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. DarthLlama
    Sep 12, 2013
    10
    Not much left to be said that hasn't been said already. Brilliant game.. expansive, beautiful and highly addicting. Base game is a 9/10 then add in the customization available through mods and this game is one of the only games ever to truly pull off a perfect 10 rating.
  2. LairdEJM
    Sep 11, 2013
    10
    A glorious masterpiece of a game, which is literally a country for you to explore and become part of. The graphics are sublime, the endless quests are intriguing, mysterious and compelling, the customisation of your character and what he/she chooses to do is liberating and a stroke of genius.
    The added DLC is also all worth getting and worth the money, something which I VERY rarely say    A glorious masterpiece of a game, which is literally a country for you to explore and become part of. The graphics are sublime, the endless quests are intriguing, mysterious and compelling, the customisation of your character and what he/she chooses to do is liberating and a stroke of genius.
    The added DLC is also all worth getting and worth the money, something which I VERY rarely say these days.

    Honestly, in my humble opinion, arguably the greatest achievement so far in the realm of video games.    … Expand
  3. kap1
    Sep 9, 2013
    0
    Probably one of the worst and most overrated games ever made.

    The world is so huge, yet it is completely lacks good and unique content, 80% of the quests are just boring fetch-quests. All you do is hike around and collect thousands of worthless items that you don't need. The best items in the game can only be made by the character with generic items, anything that you find (weapons,    Probably one of the worst and most overrated games ever made.

