The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011 Video Game) User Reviews

A Milestone in Gaming History

[dekkar5 · 10/10 · 21 November 2011]

I have been playing video games for almost 20 years now. I have played games in every category imaginable and have had countless favorites over the years.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim surpasses all of these with flying colors.

It is a giant play place. A beautifully crafted sandbox filled to the brim with HUNDREDS of hours of action, dialogue and epic quests. You will climb the highest mountains, crawl the deepest dungeons, wield the greatest weapons and fight the mightiest creatures.

The game is gorgeous. It's landscapes, cities and towns are lush and vibrant with detail.

Skyrim features professional voice acting talent by greats such as Michael Hogan, Joan Allen and Max von Sydow.

Skyrim's main storyline is but a mere fraction of its content and you will easily find yourself enraptured in it's fantastical world; unable to break away as you pour your time into it almost unwillingly.

It is simply marvelous. Words do not do it justice.

Enter the World. And say goodbye to a real life.

[851222 · 10/10 · 26 November 2011]

Greetings from Lithuania.

I'm writing this review, while meantime on the other PC i'm playing The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. WHAT a game! Can't remember the last time i was SO ADDICTED to a virtual game before. I'm playing for almost 80 hours already (!), and i'm not even in the middle of it yet! The graphics are gorgeous. Writing is top notch. But the game play, the open world, the hundreds of interesting quests, dungeons, dragons, bandits, magic, armors, castles, battles, wars, vampires, werewolves, mags, warriors, ... and so on and so on - it's just UNBELIEVABLE, how in the world creators have put all this stuff in one game! My favorite game before Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was "Fallout 3" but i thing it's time to say that i have a new king of games - SKYRIM. Buy it, play it, LIVE IT - because this is the game for the ages.

Hands down, this a Milestone in Gaming History!

...a kind freedom that you cannot possibly experience in real life...

[utku_kamil_ozen · 10/10 · 14 November 2021]

Long have I wanted to write a review for this game, but it's such a great game and it deserves such an in-depth review that I've been avoiding the task. Finally, I decided to write a review in two different aspects of the game; first what it represents as a video game and secondly its gameplay.

Video games, in the past, had been something that were not taken seriously by the general public. Although some people still ridicule video games, they are now a new form of art and a giant industry. People who are not interested in video games will often tell you that ''it's not real'' and they'd rather experience something real. And I can relate to that. I'd rather have a ride on a real roller coaster than experiencing it on VR. But that doesn't apply to everything. It is really so much fun operating a battle tank in a video game, but you would s**t yourself in real life if you were in a tank and a shell hits your tank and makes a sound like a thunder! And reality comes with its limitations. There are no dragons in real life! And human body is so boringly fragile. Video games liberate us from these chains of reality. I remember reading a story in which there was this character who sits on a log or something in the wild and watches the scenery and wishes he was free from human needs like eating, sheltering, etc. So he could enjoy that scenery as long as he wanted. Video games do that, removes the limitations of reality so you can do whatever you want. If you are a non-gamer, think of games as dreams. While you are dreaming, it feels so real and intense, in fact, as far as the person who is dreaming is concerned, it is very much real at that moment. Then you wake up and you go on with your life. That's exactly how my relationship with games is. As long as you have your priorities straight and maintain a healthy balance, video games could be a most rewarding thing in your life and on some occasions, they may even make some improvements in your life! The only reason I can type this review in English right now is the video games. That's how I learned English, by playing games. I can clearly pinpoint some critical milestones in the past that have helped greatly advance my English. One of them was a meticulously detailed and thorough walkthrough of Fallout 2 which I had to refer to hundreds of times, obsessively, I'll admit. And the other one was reading unit descriptions in various games' wikis, as a sort of ASMR, the most notable of these was Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance, I'd go to the wiki page and pick a unit from the 'complete unit list' and read about them. I digress, the point is video games are not that bad and they are about a kind freedom that you cannot possibly experience in real life...

