The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

The next few minutes are a series of testing encounters with Draugrs - undead warriors from ages past, buried down here to protect a special place where the Nords prepare their dead for their passage to heaven. They're skeletal warriors who are pretty basic hackandslash fare, but the way they slip out of berths in catacombs and emerge from shadowy enclaves is quite unsettling.

Fortunately you can use chain lightning on them, or take advantage of the environment to skewer them on spikes or drown them in burning oil.

After several more Draugr showdowns, rooms full of spinning blades and a pleasant trip through a cave with a stream (running water is often used as a visual cue to guide you forward in dungeons, apparently), you make it to the Hall of Stories, where the dragon's claw can be inserted into a locking mechanism. But it doesn't open the door. The trick, it emerges, is to examine it in your inventory, where you discover that it has a sequence of runic inscriptions on the reverse that give you a clue how to use it.

The door slowly opens and you go up another tumbledown stone staircase, through a cave - startled by floods of bats - and into a beautiful cavern where shafts of light and bustling waterfalls surround an altar, of sorts, where some ancient writing is illuminated.

This is one of Skyrim's Word Walls. As a Dragonborn, you are able to command Shouts - words spoken in the ancient dragon tongue. At the end of certain quests, at other logical intervals and when you visit the Grey Beards up The Throat of the World, you will learn some of these. There are around two dozen distinctive three-word Shouts.

The words alone are like powerful spells - this one allows you to slow down time - and as you gather more words and create entire Shouts, you can deploy them as another dimension in combat or exploration. So you can wield a combination of spells, weapons and whatnot and also Shouts at the same time. To receive one feels like a worthy reward at the end of a long, hard quest.

As we emerge into the Skyrim daylight a few minutes later, the presentation concludes with a battle against the dragon from earlier on a hillside. The dragon uses his own Shouts, of course - breathing fire is a form of speaking for dragons - and you fight back, slowing time and clobbering its face with an Elven Mace, while dodging its attacks as it swamps you with fire and tries to drive you onto unsafe terrain.

Eventually the dragon is dead and the corpse immediately bursts into flames, leaving nothing but a skeleton. "Because you're Dragonborn, when you take down a dragon you devour its soul," says Todd Howard. He won't elaborate on that yet. Fade to black.

During the Q&A that follows, it's funny to observe how much we still have to hear about Skyrim and how much is still being decided. Right now Shout usage is based on a cooldown timer but it could be resource-based, for example.

There's no decision yet on mounts or difficulty levels. Inquiries about guilds, factions, alchemy and crime are all batted away. We do at least find out that you can buy property, and Howard hints that some dragons may not be your enemies.

We also learn there is no set level cap, but levelling is faster in Skyrim than in either Oblivion or Fallout 3, so you accumulate more perks. (Don't worry though, you won't max out too quickly.) A new take on the skill system means that every skill effects your levelling, which Howard says will encourage you to use a broader range of them - although the slick interface already does a neat job of that.

Despite the gaps though, it's been an electrifying first taste of a world where we'll all very probably spend a significant chunk of time later this year.

Bethesda has been making Elder Scrolls games since 1994 and an outsider might imagine they are becoming samey. But an hour in Skyrim's company reminds you that while they have common themes, they really are not getting old.

Even as a first impression, Skyrim hooks you in with its majestic environments. It holds you with the conviction of its understated background details. By the time you start engaging with the content, using those wonderfully elegant new systems, you're completely won over. And to think, this is only the beginning...