User Score
8.4

Generally favorable reviews- based on 12985 Ratings

User score distribution:
Buy Now
Buy on

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
  1. Mar 6, 2013
    4
    Bethesda has officially sold out. In the days of Arena, Daggerfall and Morrowind, The Elder Scrolls used to be an imaginative open-world RPG for people who wanted to think and discover things for themselves. Nowadays, Bethesda makes shallow action games in hopes of catching the short attention span of the console-gaming casual players. Skyrim is enjoyable the first time you experienceBethesda has officially sold out. In the days of Arena, Daggerfall and Morrowind, The Elder Scrolls used to be an imaginative open-world RPG for people who wanted to think and discover things for themselves. Nowadays, Bethesda makes shallow action games in hopes of catching the short attention span of the console-gaming casual players. Skyrim is enjoyable the first time you experience anything; The first time you pass that group of people, the first time you do a quest, the first time you climb up the Throat of the World, the first time you talk to a guard, etc. Then you quickly find out that there is no depth to anything. I guess it's not bad if you're looking to only do the main quest. However, if you're looking to explore the open world and spend 100+ hours in the game, you'll probably be disappointed at the shallow RPG experience. TES is dead. Expand
  2. Jul 13, 2012
    4
    At first, I was blown away with the enviroments and the detail they've put into everything. You can climb the highest mountain, travel to anywhere you like. While you're doing this you can spot little details everywhere you look, like salmon swimming upriver or plants and flowers you can pick to make potions from. You have absolute freedom in this game. The storytelling or the way you getAt first, I was blown away with the enviroments and the detail they've put into everything. You can climb the highest mountain, travel to anywhere you like. While you're doing this you can spot little details everywhere you look, like salmon swimming upriver or plants and flowers you can pick to make potions from. You have absolute freedom in this game. The storytelling or the way you get from one quest into the next is also well done. You try to do a simple task and suddenly you find yourself in alot of trouble. However the moment you get over the great enviroment in Skyrim you see the tradeskills are way too shallow. You can mine ore with 3 swings which mines a vein the size of a room. You can't fish, which is a shame considering the great mountain enviroments. There aren't enough usable items. At lvl 20 I've only changed gear once. But the most annoying part is the companion who always attacks your targets frontally. Which means it's either always in your way, or it's not and it steals your kill so you don't get XP. And don't forget the poor controls. They went for minimal HUD and controls, which means you have to pause the combat every single time you need a different weapon or spell. Alot of the time this gets you killed as you pause right before the enemy strikes you. You run around with a bag full of bows swords shields and spells and you can't bind them to hotkeys ? How very console is that !
    Then there is the horse, which tries to defend you and dies half the time trying. I lost count how many times I had to reload because of that.
    My conclusion is, they've fixed alot of what was wrong in oblivion but there are still so many things wrong with skyrim. This game has 2 strong points. The enviroment and the close-combat, if the companion isn't in the way that is. The tradeskills are rubbish and should have been done in much more depth.
    Expand
  3. Nov 21, 2011
    4
    I'll keep this quick, despite the pretty graphics (if u have the machine to max them out they aren't bad) and decent voice acting, I was quickly disappointed. The combat is terrible, quests are both sparse and boring, and very little to do that actually has any impact on anything of importance, I found this to be a quick waste of 60$. I can't for the life of me understand what all theI'll keep this quick, despite the pretty graphics (if u have the machine to max them out they aren't bad) and decent voice acting, I was quickly disappointed. The combat is terrible, quests are both sparse and boring, and very little to do that actually has any impact on anything of importance, I found this to be a quick waste of 60$. I can't for the life of me understand what all the hype was about. Expand
  4. Aug 18, 2012
    4
    After lots of hours in game, i've changed my mind and gave it generously 4. This game was made for console lemmings and pokemons. Fallout-like perk system makes Skyrim far too easy. It has nothing to do with an RPG, except sharing Elder Scrolls name. Playing as Adept in Skyrim is like playing as Novice in Oblivion, no fun at all. Buggy and glitchy textures, dumb and weak opponents, poorAfter lots of hours in game, i've changed my mind and gave it generously 4. This game was made for console lemmings and pokemons. Fallout-like perk system makes Skyrim far too easy. It has nothing to do with an RPG, except sharing Elder Scrolls name. Playing as Adept in Skyrim is like playing as Novice in Oblivion, no fun at all. Buggy and glitchy textures, dumb and weak opponents, poor and short story, boring and repetitious side quests. Shame on you Bethesda, take this lazy mix of great Morrowind and very good Oblivion with you and don't you dare to come back, ever. Expand
  5. Dec 20, 2011
    4
    Bethesda today released LAA (Large Address Aware, 4gb support) support for the PC version, which at least makes the game playable without using a 3rd party program. Since that is finally true (nearly 6 weeks after launch) this will be my final review. The score is a 4, a low meh. That score is based on vanilla Skyrim, no mods with the software as the developers intended it. I can onlyBethesda today released LAA (Large Address Aware, 4gb support) support for the PC version, which at least makes the game playable without using a 3rd party program. Since that is finally true (nearly 6 weeks after launch) this will be my final review. The score is a 4, a low meh. That score is based on vanilla Skyrim, no mods with the software as the developers intended it. I can only assume this is how they intended it being so far after launch, 3 patches later and this is what it is. The game is still plagued by compatibility issues. Some systems and hardware simply can not use the game settings to run correctly. In my case Anti Aliasing (AA) and Anisotropic Filtering (AF) is broken. Using these settings in the game simply does not work, causes major FPS loss and texture problems. Forcing these setting (on max) externally through my video card the game runs well. The menus and keybinding issues that have been widely spoken about persist and Bethesda has done nothing at all about them. Shadows, regardless of setting (low to ultra) are blocky, twitchy, badly behaved abominations all over the game world. There are hundreds of quest bugs and other minor issues that remain untouched as well. Perhaps most troubling is some of the things that DID make it into previous patch notes, supposedly being fixed, were NOT fix and still persist in game. All of these things bring my score for this game down and that score is solely because Bethesda did not take the time to polish their game. Now, all that being said....Skyrim is one of the best games of all time. Just not by default. If you (and I encourage you to do so) visit one of the modding sites (nexus) and see what the fan base of this game is doing, not only to fix Bethesda's laziness but also their broken programming your jaw will constantly drop as the hours tick away in the wonderful world that is Skyrim. There are mods to make the game run better, mods to make the textures in the world look better, mods to fix the broken inventories and terrible UI in the game. There are mods to make your character look different and mods that bring Skyrim to life. The modding community for this game is EXTREMELY active (all current mods have been made even without the help of an SDK) and helpful. Bethesda built the foundation and for releasing a flawed game get a low score. The modders finished Skyrim, polished it and made it one of, if not THE, best games of all time. Expand
  6. Aug 8, 2012
    4
    I've spent probably about one thousand or so hours playing this game's predecessors. Unfortunately, this game failed to have that sort of drawing power for me-- I could only manage about thirty hours on this one before being completely bored.

    Graphics: To give you an idea of how well these graphics appealed/will appear to PC gamers, the first time I saw a certain snow texture (on the
    I've spent probably about one thousand or so hours playing this game's predecessors. Unfortunately, this game failed to have that sort of drawing power for me-- I could only manage about thirty hours on this one before being completely bored.

    Graphics: To give you an idea of how well these graphics appealed/will appear to PC gamers, the first time I saw a certain snow texture (on the roof of that broken down fortress inhabited by bandits) I thought my game had glitched and that the snow hadn't fully rendered. To my surprise, that texture had loaded properly-- it was just intended to look completely flat and without any sort of real detail. Bethesda games have never really been known for high quality graphics or animation and I care more about gameplay than graphics, so this isn't that much of a detractor for me; but there's still a certain level of quality that you'd expect from a massive release such as this.

    Audio: The only complaint I have about the game's audio is that the soundtrack paled in comparison to its predecessors. The game's trailer probably had the best song related/in the game.

    Gameplay: Oh boy, here's where it all goes downhill. The combat has absolutely no depth-- what you do in one fight is what you'll be doing in every fight for the rest of the game.

    You'll use your strongest spell against every enemy because, save for one quest, elemental resistances are negligible-- not to mention that the spells in the destruction skill tree don't scale enough to keep them competitive with the melee trees or the conjured weapons.

    You'll use power attacks rather than normal attacks because there's no real consequence for using them when you're almost out of stamina, and you also won't be terribly active in combat-- you can't properly dodge attacks, so there's little reason to do anything other than standing in place, spamming power attacks.

    That being said, ranged combat works, although not as well as one would expect in a game made so recently-- there's no location-based damage. A headshot is as effective as a body shot, period.

    It also doesn't help that the game's iconic enemies (dragons) are severely outclassed by the game's most basic enemies (bandits) once you get to a certain level. Thanks to Skyrim's level-scaling, you'll eventually encounter bandits outfitted in daedric gear who will pose a greater threat to you than the big bads in this game. Certain enemies will also simply be damage sponges that you'll just have to whittle away at until they succumb to their tiny wounds.

    Then there's the world. It's largely empty, the towns are incredibly small (Skyrim's capital city only has eleven buildings), and all of the dungeons within the game are insanely streamlined-- more so than Oblivion's dungeons, which were already incredibly straightforward.

    Also, there's an insane amount of quest-breaking/game-breaking glitches in the game-- just one look at the Elderscrolls wiki will make you realize how lucky you are to have gotten so far without the game collapsing in on itself.

    In all, I'd give it an "at least jumping off of the throat of the world is fun" out of ten.
    Expand
  7. Nov 18, 2011
    4
    I had a lot of hope for this game & having played the previous two (Oblivion until there was literally nothing left to do) Skyrim seemed like a no-brainer to me. Unfortunately, the game does not rise to meet expectations at all. Let me honestly say that I actually went about for the first while delibrately ignoring faults in this game - the dragon flicking to & from wire-frame repeatedlyI had a lot of hope for this game & having played the previous two (Oblivion until there was literally nothing left to do) Skyrim seemed like a no-brainer to me. Unfortunately, the game does not rise to meet expectations at all. Let me honestly say that I actually went about for the first while delibrately ignoring faults in this game - the dragon flicking to & from wire-frame repeatedly at the beginning, non-player-characters' movements being very stiff & odd looking, constant clipping with everything from seats half-sticking into walls to axes worn on NPC belts sticking through their coats & at times THEMSELVES, a woodcutter whose logs would stick to his axe as if magnetized! I really wanted to ignore this stuff (which you really shouldn't do - or HAVE to do) and enjoy the game and I did so semi-effectively for a few days of (not-solid) gameplay. But at every turn I found myself being pulled out of what was suposed to be an immersive game. Problems show up constantly like the fact that despite what level you are or how well armed or menacing you look your horse is apparently always going to look like the bigger threat to your enemies & so you often find yourself trying to get between your enemies and your horse to kept it from dying. And if you leave it at the bottom of a hill and go to fight a mob, be fully prepared for your horse to charge off past you and engage them, forcing you to use up stamina (which you need to do any decent weapon attack) so you can sprint forward & save your horse. This would be less annoying if it didn't happen all the time & didn't take the fun out of in-game fighting. You could argue that a horse would attack an aggressor or charge off against a perceived threat in real life, but to this I'd have to say: "if we're going to play at realism, then why can't a tether the bugger?!" But despite every bug that they didn't to fix from the last game (and there's a lot), & every new one that makes the game less & less fun, the worst is still the game's RECOGNITION. At one point, I was a Thane in a major city (a position of some serious importance). I asked my new housecarl (the follower given to a Thane) what it meant & she told me I was important to the community and had been recognised as such, for eg, "guards would know me & look the other way if I told them who I was". Well, this ability doesn't actually exist &, even tho I'm not stealing anything, when I use my SHOUT power guards regularly walk up & command me to stop - to which I can either wimpishly comply or dickishly stick my tongue out at them (verbally speaking). No option exists for them to know I'm a Thane & when I travel, having become Thane of a major city, the Fabled Dragonborn everyone is talking about, and the leader of the land's ancient & most famous mercenary group, to go & enlist under the rebel king - THEY HAVE NO IDEA WHO I AM! I'm treated like a nobody who has to prove himself all over again and is often referred to as "Unblooded" by name. By this point, many enemies go down with just one hit - so how am I unblooded exactly? But the worst thing of all, is that when I take news from the rebel king to the Jarl (earl) of the town I've set up in (the one where my Thane-ship and Mercenary status exist) he responds to me like he doesn't know me. And finally, when it comes down to the rebels versus my town, and I march on the town with my Housecarl (who owes allegiance to the Jarl) nothing is said, not a word of complaint, no segment where she protests at least a little about having to attack her own town, nothing (for a character who Bethesda said would feel like a "real, fleshed out person, not just a follower"). No one even comments on the idea of me attacking the place where I have set up so many roots, not even the Jarl when I face him down. In fact, the town isn't even damaged for a place we where just launching boulders at only moments before. Then the NEW Jarl says that to thank me he can give me a title - in fact, he can make me a Thane (hair-pulling out time!) and give me a housecarl (she's standing right behind you, numb-nuts!). This sucked out all realism for me & any feeling of accomplishment. Bethesda also said that as a guild leader you would always have something to do - this just turns out to be pest ctrl missions with the mission giver repeating the same phrase each time: "I've never seen a dragon before, are they real?" ("Yes, you just killed one a moment ago with me for the last mission!!"). The graphics constantly suffer faults even with everything at full on a high-end PC (don't get me started on that), the controls are extremely sub-par - the tip of the cursor & where the mouse will actually click are quite a surprising distance apart. All in all (& this is really just the tip of the iceberg) not enough testing was done, not enough effort was put in, it feels like half a game & plays like one too. Get it if it's £10 or $15. Otherwise, you WILL feel cheated. Expand
  8. Aug 5, 2013
    4
    This is with out a doubt the most over-hyped elder scrolls game. This game took what previous installments did right, and casualized it to a degree where it's almost not an RPG anymore. One of the best things about previous elder scrolls games was the class system WHICH WAS COMPLETELY REMOVED, this is done so that the player can "Play how they want to play" this ANNIHILATES the roleThis is with out a doubt the most over-hyped elder scrolls game. This game took what previous installments did right, and casualized it to a degree where it's almost not an RPG anymore. One of the best things about previous elder scrolls games was the class system WHICH WAS COMPLETELY REMOVED, this is done so that the player can "Play how they want to play" this ANNIHILATES the role playing element of the game near completely, because your character can be good at literally everything. The story line is very simple, and full of very lackluster characters, the ending of the game was so anti-climatic as well this just irks me to no end. The graphics are mediocre on PC, but this is easily remedied by the 2k texture pack. Also the lack of character development and impactful choices is just truly appalling compared to previous games. The guilds this time around are also extremely dumbed down and lack luster with the exception of a couple good quests.