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is the pinnacle of the sort of freedom that I was talking about. Right at the very beginning of the game, like a doctor might put his patient under hypnosis just in a second, you awake in this new world. Aptly named and beautiful 'Awake' from the soundtrack starts playing, then you first hear horses walking and slowly open your eyes, you realize you are a prisoner being taken to somewhere. Soon, you create your character race and physical appearance and after a short series of scripted events, which also serve as the tutorial of the game, you emerge from a cave and you are amazed by the world in which you are now. Jeremy Soule's(composer) music is just perfect and I can't even describe it, I'm not eloquent enough, all I'll say about his music is that thousands of people, including myself, go to sleep every night, while still listening to this game's soundtrack, after all these years, even if not playing actively at the time. It's magical... You are now free to do any quest in the game, in any way you'd like, in any time you'd like and in any order you'd like; except the main quest line, you need to do those in their order, but even those give you a lot of freedom in terms of your pace and choices and they are independent from the many side quests of the game and they won't intercept or interrupt with each other and you can delay or pause and continue whenever you want. You can now slowly become a warrior or a mage or an assassin or something in between, and with enough time, you can be all of these things at the same time, while going from one place to another in one of the most beautiful open maps of any game. Really, you'll love this open world so much that you'll travel on foot most of the time, even though you have an option to fast-travel there, even more freedom... The open world is so detailed and full of surprises and easter eggs and stories that do not necessarily effect anything in the game, but they are just there to make the world more real and interesting. You'll come across a skeleton in some cave and there is a letter or journal next to it, so you can read his/her story. I don't want to put a spoiler warning on this review, so, I'll not talk about these things specifically, there are so many of them anyway, nor will I detail any of the quests. All you need to know is that you can slay dragons and only you can absorb their powers. And if games intimidate you because of how much other people are good at them, you are not in competition with anyone, do whatever you want on your own pace and difficulty setting, for example I turn the early game into hell by playing at the legendary difficulty from the very start, but you can start at 'easy' and you'll be a bully. Sorry I had to brag there for a second, it's a thing gamers do. But seriously, play however you want. You are gonna start over a lot of times anyway, so, don't be afraid to make some ''mistakes'' in your initial character. There are no rules; I always play as a noble hero, I don't steal, I don't attack some poor peasant for no reason, etc. But if you want to do that, you can! You can sneak around and assassinate poor innocent people, you can steal and bribe the guards if you get caught or even intimidate them! Play the game as a true role-playing game and be whatever you want to be and enjoy and explore that beautiful world...

The gameplay of Skyrim, just like its quests and story, gives you a lot of freedom, to the point of breaking the balance. But in a game like this, it's not necessarily a bad thing. In most similar games, you choose a class such as a wizard or a warrior; in Skyrim you can be both and more at the same time. There is no level limit, so you can continue picking perks in all masteries and eventually excel at everything! This ''lack of balance'' is really not an issue in my opinion, for several reasons: It fits the story of the game, you are the mighty Dragonborn after all, it gives you freedom and it takes time and effort to get there anyway. The controls might be confusing at first; activating spells, equipping swords in both hands or equipping a spell in one hand and a melee weapon on the other, accessing your consumables, etc. But once you get used to it, it becomes alright. Now, here in 'gameplay' section, I'll have some slight criticism of the game. Even though I've talked about how much I love the open world, it is not big enough(I can't get enough of it). I don't know why I had not realized it initially, but after some time, one realizes how ridiculously small Skyrim is. You go from one village to another in mere minutes, and I don't mean fast travel, I mean on foot. You climb the highest mountain in Skyrim in a few minutes. This is actually a general thing about video games and most of the time for a good reason. For example, you can't make your tanks shoot at a few kilometers or miles in a strategy game, gameplay would have become so impractical, to the point of unplayable. But in a game like Skyrim, making a mountain really big would be to the benefit of the game, everything would have felt more epic. Imagine a High Hrothgar, the mountain I was talking about earlier, at the size of Mount Everest! Instead, you have something so tiny... It might not look so, but you realize it when it took you 5 minutes to climb to its summit. I'd rather have a real size mountain that would take real life hours to climb. This same criticism about the size also applies to the other games by Bethesda, namely Fallout games... Everything's so tightly packed, there are no spaces in between. Although it may be a good thing in the short term for a more active gameplay, I think it's to the detriment of the game eventually. And even though the game has a lot of replay value, I think that mostly comes from things that are not related to the size of the map; like people's choices, different races, etc. I would love to have a Skyrim in which I could discover some new things and places after years because of the size of it. Imagine if it was the size of Siberia or something like that. But I guess it would be technically too difficult to have such a big map and attention to detail at the same time. Maybe someday... I haven't talked about the mods because I never use any mods in my games, but that's an OCD thing of mine, I'm pretty sure there are a lot of good stuff in mods that I am missing out on. And because it is one of the most popular games of all time, there are plenty of people making mods for it. But still, the vanilla game alone is rich enough and it has several good DLCs on top. Good enough for me anyway.

Despite this has been somewhat of a lengthy review, it cannot possibly cover everything about Skyrim. Buy it and play it. By the way, it is really a timeless game, if you are thinking that it's a thing of past or something, they have just released a 10th anniversary edition. And people still play and make YouTube videos about Skyrim and even the previous Elder Scrolls game Oblivion. Escape from reality's chains for a moment, it's not a bad thing...

Greatest Open World RPG Made

[john_jaxs · 10/10 · 14 November 2011]

Presentation: An elegant menu system and a huge amount of story content to dig into.

Graphics: Stunning environmental detail make exploring Skyrim all the more rewarding. Some character models and animations look unnatural.

Sound: An incredible soundtrack and great sound design help make Skyrim feel like a real place.