    The world is so huge, yet it is completely lacks good and unique content, 80% of the quests are just boring fetch-quests. All you do is hike around and collect thousands of worthless items that you don't need. The best items in the game can only be made by the character with generic items, anything that you find (weapons, armor) is worthless. The entire game is level scaled, so there is absolutely no feeling of progression. The RPG mechanics are practically non-existent (in other words, they are terrible), the story is terrible, the Inventory and UI are terrible, the voice acting is horrendous. I could go on forever.    … Expand
  4. Itz_Rhino
    Sep 9, 2013
    5
    I played Skyrim from beginning to end, made a ridiculously OP set of armor and weapons, and finished about 80% of the side quests. I'm usually a completionist when it comes to games, but I had to give up on Skyrim. Although the game IS pretty and has a few epic set pieces involving dragons and cool powers, it gets old fast. There is SO MUCH to explore in this game, but a lot of it seemsI played Skyrim from beginning to end, made a ridiculously OP set of armor and weapons, and finished about 80% of the side quests. I'm usually a completionist when it comes to games, but I had to give up on Skyrim. Although the game IS pretty and has a few epic set pieces involving dragons and cool powers, it gets old fast. There is SO MUCH to explore in this game, but a lot of it seems pointless. I don't mean to discredit the game designers in any way, but I personally am not one to enjoy an area of a game just for its scenery. If I want to climb up a mountain and enjoy pretty creeks and nature, I'll go camping. It got to a point where I was doing quests just to start shortening the ridiculously long quest list. There was no real emotional attachment to any of them, and no real sense of accomplishment when completing them. No reward was better than the equipment I had crafted, and the enemies ceased to be a challenge. This leads into combat... I don't think there is much to say about this. The melee combat is still pretty clunky in this game (Bethesda... PLEASE take some notes from "Chivalry: Medieval Warfare" on how to create satisfying FPS melee combat), and the range combat consists of slowing down enemies or pathing them into obstacles and pew pewing them do death. There is no real challenge aside from a few encounters, and even then, it is the same concept; just against a harder hitting, longer lasting enemy. The game can become a grind (especially if you are a completionist), and the key battles like Dragon fights become a bore. A real benefit to the game would have been some form of multiplayer (the hardest opponent is always human in my opinion), but we'll just have to wait for the Elder Scroll MMO for that... As an art piece or interactive movie, I give this game a 10/10. Beautifully done... but as a game... I'm sorry, it's just not appealing to me. It's a humongous beautiful world full of repetition and empty of emotion. You got half of the formula Bethesda. Make your game a bit more challenging, clean up your combat mechanics, vary the gameplay a bit more... I'm going to go play some Dark Souls … Expand
  5. HONDOMAN
    Sep 9, 2013
    10
    This game is amazing. Simply put, this is one of the best games I have ever played. The story is phenomenal and has very good role-playing elements. Just as good as the other Elder Scrolls games. The soundtrack is my favorite among the other Elder Scrolls. This game offers around 200+ hours of game play, which is great. 10/10
  6. Yar1337
    Sep 7, 2013
    9
    Strong points:
    - Offers hundreds of gameplay hours, even more with DLCs and User content.
    - Has thousands of mods that range from additional content to changing game mechanics - An amazing soundtrack with both epic and relaxing music that fits to the game's setting. - A huge open world to explore, with many dungeons, towns and places waiting to be explored. Traveling is convinient    Strong points:
    - Offers hundreds of gameplay hours, even more with DLCs and User content.
    - Has thousands of mods that range from additional content to changing game mechanics
    - An amazing soundtrack with both epic and relaxing music that fits to the game's setting.
    - A huge open world to explore, with many dungeons, towns and places waiting to be explored. Traveling is convinient thanks to the fast travel system.
    - Game offers alot of freedom with your choises and tasks you can do so many things without behind restricted at all (But don't expect the guards to leave you alone if you start a mass murder).