    Pros-
    Fun Combat
    Lots of customization
    improved stealth
    Werewolves AND Vampires
    OST
    Pretty big world

    Cons-
    Easy
    Lack of True Role playing
    Story
    Dumbed Down Guilds
    Casualized leveling
    Dragons are a worse "Gate" mechanic
    Overly rewards the player
    Expand
  9. Dec 17, 2011
    4
    Skyrim is a terrible role playing game. By now we all know about the horrid user interface, the relatively poor combat and magic systems, the disastrous implementation of dual wielding (that makes it, essentially, useless.) We know about buckets on heads and backward-flying Dragons. So I won't even take them into consideration, except to say Bethesda could have doneSkyrim is a terrible role playing game. By now we all know about the horrid user interface, the relatively poor combat and magic systems, the disastrous implementation of dual wielding (that makes it, essentially, useless.) We know about buckets on heads and backward-flying Dragons. So I won't even take them into consideration, except to say Bethesda could have done better....................And that is the overarching theme of Skyrim: Could have been better.................................................................................I came into this game not expecting much. It is, after all, a Bethesda game. And I am happy for that, because I didn't get much. No moral choices. No consequences for my character's actions. Speech skill isn't even something you can use. It just lowers prices at merchants. Loot is thrown at you constantly, level-ups are handed out like candy at a parade. There is no challenge, no feeling of accomplishment to completing tasks......................................Questing is, if anything, worse than in Oblivion. Literally everyone in the world has something they lost or need found, but no initiative to go and find it. This game is essentially one big fetch quest after another. Its sickening and disheartening..............................Still, as an action game based loosely on a narrative, with some role playing aspects, Skyrim sort of works. It has its moments. But as a true role playing game Skyrim is beyond terrible, and that is why, despite the things I like about the game, I am giving it only a 5. I am reviewing the game as the RPG it claimed to be and was not, as opposed to overlooking this significant bit of false advertising.........................Bugged launch, zero replay value, linear quest line, poor combat and terrible dialogue and writing (all in the Bethesda tradition) guarantee this will be the last Bethesda-developed game I ever purchase. Terrible developer with terrible writers. Expand
  10. Apr 6, 2012
    4
    It has some interesting concepts, but it's absolutely overhyped. Its bugs that prohibit gameplay keep it from being more than a 4/10. Bethesda has a long track record of bugs, and Skyrim is absolutely no exception. This is, in no way, worth $60 for a short game that offers little replayability, and very little enjoyment due to bugs and glitches.
  11. Nov 13, 2011
    4
    Absolutely horrible performance, bugs everywhere, awful menu system and UI, and it isn't even that fun. Oblivion was interesting and felt like something I wanted to explore. This game, at least what I've experienced of it, is nothing but "go here and talk to this person" and "go here and find this thing". You get to traverse large, empty plains and mountains that remind me of Fallout moreAbsolutely horrible performance, bugs everywhere, awful menu system and UI, and it isn't even that fun. Oblivion was interesting and felt like something I wanted to explore. This game, at least what I've experienced of it, is nothing but "go here and talk to this person" and "go here and find this thing". You get to traverse large, empty plains and mountains that remind me of Fallout more than anything. The animation is nice, graphics are okay at best, but sound and music is mediocre and mono-sounding. It also isn't really fun to play at a constant 30fps when you're using the lowest possible settings. Expand
  12. Nov 13, 2011
    4
    BLAND BLAND BLAND.

    How this can get 10's from 10's of critics is beyond me. Oh, I have a thing or two to say about that.. 1. Design is bland. Enviroments look just the same as Oblivion, with the same random-dungeon-generation as Oblivion, with the same lack of feeling, charisma, distinctiveness. It's like it couldn't be made better looking and equally uninteresting at the same time. None
    BLAND BLAND BLAND.

    How this can get 10's from 10's of critics is beyond me. Oh, I have a thing or two to say about that..

    1. Design is bland. Enviroments look just the same as Oblivion, with the same random-dungeon-generation as Oblivion, with the same lack of feeling, charisma, distinctiveness. It's like it couldn't be made better looking and equally uninteresting at the same time. None of the enviroments are actually connected to any type of function - they're just made to look awesome. Large expances? Check. Walkways floating in the air? Check. Underground lighting and strange floating plants? Check. Oh, and I started as a feline with enhanced vision to see in the dark. Think I ever needed to use it? Nope! Chuck Testa.

    2. Game mechanics are bland. Wow, I got a sword that does 15 fire damage instead of 10. THAT's CONSIDERABLE. Oh, this sword does frost damage instead of fire, NEVERMIND, damagetype almost never matters ANYWAY. Perks? Yeah, 20% more damage, 40% more damage, can it get more flavorful? Oh, what's that I hear? You can get 25% chance to make monsters bleed from axes or something? ... Sorry, I think I fell asleep. Automatic difficulity adjustment is back, btw! Hell, you're wearing the best armor possible? Well, be prepared to be slaughtered by peasants and iron-armed cave-men. All for a decent challenge, you know!

    3. Spells are bland. Fear, Spark, Fireball, Tashas hideus laughter - sorry, made the last one up. That one would actually been interesting. Make X do Y for Z seconds. Step-n-repeat. All elemental spells have same structure: Low-level, medium-level, high-level, a bit more awesome level, I can guess what this is going to be level, and I couln't care less level.

    4. Dragons? Yeah, **** fly-like-on-rails one-trick-pony kill-them-the-same-way dragons. All look the same. Try killing them with a close-range weapon? HAH!!! Yeah right. Try instead getting them glich-stuck behind a tree and spend 20 minutes waiting for your mana to recharge or your petty spells to do your work. Dragon powers? You can become a ventriloquist! With great power comes great responsiblities!

    5. Inventory? HAH! Be ready to spend equal time in the horrible menu-system as watching the scenery go by, slowly on a horse with no name that can actually run - for 10 seconds - then plot along. Potions of healing and Potions of health and Potions of Regeneration and Potions of **** well, all these are going to be just a blast scrolling though. Some heal you. Some doesn't. You'll just have to find all of them again and again. Easy to recognize visual representations? Pff.. who needs'em. Up, down, left, right. Get ready to be confused. Select skills without jumping to another skill and trying again and again and again and again and almost destrying your keyboard? You wish!

    Well, at least it doesn't have any bugs.. ..oh, wait.
    Expand
  13. Nov 18, 2011
    4
    it's a well done game in some ways, mainly if you're a console gamer.
    the menu designs are just horrible on pc, why can't i use my mouse???
    graphics are sub par, over hyped, and the character progression is painfully simple.
    i got bored and frustrated after only 6 hours in :/
  14. Nov 14, 2011
    4
    This game doesn't deserve all the credit it gets. It's got some real issues that hold it back. Granted, It's leaps and bounds better then its failure of a predecessor, the game is held back by horrendously poor AI, graphic issues, interface issues with the mouse, bad unit collision detail and melee combat that is lacking. The saving grace for this game? The graphics are above average ifThis game doesn't deserve all the credit it gets. It's got some real issues that hold it back. Granted, It's leaps and bounds better then its failure of a predecessor, the game is held back by horrendously poor AI, graphic issues, interface issues with the mouse, bad unit collision detail and melee combat that is lacking. The saving grace for this game? The graphics are above average if run on max settings, its demands aren't very high, so that's an easy reach for most PC's. But even still, the game's graphics are too dark to really shine anywhere. I guess the only fun I had in this game was cheating with console commands; decimating the cities, running my horse up a 90 degree mountain cliff and beating the AI out of fair fights with abusing the smallest of obstacles. It's definitely not worth full price. Wait until it drops to the 20 mark. Expand
  15. Nov 15, 2011
    4
    I just made a account to review this game , played 5 hours of this game but no more !!!Will never play this game in my life i thrown the copy away ,never will i but a bethesta game first day !!
    Enterd the game for the first time i got blown away and not by the average graphics but by the thought of playing another Elder Scrolls ,loved oblivion ,fallout 3 all dlc's and new vegas. but this
    I just made a account to review this game , played 5 hours of this game but no more !!!Will never play this game in my life i thrown the copy away ,never will i but a bethesta game first day !!
    Enterd the game for the first time i got blown away and not by the average graphics but by the thought of playing another Elder Scrolls ,loved oblivion ,fallout 3 all dlc's and new vegas. but this game is full of bugs .
    the game recomanded settings were medium , the game ran at 40 fps i really liked it ,then it droped down to 20 ,turned everything on low it runs at 80 fps but after a while it gets down to 24-30 WTF?!!?
    sometimes game crashes without any error whatsoever,searched the web and found out i was not the only one experiencing this .Technical issues made this game simply unplayable for me .Save yourself the headache and buy the 360 version please,on pc this is the lazyest port i've seen in 3 years. Leaving all the pc unplayable version, this game is pretty good,open world ,intense fights,lots of weapon models,lots of exploring,lots of quests , great nordic setting. The core gameplay is utter garbage for a AAA game the sequel to tes oblivion and morrowind,a multi million budget game, the gameplay is nothing more of garbage every swing feels floaty you dont know if u missed to hit ,i always look at enemy hp to see if i hit him ,when u hit someone it feels like u hit air ,collision detection is off and very bad,Please bethesta elarn from that INDIE developer that developed ZENO CLASH or the one who developed Dead Islands . I feel bad that people rate this game so high only because it's a TES this only encourages lazy console porting. bad bad game it deserves a 4 maybe a 6 or 7 without the tehnical problems.
    Expand
  16. Nov 20, 2011
    4
    This was a shock! Graphics are bad, controls are bad, bugs are bad and the overall atmosphere is bad. Bethesda has lost it. Morrowind was their swan song and everything they have spilled out since then, is more or less crap.

    Buy Dark Souls for one the consoles or wait 3 years for some decent mods. I don't have the time to wait so I play Dark Souls and I' am so loving it.
  17. Oct 3, 2012
    4
    It's... meh. That's the word I used when I put 20 hours in. Just... meh. This game is hilariously overrated. But is it a bad game? No. Is it a glitchy mess? Yes. Oh yes.

    If you're going to buy this game, No doubt you'll make a beeline to steam workshop, where you get mods. That's one good thing about this game. The mods. Some mods, which are quests, are better than the main quest in
    It's... meh. That's the word I used when I put 20 hours in. Just... meh. This game is hilariously overrated. But is it a bad game? No. Is it a glitchy mess? Yes. Oh yes.

    If you're going to buy this game, No doubt you'll make a beeline to steam workshop, where you get mods. That's one good thing about this game. The mods.
    Some mods, which are quests, are better than the main quest in skyrim. I'm not joking here either. The game does NOT deserve the amount of praise it gets.
    Expand
  18. Nov 26, 2011
    4
    An awesome game for the first few hours. World of Skyrim is big and nicely detailed. And pretty much everything is highly improved compared to previous series of Elder Scrolls. But after those few hours of gameplay you'll start to realise that all this awesomeness, all this freedom Skyrim gives you, is nothing but illusion. While game allows player to do what he want and when he want, anyAn awesome game for the first few hours. World of Skyrim is big and nicely detailed. And pretty much everything is highly improved compared to previous series of Elder Scrolls. But after those few hours of gameplay you'll start to realise that all this awesomeness, all this freedom Skyrim gives you, is nothing but illusion. While game allows player to do what he want and when he want, any "not-by-script" actions will break the game at some point, making it impossible to proceed with storyline without console shamanism. Quests have a lot of obviously stupid algorithmic errors, and do not take player's possible misbehaviour in account. It's like they were written by random people, who never seen each other, not to say talked about each others quests conflicting with each other. Bethesda absolutely should spend some of that money on hiring a beta-tester team.

    There's a lot of "generic" quests, that tells you to kill/steal/buttkick something and go back for crappy sum of 100-300 coins. Those "Infinite quests" is nothing more but a lame "MMORPG-style grinding". The story itself is straightforward, onesided and utterly stupid. For example, if there is a war between two groups, and you happen to join one of them, the other side will hate you, and try to kill you should opportunity arise. But they do not! You can easily come to enemy's headquarters, put buckets on everyone's heads, steal everything, shout on everyone, ask "How's the war, dude? Does my actions screw your life much, eh?", and easily waltz outside like nothing happened. The multiple choices player makes does affect almost nothing. And sometimes those illusional choices are not even given (I don't want to kill anyone for that stupid Boethiah, but there is no option to buttkick her back to oblivion).

    But the worst of them all is one strong feeling that gets stronger with each quest done: the land of Skyrim consists only of dumb and lazy people. Nothing, I mean absolutely nothing happens without players involvement. Everything that is done in Skyrim - is done by player. From the moment you are given controls at Helgen, till the moment quit the game - nothing is happening here. Well wolfs do run after deers in woods, kill them and leave all that meat to rot. Necromancers sometimes kick bandit's butts if they meet them around you. And number of thieves die by the hands of local guards every night at Riften. Dragons sometimes attack guards, while completely ignoring anyone else. But that's all. There's WAR going on, but noone does sh*t! Why? This game have a time. Why not use it?

    It's not a surprise the AI's dumb. They do fight all right (looks ugly still). But when in peace-mode... I wonder if all Skyrim NPC's are actually lonely, despite living in cities full of same stupid NPCs. I mean everyone do talk to you as you pass by. And even if you just stand there, not looking at them, they talk to your back. There is a quest turn-point and some smart explanations are done by "immortal" VIP-NPC, but some old beggar-dude cuts in and asks for a coin, while completly muffing out the quest-NPCs speech. Sometimes there are even like 5 NPC's talking together. So ronery... And I won't talk about the aspects of path-finding, "follow-me" states, quest-scenes and other script-based AI stuff that always have at least a 20% chance of failing, what almost always leads to a game-breaking end.

    There is also a lot of other minor bugs, like shifted object spawn locations, mannequin's infinitely spawning armor pieces, lot's of places where player can completly stuck without "tcl", screwed animations, out-of-place effects, like paralysis that happens on enemy's death, or sneak-perk's brief-invisibility that can screw the nightingale powers, NPC's that spawn being half underground and a pack of other dumb stuff I can't remember right now. Come on, guys! Just play your own game once. It's not so hard to spot at least a half of those bugs in just a few hours of gameplay.