Gameplay: Though the up-close weapon combat is still a little awkward, customizing your character and conquering all Skyrim's challenges is consistently satisfying.

Lasting Appeal: A game of staggering size and filled with content, so there's always a reason to return.

The game is amazing and you will spend hours upon hours finding every mystery of Skyrim, the guys behind the Elder Scrolls series are the true masters of open world RPGs, so you can't go wrong when you buy one of their games.

A must try game, for any person

[thegreatcory · 10/10 · 5 December 2011]

It's been the better part of a year since they first announced that 'Skyrim', the sequel to The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, was in production. I was pretty darned hyped, because I absolutely loved Oblivion and thought it was a great game, despite some problems it had.

But as the release date for Skyrim neared I grew a bit apprehensive... I've played enough games from Bethesda that I knew it was gonna be great, but I started to worry it wouldn't live up to the massive expectations I(and many others, it seems) had for the game. Everything I had seen, from trailers to game play snippets to early reviews from those lucky enough to try the early demos all fueled my expectations, and I know from experience that even if a game turns out to be pretty darned good you can end up somewhat disappointed if it's not the masterpiece you envisioned it would be.

Well my friends, three and a half weeks after launch, and some 109+ hours of time spent playing it I can safely say my fears were unfounded. Skyrim is easily one of if not THE best games I've ever played, and I've played hundreds.

I will note that it is not without fault.. like pretty much all massive sandbox games from Bethesda it does have some bugs and glitches, but so far in my experience they are few and far between, and nothing that has distracted me much from the immersiveness and incredible scope that the game has to offer. I debated whether to give it a '9' rather than a '10' because of the very minor issues that have arisen, but I finally decided that the problems with the game are so tiny compared to the positives, that I would be nitpicking if I deducted a whole point; But to be fair, if I could score it out of 100 I'd give it a very solid 98.

Todd Howard may be a genius, but he has some serious work ahead of him if he plans on eclipsing his own high water mark with this work of art. I for one wish him the best of luck. ;) In my 25 years of gaming I've found that it's easy for a well made video game to keep your interest level high enough to be more enjoyable in hour ten than it was in the first hour of playtime, but it's a very rare game indeed that is more fun and more engrossing in hour 100+ than it was in hour 50. Skyrim is that game.

Does this game ever end?

[neverteller33 · 10/10 · 5 July 2012]

And I'm not talking about the quests, but the atmosphere, the feeling it gives, the sheer joy of being there. Skyrim takes what is great from both Morrowind and Oblivion, improving on it tremendously, becoming in itself a huge epic. Nevermind the bugs, the glitches. It is simply breathtaking. I must admit, I am what one would call a hardcore fan of the series, and very pretentious about my fantasies... This is a game in which the hero is a Hero in everything he does. As a player, you will never stop fulfilling prophecies. It is rewarding every step of the way, like no game before it. I have been playing Skyrim since November, finished it in December. Fan or not... I ask you... Why can't I stop (July the following year)? I have my own supposition. Maybe it's because this game never ceases to amaze me. It never ends. Just like the world.

the greatest game ever made

[samball-28104 · 10/10 · 19 August 2019]

This game changed my life. I have probably played through it at least 15 times. I got this for my 8th birthday when it came out expecting nothing from it and here I am in 2019 after platinuming it twice on two different accounts and no game has yet topped it. I recommend this to anyone who is even alive

Accessible, huge, addictive, attractive and great value for money in terms of £ per hour!

[bob the moo · 23 January 2012]

"I'm not really into all that wizards and dwarfs nonsense" I told a friend when he talked about the new Elder Scrolls game, a series I had no interest in and even less knowledge of. The connection to the Fallout games though meant that I knew the basic gameplay would appeal to me since I like the idea of RPG but not the incredibly detailed stats packages that most come with – selecting equipment, taking notes and digging in menus I'm fine with, but too much detail I'm not. As a result I picked this game up, still not totally sure that I would like the loss of guns and dark comedy that I got with Fallout 3 and NV.

Very quickly I was into the game because I love getting caught up in the exploration, getting quests, finding stuff, building up my character and so on, all to the point where I really didn't progress the story very much until I had already played about 100 hours. The amount of quests is ridiculous and most of them do actually give you something to do other than just travel somewhere and come back. There are quests like that (the Thieves Guild "job" quests get tedious before you complete them) but they are the minority. The actual story is probably too short (ironic complaint for a game that I put down after filling the last few months and eating well over 100 hours); I left it at the end of Act 1 and when I returned to it I was surprised by how quickly I moved through the remainder of it to the end. I was also a little bit disappointed that the story did seem to stand alone and that it was easy to lose the plot if I spend ages doing lots of side-quests which rarely seemed to connection. Fallout NV got the mix better in terms of the storyline as so many side quests supported the story. It still engaged me because the vast majority of the quests were really enjoyable and provided lots to do and experience, just that they did fragment the story a little for me.

