While she's a more than capable fighter, bugs still prevent you from enjoying her

Nov 17, 2011 14:31 GMT  ·  By

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has been out for almost a week and I've spent quite a lot of hours with the massive role playing game created by Bethesda doing all sorts of things, from fighting with swords or magic to crafting potions, creating or improving my own weapons and armor, or just reading the hundreds of books spread out in the virtual world of Skyrim.

While I'm pretty much falling in love with the game through my own way, Skyrim does manage to annoy me with certain aspects, like the clunky character creator which I detailed last week.

Now, it's time I talked about Lydia, one of the first companions (followers, according to the game) to which you have access.

While I had already gotten used to the companions form past Bethesda games, like Fallout 3 (Fawkes!) or New Vegas (Boone and ED-E!), Lydia is definitely a peculiar woman that has both advantages and disadvantages.

You get Lydia as a follower after you defeat your first dragon in Whiterun, as she is dispatched by the Jarl of the city to be your Housecarl and basically help and protect you in whatever situation you may find yourself in.

Seeing as how my character was a mix between a mage and a warrior, I found Lydia to be quite useful as a tank to distract enemies. After giving her heavy armor and powerful weapons, Lydia became a force to be reckoned with, especially since she only dies when attacked by an impressive number of enemies.

What's more, her pretty big inventory allowed me to practically use her as a pack mule in long dungeons filled with all sorts of precious loot.

Sadly, while I can even say that I've grown fond of Lydia, her glitchy behavior, in trademark Bethesda style, sometimes makes me want to kill her myself.

I've lost count of the times she stood in front of a door I was supposed to go through and wouldn't budge out of my way no matter how much I pushed into her character. I've also lost count of the stealth attacks she foiled because she ran straight towards an enemy that I could have taken down by myself.

Also, after some battles where she sustained quite a bit of damage, she started crawling around but didn't stop not even after her health was restored. Thankfully a fast travel travel to another location got Lydia back on her feet.

Even with this buggy behavior, after seeing that she somehow died after completing a pretty long dungeon, I reverted to a previous save game just to have her (and her big inventory) at my side.

Share your own experience with Lydia or the other followers from Skyrim by leaving a comment below.