    I hear Elder's Scrolls series always had a habit of being released half-cooked, so the real score should be given only after the grand-patch will come out. But this time the amount of bugs is so big, I'm afraid not even this patch will deal with them all. So here's 10 for making big beautiful and detailed world, -3 for a 20% chance of any quest failing and making the game unplayable anymore, -1 for the gameplay balance which is simply absent after you max out few skills, and -2 for somewhat lame storyline and a bunch of lonely, lazy and utterly dumb NPCs, that swarm the land of Skyrim. That makes 4, which is bad, 'cause making a nice console-textured world with good weather effects is not enough for a good game. Let's hope the incoming patch will actually make this game worth it's price.
    Expand
  19. Nov 26, 2011
    4
    Bad ui, bad bugs, not good enough graphics. Not showing any skills, too easy to play. Oblivion was 10x times better!!...........................................
  20. Nov 26, 2011
    4
    The game plays well until it doesn't. Quite simply the game crashes constantly. On average with my computer set up the game crashes between 30-45 minutes of gameplay.
  21. Nov 27, 2011
    4
    Hey everyone. Time for my review of the most anticipated game of this year. I picked the game up as soon as it came out. and i have been playing it since. 70 hours into the game, here are my experienced thoughts, I have to say i am not all that impressed. We are redlining here. The first thing i noticed is that this game is "exactly" like the last oblivon. Just amped up a bit. Let me takeHey everyone. Time for my review of the most anticipated game of this year. I picked the game up as soon as it came out. and i have been playing it since. 70 hours into the game, here are my experienced thoughts, I have to say i am not all that impressed. We are redlining here. The first thing i noticed is that this game is "exactly" like the last oblivon. Just amped up a bit. Let me take this moment to say that the first morrowind was and still is the best one. why dont you bethseda scammers remake that one for us with skyrims graphics? The ability to leviatate was the best part of morrowind. . Being able tocraft your spells as weak or powerful as you chose, to make your belt of leviatate and fly through the air raining destruction spells down on the world. There was also very unique and powerful items available. to the user. Such as the incredible boots of blinding speed. How come there is no items as cool as those boots in the two recent editions of morrowind.(and i played the sh**t out of oblivion and morrowind) I was disappointed to find that skyrim is the same as oblivion. The dungeons are nice, the puzzles and amount of underground crevices to explore is greater than oblivion was but still the game seems to lack that thuum of power. The shouts are well pretty useless really. i have only found one of those special skill statues(the lady) I miss how morrwind allowed you to pick your birth star and get a special ability in it. i dont like how skyrim wont let you craft very powerful items. in morrowind i could make a fireball spell that required 1000 mana and did equivelent damage. in skyrim i cant make any spells at all. just theones they give me. Even the enchanting of items is very limited in skyrim. Its way to quick and easy to become the head of a guild. and it offers no bonus or perks to the user. The only really useful thing guilds do is provide neat missions. other than the thieves guild wich allows you to pay off the guards instead of going to jailand or paying a fine. i quickly realized there is little to no point in crafting my own gear since the stuff i find will always be better. The only two self enchanted items i use are twin ebony swords i enchanted with fire and frost. nothing epic, i set them to 10 damage each(max is about 31 so far.i dont expect it to go up much.) and if i set them to max damage they would only be useable once. as is i set them to be usuable 350 ish times each.(saves on recharging them after every swing or battle) There is a lot ofd walking around and more fast traveling. The horse is useless, basically it lets you run without using your stamina and you cant fight from horseback. There is a lot of glitches i have found. example theres this one dungeon with a pit 20 ft deep filled with water. at the bottom in one corner is a... air bubble. There are lots of quest glitches, some i have completed 3 or 4 times. they keep coming back up though.There are problems with displaying items in my house. And the options to furnish your houses are lame. You should be able to choose how many chests book shelves and/or sword racks you put in and where they go. Also i put say a sword on a shelf and leave and come back and its been thrown off the shelf onto the floor. i have had things fall through the table and floor on me as well.
    The oriniginal morrowind with these graphics would be awesome. And all those things you have to give to delvin..wtf i want stuff like that in my house. so far the coolest ornaments i have found are those dynamo cores(nice animations on em) and a bee in a jar.(very cool) Overall the game is ok. but in all honesty wtf did you guys waste your time on oblivion for? didnt you fu**ers make enough on the first one? what happened to the making of this game ? do you guys think we are all stupid or something?
    i hope you get your acts together and bring back the things that made this game so epic in the first place. even in oblvion i could at least become a god of sorts. not the same as morrwind mind but still. Nothing quite makes yoiu feel as powerful as flying over a city and wiping it out with a giant fireball. !!!
    Expand
  22. Nov 30, 2011
    4
    Skyrim doesn't deliver. It's the fifth game in the elder scrolls series, and it still carries almost all the flaws Morrowind and Oblivion had, adding some others on top of them, getting a bit closer to Morrowind in overall quality, but still way far from what we used to experience and what was expected from this game.
    On the technical side, the game is a massive disappointment, with a
    Skyrim doesn't deliver. It's the fifth game in the elder scrolls series, and it still carries almost all the flaws Morrowind and Oblivion had, adding some others on top of them, getting a bit closer to Morrowind in overall quality, but still way far from what we used to experience and what was expected from this game.
    On the technical side, the game is a massive disappointment, with a trainwreck of low res textures and only minor overall improvements on the effects. No one wanted Battlefield 3 quaity, but there's no excuse for the messy squashed low res textures Bethesda put in this game. Everything is blurry and under a green tint. And landscape still looks bad from a distance, like Oblivion. They still haven't managed a good low detail LOD for distant objects - which is ridiculous, after what the modders did with Oblivion. Face models and some animations are better, but not very good.
    The user interface is the worst I've EVER experienced, even the worst console ports are better than this, it cannot be described. Huge areas of wasted space, the inventory has pretty much no filters and everything is vertical with zero horizontal space used.
    Stat system has been streamlined to hell and back, you get to choose between health magicka and stamina, there's a reduced numer of skills and each one has perks, that would have been a good feature if introduced in some other way, but as they are now, they're just the only way to make skills useful since they botched up the skill system: for example, shield blocking is completely useless until you farm the perks for it.
    Equipment, streamlined too. You can only wear one ring, the enchantment system is awful (you learn enchantments by destroying items, then you're restricted to only certain enchantments depending on the item - for example torso pieces of heavy armor can't be enchanted for elemental resists) there are no more upper body and lower body armor (one piece now) no pauldrons, no polearms, no crossbows and all the melee weapons feel the same, you can't even decide to cut,pierce or smash - the attack animation is random and automatic, dealing always the same kind of damage.
    Melee combat is horrible. Two handed users pretty much cannot defend, Sword and shield users move incredibly slow and block no magic damage until you are of high level and managed to farm through the perks. Armor rating under 300 is basically useless. Awkward "finisher" animations pop up at every fight AND YOU CANNOT DODGE HITS! And no mounted combat, again.
    Sneaking is the same as it was in oblivion. Meh.
    Ranged combat is actually useful now, but it still needs mods to make it good.
    But where Skyrim really falls short is in the true RPG component, something that mods cannot fix: it's not a true RPG. There's some VERY RARE good writing, but most of it is pretty subpar and boring. Almost all quests have no choices or neutral paths, you are forced to do things that you do not want to do or to witness events that could be easily avoided and the game pretty much invites you to be a "master of all trades" character, killing the immersion.
    The only area where Skyrim can be considered a good game, is the exploration. There's a lot of content to experience by just exploring - provided you're ready to accept the lack of choices and the mostly average writing.
    Not worth buying.
    Expand
  23. Dec 6, 2011
    4
    I scored Skyrim based on what it delivered. While skyrim could have been great, I fear that many of the high scores here are from die hard fans looking at the ooh ahh factor. Because Skyrim deals in the open world we are pleased to see sprawling vistas. But when broken down into its parts, Skyrim is nothing special. I am not rating skyrim on what could have been or what may be in monthsI scored Skyrim based on what it delivered. While skyrim could have been great, I fear that many of the high scores here are from die hard fans looking at the ooh ahh factor. Because Skyrim deals in the open world we are pleased to see sprawling vistas. But when broken down into its parts, Skyrim is nothing special. I am not rating skyrim on what could have been or what may be in months after patching, i am rating it on what i was delivered. Graphics The graphics are better than that of oblivion, but in current gaming, they are certainly nothing special. They are nice when they work. There are numerous issues regarding graphical problems, and this really brings the score down. Where it could have been an 8/10, what i received are overall graphics of a 4/10. Story line The quests, including the main quest are really quite shallow in terms of their story. There is nothing remarkable about them at all. In fact i found the speed at which i was able to join and become the head of each guild rather pathetically short; everyone seems to trust you very quickly, no need to really prove yourself, just collect this or that and within 4 specific quests you are the head of the guild. Secondly, many of the side quests or miscellaneous quests are completely vacant of thought, ââ Expand
  24. Feb 1, 2012
    4
    This game is highly over-rated. Most suitable comparison would be saying that this game industry's Avatar (film). Impressive graphically at first, but once you see it clearly, it has a boring story, full of clichés and overall, not interesting enough. It has a great amount of items and weapons, but you won't need 80% of them because most of them are just useless. Quest becomeThis game is highly over-rated. Most suitable comparison would be saying that this game industry's Avatar (film). Impressive graphically at first, but once you see it clearly, it has a boring story, full of clichés and overall, not interesting enough. It has a great amount of items and weapons, but you won't need 80% of them because most of them are just useless. Quest become way too repetitive quickly, specially because most of them are just a copy & paste with different names and places, and besides, some skills make them too easy to complete. Main story itself isn't very interesting or original, and the fact that some side-quests may delay your progress in the main-quest makes it quite annoying. Enemies are poorly designed and there isn't enough variety of them for such a huge world. It may give you a few hours of entertainment, but unless for some strange reason you are like addicted to it, it will be hard for you to go further than 50% of the game, because by then you have noticed how repetitive it is. If you manage to complete 100% of the main quest, you won't really get a real reason to complete side-quests left, and that if you didn't accidentally ruined them by killing someone or doing something you shouldn't. The good: It has quite nice graphics, a huge world to explore and, if for some reason you actually like this game, you have a huge amount of things to do. The bad: Way too bugged (PC version got some of them solved by FANS even before they were officially solved), repetitive as hell, after main-quest is completed you have no real reason to keep playing, too many useless quests and items. Expand
  25. Feb 19, 2012
    4
    I fully understand that Im going to cop a lot of flak for this one, but I fully intend to review this game as I experienced. The game starts off rather well, but soon loses momentum as the game leaves the player to choose their own adventure. Perhaps, what I thought was the most enjoyable aspect of the game, was exploring the huge world the Bethesda has created, yet this would likelyI fully understand that Im going to cop a lot of flak for this one, but I fully intend to review this game as I experienced. The game starts off rather well, but soon loses momentum as the game leaves the player to choose their own adventure. Perhaps, what I thought was the most enjoyable aspect of the game, was exploring the huge world the Bethesda has created, yet this would likely appeal to very few people. Combat is simple, yet at times a bit clumsy, and graphics, on the whole, I found to be rather underwhelming. By no means has Bethesda mishandled a good concept though perhaps I wish that they had done a little bit more with it. If youâ Expand
  26. Mar 10, 2012
    4
    Bethesda continues to re-release Daggerfall with fewer features and better graphics. I could talk at length about the boring combat, the poor levelling system, the stupid quest lines, the horrendous UI, the gruelling first two hours of play and other flaws but I could forgive all of that if Bethesda learned to write a single interesting character. Everything about the characters from theirBethesda continues to re-release Daggerfall with fewer features and better graphics. I could talk at length about the boring combat, the poor levelling system, the stupid quest lines, the horrendous UI, the gruelling first two hours of play and other flaws but I could forgive all of that if Bethesda learned to write a single interesting character. Everything about the characters from their voice acting and dialogue trees to the way we see them interacting is just plain boring. It's really hard to give a damn about the world when it's populated by soulless robots and the combat/grinding experience just isn't good enough to redeem the terrible world building.

    Skyrim is nothing but a fad and whilst there aren't many things I can point to as being physically painful there really is no reason to play this game. Props to Bethesda's marketing department.
    Expand
  27. Mar 11, 2012
    4
    Average Gameplay. Expect to "click to swing" alot. This is no Witcher. Below average graphics due to a poor console port. Below average controls due to a poor console port. Lack of multiplayer (even coop), which is cute for a sandbox rpg in 2011...wait, that's not cute, that's sad. Overall an average yet dated game held back ever further by the fact it's a poor port. I don'tAverage Gameplay. Expect to "click to swing" alot. This is no Witcher. Below average graphics due to a poor console port. Below average controls due to a poor console port. Lack of multiplayer (even coop), which is cute for a sandbox rpg in 2011...wait, that's not cute, that's sad. Overall an average yet dated game held back ever further by the fact it's a poor port. I don't recommend purchasing unless you are an oblivian fan boy, very lonely, or just don't play alot of games like this, in which case, you will probably foam at the mouth with misdirected bethesda love. Expand
  28. Mar 19, 2012
    4
    The good parts: The sandbox world works remarkably well, and the "leveling problem" of the previous elder scrolls is no more. Now you can happily play without worrying that picking too many locks will leave you with a weak character getting slaughtered by the upleveled monsters. The quests have had a number of cases where it's not clear-cut who to side with, a rarity in RPGs. And theThe good parts: The sandbox world works remarkably well, and the "leveling problem" of the previous elder scrolls is no more. Now you can happily play without worrying that picking too many locks will leave you with a weak character getting slaughtered by the upleveled monsters. The quests have had a number of cases where it's not clear-cut who to side with, a rarity in RPGs. And the level design in the dungeons is excellent, with some interesting variations, few glitches, and always a short way out from the end of the dungeon back to the main world.

    The bad part: The UI is an absolute embarrassment. On your 1920 screen, your inventory is a single column of giant text and a big useless image of the object you're hovering over, so you spend half your game time scrolling through lists to find your Potions of Minor Healing that are screens away from your Potions of Major Healing. And the keybinds are awful and unchangeable. "e" in inventory uses, and "r" puts an item in a container, but in a container it's "e" to take a single item out and "r" to take everything. So you slip and hit "r" in your home base chest and now you're overloaded with 1000 pounds of what you had carefully stocked up over days of play. But the worst: The UI sometimes doesn't catch mouse enter/leave events, so you click to do one thing, but the click is registered somewhere else and now you've sold your sword or called an NPC's mother a pig.

    Then there are the strange bugs, like when a dragon shows up and doesn't land while you're on a quest stage that caused you to be completely unarmed. There was a frustrating half an hour. But occasional gameplay bugs are to be expected in something this size, while inventory and dialogue functionality is something every player or tester has to spend an inordinate amount of time in. That's what is unforgivable in this game.

