The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

 PC
User Score
8.4

Generally favorable reviews- based on 12985 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10,547 out of 12985
  2. Mixed: 1,375 out of 12985
  3. Negative: 1,063 out of 12985
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  1. DaveH
    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. lexzor
    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. Crimson
    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. darkballz_pl
    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. syrik
    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. kemutsemu
    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. Sunder_Prime
    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. OmnipotentGamer
    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. Blackcompany
    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. veraceszk
    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. Renegade
    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. Delogic
    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. DOSfan
    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. Highwind_Hiatus
    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. manabog
    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. thimolor
    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. welshlayer
    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. Shionsan
    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. utking
    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. Motoob
    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. Therealjonah
    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. Galf506
    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. Slothhead
    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, Ã¢â… Expand
  24. xDaNx
    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. Coffeesipper24
    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. Stylus
    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. SoManyGames
    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. anholt
    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. iaai0110
    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. NerV-0-sol
    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
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Awards & Rankings

2
#2 Best PC Game of 2011
1
#1 Most Discussed PC Game of 2011
2
#2 Most Shared PC Game of 2011

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
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. PC Master (Greece)
    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.
    Read full review
  2. Armchair Empire
    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.
    Read full review
  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]
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