Metascore

Universal acclaim - based on 32 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 4549 Ratings

  • Summary: The next chapter in the Elder Scrolls saga arrives from the Bethesda Game Studios. Skyrim reimagines the open-world fantasy epic, bringing to life a complete virtual world open for you to explore any way you choose. Play any type of character you can imagine, and do whatever you want; the legendary freedom of choice, storytelling, and adventure of The Elder Scrolls is realized like never before. Skyrim's new game engine brings to life a complete virtual world with rolling clouds, rugged mountains, bustling cities, lush fields, and ancient dungeons. Choose from hundreds of weapons, spells, and abilities. The new character system allows you to play any way you want and define yourself through your actions. Battle ancient dragons like you've never seen. As Dragonborn, learn their secrets and harness their power for yourself. Collapse
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 32 out of 32
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 32
  3. Negative: 0 out of 32
  1. Dec 5, 2011
    100
    Perfect games do not exist and Skyrim is no exception. Bethesda's new game is faithful to the tradition of the series - it's an extremely well built and inviting sandbox that still has some minor flaws that you cannot overlook. On the other hand it has an unparalleled freedom, great atmosphere, a ton of different quests, many beautiful places that you simply have to visit and a total freedom with creating and customizing your character... Freedom and grandeur are the keywords here.
  2. Feb 14, 2012
    100
    Skyrim is definitely one of the best games of 2011, but if the DLC holds out, it might just be one of the best games of 2012 as well.
  3. Dec 4, 2011
    100
    Bethesda's finest hour and one of the greatest RPGs of all time. [Christmas 2011, p.47]
  4. Dec 7, 2011
    85
    When taken in total, it must be admitted that The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim does not deviate much from the established Elder Scrolls formula. However, the painstakingly-designed world in combination with the retooled leveling system represents the most polished version of that formula to date. There's something to be said for sticking with what one knows and refining it, and in Skyrim's case, there's a lot to be said for it.

See all 32 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. 10
    400 hours and still playing this. Not many games nowadays gets you going after 40 hours. Sure, it's not a scripted kind of game, but in a real RPG kind of sense, this whole land of skyrim is literally your gameboard. Expand
  2. 8
    Buggy, laggy, clunky, consolized, and Fantastic. Skyrim is not so much an RPG as it is an "Adventure Simulator." that being said, it's launch was marred by bugs and clunky UI screens are a pain in the ass to navigate with a keyboard and mouse, as well as muddy textures and sometimes buggy lighting. luckily the player base has picked up where the devs have slacked, with UI mods, texture packs, model packs, and all you could ever hope for. this is why you buy Bethesda games on the PC, because while this game is about a 5/10 by itself, with all the mods at your fingertips, it is easily worthy of an 8. Expand
  3. Unfortunately I was pretty disappointed eventually with this one, as with most open-world games. Granted Skyrim is probably one of the best open-world RPGs ever made, but it still feels like a fake world with simple-minded scripted bots. The skill system is also pretty meh, I preferred the skill system of some of their previous titles. Too many skills that do nothing and the interface is quite horrible.

    The menus are very bad, mods do help but they still are often unresponsive and annoying.
    The graphics are awesome, and so are many of the mods you can download with it. It's probably one of the most modded games in history. However even with mods it's still pretty unsatisfying, NPCs still say immersion breaking things, completnig major quest lines have very little impact on the world and the "people" there are pretty bland with very little to say or do. It certainly doesn't feel very immersive.

    Once we have better AI and are able to properly communicate with the NPCs of their world, I think we'll start getting incredible "Open World Sandbox" games. But for now, we're stuck with games like this, which excel in certain areas but are ultimately not that immersive and offer very limited interaction with the NPCs.

    Another thing that annoyed me is how unattractive the factions are. I didn't feel an urge to help either the Stormcloaks or the Imperials, both were pretty unappealing factions to me. Even the Blades and the Greybeards were flawed.

    But I'm still giving this a 7 because it excels at certain things like graphics, amount of things to do (huge amount of content) and the lore tends to be good. If you enjoy open world type of games in a fantasy world, you'll almost certainly like this one.
    Expand
  4. 4
    Tremendous fun at first, but the game's charm wears off quickly. Each subsequent installment of TES series removes more of the RPG elements, and Skyrim is pretty much just a FPP hack'n'slash. The main plot is a cookie-cutter sub-par heroic fantasy dragon slaying "adventure" and side quests are rather disappointing too - kill, exterminate, assassinate, murder and fetch. Playing a warrior archetype will get you bored to death, sneaky rogues and mage might fare better though. The world is big, but compared to, for example, Morrowind, it's bland, default north of the default fantasy setting. Exploration isn't really worth the effort, random dungeons litter the landscape, filled with random baddies to murder, bearing random, level-scaled loot. There's barely anyone to talk to outside of main cities - not saying that's a bad thing, since the dialogues are quite badly written and uninteresting, voiced by about 10 actors at that. Not to mention the interface, which was designed for consoles and is agonizingly annoying to use on the PC, and the outdated graphics. This game jest needs mods to be decent, and without them it's a solid 4/10. Skyrim made me look more favourably on Oblivion. Expand

See all 1569 User Reviews

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