    - A good variety of enemies, quests and items. It's important to point out that you can add more with mods!
    - Amazing graphics and details that will make you drool!
    Weak points:
    - A weak and short "main storyline", although there are many more that you can take part in. The opening is quite slow and characters aren't very rememerable. As soon as the tutorial ends though, you are free to do what ever you what.
    - You will spend alot of time running from shop to shop to sell all your loot.
    - Bugs, crashes and glitches. Very annoying at times.
    - A pretty bad AI. Followers do a terrible job of sticking around and helping. The enemy AI can be absolutly retarded at some times: Randomly runing away, ignoring you completly, not seeing you when you clearly should have been seen or just being plain stupid ("I just got shot in the head a minute ago, but I guess there is nothing there").
    - Gets repatative after a while: same enemies (only stronger), same quests (Go there, kill that/get that).
    - Mediocre voice acting: many characters sound alike, and their lines can be repatative at times.    … Expand
  7. Guuuuuuuuuuuurg
    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
  8. Knukkohead
    Sep 6, 2013
    10
    I'll skip writing a long thoughtfull review cause... I'm lazy.
    Just gonna say that from the moment i spent about 2 hrs in game it became my favorite, it still is!
    Truly a masterpiece (MY OPINION!) i've spent over 300 hrs in the game, started over at least 6 times just to try different style of play from a scratch, the graphics are nice, controlls are simple, even got used to the    I'll skip writing a long thoughtfull review cause... I'm lazy.
    Just gonna say that from the moment i spent about 2 hrs in game it became my favorite, it still is!
    Truly a masterpiece (MY OPINION!) i've spent over 300 hrs in the game, started over at least 6 times just to try different style of play from a scratch, the graphics are nice, controlls are simple, even got used to the inventory that many people didn't like. And the fact you can add mods that have so much new content and stuff to craft/find/get for completing a quest, so many places to explore and turn skyrim into something OF YOUR liking is truly awesome!    … Expand
  9. tanim
    Sep 4, 2013
    10
    It would be a shame to rate this game anything other than 10. This is the new benchmark of action role playing games. Bethesda did an excellent job with elder scrolls series
  10. gerdwin
    Sep 3, 2013
    10
    best RPG ever made until tes6 i hope this game is so awsome in too many ways :
    1 a lot of quests
    2 kinda big landscape with a lot of exploration 3 amazing skill tree 4 nice combat system 5 pretty graphics 6 a lot of weapons and armor 7 many thing to do like fighting working at farm and mining 8 complete world with houses and cities where you can go in 9 advanced gameplay with    best RPG ever made until tes6 i hope this game is so awsome in too many ways :
    1 a lot of quests
    2 kinda big landscape with a lot of exploration
    3 amazing skill tree
    4 nice combat system
    5 pretty graphics
    6 a lot of weapons and armor
    7 many thing to do like fighting working at farm and mining
    8 complete world with houses and cities where you can go in
    9 advanced gameplay with sneak and bounty special killscenes
    10 creation kit to let people make there own weapons armors worlds quests everything and more    … Expand
  11. askewreviews
    Sep 2, 2013
    6
    In its own right, Skyrim is a shallow but passable RPG, but compared to previous Elder Scrolls titles it's a huge disappointment. The level of casualization is simply depressing less equipment slots, more linear dungeons, no stats besides health/mana/stamina, less skills etc. The combat is actually a step up from Oblivion, and yet is still very basic and mindless. The first two or threeIn its own right, Skyrim is a shallow but passable RPG, but compared to previous Elder Scrolls titles it's a huge disappointment. The level of casualization is simply depressing less equipment slots, more linear dungeons, no stats besides health/mana/stamina, less skills etc. The combat is actually a step up from Oblivion, and yet is still very basic and mindless. The first two or three dragon fights blew my mind, but it didn't take long to notice the looping patterns every single dragon would follow and how easy it was to exploit that. They soon became a chore. The main questline had a ton of potential but it's just so lacking and by the end I couldn't care less about it. I didn't care for many of the sidequests either, and the much-hyped infinite quests where nothing more than fetch quests. All in all, Skyrim is a nice-looking but barren and shallow sandbox that makes modding a near necessity.… Expand
