The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Cloud gaming.
As you climb further, there's a huge stone tower stacked over a precipice, guarded by soldiers. You don't approach it, but it's there. Everywhere you go in Skyrim there seems to be something that belongs to a process - industrial, military, natural, whatever - that is just left to speak for itself. The surety of these presences and the implications they embody breathe depth into the world.
Eventually, as the falling snow becomes more fearsome, you close in on the summit and reach the dragon temple where the robbers supposedly took Lucan's ornament. The temples were built by the Nords, who worshipped the dragons. The main story of Skyrim focuses on the return of dragons to the world, and as a Dragonborn your fate is tied into that.
In the here and now, though, we're mostly concerned with the very real and actual dragon perched on top of the temple arches.
Dragons are the game's bosses, effectively. There aren't a finite number of them, they do what they want (at least according to the logic Bethesda has built for them), and some of them have more narrative significance than others. This one leaps into the air and swoops down to attack. Wisely, we flee into the temple interior rather than taking him on.
Inside, two robbers are having a chat by a fire. You approach them quietly (and stealthily - an on-screen eye icon indicates your level of visibility) through shafts of light filtering in from outside, which highlight snowflakes being swept around on air currents. As you move further into the dark, the lighting graduates beautifully to shadow. The two robbers are discussing how their colleague Arvel grabbed the dragon's claw and raced deep into the temple.
Skyrim's combat is as elegant and varied as everything else about it. On console at least, the triggers control what's in each hand. Equipped with a sword and shield, you could hold down the right trigger for a powerful attack or bash with the shield using the left.
You could also switch to a two-handed weapon like the bow and arrow and attack from range. Or you can mix it up by throwing spells in there. Perhaps a nice fire spell on the left hand and a healing one on the right. Or vice versa. Or both hands doing fire, because as well as certain spells being chargeable, dual-wielding yields even greater effects.
In this case we just shoot them in the head with arrows (using a bow perk to zoom in and steady our aim). They crumple. Further along there's another dude, and this time we get up close. The physical combat is really visceral, especially in first-person - blood splatters the screen, each strike visibly and audibly hurts the recipient.
This robber starts cursing as his demise becomes imminent. The coup de grace is a contextual finishing move - a charged-up sword blow translates into a grab and upward thrust into his midriff. The whole encounter - a throwaway, of course - feels stylish and weighty.
Had we not killed him, we could have observed him wandering into the circular chamber further down an undulating round tunnel, where moss-covered stones with symbols lie strewn about ahead of a portcullis. There's also a lever, which he might have pulled, demonstrating that the wrong configuration of nearby symbols results in a volley of poisonous darts to the face. Instead we get them in the face ourselves. The puzzle is easy to solve, it turns out - the order of symbols is hinted at elsewhere in the room.
Beyond the chamber we're rewarded with treasure, including a soul gem, which is relevant for enchanting - buffing items, effectively. There's also an Elven glass sword and a Frost Rune. The Frost Rune can be used to create a sort of proximity bomb on the ground, which is bad news for any enemies who wander over it. Later on we also find a Staff of Magelight, which fires little balls of light into the darkness. You can dual-wield staffs. (Hubba.)
Arvel is in another cavernous area down some spiral wooden stairs. We can hear his voice. Ominously, cobwebs accumulate and thicken the further we go, and predictably but in no way disappointingly, Skyrim's own little incidental take on Shelob emerges and has to be put down before you can reach Arvel, who is caught in her web.
You can interrogate him about the dragon's claw, and he says he knows how it works and the incredible Nord power it unlocks, and that he'll cut you in if you cut him down. Obviously he then does a runner. "You fool," he says, running away. "Why should I share the treasure with anyone?" Because otherwise I'll fire a slow-motion arrow into the back of your head and steal your claw and journal anyway. Bye bye, Arvel.