1. StevenF

   10

   Skyrim leaves the lasting impression that it truly will be a game that doesn’t end, a never ending story if you will, and it creates the sort t of vibrant world that you know will continue to exist even after you have decided to no longer take part in its wondrous offerings of freedom and fantasy.
   The most surreal thing about playing such an expansive and sprawling world is the fact that while playing it, I truly wanted to get lost in this realm of Tamriel, whether it was pacing through the snow in Winterhold or standing atop the waterfall-laden city of Markarth, there is such an endless amount of sight-seeing and exploration to be had in this game before you even consider the stories being told.
   Without delving too much into the main quest, simply because there are that many side missions and stories that it seems unfair to dwell, your character is in fact a Dragonborn, and of course dragons seem to have returned to Skyrim for unknown reasons, and you are tasked with finding out the nature of their visit, but also try and heal relations between The Imperials and the Stormcloak rebellion. But of course our own Dragonborn must deal with everything else that he is being tasked with around this fast land.
   Whether you are learning a ‘Dragon Shout” or simply taking out your sword for close combat, the opportunities are endless as to what can be achieved in the remarkable game.
   As our hero is tasked with these shouts, which enable him to reach into the very soul of the dragons and basically use their powers, clear the sky of a storm, create a thunderstorm, breathe fire or even call a fallen soldier to your aid, these are all options, and that is only shouts, not magic. Magic can be used through Ice, Lightning or even Fire, whether your’e simply wanting to inflame a wolf who is giving you grief or go to extreme lengths and try to take down a dragon, the supernatural means are all on offer.
   The customisation of your character is indeed endless, after picking from a vast array of races, you can begin upgrading your character with anything you can get your hands on.
   Walk around in a simple rag if you want to, or why not join the Thieves Guild, work your way up and possess the fantastic Nightingale armour, or even steal the clothing from an Imperial guard, along with his gold, a key to his chest or even a house.
   But why stop there? Why not buy your very own property? Kit it out with whatever is on offer and even store all your baggage that you don’t want to sell or get rid of but simply cannot carry it anymore. The game truly offers another life for you to take control of and do as you see fit.
   But of course a game this vast and sprawling doesn’t come without its own baggage, and unfortunately this fifth entry into the Elder Scrolls universe is not without its problems. In terms of gameplay, the movement itself of NPCs and yourself still aren’t on par with games of the same generation, and the combat is in the most sincere way, woeful. Bethesda still cannot seem to incorporate a workable and enjoyable style of hand to hand combat without it looking tired and annoying, shields and swords are heavily upgradeable, but I found myself managing to come into possession of a wonderful sword, but equipping it to one hand with a fireball spell on the other, the motion of fighting is still very dark-age looking and should be given more time to improve upon. The game does also come with gltiches a plenty, and while some are just plain hilarious (getting thrown 100 feet in the air simply by falling from my horse) most are frustrating to the point of having to restart the console or last save game.
   But these little inklings aside, Skyrim itself is just bursting with untainted beauty. Staring out at the glaciers in the distance, sure just go for a walk to them and bathe in the environment around you, there is the best chance that you will encounter a side mission that just might sound interesting, retrieve a book from a derelict cave or go and do the bidding of a god. When this much detail goes into a game, it would just be insulting not to give it a try, with epic needing to be used in every sentence about this wonderful fantasy, it truly is one of the best games to ever grace a console, and will be enough to keep many occupied for a long time to come.… Expand

   • Helpful? 1 of 1 users said Yes.
2. bmt11

   8

   Skyrim traded game play for story and for that I was rather disappointed but at the same time I can't exactly stay that way when no other game out today can even come close with either element. A good story will keep you enthralled for a short time(longer in the case of the elder scrolls games with their multiple story lines) but the game play with what hooks you for years. The main quest line was much better executed than the past games and also worked to tie in the secondary quest lines as well but this also led to things being somewhat more restrictive. But onto the game play if you look at the history of the series things have been getting dumbed down or condensed if you want a nice way to say it. Skyrim is no exception and in some cases accelerated the process from oblivion. not least of all was how stupidly east they made it to level up if you know how to exploit you can nearly level a skill up to a hundred(the max) just by casting a spell on yourself while you are traveling to and through your first main story quest. Exploiting the smithing skill is even faster if you have the money to do it and contrary to the past games where doing this is likely to leave you weak in other skill areas, in skyrim there is little to no disadvantage there. There are plenty of new features that were a welcome addition but not enough to make up for all the others that were dumbed down. The attention to detail also suffered greatly but looking at the time scale that the game was developed in I can't put too much blame on them for failing to uphold their original standard. The bottom line is that I expected much better from Bethesda but compared to the rest of the market it is still leaps and bounds ahead, these reviews on the other hand on average are ignorant and at best full of knee jerk reactions. I urge anyone reading these to take them with a grain of salt as few other games out there offer a better technical experience anymore and none offer the same level of gameplay,… Expand

   • Helpful? 1 of 1 users said Yes.
3. santagria

   6

   The game at its core could have been one of the best ever.... but the multitude of bugs, vary from simple NPC's glitching out, and behaving awkwardly, to not being able to complete quests and entire quest lines.... to having the game crash.. to having your save game wiped if you attempt to create a new character, and much more that I've yet to even encounter, but have read up on. These add up to possibly one of the most horrid, unpolished big-budget game releases on a console in recent history. It's as if we, the customers, paid to be Bethesda's beta testers... because its obvious very little time was spent on the PS3 "port" prior to release.
   
   And to top it all off, the more time you spend playing the game, the further you get, and the larger your save file grows... the choppier and less playable the game becomes. To the point where the game becomes an unplayable slideshow. The evidence is rampant online and in youtube videos, if you search it yourself ( "Skyrim PS3 lag / slowdown" ) go ahead look it up yourself.
   
   If you own a PS3 copy and think you're safe from this game breaking slowdown and stuttering, wait till your save file gets over 7-8 megs, and you've invested a good 30 hours. The game devolves into a stuttering glitchy mess. If you own a PC that can handle the game, or an Xbox, get those versions instead.… Expand

   • Helpful? 73 of 87 users said Yes.
4. Surrealist

   0

   ***Skyrim becomes unplayable on PS3 after a certain amount of time, DO NOT BUY THIS GAME ON PS3***
   
   This game becomes unplayable after your save reaches a certain size. What hurts the most is that this punishes the players who spend the most time on this game by making it unplayable.
   
   I wanted to love this game. It was beautiful. It was epic. It was breathtaking. Unfortunately the only breath it takes now is roars of rage from my lungs through constant crashing and fear of burnout on my 1 month old ps3. Because of the way it was designed, Skyrim slowly degrades until it no longer works. Lag, slowdown of frame rate, 10 minute load screens, disappearing NPCs and near constant crashes are only the tip of the ice burg of what this game becomes at the 40+ hour mark.
   
   Any game that becomes unplayable because of developer fault deserves a score of 0. For shame to Bethesda for releasing a broken game. You can't play it, you can't enjoy it, it becomes a blank disc.… Expand

   • Helpful? 22 of 23 users said Yes.

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