In terms of the gameplay, it is accessible to the majority, which means lots of fringe players will be upset. So, for example, I would have liked the dungeon puzzles to have been harder, but I know they were still OK so as to be fun for me but not frustratingly hateful for those that don't like puzzles! The levelling up system makes a lot of sense to be – if you keep doing something, you'll get better at it – works really well as an idea and in practice. I know it upsets "proper" RPG players who prefer limits on who you can be and lots more stats, but I felt it worked – I didn't pick who I was at the start, my character grew based on how I played – so my magic stayed weak because I never used it, unlike other games where you just assign points to a skill to make it better. The gameplay is varied but well balanced – so yes there is trading and making potions, but there is exploring, battles, talking to others, puzzle-solving etc – nobody seeking just one thing to be perfect will be happy, but again this is why the game is accessible and enjoyable to more players.

Graphically the game is beautiful. The load screens when entering a new area are fine until you're doing lots of rapid travelling, but in the open world of Skyrim you can walk for hours and hours and hours without ever seeing a loadscreen. The world ranges from snowy mountains to open green pastures and it all looks great. I did miss the humour of Fallout with this and the rather worthy talk of gods and kings didn't always win me over, but it still worked. The voice work is good and I accepted things like "all guards have the same voice" because such compromises makes room for more detail in other more important ways.

Overall Skyrim has good variation in gameplay and is engaging. The world is full of quests and experiences, with so much to do and explore that you will be playing this for days, not hours. Perhaps not for everyone and perhaps not as perfect as the hype suggests, but this is still a very good and very engaging and once you get into it, you'll be playing it for a good long time.

This is My favourite game ever and i LOVE the elder scrolls series

[tp-evans · 10/10 · 6 January 2012]

Skyrim has got to be the best game ever it has everything you could ever want in an Rpg it has OUTSTANDING! Graphics and is practically limitless and endless from fighting dragons to bar brawls this game has everything with a incredible amount of customisation you can do anything and go anywhere in its massive area comparing this to call of duty would be like Pluto to the sun with skyrim obviously being the sun skyrim is the masterpiece of the a new generation of games and will stay at the top for a very long time The great and famous game developers at Bethesda have delivered a masterpiece and I'm certain they will do it again and again I'm very pleased with this amazing game i take my hat off to you Bethesda you have done it once again.

The best game of the 21st century?

[jayjaymadigan · 9/10 · 13 January 2012]

This game, really is one of the best games you'll ever play, a massive open end world, hundreds of quests, complete character customization, amazing story lines, you'll have trouble putting your pad down, I genuinely get excited every time I play this game, because of how massive the world is, every play through brings new adventures, new characters, new places, new stories and new rewards, you could play this game for months and find new things you previously never knew about, the graphics are out standing, immense game play, challenging boss fights, amusing dialogue, and a beautiful soundtrack really makes Skyrim stand out from all the rest, all I can really say is, if you're and RPG fan, and a fan of sandbox games, and want a game that's actually worth the price tag stuck to it, buy this you will not be disappointed! If i had to summarize it in a few words I would simply say, you need this game in your life!

Favorite game I've played. Ever.

[austinriggs-84643 · 10/10 · 27 March 2019]

I mean, how did they do this? I'm playing though for the 6th time now and with all of the mods there are it's interesting every time. I own about 300 video games and the only one I MIGHT like more is San Andreas. Only complaint I have is that because there are so many character combinations, your character doesn't have a voice. If you are looking for hours of fun-I've probably put 2000+ in-look no further.

Endless stories to be told

[andersondavidthomas · 10/10 · 4 July 2020]

While there is a main quest, Skyrim is unique in the fashion that you create your character and choose how they live their life. You create your own narrative, backstory, morals, and skills. Once you play through the game once you can play through many times and yet, you will never have the same story told twice unless you choose it to be. Want to play as a ex convict that found their way in life, fell in love, started a family and got a job fighting dragons? Or would you rather play as a mercenary just in it for the money and loot? Or maybe somewhere in between? Skyrim is a breakthrough in gaming. While there are glitches, they add to the the enjoyment of the game and will make you laugh. If you have it on PC I recommend getting some of the goofy mods to have more fun. This game is a must play.

Yes its good, but mostly quantity over quality.

[BudgetSecurityGames · 6/10 · 16 September 2015]

Huge amounts of content and freedom, but more quantity than quality at times. Other than the main quest, most things feel a bit bland, repetitive and uninspired.

Most places feel a bit lifeless, like the taverns, which are nearly empty and where next to nothing happens. Compare that to the taverns in, say, The Witcher games, which are bustling with activity. The terrible interface is built around the limits of consoles and their controllers. Level design is linear & restricted due to console hardware limitations. There is after all only so much you can get out of the Xbox 360's 500mb of system RAM! Most characters are still so 2-dimensional and a lot of voice acting is not convincing. There is also the usual lack of voice actors (kill a villain, then talk to quest giver who has same voice and tone).

