooms, sculpted centurions loom large over gated fortresses, and the paths forward are obfuscated not by obstacles but by the inhꦫerent beauty of everything surrounding them. Blackreach is captivating and striking because it is absolutely singular. There is no other video game location like it.
Again, Skyrim has dozens of other gorgeous locations. Whenever I replay it - which I do fairly often - I always end up spending tens of hours just🍌 wandering around Markarth, where rivers flow with blood and silver. I love the open, breezy, ethereal quietude of Falkreath. I love the unwavering majesty of the Palace of the Kings. I love the teetering and towering mountains tucked away southeast of The Rift. I hate Morthal, but then again I reckon just about everybody on planet Earth does apart from one (1) contrarian who reckons grey is the new black.
Despite the wonder and awe imbued in all of these places - once again, not Morthal - Blackreach is still top of the pops. It shouldn’t make any sense, and yet that is probably the most prominent factor i𝔉n terms of why it’s so enduringly incredible. Who lived here? What happened? What’s the craic with those great big mushrooms? Magic? Oh aye.
I’d love to write more about Blackreach, but actually… Yeah, screw it. I’m reinstalling S♓kyrim - see you next year, bud.