    Some mods have been released that improve on some of these UI problems. But this rating is for the game as released, not for the game third parties have managed create from the wreckage.
    Expand
  29. Mar 21, 2012
    4
    How to rate a game like this? I have thousands of hours on Bethesda games since Morrowind. I'm about 2/3 - 3/4 through Skyrim; didn't buy it until patch 1.4 was out and the CK was supposed to be released. It is so difficult interacting with Steam for updates, patches, etc. I have over 3000 saves because of my experiences with FO3 and FNV, but no CTDs, which is absolutely amazing. Bad: 1.How to rate a game like this? I have thousands of hours on Bethesda games since Morrowind. I'm about 2/3 - 3/4 through Skyrim; didn't buy it until patch 1.4 was out and the CK was supposed to be released. It is so difficult interacting with Steam for updates, patches, etc. I have over 3000 saves because of my experiences with FO3 and FNV, but no CTDs, which is absolutely amazing. Bad: 1. Steam adds a lot of overhead.Wants to get in the game of mod provider but really buggy and poorly organized (impossible really). Can only subscribe to games - can't track them, downloads a title with an empty file (for weeks still empty). Uses different titles than the the actual file name. Nexus the other site (British ex post facto rules). If you get kicked, no place to go, no warnings (3 strikes BS) and no defense from some kid moderator. Every single reviewer here could be kicked without warning for being honest or true to his beliefs. Without the mods, the game is a 1 or less, because this is where it is fixed and made playable. This is where good ideas come from and many ideas get incorporated into future Bethesda games. 2. Some really interesting quests (mostly) but many are still broken. And some boring quests. But, I guess it would be amazing if not for your interests just being quashed by a broken quest.
    3. I can't believe that Bethesda is still working on MSoft ActiveX 9. The UI is pretty bad for the PC. 4. It's also amazing that the recommended hardware or PC setup was not supported. 5. Game play is not uniform. At L20 the game play was pretty fair. You had to play smart and then you run into a Boss who hits you with spells every couple of seconds that take 62 health/second and 62 stamina/second and 62 magicka/second AND they all stack. The only way to defeat this Boss is by an AI trick or bug. By L40, if you have a smart build, No NPC can damage you more than a few per cent. By level 50, you have basically become invincible -- gOD mode. Ex. One-handed sword: base damage 677 + 93 enchants x 6 or 7 (sneak). The UI is so bad that you have to dump all your gear into a chest (unsorted, not even alphabetical) to use the enchant or smith potion. You have 30 seconds (real time) to use the enchant, I can get one weapon without renaming it (so you can differentiate it from unenchanted ones) before time is up. So doing 3-4 thousand damage per hit is pretty cool, but what does that say for the game. Bethesda/Zenimax announced there MMO. Maybe this will keep them home and they can drop Steam (Tricks (Steam) are for kids). In the next room my son is having an absolutely wonderful time with ME3 on Origin with no frustrations because of patches, broken quests, UI or AI.
    I don't think a Steam-only game should get game of the year.
    Expand
  30. May 5, 2012
    4
    Advantages: 1. Fresh storyline. 2. Nice landscapes and one breathtaking, huuuuge cave. 3. Nice animations. Disadvantages: 1. Becomes boring after a few hours. 2. Morrowind was more interesting, attractive and mysterious. 3. Fewer and fewer skills etc. makes it too simple. 4. Too easy (every character, also wrong-trained can easily finish almost every quest). 5. Bad skill balance (stealthAdvantages: 1. Fresh storyline. 2. Nice landscapes and one breathtaking, huuuuge cave. 3. Nice animations. Disadvantages: 1. Becomes boring after a few hours. 2. Morrowind was more interesting, attractive and mysterious. 3. Fewer and fewer skills etc. makes it too simple. 4. Too easy (every character, also wrong-trained can easily finish almost every quest). 5. Bad skill balance (stealth and short blade is much stronger that the most powerful magic). 6. I had an impression that 80% of games music was Morrowind remakes and remixes. 7. Too little variety of... everything? 8. Console-like interface (irritating as hell!). 9. Bugs, bugs, buuuuugs! 10. ... and chips with cola to crown it all. Expand
  31. May 8, 2012
    4
    Skyrim, for me at least, is not worthy of the praise it gets showered. Yes, you get a huge overworld with a character that you customize your way, and do whatever you want, whenever you want. yes, there is a ton of sidequests. However, there are a few glaring problems that i have with this game that i just could not ignore, and that prevented me from getting any real enjoyment out of it.Skyrim, for me at least, is not worthy of the praise it gets showered. Yes, you get a huge overworld with a character that you customize your way, and do whatever you want, whenever you want. yes, there is a ton of sidequests. However, there are a few glaring problems that i have with this game that i just could not ignore, and that prevented me from getting any real enjoyment out of it. First and foremost, the game's central story and characters are severely lacking. this means that no matter how hard i tried, i just could not care about any of the characters, because they're not developed in the story, and most characters only serve to be either a quest giver or a punching bag. This made the whole game just kind of bland and uninteresting for me. Next, the combat is not all that great. lets be honest here. the combat system alone is not gonna win any awards here. Lastly, yes the world is huge and there is a lot to do, but it gets very repetitive, very quickly. quests essentially consist of going into a dungeon, finding a certain thing, killing a certain monster, or other such things. In other words, the game creates the illusion of being expansive, when in actuality is very shallow.So, what does this all amount to? it amounts to the game being boring. very, very boring. and i dont play games to be bored. Probably the best analogy I've ever heard for skyrim, and indeed, most of the elder scrolls series, is that when you first start playing, its like coming out into a huge, shimmering, beautiful lake. Enticed, you wade out into the lake. You think, gee, this is great! i cant wait until i get to the deeper part of the lake! This is going to be great! however, to your surprise, the depth goes up very little, if at all. confused, you wade on, hoping for it to get deeper, so you can immerse yourself in it. however, it never comes. Disappointed, you leave. You may go back a few times because of how pretty it is, but always end up disappointed you can not immerse yourself in the waters of the game. Expand
  32. May 30, 2012
    4
    The most overrated game in RPG history. The world is grey, the combat boils down to hit the right trigger over and over , an the story is just dull. Sure the graphics are amazing but the game just lacked anything engaging . The dragons lacked the doing feel of the oblivion gates in Oblivion, and overall the characters where forgettable . Worst of all they dumbed down the skill system againThe most overrated game in RPG history. The world is grey, the combat boils down to hit the right trigger over and over , an the story is just dull. Sure the graphics are amazing but the game just lacked anything engaging . The dragons lacked the doing feel of the oblivion gates in Oblivion, and overall the characters where forgettable . Worst of all they dumbed down the skill system again making character creation only effect your appearance in the long run. For me skyrim was a backwards step for the elder scrolls series in every department. Expand
  33. Jun 18, 2012
    4
    To be generous, the first 4-5 hours as the game started I enjoyed immensely. I would have given a 9 if the rest of the game remained consistently fun. But it isn't so. I've never really like the floaty combat system in other TES games, but on this entry it's more obnoxious than ever because enemies hardly ever react to you attacks. They added "kill animations" to spice up the fightingTo be generous, the first 4-5 hours as the game started I enjoyed immensely. I would have given a 9 if the rest of the game remained consistently fun. But it isn't so. I've never really like the floaty combat system in other TES games, but on this entry it's more obnoxious than ever because enemies hardly ever react to you attacks. They added "kill animations" to spice up the fighting aspect, but they are just cutscenes of your character pulling off some cool move. You're not fighting the enemy anymore, you're just watching your character fight essentially. The first town you arrive at is a welcome beginning. You believe every character has a personality, unique voice & their own special problems that you can help fix. Until you go on to the next village or city and realize that almost all of the same voice actors were recycled for everybody else. Every smith has the same voice, every bard is a blonde womanizer with the annoying voice actor from Tak and the Power of Juju, almost every shopkeeper has the same male/female voice & they all think that "they have the finest goods in Skyrim" and "some people may call this junk, but me I call them treasure." Also every single guard in the entire game has the same male/femal voice, and my god do they sound mental. From the very beginning, the graphics made me very wary. The far scenery is sometimes beautiful, but when taking a closer look, textures & character animations can be worse than Morrowind ( which was made almost a decade ago!). There certainly is massive amounts of content, which I tried to explore over the time of about 80 hours of gameplay. But over half of the content is recycled "fetch this/kill that" quests with no depth or sense of urgency or accomplishment. The smithing & enchanting system is ridiculously broken, allowing you to become wholly overpowered within 5 hours of spamming iron daggers and enchanting them. This also makes exploring & adventuring obselete, because you will never find anything better than what you've already smithed and enchanted at level 10. Some cities/holds are massive & beautiful, but only inhabit about 20-25 NPC's. So it feels like a glorious ghost town, and you can't even engage with some of them; so it just feels like their taking up space. And nobody besides those involved in the main quest seem to be concerned that fearsome, deathly dragons are terrorizing Skyrim. And even when you finish the main questline or a certain guild, no one remembers you for it. Guards & NPC's will still harrass & criticize you even after saving skyrim from total destruction. So you also feel like your character is taking up space, because you make no visible impact upon the world. The only quest line I somewhat enjoyed was the Theives Guild, but it was still short and required a lot of tedious extra jobs to do in between. All of the dungeons, caves, and castles are only slightly varied from the next and really give no incentive to explore because you will encounter the same enemies and the same worthless loot. There certainly is no character development, because for some reason, you're only given 1-3 dialouge choices. It doesn't matter what you choose to say, the conversation will always end the same. They also made the quest system too easy, essentially holding your hand throughout the entire game because there is an arrow that tells you exactly what to do & where to go. There is no mystery or real challenge. The game really just degenerated to a virtual walk in a park (literally & metaphorically). The only thing I enjoyed in the end was the scenery. Expand
  34. Jul 9, 2012
    4
    This game was great for a bit then it just becomes boring and tedious. I tried to push myself to keep playing it, but I can't. I thought it was going to be a good game and kill 40+ hours, but I was wrong. It is buggy as all hell and it seems like it is just put together and released way to fast. Compare it to Oblivion and you will be disappointed. This game is not worth your time or moneyThis game was great for a bit then it just becomes boring and tedious. I tried to push myself to keep playing it, but I can't. I thought it was going to be a good game and kill 40+ hours, but I was wrong. It is buggy as all hell and it seems like it is just put together and released way to fast. Compare it to Oblivion and you will be disappointed. This game is not worth your time or money in my opinion. Expand
  35. Jul 14, 2012
    4
    I was severely disappointed with this game, as much as I hate to say it. I bought this game hoping for an entirely new experience, a great story and game-play, but it was stunted by quite a few things. Firstly, the story was very linear and boring in terms of quests. Things like, "Go to cave X to find a clue about the whereabouts of Y." When you then go to the cave, there are a fewI was severely disappointed with this game, as much as I hate to say it. I bought this game hoping for an entirely new experience, a great story and game-play, but it was stunted by quite a few things. Firstly, the story was very linear and boring in terms of quests. Things like, "Go to cave X to find a clue about the whereabouts of Y." When you then go to the cave, there are a few monsters and a straight path to the end, as well as some recurring puzzles that you see in almost every major cave. The side quests are even worse, and are often just fetch quests and, "Go kill X," quests. You can join groups like the dark brotherhood, but the result is the same, boring, linear quest pattern. As for combat, most of the time is spent in the inventory switching spells, drinking potions, switching weapons, while there is little focus on the actual combat. It's no kind of fighting we haven't seen before, just make your character face the enemy, select from your wide variety of weapons, and hit the attack button. Done. Have I mentioned that the game is very slow paced? Outside of dungeons, you barely fight anything other than a bandit here and there, and on rare occasions, you will encounter a dragon. The game-play is mostly looking at your inventory and traversing large spans of land. I've never really cared much about graphics in game, but if you do, these are sub par for how much hype they received pre-release. Overall, I was very disappointed. I'll stick with BIT.TRIP and The Binding. Much more satisfying on every level. Expand
  36. Jul 16, 2012
    4
    I would have rated this game 10/10 had it not been released with so many bugs!

    story so far, I played for many hours getting my character to level 29, only to find that a patch that was supposed to fix the game, instead corrupted my saved games. Finally, I managed to get back into my save game after trying numerous suggested fixes on forums. I continued playing for a couple of days
    I would have rated this game 10/10 had it not been released with so many bugs!

    story so far, I played for many hours getting my character to level 29, only to find that a patch that was supposed to fix the game, instead corrupted my saved games. Finally, I managed to get back into my save game after trying numerous suggested fixes on forums. I continued playing for a couple of days until all of a sudden I could no longer talk to NPCs, mine or use switches. Refusing to start a new game, I left the game for a couple of months and logged back in recently. After logging in, I received an error message that appeared on starting a new game or logging into a saved game. I went off in search of a fix and after reading numerous forum articles each with a different solution I decided to give up. After a brief period of time spent swearing at my PC, I did find a solution and finally managed to get into my save game. However, the fleeting moment of joy was replaced with yet more misery. The graphics were glitched, the game world looked like the brightness had been turned up to full and the color palette had been replaced with monochrome. After checking all my drivers were up to date and verifying the game cache, I tried logging into the game the next evening only to find it kept bombing out before reaching the main menu....

    I have never had so many issues trying to play a game before and I really do want to rate it higher! However, due to the fact that I have not been able to play it for a good few months plus I have spent countless hours trying to troubleshoot issues, wasting away my life..... i can't give it more than 4/10.
    Expand
  37. Sep 28, 2012
    4
    I was initially very impressed by the game. However I became frustrated at a main quest with 'esbern' that was broken and unpatched almost a year after launch. As well the UI is abysmal for a PC game. It looks like the UI was designed for console and ported to PC which is just brutal. A separate UI for PC should have been done. A UI more like World of Warcraft would make this gameI was initially very impressed by the game. However I became frustrated at a main quest with 'esbern' that was broken and unpatched almost a year after launch. As well the UI is abysmal for a PC game. It looks like the UI was designed for console and ported to PC which is just brutal. A separate UI for PC should have been done. A UI more like World of Warcraft would make this game infinitely better. I'm not sure how reviewers can give this game a 10. Expand
  38. Nov 29, 2012
    4
    I really tried to like this game. I played it for 20 hours or more. I set the graphics to ULTRA and they are good. The character creation seems good too. So, why a low rating? good question. Lets see....... 1. Bugs Everywhere. If you think the world in Skyrim is Big, you must see its bug list. Even trying to make it run is painful. Dragon fly backward, NPCs unable to left a room, problemsI really tried to like this game. I played it for 20 hours or more. I set the graphics to ULTRA and they are good. The character creation seems good too. So, why a low rating? good question. Lets see....... 1. Bugs Everywhere. If you think the world in Skyrim is Big, you must see its bug list. Even trying to make it run is painful. Dragon fly backward, NPCs unable to left a room, problems with sound, etc... 2. Sandbox. I know, thats good sometimes but nor for a RPG, I really want a motivation for my character!. 3. Inventory. Do you want a game to spend 30% of your time looking for your stuff? I don't. 4. Weight. This game has a lot of items to build. Armors, Weapons, potions. But your character cant carry the "ingredients" because everything is too heavy. Even the flowers. 5. Menus. Everything is designed for Xbox. You don't want that on your PC. 6. Too easy. Troll regeneration: check, invincible NPCs to help you: check, dull A.I.: check. Oh, talking about NPCs... 7. Empty "party" NPCs . They dont chat with you, they dont have a life, they just fight everything you fight. So far from Minsc, Jan Jansen , even that mute guy from Out of this World. 8. Price. Why is so expensive when I can find good games cheaper? In the end, this game seems so good but is not fun. It has not soul. Was designed just to earn a few (or a lot of) bucks, not for the greatness. Expand
  39. Aug 13, 2013
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I had a 3000 character review written but metacritic gave me the message "Your review must be at least 150 characters long.". Okay... So I'll condense what I said into very easy bullet points.

    Keep in mind I've played about 60 hours total now which is more than broken in but admittedly not as good as it could be for a full review. Nevertheless, let me begin:

    1. Dwemer ruins, caves & crypts are literally the only dungeon tilesets in the game.
    2. Game boasts hundreds of hours worth of side quests. Once you've done 60 hours worth of them like me you realize the "quantity over quality" feel and that the experience & reward before, during and after all quests are the same and quite pointless. Quite literally "Kill X for X Reason" or "I lost X Item in X Dungeon".
    3. Almost all quests are fast-travel fests. Expect the map to be open often as you travel across the world in seconds. No fast travel would be worst with Skyrims setup but it is nonetheless immersion breaking.
    4. Guilds are a shadow of their former selves, with you being able to join guilds like the Dark Brotherhood literally after 1 short quest. After 1 short quest you are simply allowed access to this super secret society and their secret lair.
    5. No real impact on the world beyond guards saying things. I killed the EMPEROR OF TAMRIEL and the greatest impact I've seen so far is a town guard saying the "emperor of skyrim" was dead.
    6. At level 31 and 60 hours played, my 60k gold is pointless and selling items are pointless.
    7. Storyline is cliched to hell with the standardized "ancient evil villain (dragon) trying to take over the world, and only a last of his kind super badass (dragonborn) can save it". Within a few minutes of starting the game you manage to take down a DRAGON with iron weapons & 4 or 5 regular town guards, and are then told you are an amazing total badass warrior. This personally irks me because I hate the modern casualized babygamer trend of stories starting off with the protagonist already being an established god of warfare. This is why I liked games like Fallout 1 & 2 where you started off relatively as a nothing, but through your own efforts became a powerful badass.

    Skyrim is worth buying to enjoy for around 60 hours but only if you manage to get a steam sale. Beyond that you shouldn't waste $60 or more. If you want a real RPG I suggest trying out Baulder's gate, fallout 1 or 2, planescape torment among many others. Not to mention you'll get far more & longer enjoyment out of them for $5 on gog.
    Expand
  40. Dec 23, 2012
    4
    Skyrim is a very ambitious game, just like the other Elder Scrolls games. Once again, I'm amazed by the main concepts of the game. The combat system is a very nice concept. The ability to wander the world and do whatever you feel like is another amazing concept. The item creation and enchanting are great concepts.