If you liked Oblivion, or just about any other Bethesda open world game, you will like this too, but in many ways this game is not a big step up from Oblivion. That is, the devs are resting on their laurels. I hope 2015's The Witcher 3 will be better than Skyrim, as that might kick Bethesda into trying harder to innovate and make the next game even better.

The mod scene is very vibrant and there is a mod to improve on just about every weak aspect of the base game, but sadly, there are no huge seamless total-overhaul mod compilations, and getting lots of small mods to work together seamlessly is time consuming, and can be a total pain.

Don't get me wrong, this is a decent game, and you could easily sink 100s of hours into it even if you don't like it that much, but it is certainly not worthy of most of the hype. While I would recommend buying this in a sale, it is still arguably worth the full price.

Brilliant idea, terrible execution (PS3/PS4/PS5)

[AtypicalAdventurer · 2/10 · 19 December 2019]

I've never given a review this low for anything, but after having lost literally dozens of hours trying to mod, patch, fix, restart, and reinstall this game just to try to get it to function... I'm done with it. Playing a game should not feel like bailing out a sinking ship just to keep it afloat.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is a massive (mostly) open world game that explores many aspects of the classic medieval fantasy RPG, and does so reasonably well. But unfortunately, it has more than a handful of problems that significantly cut away from its otherwise beautiful world, and it is possibly one of the best examples of 'quantity over quality'.

A fundamental issue is the pace. I played for about 100 hours and still had a large majority of the game to play through, not even mentioning the 3 expansions. Which is awesome, and exactly what I like to see in an open world game. But despite being maybe 1/3rd through the game's content and story, I was essentially a maxed out character. I had the near best armour, spells, and weapons. And this was all achieved on the highest difficulty, AKA the slowest pace possible.

There was no more character growth to be had. I had almost maxed out both the combat and non combat perks that I wanted to touch upon, so the only growth left to be had was skills and perks that I had no interest in. Bethesda kind of fixed this by adding the 'legendary' version of perks, which enables you to level indefinitely, but you're not learning anything new-- just getting more levels.

In a game where I still had so much content left to explore, I had already grown bored of my character.

Skyrim is in the mix of many games that think 'higher difficulty' equals 'give everything a ridiculous amount of health'. As far as difficulty goes, it's pretty much a sliding scale from 'Godmode' (novice) to 'Die in 1 shot, kill them in 30' (legendary). As with all games that enforce this method of difficult, it is really immersion-breaking and unenjoyable, but at least can be fixed with mods.

Another thing that is totally wrong with Skyrim is magic. The spells you learn are interesting and reasonably diverse, but become ineffective very quickly or, in the case of a mage's MAIN method of dealing damage (destruction), are completely useless. This one is a complete gamekiller for me... without mods, a mage playthrough is just not enjoyable unless it's on an extremely low difficulty and finished before you reach a decent level.

Then there's the NPCs. Thanks to some mods I was able to enjoy a more realistic/immersive interaction with the cities and their inhabitants, but without them, you will soon begin to feel like you're stuck in the Truman Show, as all the NPCs near you will stare at you and recount their life stories, prompting you to engage them all immediately.

Hearing the same greetings/farewells/shop dialogue/everything else becomes tiresome very quickly. Not to mention the voice actors. The voice acting itself is fine but there are maybe 20 voice actors used for the majority of the NPCs throughout the game, which is a complete immersion killer as there are thousands of NPCs. A good example of this is the character who introduces you to the world (Ralof), who is voiced by the same actor who voices Ralof's brother in law, and also the introductory town's blacksmith. 3 NPCs out of a town of about 15 people, all voiced by the same guy. With a company as well-funded as Bethesda, they could afford to make each character a unique voice with a unique voice actor. I guess hiring 20 people is a lot cheaper?

But possibly the biggest & almost game-breaking flaw is the ridiculous amount of glitches and game crashes. It's become a bit of a running joke with Bethesda ("bugthesda") that their games are riddled with glitches, and while sometimes they're amusing, others can completely derail your experience. And you can expect around 5-10 crashes per gaming session, if you so dare to use mods... many of which are borderline necessary to play the game properly. The worst part is, this game has had SO many updates, expansions, and re-releases, yet they haven't really fixed anything meaningful over 10 years.

Skyrim is a beautiful game with delightful visuals, music, and exploration, but is significantly worsened due to lazy cost-effective game developments. I'd rate the vanilla game 7/10 if it weren't infested with an overwhelming amount of glitches, crashes, and disturbances... which, at the end of the day, make it nearly unplayable.

