Skyrim is torn by civil war: A weakened Empire struggles to retain control of the province, while rebel Nords vie for self-determination. Dragons have returned after centuries, and nobody knows why. Undead infest the crypts, cairns, and barrows, and more dangerous things haunt deep Dwarven ruins. Elsewhere, ordinary people are living their lives. Guilds struggle to reclaim past glory, shopkeepers try to scrape by, lovers quarrel, and everyone could use your help. Time to make your mark on the world.
Skyrim is a first-person RPG with a wide array of skills and abilities, loosely clumped under three main archetypes: the mage, the warrior, and the thief. Unlike earlier Elder Scrolls games, though, there are no tagged skills or premade character classes. Play the game how you like, and your character gets better at what it does most. Our first character was a flame-casting, axe-wielding Nord, but there are eight other player races and innumerable play styles, and Shouts add a new kind of mana-less magic to the game. The game’s voice acting (for the most part), interface, and graphics are also leaps ahead of Oblivion’s. Combat is more satisfying, if a bit repetitive after a while. Even killing dragons becomes almost routine as you increase in power.
You saw a mudcrab the other day? We saw this.
Skyrim’s main quest is an incredible tale that brings you from one end of the province to the other, from the highest mountain to the lowest depths, and encompasses stealth, diplomacy, adventuring, exploration, and a lot of combat. But it’s a greatest-hits collection for a prolific band. It’s a good starting point, and you’ll get some of the best content, but if it’s the only album you listen to, you’ll miss most of the material, including stuff that’s better than any of the hits. With superhuman focus you could beat the main quest in maybe 25 hours, but that’s not how you should play Skyrim. Even running from one objective to another, we inevitably got sidetracked for hours by something—a small town, a crypt, a ruin—we spotted in passing. We clocked 55 hours of play time before reluctantly focusing on the main quest and still felt we’d just scratched the surface. One editor has put 90 hours in and has barely touched the main quest at all.
It wouldn’t be a Bethesda open-world game without a heaping tablespoon of weirdness. Animals judder into the landscape or appear hundreds of feet in the air, then fall to their deaths. Every guard you meet complains about the arrow he took in the knee. Books and plates render slightly inside the shelves they’re on, then go flying across the room. A giant’s club rises into the air like a helium balloon. At times, the game would crash to desktop every hour or so. Good thing there’s a mod for that.
Dragons require a lot of percussive maintenance.
That’s one of the best things about playing Skyrim on a PC. In addition to the graphical superiority—consoles ain’t got nothing on Skyrim at 1920x1200 at Ultra settings—the modding community corrects for bugs and idiosyncrasies faster than the developers. Look past the inevitable nude mods, and you’ll see high-res texture packs, patches to fix Bethesda’s blocky faces, interface tweaks, and more. This isn’t to say Skyrim is a really buggy game. The few bugs that aren’t fixed by patches or mods aren’t enough to dampen our enthusiasm for the game world or the story.
If Skyrim was only as good as Morrowind or Oblivion, it’d be unskippable. But it’s much, much better. It’s certainly the best game Bethesda’s ever made, and one of the best we’ve ever played. It’s not without weird bugs and quirks, but the gameplay, story, and amount of content are all staggering, and we’ll be playing it for months to come.
$60, www.elderscrolls.com, ESRB: M
Vast, content-filled world; hundreds of hours of stuff to do; good leveling system, fun combat, compelling story.
Occasionally buggy; not the most graphically intense game ever.
Athlonite
March 02, 2012 at 3:41am
you guys want more from this game from multiple wives to shag every woman in skyrim then go here http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/index.php (hint to see the adult content you'll need to sign up) but other than that there's a mountain of mods on here something for everyone and I've logged about 300hrs so far
RUSENSITIVESWEETNESS
January 24, 2012 at 5:24am
I'm waiting for an "Unofficial" community patch to fix the THOUSANDS of bugs left in the game by BETHESDA'S SLOPPY CODERS before dropping a dime on the game.
Papaspud
January 24, 2012 at 2:31am
Finally decided to finish the main quest....250 hours..... I didn't finish probably 1/3 of all the quests, what a great game. I have been playing on an old C2Q and pair of old 285's [my rig is 3 years old] and the game runs well, perfect no ,but damn good. I have at least 50+ mods on it and the game looks gorgeous, especially if you play in 3D.. very immersive!! Is it perfect..no, but it gives me great hope for the future of games.