    Unfortunately, that's about where Skyrim stops being amazing. When
    Skyrim is a very ambitious game, just like the other Elder Scrolls games. Once again, I'm amazed by the main concepts of the game. The combat system is a very nice concept. The ability to wander the world and do whatever you feel like is another amazing concept. The item creation and enchanting are great concepts.

    Unfortunately, that's about where Skyrim stops being amazing. When the concepts become reality, everything falls apart. Overall, the game is incredibly buggy. Between the constant crashes, several broken/incompletable quests, some minor glitches, and game balance, the game is a complete wreck. I'm really impressed with the concepts of this game. The raw ideas for Skyrim are truly brilliant. The actual execution is so bad, I'm often physically sickened.

    Let's start with the glitches. First of all, the game won't stop crashing. Enough said. The menus are very unresponsive and overall poorly designed. Often, my character will say something despite the fact that I chose a different dialogue option. I've had several quests become impossible to finish due to bugs. Again, enough said. Enemies are often able to attack again while in mid-attack. They can also attack backwards now and then. This is just a very very small fraction of the bugs in Skyrim.

    Now let's get to game balance. The dungeons are a complete cakewalk until you get to the boss. Once you find the boss, you MUST exploit the game in some way to win. Otherwise, you simply lack the health and damage output to even have a chance of winning. An example of this would be a draugr boss which I was fighting. I would injure him to about 9/10ths of his health, and he would immediately heal himself back up to full health. An impossible fight. (I never ended up beating him, by the way). Basically, the enemies are either too easy or too hard. Most fights aren't even very fun. Even the dragon fights turn into cover based shooters, as dragons are often capable of 1-hit kills.

    Once again, I applaud whoever was smart enough to come up with the concepts of this game. That said, Skyrim didn't even touch its potential. It's such a shame how it turned out.
    Expand
  41. Jan 2, 2013
    4
    I really tried this game, a lot. But i simple can't play it, it's boring as hell. But the worst problem is the graphic engine, when u play at 3rd person you will see your character "floating" on the ground instead of walking. You really don't feel the movements, they are very awkward and this problem is reflected on the combat, which is bad, very bad. I think it's the worst combat system iI really tried this game, a lot. But i simple can't play it, it's boring as hell. But the worst problem is the graphic engine, when u play at 3rd person you will see your character "floating" on the ground instead of walking. You really don't feel the movements, they are very awkward and this problem is reflected on the combat, which is bad, very bad. I think it's the worst combat system i ever seen, i prefer the 16-bits turn based system s rather than this. Expand
  42. Jan 4, 2013
    4
    This is based on roughly 40 hours of experience, the price, and I am no long addicted to this game, I lost all interest in it. I will probably never play this game again. I bought this game because of all the hype, the story is cool the type of enemies are really cool, the story is fascinating, exploring is amazing!!! Why did I rate this game so low? Because of the weaponry, armor sets,This is based on roughly 40 hours of experience, the price, and I am no long addicted to this game, I lost all interest in it. I will probably never play this game again. I bought this game because of all the hype, the story is cool the type of enemies are really cool, the story is fascinating, exploring is amazing!!! Why did I rate this game so low? Because of the weaponry, armor sets, (melee) combat, bugs, and it's butchering of loot. I don't even know why people praised this game, the new RPG standard in games is A LOT OF LOOT!!! This game will NOT give you that, it's system is terrible, predictable and unlike other Bethesda games(fallout for example) You aren't rewarded for exploring much, if you do find an upgrade it's not an "AWESOME" Moment it's "DUH, I knew I'd get something like that". I play A LOT of RPG's, dead island, kingdoms or amalur, Fallout, the list goes on. They give you satisfaction when you loot, it's like you stare at it for a good 20+ seconds, it's fun! This game, nah. Basically :
    I Payed 30 dollars for skyrim(50% sale) Thank god I didn't pay the 60! This game is great, if you enjoy graphics(Character graphics/animations are kind of terrible) Reading books, not much more benefits I can say other than that. Comparing to other RPG's of the same company, or just in general. This game has more quantity, than quality when it comes to submersing you into it. I'd recommend fallout:new vegas over skyrim. 10,20$? For New vegas, New vegas has much more bugs, however telling you from 250 hours of experience(and still haven't beaten the game) Exploring is so much more enjoyable! I Spent most of the time and story line exploring instead of questing. Skyrim all you really buy this game for is to reading books, not really much more. This is my first taste of elder scrolls and I will never go back to it.
    Expand
  43. Jul 29, 2013
    4
    Played 2x8 hrs Legendary edition friends place. I want no more of this. Although I don't like controller games, I adapted fairly quick. Still: whilst playing Morrowind and Oblivion I felt like a lethargic lepper strapped in a straight-jacket. Fallout 3 overcame this feeling due to it's targeting system. Now in Skyrim all the bad is coming back. Less RPG, less character physics, more hackPlayed 2x8 hrs Legendary edition friends place. I want no more of this. Although I don't like controller games, I adapted fairly quick. Still: whilst playing Morrowind and Oblivion I felt like a lethargic lepper strapped in a straight-jacket. Fallout 3 overcame this feeling due to it's targeting system. Now in Skyrim all the bad is coming back. Less RPG, less character physics, more hack and slash in a non-responsive and non-rewarding way. Agreed, there is a big explorable world, but if one experiences it as in a repetative nightmarish dream, how can that not be frustrating? We all should not be wanting this. Expand
  44. Oct 14, 2014
    4
    Very disappointing. A good game for most, but, playing as a mage, I felt it left much to be desired. The magic system overall is weak, and most of the interesting bits from Oblivion (such as custom spells) have been removed entirely. Additionally, melee classes get effective access to magic via shouts, which just feels cheap and marketing-driven. If you want to play a melee character, thenVery disappointing. A good game for most, but, playing as a mage, I felt it left much to be desired. The magic system overall is weak, and most of the interesting bits from Oblivion (such as custom spells) have been removed entirely. Additionally, melee classes get effective access to magic via shouts, which just feels cheap and marketing-driven. If you want to play a melee character, then yes, perhaps try it, but if you want to play a magic-user, skip this one entirely and just get Oblivion instead. It is a far better experience, and cheaper too. Expand
  45. May 27, 2013
    4
    If it weren't for the incessent and sometimes quest breaking bugs, I'd have rated this higher.
    I did beat the game, but hindsight being 20/20 I realize Bethesda should probably get their together when it comes to programming. I was unable to complete a Daedric item quest because the key NPC just disappears when you enter the quest location. I was unable to ditch an item because it's
    If it weren't for the incessent and sometimes quest breaking bugs, I'd have rated this higher.
    I did beat the game, but hindsight being 20/20 I realize Bethesda should probably get their together when it comes to programming. I was unable to complete a Daedric item quest because the key NPC just disappears when you enter the quest location. I was unable to ditch an item because it's flagged as a quest item, when I wasn't yet on the quest, but couldn't start the quest because I already had the item. Come on! The lore was great, and the gameplay itself was a blast. But if I had to count the hours of life I essentially wasted because I had to load an earlier save I'd probably cry. When it gets to the point you've got more than 5 save files, not because you want the option to branch in a different direction of the story, but because you want to ensure you have a recent save to go back to when you realize yet again, a quest is broken it gets to the realm of the ludicrous.
    Expand
  46. Aug 29, 2013
    4
    I fully agree with all the people who rated this game from a 0 to a 6 and their reasons for it. Skyrim just wasn't what a true TES had to be like.
    Besides the obvious: poor storyline, poor voice-acting, poor leveling and a abysmal UI, what truly ruined the game for me is that the towns and dungeons didnt made ANY sense to me. Every time i entered a dungeon i could see the "secret"
    I fully agree with all the people who rated this game from a 0 to a 6 and their reasons for it. Skyrim just wasn't what a true TES had to be like.
    Besides the obvious: poor storyline, poor voice-acting, poor leveling and a abysmal UI, what truly ruined the game for me is that the towns and dungeons didnt made ANY sense to me. Every time i entered a dungeon i could see the "secret" sliding stone door. Dungeons, untouched for centurys, were littered with fruits and vegetables. Wolves are walking around with diamond rings while the population is piss poor. I've seen more bandits than civillians. Wardrobes in the town houses contain a apple, 2 gold, a shoe and a piece of carchcoal. 20m2 huts normally contain a bed, a table, a wardrobe, 3 treasurechests(each filled with a couple of gold pieces and maybe something like a banana) and 8 barrels for the 5 pieces of vegetable. The layout of the town houses and defenses are complete nonsense. The average dungeon consists of 3kilometers of elaborate, narrow, copy-paste corridors whom, again, dont make ANY sense at all.
    But what really pissed me off,,,, bandits are walking around with some crappy cloth armor a bow and utter rare enchanted deadra arrows while the room next to them is filled with ebony armor and one of skyrims 900.000 enchanted jewels.......
    No...sense...
    Expand
  47. Oct 20, 2013
    4
    Overall, a disappointing technological step forward from Oblivion. Your first impression, the graphics, are an underwhelming improvement but the environment design feels good, more varied and interesting than previous games. Human faces look bad and idol animations (such as when speaking) dont look natural. The dialogue is often awkward and contrived. AI sucks. Arrow in face, oh nevermind,Overall, a disappointing technological step forward from Oblivion. Your first impression, the graphics, are an underwhelming improvement but the environment design feels good, more varied and interesting than previous games. Human faces look bad and idol animations (such as when speaking) dont look natural. The dialogue is often awkward and contrived. AI sucks. Arrow in face, oh nevermind, just hearing things.

    Whilst the environment looks good, one of the largest downfalls of Skyrim is that, besides dragons (which are intersting and done quite well), theres nothing but dungeons which are repetitive and completely uninviting. The cities are completely BORING. Again, nothing in them. The guilds are only few in number and I could barely begin them before Im bored....Im baffled by it all. This was the nail in the coffin for me, cities are just bad.

    Combat is improved but still fails in the same fundamental ways as previous games. Swing swing block, swing swing block. Bows feel more powerful. Magic is the same as it used to be. New shout mechanic is interesting but essentially just magic.

    Story, um, I dont remember it lets put it that way. Characters? What are those?

    I cant be bothered explaining any more, Im tired of complaining. I honestly feel bad trashing the only game Ive ever pre-ordered. Exploring the land and finding new shouts was the only fun I had.
    Expand
  48. Aug 7, 2014
    4
    With the recent news of layoffs and restructuring, the big sites such as IGN are now officially in trouble and they have only themselves to blame. With games like Skyrim getting an average of 94 (a near perfect score), one has to wonder about the quality of journalism on these sites. Do not get me wrong, there is a lot to like about Skyrim and the game certainly does not deserve a 0/10,With the recent news of layoffs and restructuring, the big sites such as IGN are now officially in trouble and they have only themselves to blame. With games like Skyrim getting an average of 94 (a near perfect score), one has to wonder about the quality of journalism on these sites. Do not get me wrong, there is a lot to like about Skyrim and the game certainly does not deserve a 0/10, but there is also a lot to complain about and thus equally people that give the game 10/10 are devoid of critical thought and even the most basic understanding of good game design.

    Of course people have different tastes and they use 1 to 10 scale differently, but even a complete imbecile can see the flaws Skyrim has. The game is buggy, unoptimised with annoying graphical and gameplay glitches, horrible AI and even worse UI. But I won't even go into the technical stuff, because even if the game was as smooth as heaven itself, it still manages to fall short just based on game design decisions from Bethesda.

    1. The story is lackluster and unoriginal. You are the chosen one and have to kill the big evil monster that wants to destroy the world. Yawn.. how original.
    2. The dialogues are horrible. Most NPCs have 2 or 3 lines with some important characters a few lines more. But my main gripe is that these characters are completely devoid of any personality or uniqueness - the fact which is even more obvious due to horrible voice acting where a couple of voice actors use the same voice for hundreds of different NPCs - thus completely breaking the immersion which Skyrim clearly strives for. Beyond a couple of jokes here and there, some vary basic background to their character, there is literally nothing memorable about any of them.
    3. Quests are linear and boring. This is probably my biggest problem with Skyrim. Vast, vast majority of quests are MMO quality. For those of you who never played any MMO, MMO quality of quests boils down to this simple formula: go to X, talk to or kill Y, fetch Z and come back or deliver it to some other character, which will send you on another quest with the exactly same formula. Occasionally you will have an escort quest, or a "big battle", but that is pretty much it. This fact is even more painful due to annoying and lazy quest markers which literally hand hold you to every place, every item, every NPC that you are supposed to find, so there is nothing for you to work out for yourself.
    4. Level scaling. Although level scaling is not as horrible as it was in Oblivion, it is still there, leaving the player feeling like the whole world is turning around him and resulting in the diminished sense of progression.
    5. Loot scaling is a horrible idea. There is no sense of progression when the loot is scaled to your level. No matter where you go, you will never experience that magical moment when you find an amazing piece of equipment.
    6. Geographical design is horrible. Its just too easy to navigate even if you install a mod to remove the quest marker. Forget about feeling lost in a huge world. The design is so simple even a 6 year old can find his way around. Basically you have 1 big town in the middle, and then a road that goes around it connecting other towns. Everything is close to that road and that makes the world feel much smaller than it could have been.

    I could go on with dumb AI of your followers, unkillable NPCs, dumb down puzzles which all boil down to matching symbols that lie right in front of your face, etc... but this will suffice. Skyrim is a below average RPG in everything but its size. Combat is decent, graphic, sound and music are very good, the game a has good and interesting lore, and dragons look and act like real dragons (even though they are a bit too easy to kill).
    Expand
  49. Mar 18, 2014
    4
    Subtract everything you liked about the other elder scrolls and well you basically have this game. A very limited spell system, with an overpowered fireball, game play that feels more like an mmo than an elder scrolls, very little combat on main thorough fares, even in the wilderness battles are few and far between. Combined with that and the fact that enemy spells were hitting meSubtract everything you liked about the other elder scrolls and well you basically have this game. A very limited spell system, with an overpowered fireball, game play that feels more like an mmo than an elder scrolls, very little combat on main thorough fares, even in the wilderness battles are few and far between. Combined with that and the fact that enemy spells were hitting me through a solid mountain when I wasn't even in line of sight, demolished any chance of me playing this game past that point. Expand
  50. Nov 1, 2014
    4
    First let me start with saying that Skyrim's combat is sh*t. It takes away the feeling that you are developing a character, that you help contribute to your character, that this is Your character. I am talking about investing points into Agility and seeing your character hit more often, those sort of things that create attachment to the game. Skyrim lacks the attachment part because asFirst let me start with saying that Skyrim's combat is sh*t. It takes away the feeling that you are developing a character, that you help contribute to your character, that this is Your character. I am talking about investing points into Agility and seeing your character hit more often, those sort of things that create attachment to the game. Skyrim lacks the attachment part because as long as You have the skills, You can do anything (from picking master locks, to hitting every time with the bow) which leaves you without a reason to care for this world, no attachment...

    In Skyrim earlier perks completely say 'FU' to the difficulty and the need of finding better gear by giving you more damage, less mana requirements for spell usage (some perks are good).