  12. WATCHAMACOLITE
    Sep 2, 2013
    10
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. If i could rate more, i would. I thought oblivion was good (and it was) but then i bought skyrim. Actually i bought it for the console and PC. There is so much to explain. (See below)
    ~THE GOOD~
    I like all TES games, and each continually develops. When i first bought skyrim, the first thing i noticed was the magic. Holy Hellicopter, they revamped the magic. There are so many more spells than before, all of them have better animations and artwork, just wow. They deserve an A+ on the magic bit. It all looks beter.
    Next, the animations. I love the animations, and they have gotten better since Oblivion. Granted, i didnt play Oblivion as much as i wanted to, but the animations in both games are splendid. (More so in Skyrim).
    The world. Every quest, every landmark, every Easter egg, every enemy, the items, weapons, spells, NPC's all fit into one big basket of perfect. The entire everything is perfect. It does get a bit boring if you dont have an active quest (Just kidding, go kill some dragons, or explore the random events.)
    ~THE BAD~
    1. Bugs (Its a sandbox game, there are always bugs. Deal with it.)
    2. IF YOU HAVE A BAD COMPUTER, DONT COMPLAIN ABOUT THE F*ING GRAPHICS.
    3. Also dont complain aout the UI. Its amazing, and is not a console port, or whatever.
    4. IF YOU HAVE A BAD COMPUTER, DONT COMPLAIN ABOUT THE F*ING GRAPHICS.
    5. This is not an MMO where you can "Switch Weapons/spells 1-5. Its made to be more realistic, and a hotbar would ruin the freedom. (For example, dual weilding.)
    6. 4. IF YOU HAVE A BAD COMPUTER, DONT COMPLAIN ABOUT THE F*ING GRAPHICS.    … Expand
  13. gstiker5
    Sep 1, 2013
    10
    I have changed my feelings on Skyrim I found it a bit dull after a while (100s of hours) and the DLCs are done with so I heard that the mods are amazing on PC so I found out it was on sale so I downloaded it off Steam and was amzed at these mods so I say you could buy the PC version and never touch the base game
  14. Ruston
    Aug 30, 2013
    10
    I don't really care that Skyrim is a little bugged game. When I started playing for the first time, I just couldn't leave this game. I was spending all my free time playing this game. You can trust me, you won't get bored playing Skyrim. If you don't care about the main plot (which is a little weak) you can just explore game's world. It's great, very atmospheric RPG game and nothing canI don't really care that Skyrim is a little bugged game. When I started playing for the first time, I just couldn't leave this game. I was spending all my free time playing this game. You can trust me, you won't get bored playing Skyrim. If you don't care about the main plot (which is a little weak) you can just explore game's world. It's great, very atmospheric RPG game and nothing can change it. It's as good as Morrowind and Oblivion. I hope Bethesda is going to make TES VI. Let's just wait.… Expand
  15. M_Alex
    Aug 29, 2013
    9
    Oblivion bored me. So I ignored Skyrim successfully for some time. Then I decided to give it a try. Boy, was I in for a surprise. The game is great. Whereas Oblivion got boring after some 30 hours, this one leaves you wanting more. You can see why actually. First of all, questing no longer involves going to a dungeon that looks almost exactly like the previous 20 or 30. True, some types ofOblivion bored me. So I ignored Skyrim successfully for some time. Then I decided to give it a try. Boy, was I in for a surprise. The game is great. Whereas Oblivion got boring after some 30 hours, this one leaves you wanting more. You can see why actually. First of all, questing no longer involves going to a dungeon that looks almost exactly like the previous 20 or 30. True, some types of dungoens are similar, but not to the extent that would make it tedious. This rule applies to other fields, and you can see the developers paid more attention to minor details. No more irritating rules, like buying a new alembic etc everytime you get a better rank in alchemy etc. Although such things may seem minor, they really make the whole experience much better. Also, the main quest is much more well-written than that in Oblivion. And much more fun. I'm on my 120th hour and I's still enjoying it.