Modded Skyrim is a wonderful experience and far more enjoyable; 9/10. Unfortunately, 'Bugthesda's' flaw-ridden design makes it pretty much all for nothing.

Years of playing this game, watching others, it NEVER gets old!

[xxbldyxtrzxx-77111 · 10/10 · 27 April 2020]

I originally started skyrim when it came out 7-8 years ago. Since then, I've bought it 5 different times, from switching consoles, played through it differently each time. Whether it was a nord,or any of the other races and 2 handed, 1 handed 1 magic, mage, all of it. It is still my favorite game I've ever played. Im 30. Grew up with nes,snes,sega, e.t.c. I plan on getting the imperial dragon as a tattoo because of how much this game means to me. I know it sounds silly, but this game has saved my life. Ive been through alot. I found my brother after he committed suicide, have lost alot of friends from suicide and overdose, seen family go in and out of hospitals. This game has always been an escape of mine. ALOT of my friends play it as well, so its not only therapeutic to play, but to watch. I've watched game play on YouTube to see others play as well. Needless to say, one of the best games ever made. Completely immersive. You are doing yourself a dishonor by not playing this. If you're a fan of open world rpg's, PLAY THIS GAME!!!!!

My favorite game ever

[thekingcobramma · 10/10 · 22 August 2021]

I swear I most have replayed the story on this game at least 20 times. This game is a true masterpiece, from the story to open world this game is definitely one of the best games ever made. One of the main things I love about this game is that there is so much to explore, it's a huge open world game with so many things to find and so many collectables to collect. Bethesda really knew what they were doing when they were making this game, the graphics and scenery in this game are brilliant especially in the remastered version. The DLC were also good, one of them being a new location were the player can explore and do more missions. I would highly recommend people to try this game out, it's just a true masterpiece and one of the GOATS.

An epic fantasy within an epic game!

[mallen92506 · 10/10 · 7 June 2013]

Normally I do a Good, Bad and Verdict on my written reviews but in the case of this game, aside from a few minor bugs and nitpicks, I can't think of any complaints about this game. This is pretty much my perfect game!

There are so many stories in this game, all of them really work well and in no way conflict with one-another, and with a game this big with so many stories within it, that must have been really tough. The main quest is very intriguing and builds to an awesome finish. Even the side quests and the downloadable content is very good, my personal favourite of these being the Dawnguard questline, though that is largely due to the new characters but will mention that in a bit.

The world is absolutely beautiful, from the snowy environments and forests to the dungeons and caves. The detail in the world is immense and you could tell the team behind the game put everything they had into it, creating a unique land and filling it with unique characters and creatures. The Dawnguard expansion had some of the best environments not just in this game but in any game. The Forgotten Vale is unbelievably beautiful and it's extenuated by the musical score. I've heard that Jeremy Soule is the John Williams of video games and before this game I didn't think much of him. But in this game I'm completely sold on him and it feels like the timing and mixing is spot on. When you see something beautiful or threatening you get the perfect musical accompaniment for it. Obviously the main theme is epic, one of my favourite pieces of music of all time.

As for the characters, despite having a lot of the same voices, they make up for in creating distinct personalities, including Lydia, the character everyone remembers. Though there are very unique characters with big name voice artists, like Christopher Plummer as Arngier, Joan Allen as Delphine and my favourite character Serana played by Laura Bailey. She has one of the best (if not THE best) back stories in the entire game, she has a great conflict and I love her interactions and reactions in the world. The enemies are awesome too, I love Alduin as the main villain, I love the Daedric Princes (Sheogorath and Clavicus Vile are my favs), I love Miraak and the other dragon priests, and even the dragons you fight can provide a major challenge.

As for the character you control, he's anything you want him or her to be. You can just ignore the main questline and do your own thing. You don't even have to kill things, you can just go around and help people out and build your own house (with Hearthfire). Or you can even go around and literally do everything in the game and that's what a great sandbox game should do in my opinion. I love the enormous variety of weapons and armours and general clothing you can get in the game, my favourite combo being Ebony Mail, ebony gauntlets and boots, Zahkriisos the dragon priest mask, Nordic arrows and either the Ebony Bow or Ebony Blade. Kickass dark assassin look!

I only have two issues with the game. One is the bugs and there are quite a few of them but with such a huge game there's bound to be a few. The other is the dragon riding mechanics they introduced in Dragonborn. It doesn't give you the freedom I wanted, and it's something that another one of my favourite games, Drakan the Ancient's Gates, trumps Skyrim. I desperately wanted something like that in the game but for what I got I liked it fine, especially seeing the world from that height.

My verdict: It's my all time favourite game, I can't praise this game enough. I love it so much I'm actually gonna buy the Legendary Edition on PC so I can have everything for the game plus the Creation Kit so I can put my personal mark on the game. I haven't stopped playing it since I got it and I ain't slowing down now!