    Why Morrowind is better: from finding your own way via reading the journal, to more interesting architecture, more diverse and interesting locations, better made dungeons, better weapons, armor and loot, loot with value (for example glass or daedric loot was nearly impossible to sell due to its high value (1 daedric bolt is 4000 gold!)), more diverse and interesting magics, better and deeper stories, harder and more interesting puzzles (lockpicking was level based and if your Security skill was low forget about lvl100 Master locks unless with a magic scroll), harsher consequences for your actions and therefore more choices (you can kill anyone for example plot characters rendering the main plot impossible to complete unless you reloaded a save or found some other way; also NPCs were interesting because you could do more with them - if you were to increase the disposition of an NPC and your Personality was high enough you might find newer quests for example and new dialog. NPCs would offend you if they didnt like you and shopkeepers wont barter with you if you had items they disapproved like Skooma; if you had no stamina and were under attack you would fall to the ground unable to act until some stamina comes back).
    Expand
  51. Jun 14, 2014
    4
    Modern RPGs like Skyrim have been systematically dumbed-down to the point of mental retardation.
    Bethesda has sold out their brilliant RPGs [Morrowind] in favor of idiot children who need their hand held while playing an RPG because they are too stupid or lazy to figure out how to play the g*****n game for themselves! Well Skyrim is just that game. It's an RPG for morons!
    Morrowind = A
    Modern RPGs like Skyrim have been systematically dumbed-down to the point of mental retardation.
    Bethesda has sold out their brilliant RPGs [Morrowind] in favor of idiot children who need their hand held while playing an RPG because they are too stupid or lazy to figure out how to play the g*****n game for themselves! Well Skyrim is just that game. It's an RPG for morons!
    Morrowind = A true thinking RPG. A Masterpiece! A wonderful RPG! Great replay value.
    Skyrim = Retards with swords! No thinking required. This doesn't deserve to be called an RPG! This s*** is for idiots!
    Thank you Bethesda, you have single-handedly destroyed RPGs by taking real thinking out of the equation.
    Skyrim is a huge slap in the face to those of us who remember what a true Role Playing Game is really supposed to be. It has decent graphics, but that's its only redeeming quality.
    Expand
  52. Sep 29, 2014
    4
    Pros: Fun first person shooter style combat; often feels like an actual roleplaying game; fun looting and trading system with merchants; the voice acting is good.

    Cons: Not enough general stores in cities and towns to sell your looted junk to; dumb follower AI; only allowed one follower at a time; it is contrived that races other than Nords and Imperials can be Dragonborn; bad horse
    Pros: Fun first person shooter style combat; often feels like an actual roleplaying game; fun looting and trading system with merchants; the voice acting is good.

    Cons: Not enough general stores in cities and towns to sell your looted junk to; dumb follower AI; only allowed one follower at a time; it is contrived that races other than Nords and Imperials can be Dragonborn; bad horse combat system; the Daedra "Gods" often times feel contrived; NPCs are too talkative, they will try to talk to you even when you run past them uninterestedly; most of the children in the game are annoying brats who you are forced to put up with; dragons feel contrived; the game is too unrealistic; ridiculous stealth combat system; a lot of ugly, dumb weapons and armor you can use in the game; the sound, music and volume of the voices are pretty badly balanced by default; NPCs which drop to their knees panting instead of dying when they should die.

    Score Breakdown: Voice Acting 7/10, Sound Effects and Music 5/10, Plot Development 4/10, Graphics 4/10, Game Stability 4/10, Loading Screens and Frame Rate 4/10, Background Story 3/10, Gameplay 3/10, Replay Value 3/10, Realism 1/10, Total Score 3.8/10

    Conclusion: The base game isn't so great, especially with the unkillable non-playable characters. I recommend playing using console command cheats (to kill immortal npcs and such) and mods to get much more enjoyment out of the game. Even then, although this game does have its moments, in the end I'd say it's really mediocre at best. I question whether any so-called reviewer who gives this game anything higher than an 8/10 actually played the game longer than for a couple hours.
    Expand
  53. Apr 26, 2015
    4
    Vanilla-Skyrim: 6/10 (compared to other RPGs Skyrim is disgrace to the RPG-Genre)
    Modded-Skyrim: 12+/10
    Skyrim with paywalled Mods: seriously? Not that I don't endorse modders, but why should Bethesda get paid for other people's work? Why should I pay for mods, where I have no guarantee that it'll work even with other current or future mods? Why can't I just donate to the modders
    Vanilla-Skyrim: 6/10 (compared to other RPGs Skyrim is disgrace to the RPG-Genre)
    Modded-Skyrim: 12+/10
    Skyrim with paywalled Mods: seriously?

    Not that I don't endorse modders, but why should Bethesda get paid for other people's work?
    Why should I pay for mods, where I have no guarantee that it'll work even with other current or future mods?
    Why can't I just donate to the modders directly if I'm satisfied with their work?
    Why do they even call it "mods"? These are obviously 3rd party DLCs.
    Expand
  54. May 16, 2016
    4
    this is just sandbox and very boring

    if your mod it its fun in begin its will welcome boring again

    story 1/10

    all dungeon are same

    4'/10 with mods
  55. Jul 6, 2016
    4
    The game really is just a walking simulator with boring side quests and a cliche main quest. The combat system is awful. The sword fights are just long repeated clicks until the enemy is dead and the magic is just hold until enemy is dead. The game does look beautiful, and wandering around is pretty relaxing, but I wouldn't call this a "game". Very overrated...
  56. May 26, 2018
    4
    What I'll remember Skyrim for in the future is for having one of the most disapointing and unsatisfying endings I've seen so far. Even if the story had any potential at all, it was brutally killed by gameplay and other stupid issues. Controlls were terrible and unprecise. The engine, oh, the engine is so bad, when you experience the physics they've implemented (since Fallout 3, mind you)What I'll remember Skyrim for in the future is for having one of the most disapointing and unsatisfying endings I've seen so far. Even if the story had any potential at all, it was brutally killed by gameplay and other stupid issues. Controlls were terrible and unprecise. The engine, oh, the engine is so bad, when you experience the physics they've implemented (since Fallout 3, mind you) you'll scrap your head and think whether it's a joke or not. Launching the game smoothly, with no issues and crashes collides with being a mirracle. Graphics is cheap and without mods it looks like garbage, even for 2011.
    Sadly, once again, the community had to repair the game instead of its devs. I hate Bethesda for that they're not giving their games the love they deserve. If you finally get over the **** Bethesda have left you with, after launching the game with dozens of mods and community patches, it can finaly be good looking, partly repaired, balanced, smooth and addictive. If you are willing to spend around 1-3 hours installing mods before playing the actual game - it's fine. Otherwise, give up.
    Unfortunately, I'm here to rate the original, vanilla Skyrim, not moded one, and this one is sole garbage. Just don't.
    Expand
  57. Jul 26, 2018
    4
    From the standpoint of quests, choices/effects, and enemy variety, this is the least salvageable Bethesda Software open world game to date. I have legit not seen a quest line I consider even passable. The dungeons, while a fair improvement over Oblivion's couple strains of layouts, are mostly populated by the following: Bandits, more bandits, necromancers, Falmer, Falmer-to-dwarven-ruins,From the standpoint of quests, choices/effects, and enemy variety, this is the least salvageable Bethesda Software open world game to date. I have legit not seen a quest line I consider even passable. The dungeons, while a fair improvement over Oblivion's couple strains of layouts, are mostly populated by the following: Bandits, more bandits, necromancers, Falmer, Falmer-to-dwarven-ruins, Dwarven ruins, and irrationally savage natives on the west side of the map. Bland.

    This game is in some ways so watered down that even the obvious racist factions do not care what race your character is. In many ways this game is unbelievably sterile. I think it is because they stopped letting Kirkbride be lead writer, artist, and designer. God knows it would have killed him to continue that amount of alcohol and drug abuse, but the setting is ever the blander for it.

    Anyway, in my honest opinion, the setting jumped the shark when the lore books started to directly contradict the setting, entirely to make an inoffensive, voice worked, familiar game. What do we have now? A setting more generic than the first EverQuest? Prove me wrong.

    Now this isn't fair to judge these games off the bat. They have always, at their best, been about user content. But we're lacking the 'big' mods, like Mart's Monster Mod, Obscuro's overhaul, Fransceso's, the Tamriel Rebuilt, etc and ever the poorer for it.

    So it has to be half a score. There is nothing insanely dense and creative, the writing has pooped itself, and the creators are pushing an MMO. Holy crap what a downturn.

    Imagine if the game series we had in 2002 had continued on with no sacrifices made to the gods of expedience or so your neighbors idiot kid would play it for more than an hour or two.

    The ending of the words is ALMSIVI, b*tch.
    Expand
  58. Nov 18, 2019
    4
    Интересная ламповая игра с большим миром который так и хочется изучить. Но есть платные моды без которых игра не так интересна и стоят эти оружия и скины не дешево. 4
  59. Jun 21, 2021
    4
    The Elder Scrolls games are overhyped and bland and Skyrim, although the best of em, is no Exception. Stoywise those games have a really high Potential, but its is entombed in a Sterile Indiegame. Storytelling and Gameplay is so Basic that no Immersion can get to you. Its just sad and wasted Potential.
  60. Jun 18, 2021
    4
    for me,game is really boring, story dont have any interesting moments, but gameplay is not bad, and upgrade systen is very cool, for 2011 this game was really cool, but, after 10 years its not so cool
  61. Jun 27, 2020
    4
    They'll advertise this game as an Open World RPG, but it's really just an action adventure game. They dumbed down pretty much everything regarding the roleplaying and RPG mechanics. Puzzles are stupid simple, the game basically holds your hand the whole time, and the story is so bad one of the most popular mods removes you from said plotline. Bethesda really stopped caring about theirThey'll advertise this game as an Open World RPG, but it's really just an action adventure game. They dumbed down pretty much everything regarding the roleplaying and RPG mechanics. Puzzles are stupid simple, the game basically holds your hand the whole time, and the story is so bad one of the most popular mods removes you from said plotline. Bethesda really stopped caring about their games once they worked on this. Expand
  62. Dec 12, 2020
    4
    A game seemingly everyone grew up on to realize it's kind of a shoddy, unbalanced, janky and broken mess, with some of the worst writing in videogame history. Only enjoyable as a modding platform
  63. Nov 13, 2021
    4
    ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀
    ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀
    ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
    ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀
    ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀
    ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀
    ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀
    ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀
    ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀
    ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀
    ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀
    ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀
    ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀
    ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀
    ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀
    ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀
    ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀
    ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀
    ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀
    Expand
  64. Jan 8, 2021
    4
    Skyrim manages to absolve itself from creating any sense of depth and intellectual challenge, by distracting the player with a expansive but hollow world to explore.

    It is undeniable that the land of Skyrim is impressive to say the least. It is vast and yet densely packed with secrets to uncover. The epic atmosphere and richness of world building is unparalleled, and backed up by a lore
    Skyrim manages to absolve itself from creating any sense of depth and intellectual challenge, by distracting the player with a expansive but hollow world to explore.

    It is undeniable that the land of Skyrim is impressive to say the least. It is vast and yet densely packed with secrets to uncover. The epic atmosphere and richness of world building is unparalleled, and backed up by a lore that's had the time to manifest and grow over two decades, the world feels immersive and believable. That is where the praise for the fifth game in the Elder Scrolls series stops, however.

    My problem with the game, is not one of technical issues and bugs; nor is it an issue with the infamous creation club (although these are both matters Bethesda shouldn't get away with). No, Skyrim's fatal flaw goes much deeper than that. In short, it is shallow. Over the course of the Elder Scrolls series, the games have become more and more watered down, to the point where they can longer call themselves RPG's. There is more to an RPG than dragons and a skill tree. in fact one my all time favourite RPG's, Fallout: New Vegas, has none of these things; and despite that it manages to be a true RPG in every sense of the word. Ultimately this comes down to the intensely real and eye-opening decisions you must make in your journey. Not only does it have four wildly different endings, but all throughout the world, there are moral questions that the player is asked to answer. This is where Skyrim falls short. There are no meaningful decisions at any point in the game, you are an all powerful protagonist, guided entirely by the chubby finger of fate; whether you like it or not.

    To be clear I was age one on the release of Oblivion, my views are in no way tinted by rose glasses and I have no sense of nostalgia for these other games, whatsoever. In fact Skyrim was my first 'RPG' experience which is widely why I have so many hours on the game; I didn't know any better.

    I don't expect the thrilling gameplay of a Soulsborne game (which Skyrim most definitely does not have). DnD did not become popular for its gameplay. It became popular because player could be anyone they wanted, and do anything they wanted. In Skyrim, though your character is nameless and voiceless, it still feels as though you are playing the person Todd Howard wants you to be.

    4/10
    Expand
  65. Mar 30, 2021
    4
    I played this game for 50 hours, that is 25 x 2 because i made 2 characters.
    I tried vanilla and with mods
    This game is just dull, the world is very uninteresting, I mean yes it has lots of locations (that are copy pasted) and it has lots of characters you can speak with, but why? This game exists and everything inside of it just because, just for the sake of existing. Its trying to be
    I played this game for 50 hours, that is 25 x 2 because i made 2 characters.
    I tried vanilla and with mods

    This game is just dull, the world is very uninteresting, I mean yes it has lots of locations (that are copy pasted) and it has lots of characters you can speak with, but why? This game exists and everything inside of it just because, just for the sake of existing. Its trying to be the best RPG ever by cramming into it a lot of bland content.
    Id rather read a book than play this any more.
    Story is boring i really didn't pay attention, that might be my fault.
    So there you go, if you want this kind of game, here it is.

    - This game is the equivalent of eating bread for dinner, just bread nothing else.
    Expand
  66. Aug 25, 2021
    4
    This game is Poor optimization,bad graphic,and overated games. I don't like it sorry ):
  67. May 12, 2023
    4
    This game is boring and its not that its difficult i just dont find it enjoyable 4/10
  68. Jun 26, 2023
    4
    A massively overrated game that took away all sense of roleplaying from its predecessor only to be replaced with generic dragonborn sword swinging spellslinger. No replayability, no role playing to be had. Oversimplified gameplay and mechanics, for example the removal of custom spells. Saved only by the mods from the community, this game would be a complete pass otherwise.
  69. Feb 25, 2012
    3
    Game as any other Bethesda game.
    If you played Oblivion and Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas, then you've seen it all. This is the same game with different theme. Been there, done that, that's it. I got bored after playing 8h of it, it's too repetitive. After playing Witcher 2 this game looks and plays like crap.
  70. Jan 27, 2014
    3
    Terribly disappointing. When will we stop rewarding Bethesda for these incredibly low-quality games? It's like watching a production of Shakespeare where the actors and crew are drunk - the story may be compelling and the backdrop spectacular, but the entire performance is doomed to failure. From the interface to the voice acting to the animations, this game is sub-par. For God's sakeTerribly disappointing. When will we stop rewarding Bethesda for these incredibly low-quality games? It's like watching a production of Shakespeare where the actors and crew are drunk - the story may be compelling and the backdrop spectacular, but the entire performance is doomed to failure. From the interface to the voice acting to the animations, this game is sub-par. For God's sake Bethesda, get a better QA department! Expand
  71. Jun 4, 2013
    3
    The important thing to remember before you purchase this game, is that it is the exact same game experience as Morrowind and Oblivion. If you eventually got tired of how repetitive those games were, you will probably not get much value out of this game. The one thing this game does offer is tons of repetitious quests, creatures, dungeons, and scenery. You can really feel the age of theThe important thing to remember before you purchase this game, is that it is the exact same game experience as Morrowind and Oblivion. If you eventually got tired of how repetitive those games were, you will probably not get much value out of this game. The one thing this game does offer is tons of repetitious quests, creatures, dungeons, and scenery. You can really feel the age of the basic gameplay system and interactions when you compare it to modern games like Assassin's Creed, Dark Souls, and Dragon's Dogma.