    So, basically, the bottom line is: if you still haven't played this cause you think oblivion sucked, play it. Much better.    … Expand
  16. andrew2018
    Aug 29, 2013
    10
    Skyrim is my favorite game of ALL TIME. You are never bored and this game runs amazing. Now for the people who say it crashes and stuff, it's not the game! It's your computer, so stop complaining. The only thing in the ENTIRE game that annoys me a tiny little bit is that you teleport we you turn around. If you are in third person and you are facing yourself and you run forward, there is noSkyrim is my favorite game of ALL TIME. You are never bored and this game runs amazing. Now for the people who say it crashes and stuff, it's not the game! It's your computer, so stop complaining. The only thing in the ENTIRE game that annoys me a tiny little bit is that you teleport we you turn around. If you are in third person and you are facing yourself and you run forward, there is no animation for turning around you just seem to teleport. I think it would have been easy to fix this. If any of you have played Batman Arkham City there is and animation. But other than that skyrim is amazing.… Expand
  17. Guidado
    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
  18. stevebmbsqd
    Aug 27, 2013
    10
    This is the best RPG that I have played in a very long time. The world is so immersive that a person can just lose themselves in it. I cannot recommend a better, modern single-player RPG.
  19. Zaknife
    Aug 25, 2013
    6
    In my case the game was real fun only for first 30-40 hours after this time I just got bored with landscapes and the open world of Skyrim. Unfortunately this game lacks a decent storyline, I've tried to play it after completing The Witcher 2 and I was struck with the simplicity of plot. Besides at some point it's easier to kill a dragon than couple of Nordic zombies. However the game isIn my case the game was real fun only for first 30-40 hours after this time I just got bored with landscapes and the open world of Skyrim. Unfortunately this game lacks a decent storyline, I've tried to play it after completing The Witcher 2 and I was struck with the simplicity of plot. Besides at some point it's easier to kill a dragon than couple of Nordic zombies. However the game is worth to give it a shot … Expand
  20. warrior916
    Aug 23, 2013
    9
    This game is outstanding, does have some bugs but nothing that can't be fixed with the console, and to those of you saying "Not complete w/o mods", get some mods then.
  21. oldgirl
    Aug 23, 2013
    1
    Regarding skyrim This game is not for kids, its extremely violent. The game started out great! Then the vampire stuff started, my warrior had to take magic spells and thus became a mage. The advertisement on this game implied it was about killing dragons. This just sucks you into buying the game. $63.00 for the new addition. I am not adverse to games that have killing but skinningRegarding skyrim This game is not for kids, its extremely violent. The game started out great! Then the vampire stuff started, my warrior had to take magic spells and thus became a mage. The advertisement on this game implied it was about killing dragons. This just sucks you into buying the game. $63.00 for the new addition. I am not adverse to games that have killing but skinning human flesh? At one point in this game I had my head cut off! I was really shocked! Now at a level 31 I can't be a warrior because of all the magic involved. This could have been a wonderful game. They need to study World of warcraft, those folks know how to make a game that has lasted and leave the warriors what they are. That's why Blizzard still has millions of people still playing their game. Kids can play world of warcraft, they should not play Skyrim at all if under 18 years old.… Expand
  22. Lakamahakataka
    Aug 22, 2013
    6
    There you have it, the modern RPG. Spending over 200 hours with it, I can't even remember why I did it. The world becomes hollow, once you've been there long enough. The fast-travel system that Oblivion invented, helps to ignore most of the open world, by simply traveling right to the front door. The fighting system is still mostly a simple 1-click annoyance. The story is great, that savesThere you have it, the modern RPG. Spending over 200 hours with it, I can't even remember why I did it. The world becomes hollow, once you've been there long enough. The fast-travel system that Oblivion invented, helps to ignore most of the open world, by simply traveling right to the front door. The fighting system is still mostly a simple 1-click annoyance. The story is great, that saves a lot. I understand that dragons are fascinating and big enough to give birth to one of the greatest hypes, but the rest of the game is dull. At a certain level, you run around and just wait for another dragon to show up. It's even more simple than older TES games. Your actions have no real outcome, no matter if good or bad. You cannot kill important people, the game babysitts you through until you have enough bad-ass equipment to bore yourself to death, while spending 24 hours in armor that looks like it was designed by 15 year olds, neither looking comfortable nor practical, but just "stylish". With the real world becoming more and more a catwalk for one-day celebrities, bred from boring normal people, becoming a dragon slayer in a dull world is just another step on the arc of the uninspired youth. When a company thats doing RPGs runs out of ideas, it might just as well put dragons onto the table.
    Here are some reasons why this world is so dull IMO:
    1. dwemer ruins.... traps and machines still intact after hundreds of years. Unexplored while being 10 minutes away from civilization.
    2. civilization... standing still for thousands of years. Rumors tell of a thing named "crossbow", to be developed soon. The people in this world are lazier as the average gamer.
    3. dragons... scary as they should be, have a companion with you who just cannot die until you kill him yourself and the fights become meaningless. The companion is like your babysitter, someone from Bethesda, accompanying you through the game so that the bad boys won't hurt you.
    4. the system... is downgraded with each TES game. No more weapons ready to swap with a single key. No sir, we develop games for consoles now, and since the average gamer becomes younger and younger, we have to make it so damn easy, even a 10 year old could feel like a dragon slayer.    … Expand
  23. The_Tony
    Aug 21, 2013
    1
    never feel like i am playing a game it's like doing work ...not enjoyble
    very very boring game....point to be notice here
    1. very dull animation
    2. lots of bug &technical error
    3. graphic is not so good too
  24. JtW
    Aug 21, 2013
    8
    I've spent a lot of time playing Skyrim. As a former Oblivion fan, I have to compare the two.