I used to distrust Bethesda, but then I took a Skyrim to the knee

[petra_ste · 8/10 · 26 February 2014]

I wasn't a fan of Bethesda before Skyrim - their "quantity over quality, freedom over narrative" philosophy rubbed me the wrong way. Still, this sandbox RPG is a colossal achievement.

Game world is amazing: rich, detailed, meticulously crafted. The biggest surprise is the greater attention to storytelling this time around (see the compelling prologue, as the protagonist is escorted towards his execution before a last-minute escape), and a strong main quest.

Also, dragons. The stroke of genius was making their attacks mostly unscripted, which adds unpredictability. One of the highlights of the game had me leaving all equipment behind for an undercover mission in an enemy base, only to be assaulted by a dragon as I was crossing the courtyard; another memorable moment had my character hiding in a frozen tundra in the middle of nowhere as a dragon and a giant furiously fought each other.

The game still spreads itself too thin - countless subquests are still of the "go to dungeon X and kill this/find that" variety - and once again total freedom gets in the way of narrative and choice&consequence: see for example how you can become Arch-Mage with a relatively untrained protagonist, with everyone else in the guild still a better wizard than you, or how most subplots don't affect each other in any major way.

Still, it's hard not to be intrigued by Skyrim's sprawling scale and scope.

A tricky one.

[doesitactuallymatter · 8/10 · 28 November 2011]

The Elder Scrolls franchise has been a staple for the RPG genre for quite some time now. Skyrim builds on top of what made the previous titles great while reworking some core features.

The game is good. From a strictly objective point of view, the sheer amount of production value that's gone into it makes it a Class-A title. It looks fantastic, the game world is huge, the voice acting is overall very good and it's just easy to get into.

There's a catch, though.

What Skyrim offers is not for everyone. Any TES game attempts to diffuse the line between video game and roleplaying, and it does so by creating an open world with tons of content and dropping the player into it.

Most games don't take much from a player, other than his/her presence and control input. It might be more or less challenging, surprising or rich, but the story and everything else in the game is scripted, rendering the player more of an observer than an actor in it. Skyrim tries to fight this linear approach by letting you do whatever.

The flipside is that in order for the player to achieve that much freedom in the game, there aren't any solid structures in terms of story, gameplay, decision-making, character development or consequences.

This pattern applies to every aspect of Skyrim, such as quests. With a few exceptions, there's not much in the way of awesome scripting or storytelling. Just a bunch of people asking you to kill someone or fetch an item from some ancient ruins. Even the main quest feels underwhelming and short, when it should be an epic tale of dragons and chosen-one-ism.

To sort of illustrate how the game does not hold your hand, there's the nowadays very popular moral choice bit. We're used to games presenting us with a moral dilemma that will have some tangible consequence. Choose to save Jack, get him as a companion, but Jill dies. Save Jill, Jack's Guild of Awesome Peeps will become hostile towards you. Kill both, get the gold and unlock the bad ending. Skyrim does not work this way at all. At one point, I was jogging along in some city, minding my own business, when a guy walks up to me and asks for my assistance investigating a house. We went in and I got myself mixed up with some sort of demonic lord that forced me to kill this guy. Then, he sent me to look for some kind of priest and lure him into a trap. He died too. I got a cool mace as a reward. Never heard from the demon dude again. Now, in the eyes of a traditional gamer, this made me evil. I killed at least one innocent person. But in Skyrim, there was no consequence. No negative karma points. No bad ending. No Jack becoming hostile towards me. Likewise, there was no dialogue choice to let me back out of the quest. No way to not kill the innocent guy or kill the demon instead. No way of concluding the quest differently. So how does that work? Well, if I really wanted my character to stay good and pure, I had the possibility to just not do the quest. I'd still have it in my quest log and I wouldn't have gotten any sort of reward for being "good" but at least I wouldn't have done the demon's bidding.

Again, freedom vs. structure.

The point is, what your character becomes, the reasons for his actions and how he is judged, is up to you and you alone. The game will not slap you in the wrist for being bad or reward you for being good.

Thus, Skyrim turns out to be a conflictive, confusing and boring game for some and a very enjoyable blank canvas with endless possibilities and replayability value for others.

One other anecdotal illustration. Since I'm really bad at real roleplaying, I decided to keep somewhat of a journal in a .txt as I played the game as if my character was writing it. During the time I was doing this, I enjoyed the game immensely. I made up a story for my character and it was heaps of fun. At some point, due to poor writing skills and lack of creativity, I couldn't follow through with it and just kept playing the game. After a while, the game just became absolutely tedious and repetitive. To me, this made very clear that the more creatively, intellectually and emotionally invested you are in the game, the more rewarding the experience will be. Skyrim is a clean slate. If you can make it work, it's going to be one of the most rewarding RPG experiences that you'll have, but it does take some effort and imagination getting there.