    I do not recommend a purchase unless its at bargain prices or you are completely new to Elder Scrolls.
    Expand
  72. Nov 13, 2011
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. As a huge fan of the series I hate to do this, i really do, and if i was just playing an ordinary game by an ordinary developer this would be getting a 8 or a 9. If i was just taking the first 5 hours, this would be getting an 8 or a 9. This weekend i have put a solid 35 hours into this game, so i feel like my review comes after some experience.
    Firstly, the positives.
    The game is interesting, the lore is good, the dungeons are varied and have interesting puzzles.
    Combat is improved, if not brilliant and the perks are quite neat.
    These positives are definitely enough to make the game interesting and playable.
    Now the negatives.
    The menus, OH MY GOD WHAT THE HELL. How difficult is it to make a frigging spreadsheet, listing the weight, value and name of the item, and let me sort it by those things. Not to mention its all designed for a console, so i waste so much time clicking the wrong thing because the cursor doesn't map properly to the options.
    Secondly, the bugs, man this is difficult to play when it crashes to the desktop ever hour or so with no warning or error message, its just gone. AI does some silly stuff sometimes but i can get over that, its just the crashing to desktop for no apparent reason that's killing me.
    Thirdly, and this is my biggest and most important one, and more general too.
    I don't know if anyone else senses this, but the whole game feels less heroic and epic than Morrowind or Oblivion. Sure you fight dragons, but the game feels kind of scripted.
    ----Minor Companion Guild Spoiler alert---- (I don't say what happens just it doesn't take long)
    So the companion guild is supposed to replace the fighters guild, and it was my first stop. I expected hours of missions and working my way through the ranks to finally become the leader, which would come with benefits such as getting my cut from the other members of the guild i now lead, or special missions, or special perks or SOMETHING. I would have expected extra reputation but that is no longer in this game for some reason. But what happens? I finish the couple of quests in little over an hour and am suddenly head of the guild and my benefits amount to a big fat nothing. Oh i get some stupid axe that i already had weapons as good as. And what is the special quests i get after being the mighty leader? "Hey man, this guy has a wolf (a single wolf) in his house on the other side of the map, can you go kill it?" Yeah send the freaking head of the guild to do that for like 100 gold.
    Same deal with the mages, no benefit at all.
    ----End Companion Spoiler----
    That's ok, ill go work for a Jarl, and get a house and become a thane, surely that will come with benefits and affect the story somehow.
    Wrong, after all the work and money it takes to get there, its just another thing you do that has no real benefit except you can get away with small crimes.
    This game is suffering from what i call Fable-itis, you can even get married ( to random NPCs or no noteworthiness for no benefit). There's so much to do, but why bother. All of my Armour and weapons were crafted by myself and are drastically better than anything i find, the only thing i use that i found was an amulet.
    Even taking part in the Civil War seems to have little affect that i can see so far other than a change in NPC's that run the cities and no benefit to yourself.
    The other Elder scroll games made your character so important, in Morrowind you could join a great house and rise through it eventually building your own castle. How awesome and epic.
    In Oblivion when you were the master of the guild you were the MASTER. You got a cut of everyone's earning and could direct the attention of the guild, and you were famous because of it.
    Where is that in this game? Where is the epic story where you grow in power and fame? Sure there are some epic battles, but the Elder scrolls were never about that, they were about the heroes story from rags to riches, from a dirty prisoner to lord of all you see.
    The problem with Elder scrolls is the expectations that go with it, this game looks great, and plays pretty well, as my 35 hours playtime will show, but it just doesn't feel like a good Elder Scrolls game, and most fans of the series will realize this as the game progresses and they seem to be having less and less effect on the world.
    Expand
  73. Nov 11, 2011
    3
    To those who can't believe how somebody could rate this game so low, I know exactly how you feel, about the game and the rating. I couldn't possibly care any less though.:)
    Good WRPG is all about choices/options and involved/enjoyable character development. An epic, well written story helps as well. This game does not have any of this.
    With a large world to explore, it first felt like a
    To those who can't believe how somebody could rate this game so low, I know exactly how you feel, about the game and the rating. I couldn't possibly care any less though.:)
    Good WRPG is all about choices/options and involved/enjoyable character development. An epic, well written story helps as well. This game does not have any of this.
    With a large world to explore, it first felt like a lot was possible. Cave exploration, ruin exploration, underwater exploration, fight X creature, find a random town and talk to random denizen, etc. After about 10 hours, it became more obvious that, yeah there is a lot you can do on the side, just none of it was all that interesting. At a certain point it just felt like I was playing offline MMO, in that the game allows you to do so much but it's just done so poorly.
    I know that the graphics aren't the most important part of a game like this but Skyrim don't even look average. I would never be so ridiculous as to say that I would buy a game just based on the visuals, but this game look like heavily moded Oblivion.
    Expand
  74. Nov 12, 2011
    3
    The Professional review sites are officially dead. It's not just a coincidence any more, they are obviously bought and paid for.

    This is a really mediocre console port, and not a successor to Elder Scrolls: Morrowind or even Oblivion. The controls are 'horrible'. The interface/inventory/etc., is horrible. The story and voice acting, are really bad, the intro was boring and very linear
    The Professional review sites are officially dead. It's not just a coincidence any more, they are obviously bought and paid for.

    This is a really mediocre console port, and not a successor to Elder Scrolls: Morrowind or even Oblivion. The controls are 'horrible'. The interface/inventory/etc., is horrible. The story and voice acting, are really bad, the intro was boring and very linear and quickly care nothing at all about any of the forced, rushed, generic characters. Voice acting is in spots good and in other spots, well, spotty. Exploration feels about the worst ever for an Elder Scrolls game and environments have a really weird scale to them, that makes everything feel squished and steep, like walking up the side of a cliff just feels really weird, like everything is made out of 80 degree angles.

    Controls make this game basically un-playable, they ruin combat. Dunno what the developers were thinking, but my guess is that they didn't want to catch all the major BS they would catch if they just stopped making PC games, so they just do this instead. Bad news though, I wouldn't even enjoy this as a console game, the original Morrowind played on the original Xbox was better (I know because that's how I played it through the first time and I pre-ordered that old classic...)
    Expand
  75. Nov 17, 2011
    3
    Graphics are even worse than Oblivion , the menu and navigating is a pain. Cannot see the characther,cannot see the equipped item on the char, cannot see the body in 1st person view.. Very laggy performance on a high end machine (HD6970,8GBRams and i7 Processor). Animations are crap, too much graphic bugs.. I cant count the problems... This is really really horrible after Oblivion....
  76. Nov 18, 2011
    3
    You can't make a good story focused on dragons, simple as that. Talking dragons is an absurd twist on the generic ones, which surely is original but it kind of made the game awkward. The main quest was boring, since there was no character progression. We already knew from the start that we were the Dragonborn, designated to end the dragons... etc... most of us probably figured out whatYou can't make a good story focused on dragons, simple as that. Talking dragons is an absurd twist on the generic ones, which surely is original but it kind of made the game awkward. The main quest was boring, since there was no character progression. We already knew from the start that we were the Dragonborn, designated to end the dragons... etc... most of us probably figured out what finale would be like as well. When there's no mystery in a game like this, it's not fun. You're not dragged into the story because it lacks immersion and the originality of daggerfall and morrowind. The quests in this game, be it main quest or not, are incredibly easy. It's like they were designed for you to not be able to fail. A prime example would be when you doing a College of Winterhold quest, you have to explore a ruin in order to find a staff. You stumble across a door that freezes when you walk by it, and thus it cant be opened... only to find that a few steps to the left there's a fire tome waiting for you. Dont present any obstacles to a player if theyre not there to actually hinder your progress...

    The game IS pretty fun though, but its nowhere as good as Daggerfall or Morrowind. It might be better than Oblivion, though. I would say its a good action/adventure game but an awful roleplaying game. If you don't have a brain and like killing things, well this is the game for you.
    Expand
  77. Nov 20, 2011
    3
    Skyrim is what all hard core PC game fans have feared the most, Almost complete unedited console ports with little visible enhancements in graphics or sound, a crippled GUI that is made for console game controllers and a performance hit due to obviously unoptimised console to windows conversion tools.

    This is and never will be considered a great game on the PC, if any fan of large open
    Skyrim is what all hard core PC game fans have feared the most, Almost complete unedited console ports with little visible enhancements in graphics or sound, a crippled GUI that is made for console game controllers and a performance hit due to obviously unoptimised console to windows conversion tools.

    This is and never will be considered a great game on the PC, if any fan of large open areas with a plethora of dark fantasy is considering buying this, my advice. If you haven't already, Get yourself the free to play MMO: Age Of Conan. The added bonus to a free MMO beyond been FREE is that you can meet people in this vast wasteland of a game. Oh and if you don't like it. At least it didn't cost you $100 to find out its drivel.

    Skyrim, oh how the mighty have fallen.
    Expand
  78. Jan 27, 2013
    3
    Incredibly generic story and plot, decent at best graphics, decent at best game play. Terrible voice acting, terribly generic characters. Without a doubt the worst of the series.
  79. Dec 30, 2011
    3
    The game gets boring really fast. Most quests are very linear and many side quests are simple fetch quests. The dungeons are repetitive and the broken crafting system and lack of equipment variety makes exploration pointless. Leveling is also pointless because everything levels with you. Dragon fights are quite underwhelming and often you'll meet common bandits which are stronger thanThe game gets boring really fast. Most quests are very linear and many side quests are simple fetch quests. The dungeons are repetitive and the broken crafting system and lack of equipment variety makes exploration pointless. Leveling is also pointless because everything levels with you. Dragon fights are quite underwhelming and often you'll meet common bandits which are stronger than Dragons (Because of the poorly implemented level scaling). AI is as good as in Oblivion, and by that I mean its terrible. Animations are still bad by modern days standards. Combat is a complete mess, probably because of the ridiculous physics in the game or maybe are the weird animations, but often when you hit people with heavy weapons they just moan and keep swinging their weapons like nothing is happening. Also, the finishing moves are weird and there is a lot of clipping issues. Like most modern games Skyrim also suffers with developers trying to appeal to a "wider audence" by removing features from the game (like attributes, skills, armor pieces, etc), that makes the game quite shallow and makes difficult for you to make "builds" that actually plays differently (most characters will just be a mage-warrior-thief hybrid).

    The soundtrack is somewhat good, but not very original because several musics are taken from Morrowind. Most sound effects sounds like they were taken from a bad movie from the 80s.
    Expand
  80. Feb 6, 2012
    3
    Just an overrated game. The old graphic engine unfortunately is not the worst feature: AI is 15 years old and the level of challenge of this game is zero. In fact enemies can't do anything else except to run to you in straight line, eventually throwing arrows or spells which are too easy to dodge. The easiest and worst adventure against decrepit zombies NPCs I've ever played.
  81. Feb 11, 2012
    3
    Ok i was expecting a great rpg but guess what it sucked was like wow except not even that fun seriusly bathesda i was hopping for a out of this world rpg but guess what you made **** you need to make a new series dammit
  82. Feb 17, 2012
    3
    Oblivion with a content update. Graphics - same. Gamplay - same. Characterisation - same. Writing - same. Three or four limited cookie-cutter dungeons redrawn a hundred times - same. I guess I should stop expecting TES series to come up with something new and not mind-numbingly repetitive, but there we go. I wanted to like this game, I really did, and I played it for a lot of hours,Oblivion with a content update. Graphics - same. Gamplay - same. Characterisation - same. Writing - same. Three or four limited cookie-cutter dungeons redrawn a hundred times - same. I guess I should stop expecting TES series to come up with something new and not mind-numbingly repetitive, but there we go. I wanted to like this game, I really did, and I played it for a lot of hours, but by the end I was sick of being sent on yet another draugr slashfest to kill the same three types of creatues I'd killed several thousand times before, in another dungeon whose look and feel was exactly the same as the previous three hundred. Unbelievably boring, and that's coming from a fantasy RPG fan. They really do need to start going for quality and not quantity. Expand
  83. Mar 5, 2013
    3
    One of the most overrated games of 2012. Decent graphics, but very boring after a few hours. Very thin storyline, characters which barely say anything, bunch of generic quests and a bucketload of bugs. Reading the critic reviews you'd think this was the best game ever, did they even play past 5 hours?
  84. Mar 7, 2012
    3
    Story could be better, combat is extremely slow paced compared to the other TES series, didn't even give me 100+ hours of gameplay. Really this game is too repetitive, I don't see how others can stand this game. The TES series have been going downhill, hopefully Fallout 4 won't be a failure like Skyrim; I don't think even 1000 mods can save Skyrim.
  85. May 29, 2012
    3
    Storytelling and quests in this game are insult to intelligence! I don' understand how people can not see this? Only thing that is big in this game is map!
  86. Jul 22, 2012
    3
    Why pay £35 for a program that crashes you to the desktop. Just use alt tab and save your cash :D

    Unfinished trite, could have been a good game if it wasn't released, un polished and buggy and getting worse by more bugs introduced in every patch. 8 months to patch a game to a working standard and as for Steam Workshop .... don't get me started there.
  87. Sep 25, 2012
    3
    Well, I've never been a PC RPG or an Elder Scrolls fan, so there's no way this gets a high score from me. What I don't get is how everyone heralds games like this as appealing to everyone. They certainly don't. They should be seen relative to other games in the same genre. As it stands though, everyone is insisting that the game is the game to end all games, so that's how it's going toWell, I've never been a PC RPG or an Elder Scrolls fan, so there's no way this gets a high score from me. What I don't get is how everyone heralds games like this as appealing to everyone. They certainly don't. They should be seen relative to other games in the same genre. As it stands though, everyone is insisting that the game is the game to end all games, so that's how it's going to be reviewed. I've played every ES game since Arena. Morrowind was my favorite, the rest aren't worth playing. Skyrim is not an amazing revolution. It's simply the next game for fans of the series. It's the same cavalcade of terrible acting, terrible dialogue, pointless quests, shallow combat, and vast open landscapes where nothing happens. The landscapes are hand made and nice to look at, but so what, that's not what makes a great game. Expand
  88. Dec 13, 2012
    3
    Skyrim is a beautiful, gigantic world full of diverse towns, dwemer ruin labyrinths, dragon lairs, and ancient tombs. Almost every location feels unique and hand-made, filled with tiny details and nuances. However, everything else is a letdown. Stripped of stats, the only enchantments you can put on equipment (or stats on found equip) are elemental damage/resistance, damage/skill boosts,Skyrim is a beautiful, gigantic world full of diverse towns, dwemer ruin labyrinths, dragon lairs, and ancient tombs. Almost every location feels unique and hand-made, filled with tiny details and nuances. However, everything else is a letdown. Stripped of stats, the only enchantments you can put on equipment (or stats on found equip) are elemental damage/resistance, damage/skill boosts, or stat drains/boosts. Magic and skills are very shallow and have zero scaling, resulting in mages being underpowered late game while meleers kill everything in 2 hits on the hardest difficulty. The game's best aspect, exploration, soon becomes unrewarding when you can craft & enchant better equip than can be found anywhere. The main questline, which will take you about 40 hours, is your typical YOU ARE THE CHOSEN ONE story (but still has some memorable moments given how much traveling you do). Sadly, Skyrim's world is trapped in a mediocre, dumbed down, DX9 console port. Expand
  89. Jan 2, 2013
    3
    The game features nice graphics, good sound, bad gameplay and very good longevity. When you play this game, you will get bored very soon: the gameplay doesn't have a point, a competition. You just play it for relaxing. You go and get some special object, but the game isn't competitive. It doesn't have a point. Very extended world, good graphics, but poor performance, and the game is fullThe game features nice graphics, good sound, bad gameplay and very good longevity. When you play this game, you will get bored very soon: the gameplay doesn't have a point, a competition. You just play it for relaxing. You go and get some special object, but the game isn't competitive. It doesn't have a point. Very extended world, good graphics, but poor performance, and the game is full of bugs. Good plot. Gameplay 2/10 Graphics/Performance 2/10 Plot 5/10 Longevity 6.25/10 Average: 3.81 OVERALL SCORE: 3/10 (not an average) Expand
  90. Jun 30, 2014
    3
    Not sure what all the fuss is about this game. At best it's "ok", but it's certainly NOT the OMGWTFBBQBEST. GAME. EVAH. But hey, apparently 5000+ kids who haven't played more than 5 games in their lives think it's the best thing since hot pockets, so bethesda gets a favorable rating and they think they're doing great things.