    The main plot is much more interesting in Skyrim (I've played Oblivion for months and never bothered to finish the main plot not the case here). I like the perks system and I like the multitude of side quests. For some reason, though, Skyrim felt a little like a glorified hack'n'slash to    I've spent a lot of time playing Skyrim. As a former Oblivion fan, I have to compare the two.

    The main plot is much more interesting in Skyrim (I've played Oblivion for months and never bothered to finish the main plot not the case here).

    I like the perks system and I like the multitude of side quests.

    For some reason, though, Skyrim felt a little like a glorified hack'n'slash to me... a little more so than did Oblivion. I cannot pinpoint what exactly I was missing but this is the reason I finally stopped playing and why I am only giving it 8 points.    … Expand
  25. ArthurVon
    Aug 20, 2013
    10
    This is one of the best games in the history of video games. I still feel the thrill on my back while watching the trailer and did play this for 100+ hours till now, and will continue! Thanks Bethesda for this masterpiece.
  26. painterkilla
    Aug 20, 2013
    7
    Skyrim has made significant improvements over the past games, those being replacing the class system with a perk system, allowing for greater specialization: now improving a one-handed skill doesn't mean practicing with a sword makes with better at swinging a mace. Customization options are really good and the characters don't look like potatoes. The game world is really beautiful, varied,Skyrim has made significant improvements over the past games, those being replacing the class system with a perk system, allowing for greater specialization: now improving a one-handed skill doesn't mean practicing with a sword makes with better at swinging a mace. Customization options are really good and the characters don't look like potatoes. The game world is really beautiful, varied, with some degree of verticality due to the mountains and filled with little stories here and there in the form of notes and journals. However, the game feels largely unfinished and empty. The guild questlines are incredibly short and still allow for a character with no skill to become guild leader, especially the College of Winterhold and the Companions, though the Dark Brotherhood one is well done. The Civil War could have been much more, but it limits itself to changing the guard outfits, the dragons all have the same behavior: land at ~35% health and the player can head-on charge, spamming attacks left and right. The combat feels largely like Oblivion: hit the enemy sponges until they die. Blocking has no benefits, you still get damage and stamina is useless outside of sprinting: enchant your weapon with stamina drain and get power attacks all day long. Despite being very nicely handcrafted, the towns are incredibly small, even Solitude, which is supposed to be capital of Skyrim, only feels different in size due to its tall buildings you (most of the time) won't be able to enter. Almost all dungeons are corridors with the back entrance either being inaccessible due a combo of high terrain and invisible walls or are just stupid 'key required' locks. The loot is very poor, even a master locked chest has no more than one or two mildly priced items, forcing the player to use a lockpick perk to suddenly find daedric items everywhere, much like the speech perk tree is required for you to sell all the items you want. Lastly, this is the first game since Daggerfall where the player character can utter complete sentences all the time, unlike Morrowind and Oblivion, but the dialogue is very simplistic: Speech checks are rare and useless: a step back from Bethesda's own Fallout 3, where you could completely bypass a quest with a simple check. They also force the character to be a dumb warrior/wizard/thief/whatever simply due to the lack of skill checks like in New Vegas: Your character, the Dragonborn, blessed by Akatosh with a soul of a dragon, is nothing more than a dumb chap who needs everyone to tell him what happened for the last years because apparently he/she was living under a cave or something.

    Bottom line: the game is enjoyable, but not exactly GOTY material, not with these issues, not with the bugs and definitely not with the interface on PC.    … Expand
  27. Nucleon
    Aug 17, 2013
    5
    10s? And so much of them?

    How come is that? Did the professional critics ever played one Bethesda game before Skyrim? How come they didn't notice the character-less followers, the horrendous interface, the predictible dungeon's ending patterns, and, most of all, the fact that the player has even less options regarding their character's attributes, birthsigns, skills, magic and    10s? And so much of them?

    How come is that? Did the professional critics ever played one Bethesda game before Skyrim? How come they didn't notice the character-less followers, the horrendous interface, the predictible dungeon's ending patterns, and, most of all, the fact that the player has even less options regarding their character's attributes, birthsigns, skills, magic and equipment?

    All are throating off about the graphics and the immersion, the shouts and the dragons. Yes, they're quite fine, thank you. But they are also normal it is expected that the next TES will be even better in this domain. They always did that since Morrowind, putting all the work on superficiality as a substitute for imagination and the option they didn't give back to players.

    This game is played like Zelda; It is obliously made with the young console user in mind, the kinda guy that buys (or rather his parents) like 3 games a month. It has little re-playability value, since a sole character can pretty much do all aspects of this thin game. Bethesda's first public, puristic roleplayers that enjoyed a rich, open world and character elaboration, are slowly being forgotten. It is a game made for children. Check this out at this rate, I'm sure Bethesda will do away with the third-person view altogether, soon. All you will see about your character will be a pair of arms.