As I approach the end of this review, I realize that reviewing a game like Skyrim is pointless in itself, because there's not much to review. Every player should have a different experience when playing it, because the game bets on the player to do just that: be whoever he wants to be and do whatever he wants to do.

If you're looking for a game that gives you the freedom to do anything and actually *roleplay*, give it a go. If you want solid storytelling, structured content and to be awe-struck by what you're seeing on the screen, try something else.

Best Open World RPG I have played.

[PersianCinephile · 10/10 · 2 March 2019]

Well-written story for both Main and Side-Quests. Amazing sound track that turn this game to an unforgettable epic. Easy UI, relatively simple Awesomely active community with a lot of mods and extra content you could use. The game is a must-play.

Best Fantasy Game In Video Game History.

[jebyvyson · 10/10 · 21 September 2019]

I wasn't really into magical, mystic, fantasy that much. I been wanting to try Skyrim ever since it became a meme and now 7 or 8 years later, I finally got my hands on it. I heard from people it's the best video game in history, it's overrated, too many bugs, it makes the game more fun. I decided to get into it for myself.

While playing the game, I was very addicted to it and it would be the only game I played on the Xbox One from December to April. I finally beaten the story in July or August and decided to keep it for awhile and I stop. This game made me fall in love with the fantasy genre and it got me into watching The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The story was pretty simple, the music was heavy and inspiring, the combat felt strong and hard, and the journey takes the spotlights in this game.

I was very glad that I actually played this game and want to try other Elder Scrolls games, mostly Oblivion. With The Elder Scrolls VI coming soon ( and hopefully make a new engine), I'm onboard with The Elder Scrolls series and its fans.

Could be epic if it wasn't for the bugs.

[nemod12 · 9/10 · 4 May 2015]

I picked this game up a bit later than the most people. i didn't played Oblivion and i was very new to the series. I played Fallot 3 later than Skyrim , and i am going to come back on than in a minute,

Where to start>! I have 510 hours of game play into my 360 file on the xbox, and i enjoyed a good 500 of them. So there is a real good game in here. It's big. It's open. Apart from a little clumsy fighting control with melee, i got along without any frustration. Maybe some negative reviewers felt the story was lame but if you're new to the genre it's very amusing. There is so many to do and to explore. And i think that did a bit too much. You can have so many different quest at a time. And i have at least 4 quest that i cannot complete. Cannot get the achievements for them. And after 510 hours game play its frustrating. Playing Fallout a while ago made me very happy to pick this up once more. Nearly not as many quests but the solid cracking game play was just refreshing. A little step backwards from Bethesda in my opinion. I cannot recall a bug in the whole game. Still love skyrim though. It has great replay value. I see myself playing it again. I am however afraid quest glitches will be around on the console and we have to deal with it. On the other hand. If you do not care too much about achievements there is plenty of content here that keeps you busy for many many good hours of game play. Decoraating my house was just amazing imo. Even with th bugs. If not for the bugs i gave it a 9.8.

A masterpiece of role-playing style

[sinapd · 2 November 2020]

I experienced many beautiful games such as Witcher, Assassin's Creed, Fallout 4, God of War and ... But I lived with elder Scrolls Skyrim! If you haven't tried this role-playing title yet, you know you missed a masterpiece Good visual effects (new remaster version) Fantastic story Beautiful characterization Very beautiful music The fun gameplay and rich world of this game have made Skyrim a game that you can play and live with for days, weeks, months and maybe years.

Overrated and buggy

[JDR_2001 · 6/10 · 2 April 2023]

Look I wanted to like the game I loved the previous game "Oblivion" but this game isn't great. It's super buggy I couldn't finish a mission because the dragon wouldn't show up I tried over and over again but to no avail you would think Skyrim developers would fix that in the remastered version but nope. The game also drags on with each mission requiring you to travel halfway across the map to get one item it definitely is one of the most overrated games of all time. The magic is annoying you have to draw your weapon every time you want to use it. I can understand why some like this game but it just wasn't for me.

It's not 2011 anymore...

[legoproductionstheaters · 1/10 · 24 November 2018]

I would first like to start by saying I played this when it first came out. And back then it was a good game, but still littered with many many bugs. I recently purchased it again for PS4. 7 years later and Bethesda still can't fix any of these bugs?! There are game breaking glitches where I can longer progress which is what caused me to write this review. And people still praise this to be one of the best games created? I understand it's fun to customize your character and play around and explore the world. But those are the only areas that are acceptable. They are still repetitive. Aside from that the game offers a lackluster story that is way too short for a game of this size. Many of the quests are only lengthy because it requires you to run across the entire map that is empty as can be. (This applies to side quests as well). Anything you explore isn't worth it because all the loots is bad and each dungeon and cave all looks the same with the same enemy types. In 2018, with games like the Witcher 3 out, Skyrim is inexcusable, especially for being released the amount of times that it was.