    The only thing this game has going for it is the graphics -
    Not sure what all the fuss is about this game. At best it's "ok", but it's certainly NOT the OMGWTFBBQBEST. GAME. EVAH. But hey, apparently 5000+ kids who haven't played more than 5 games in their lives think it's the best thing since hot pockets, so bethesda gets a favorable rating and they think they're doing great things.

    The only thing this game has going for it is the graphics - and I mean the skins and textures only, the modelling is horrible. But even then, there's almost no color to the world, you're hunting and fighting grey/brown enemies in a grey/brown/black world. I get that the game is supposed to look bleak, but it just ends up looking very bad and gets tiring on the eyes after a while.

    The UI is very minimalistic and awkward, and the combat is slow, choppy, awkward, and very unsmooth. it's also not very compelling, it starts off slow and doesn't have that pull in any direction that makes you want to do anything in particular like good games do.

    I think a lot of the high ratings are just reactions to the hype or written by "critics" who played for 5 minutes and were wowed by sexy graphics, this game is definitely not one of the best games ever.
    Expand
  91. Dec 24, 2012
    3
    how does this game have a 94 rating?
    it's horribly boring. i struggled to play for 12 hours, and was honestly bored out of my mind from hours 2-12. The only time that i really enjoyed skyrim was the first 15 minutes while i was creating my character.
    the combat is clunky and horribly out-dated. you aim with your mouse and left-click to swing your sword. in 1997 i played a game with
    how does this game have a 94 rating?
    it's horribly boring. i struggled to play for 12 hours, and was honestly bored out of my mind from hours 2-12. The only time that i really enjoyed skyrim was the first 15 minutes while i was creating my character.

    the combat is clunky and horribly out-dated. you aim with your mouse and left-click to swing your sword. in 1997 i played a game with the exact same controls. the physics are horrible. you cant interact with, smash, push, pull, or break anything. while walking around you spontaneously stumble off of 3 centimeter hills and fall to your death while simultaneously being able to ride your horse up 90 degree slopes. how can a 2011 game not have multiplayer? the game is like pamela anderson: beautiful on the outside, but full of hepatitis, plastic, and other unmentionable things on the inside.
    Expand
  92. Sep 30, 2014
    3
    Three strikes.. and you're out. And that is the fate of Skyrim for me. I really wanted to like Skyrim, and I gave it three tries, but it was not to be. But why? Why can't I like this game?

    Skyrim has things going for it. For instance it offers you an open world, which allows you to go anywhere you like. It also gives you freedom in developing your character. Want to be a
    Three strikes.. and you're out. And that is the fate of Skyrim for me. I really wanted to like Skyrim, and I gave it three tries, but it was not to be. But why? Why can't I like this game?

    Skyrim has things going for it. For instance it offers you an open world, which allows you to go anywhere you like. It also gives you freedom in developing your character. Want to be a mage/warrior/thief character? It is possible with Skyrim. But these are the only two positive things I can come up with.
    There is perhaps also the fact that you can mod it(modify it). But this is an advantage with a certain irony because Skyrim needs to be modded. It is simply to dull on its own.

    An example of this dullness is the story. When the game starts you are... a prisoner? Hold on, where have we seen that before? Oh right. Oblivion. And you are about to be executed? Oh wait.. wasn't something like that in Oblivion? And you are imprisoned for reasons unknown. Ditto Oblivion..
    And then something happens and you are liberated..Like in Oblivion.
    And then you have to work yourself through some underground areas to escape pursuit. Like in Oblivion.
    You might think that the story of Oblivion is so great that it is almost verbatim retold in Skyrim. But it isn't a great story despite the fact that a dragon is involved.

    But there is more dullness in the game.For instance. The excitement of having an open world to explore condenses quickly into disappointment, after you discover that the world is basically a dull sub-arctic landscape dominated by the colors grey, brown and white. The landscape is at times obscured because it is fogged over by mist and half the time it is drained of all colors because it is night. Towns do not offer a break in this dreary visual spectacle, as most of them seem to consist of half-ruined buildings and often resemble piles of stone more than buildings. They look as if dragons crash landed into them. There are exceptions, Dragon Reach has a few nice buildings and sometimes you actually see a nice landscape. But those are exceptions in the otherwise steadfast monotony of the game.

    An open world is a nice idea until you find out that the game requires that you visit a place before you can quick travel to it and it expects that you travel all the way through the dull landscape. And while you travel you find yourself subjected to attacks by the same spawned wolves over and over. It is a testimony to the dullness of the game in that it throws you the same spawned creatures at you again and again. And what is more, because the game levels with you, you should not expect any break in these pesky attacks.

    More of the utter dullness of this game: a magic user quest which makes you face an adversary who is immune to magic so that you are required to run around shooting arrows at it or make dash attacks with hand weapons. What fun is that?
    Or, as part of that same quest, your teacher, a master wizard, leaves you alone to fight hard hitting undead in narrow corridors and only reappears after you have killed the monsters. And then prior to entering the last chamber with the bad guy, he abandons you to fight this guy alone. Again!
    And..-this same quest again- Is it not predictable that when you visit an already fully explored dig site, you happen to find that hidden corridor that is overlooked by master wizards and excavation experts alike?

    Another example of how strangely boring the game is, is in the way that combat works. In skyrim combat mostly takes place in your inventory and the interface. You see, you can only equip two things in your hands. And if that is all you require than you are fine. But if you require more.. like for instance you need to quaff a healing potion, down a magic regenerate potion, swap between a summon spell, an attack spell and your bow and arrows you find yourself half the time in the inventory. Indeed, the game has no quick selection functions. It expects you to do the job with whatever you have in your two hands or waste your time in screens swapping things around.

    Quests are as inspired as the rest of the game is. The reason is not that they are they same quests as you see in any other game. As a matter of fact almost all quests are of the same nature in any game. The problem with Skyrim is that they are not embedded in a captivating story. Skyrims just fails to tell a compelling story. It offers a sandbox and expects that to be enough. Apparently it is exactly what a lot of people want. But then, MMOs seem to be immensely popular too and they are basically the same sort of thing. No wonder there is an elder-scrolls online. It is probably as boring as Skyrim is.
    Expand
  93. Jun 28, 2013
    3
    First of all, huge fan of the Elder Scrolls series played Morrowind extensively and clocked 200+ hours on Oblivion. Despite all it's issues, I've still played Skyrim for 30ish hours so really it is a great game. This review is specific to the broken, terrible console port that is the PC version. Quests repeatedly fail and error messages are constant. I've had two instances where the gameFirst of all, huge fan of the Elder Scrolls series played Morrowind extensively and clocked 200+ hours on Oblivion. Despite all it's issues, I've still played Skyrim for 30ish hours so really it is a great game. This review is specific to the broken, terrible console port that is the PC version. Quests repeatedly fail and error messages are constant. I've had two instances where the game was literally stuck and I had to go in the console to reset quest status. After I got to a glitch in the Assassin's guild quest for which there was no known fix, I said no mas and moved on. It's really a shame too because at this point I've put enough time in where I don't want to start over on Xbox so basically this game is ruined for me.

    I really don't know what else to say about this. If you want to enjoy this wonderful game, please do yourself a favor and buy the console copy.
    Expand
  94. Aug 10, 2013
    3
    The game is not an RPG. None of the choices you make matter. You can kill the emperor and join the imperial army. You can be the Arch-Mage of the college of winterhold while the only spell you've ever cast in your life is a lesser ward. You kill Alduin, the big bad dragon that for whatever reason wants to end the world and forces the dragons to attack, nobody cares and the dragons keepThe game is not an RPG. None of the choices you make matter. You can kill the emperor and join the imperial army. You can be the Arch-Mage of the college of winterhold while the only spell you've ever cast in your life is a lesser ward. You kill Alduin, the big bad dragon that for whatever reason wants to end the world and forces the dragons to attack, nobody cares and the dragons keep attacking, eventhough they've all cheered you when you've killed him. This game is just an action adventure game, an Elder Scrolls game simulator, if you will. Expand
  95. Dec 16, 2017
    3
    Do you love gamebreaking Bugs ? Do you love empty and useless main character ? Do you love Korean grinding MMOs ? Do you love slowphased and glitched combat ? Do you love OP skills ? Do you love shooting arrows from your Dic! instead of Bow ? Do you love copypasted instances ? Here you are, Skyrim will give you all of this just for you $$$...
    OK, to be hones, game is not really bad,
    Do you love gamebreaking Bugs ? Do you love empty and useless main character ? Do you love Korean grinding MMOs ? Do you love slowphased and glitched combat ? Do you love OP skills ? Do you love shooting arrows from your Dic! instead of Bow ? Do you love copypasted instances ? Here you are, Skyrim will give you all of this just for you $$$...
    OK, to be hones, game is not really bad, sometimes even fun and interesting, but never do side quests, never, it will kill game for you... Do not even think to do them...
    Nice game, with lots of bugs, glitches and problems, that can be fixed with amazing mods, Thanks to Players!!! Nice, that on Steam this Mods are free...
    Expand
  96. Sep 6, 2013
    3
    This is my least favorite game in the TES series, mostly because it is barely an RPG. The game seems to awkwardly try to breach the hack and slash genre, with some mixed in faux RP elements. It seems like no matter how you choose to advance your character, the game plays functionally identical. Also, the "follow the gold beacon" method of questing is rather bland. I liked Morrowind forThis is my least favorite game in the TES series, mostly because it is barely an RPG. The game seems to awkwardly try to breach the hack and slash genre, with some mixed in faux RP elements. It seems like no matter how you choose to advance your character, the game plays functionally identical. Also, the "follow the gold beacon" method of questing is rather bland. I liked Morrowind for requiring you to travel places and figure things out on your own, rather than the teleport and find gold dot method.

    I hear there is a mod that adds back a lot of the missing RPG elements that were present in the past games, but I have not tried it yet.

    I vote a 3 because there is definitely less of a problem with bugs, and significant improvements on the engine (I guess that it would have been a good beta). Other than that, I cannot think of any redeeming qualities. Also, how does this game have a 94 on MC (other than BSW paying for critic reviews)? Even the friends that I have who loved this game don't think it should have gotten that high of a score.
    Expand
  97. Nov 18, 2013
    3
    The Elder Scrolls series is like The Matrix, started off strong, then went into a decline into bad. Arena? Awesome. Daggerfall? Amazing. Morrowind? One of the best games ever made. Oblivion? Okay. Skyrim? BAD. No more rpg for us! No more Classes, no more guilds that effect the world's opinion of you if you join. No more Worth while quests! No more meaning full characters! No more meaningThe Elder Scrolls series is like The Matrix, started off strong, then went into a decline into bad. Arena? Awesome. Daggerfall? Amazing. Morrowind? One of the best games ever made. Oblivion? Okay. Skyrim? BAD. No more rpg for us! No more Classes, no more guilds that effect the world's opinion of you if you join. No more Worth while quests! No more meaning full characters! No more meaning full ANYTHING! It isn't all bad, but most of it is. I feel like they reused the same voice actor for each race, Nords all sound the same, all Khajjit sound the same! I feel like when I open this game bugs will crawl out because that is what this game is full of. Falling through ground, crashes, freezes, sound issues, FPS issues, AI issues, this game is full of it. Example:
    There are these things called dragon priest masks, one of them is the 'wooden mask' this is essential to getting the main mask which will make you character amazing. Well you wanna know what? My wooden mask fell through the ground and now I can't get it! I can't get the awesome mask, great.
    Is there meaning full choices throughout this game? NOPE! The only choice you get is "StormCloaks or Empire" which you want? This doesn't affect the world if you choose one and do all of the quests for them! This game tries to give the illusion that it has choices but it has none! Do you remember the rock hard difficulty of the first three games? That is gone! The highest setting is 'Legendary' but this makes you die in two hit, and your enemy die in a million! The thing that made this first three hard was that it was fair! The menus in this game are unfriendly. The story sucks, never do you feel emotion, like in say Mass Effect, or feel like your talking to real people, like in say Deus Ex. The boss battles in this game are a joke! Just have a healing spell in one hand and a sword in the other. I do like this kind of but this doesn't hinder your combat any, just you can't block. Think if you had a spell in one hand you fighting ability would decrease, that would be awesome. What do I like of this game? It is fun to steal things, and kill a bunch of people in town. But this is something I didn't like, you can't kill story characters... Because of a AI engine that has people doing their daily routine. Oblivion had the same thing but I think that in Oblivion you could kill story characters after the story.
    I don't like this game, it is a sad disgrace to man kind. It isn't good, not even okay. It may not be the worst game of 2011 but it is one of the worst.
    Don't buy this game, please. Like I said it isn't the worst thing ever but it still sucks. It is below below average (Below average being Four), so it is bad. Nowhere near something like Daikatana or Ghost Busters for nes but it still sucks.

    I will leave it at that.
    Expand
  98. Dec 20, 2013
    3
    I totally don't get this game, it is way over hyped. The graphics are not brilliant, the game play it pretty weak,, the fight scenes are less than desirable. Unless I am missing something, this is no more than a cult game. Sub standard!!!
  99. Mar 23, 2014
    3
    I have tryed it multiple times yet can get to like this game. The story is boring to me and nothing put me into the game. I always only think to skip the dialog as it look empty. Combat aren't really difficult, just use your friend to tank forever and kill it from the side. Bad story, no difficulty, faulty menu. Happy for those who liked it. This game sucks for me.
Metascore
94

Universal acclaim - based on 32 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 32 out of 32
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 32
  3. Negative: 0 out of 32
  1. Feb 29, 2012
    90
    Unfortunately, Skyrim trips and falls on its own (most probably, to make the cool-sounding deadline of 11-11-11) and just before it reaches perfection as the ultimate specimen of its genre, it self-destructs in a crucial aspect of game design: the interface and the peripheral components (inventory, journal, map, etc)... but that is not to say that Skyrim is anything but a truly majestic, epic RPG that will suck you right in its cosmos.
  2. Feb 14, 2012
    100
    Skyrim is definitely one of the best games of 2011, but if the DLC holds out, it might just be one of the best games of 2012 as well.
  3. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Jan 19, 2012
    90
    Skyrim is the best open world RPG you can get. A true evolution of genre is not flawless but still it is the game you love to live in. [Christmas 2011]