    I read the professional critics here before buying the pricey game. That should teach me to never do that again. And as a result, playing Skyrim just makes me want to return to the Fallouts, Oblivions and Morrowinds. Shame on this guy for the promotion they did of the game, at the expense of the players. Shame on you, Metacritic. Oh, and you owe me 60 bucks.    … Expand
  28. predator1067
    Aug 14, 2013
    10
    This game is an absolute masterpiece. I have not encountered any glitches or crashes so far. The more and more you play, the more addicting the game gets. With spectacular graphics and an adventure you'll never forget. I would say Skyrim is one of the best games I have ever played.
  29. Foam
    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
  30. PennyroyalSoda
    Aug 11, 2013
    10
    Skyrim is an absolute masterpiece. A very hard push forward in the right direction for the elder scrolls franchise. Skyrim, even after 2 years still delivers the sense of awe, and wonder that it did immediately upon its release. The main quest line is involving, and rather interesting. It takes about 10 or more hours to finish, and even that is so much more than most games that areSkyrim is an absolute masterpiece. A very hard push forward in the right direction for the elder scrolls franchise. Skyrim, even after 2 years still delivers the sense of awe, and wonder that it did immediately upon its release. The main quest line is involving, and rather interesting. It takes about 10 or more hours to finish, and even that is so much more than most games that are released. However, Skyrim by no stretch of the imagination is only 10 hours long. It easily carries 300 hours of immersive, fun, and high quality gameplay. There is not only the main story to complete here. There are guild quests which pack the same storytelling qualities as the main quest line. There are a plethora of side quests, and misc quests to complete. And even after all that there is still the leveling of your character, and the deep crafting mechanics implemented into the game. The exploration in this game is also very deep. Having a large amount of interesting and varied environments to explore. Definitely a lot better than oblivion's very familiar looking dungeons, and areas. The variety, and detail in a game as huge as Skyrim really shows Bethesda's passion, and patience. The variety in weapons and armor however, to me, is dissatisfying. There is a good amount. However by the time you get your character into the higher levels, it feels as if there are very limited armor choices. The armors do look great but I wish there were more armors and weapons honestly. The weapon variety is definitely way greater than the armor variety, but still not as good as it can be. However, despite that minor complaint, overall Skyrim boasts a ridiculous amount of content in a single package. This game is well worth 60 dollars, considering that there are 7 hour games with no replay value sold at the same price.

    So the game definitely shines in the content department. Boasting an easy 300 hours (even more if you add mods). But how does it do in the game play department? I'm happy to say the combat is the slickest it's ever been in an elder scrolls game. It feels great, and the combat is mostly fun. However, if you're playing a one handed character of some sort, the combat does start getting rather boring at higher stages of the game. Not only that, but when you are high level, you are god like. meaning during later stages of the game it is very difficult to get killed if playing on the default or lower difficulties. Despite this shortcoming the combat overall is fun, and satisfying. As for bugs, the game doesn't have many. Bethesda has done an excellent job of patching a lot the bugs that plagued the game in its early incarnation. At this stage in Skyrim's life cycle, it is the best performing game in Bethesda's catalog. Having minimal bugs, and glitches. But the inventory UI is awful on PC. The UI in general is awful on the PC. I needed a mod instantly in order to be able to use the inventory. The UI is honestly a rather significant part of a game like this. So I must say that it is really bad, and Bethesda should really have put a little more time into a PC version of the clearly console biased interface. Overall, the game feels great, and really does well in the gameplay mechanics. Something that previous elder scroll games didn't really achieve. But they really should have thought about that user interface.

    Honestly, I can go on for hours about this game and its amazing features. That's literally how huge it is. Huge like my hand. It's a masterpiece. A marvel of modern gaming. some of my complaints (not many at all) are rather nitpicky. However, everything has its flaws, especially something with this kind of scope (The game not my hand). Anyway it feels like Ive been here for hours. I'm sure there's a lot I missed, but just go buy the game if you haven't played it already. It's pretty incredible.    … 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

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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.
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  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.
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  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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