This from a person that just could not get into oblivion at all, in fact, I waited a month after TES-skyrim came out before I decided to buy it, good choice.
dgrmouse
January 24, 2012 at 1:33am
Possibly the best game ever, but I might be saying the exact opposite if I didn't have an XBox 360 gamepad. I was absolutely, positively, disgusted when I first launched the game on release day and discovered that I couldn't remap movement to the number-pad. I absolutely detest WASD, and not being able to remap the keys would've ruined the game for me. After screwing up something so basic with Fallout 3, I can't believe they did it again with Skyrim. Failing to include proper provisions for remapping keys is a slap in the face to all of their PC gaming fans.
RUSENSITIVESWEETNESS
January 24, 2012 at 5:20am
Bethesda is a kiddie console company. Welcome to Shitty Portville!
Jeffredo
January 23, 2012 at 8:10pm
Logged about 350 hours total since 11.11.11 on three characters. I still liked Oblivion and Fallout 3 better, but Skyrim is loads of fun. If you're on PC "SkyBoost" is a must have mod. Gives a big increase in FPS in cities.
Travatron
January 23, 2012 at 5:46pm
I have near 200 hours in this game, and that fact should tell you I thoroughly enjoy it.
However, I don't think it's worth a Kick Ass by any sense of the word. You mentioned yourself it was so buggy it crashed every few hours (thanks to only being able to address 2GB of memory). Yes, there's a mod to fix it (thank God, or the game would be unplayable), but a Kick Ass product does not ship with a CRIPPLING bug. What about the UI? Ripped straight from the console, without a second though as to how it would perform with a keyboard and mouse(very poorly), let alone any advantages for the much better control and inventory management. Speaking of UI, what about a Rag doll type inventory? What about saving and loading equipment sets? Managing inventory in this game is like pulling teeth.
The mods are great, and I'm looking forward to the content creation kit being released, but the PC version has SERIOUS issues that should have been addressed WELL before a shipping product went gold.
Creating a fantastic game for consoles, making a sloppy port for it and calling on the community to fix it is NOT "KICK ASS".
Not to mention the general lack of impact anything you do has on anything in the world. If I'm Arch Mage at the mage's college, I shouldn't have to be told every time I go into Dragon's Reach I should check it out and apply. If I choose a side in the Civil War and we defeat the Imperials, when I ask someone who is in charge in Solitude, they shouldn't say General Tullius, as his armor is hanging in my house. By the same token, at the end, I'm told to seek out and destroy imperial camps. OK! I can do that... If the leader of the camp wasn't flagged unkillable because he's part of a quest chain that became invalid when I chose the Stormcloaks, oh, and I get a bounty in the hold for killing their enemies.
The game is good, but it is FULL of flaws that destroy immersion when talking about the questline.
RUSENSITIVESWEETNESS
January 24, 2012 at 5:22am
It's called "Selling a review for advertising dollars." Been around forever.
mattman059
January 23, 2012 at 10:22pm
"Yes, there's a mod to fix it"
- Theres also a patch to fix this as well...its what got me from having crash to desktop every 10 minutes on Ultra settings to being able to play indefinitely on Ultra settings.
Scatter
January 23, 2012 at 5:39pm
Is the review for this game really just being published now?
Who is this review for, the people looking to purchase the game on the discount racks?
kixofmyg0t
January 23, 2012 at 5:34pm
"not the most graphically intense game ever"
Good god.....you've stirred up a gigantic hornets nest now.
praetor_alpha
January 23, 2012 at 3:49pm
It took me 97 hours to finish, according to Steam (which includes all those times I wish I saved sooner). I'm up to 127-ish, but I'm not going to really get back into it until some really sweet mods come out. Also, my character is not going to choose a side in the civil war: the Imperials never pardoned me for whatever they were going to execute me for, and Ulfric is a racist dick.
bautrey
January 23, 2012 at 3:18pm
83 hours in and I've down about 1/3rd of the main quest, finished the companions, barely touched the dark brotherhood, the college of mages, and part way through the thieves guild. There is still so much to do. This calls for me to play again from scratch.
ceator3571
January 23, 2012 at 2:36pm
This is the best game I have ever played. I mean ever! So far I have played for 132 hours.
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