Skyrim Review

If there’s only one game you have time to play this Christmas, make sure that it’s Skyrim. Although that sounds like a cheesy Argos slogan - It is something that has to be done.

So far I’ve put 40 hours into the game and I’m only four quests into the main questline. The reason for this is that Skyrim is one of the most colossal undertakings gamers will experience this year (and due to the fact that all i’ve done is side quests). I strongly recommend taking time off work,sitting down and just playing it.

Skyrim is the fifth in Bethesda’s series of Elder Scrolls with this one being northward bound as you head to the frozen Nordic land of the game’s title. Having only dabbled with Oblivion I cannot assume it’s vastly superior to its predecessors. However considering it has nothing but positive reviews on Metacritic with a rating of 96/100, it is safe to assume this is definitely the best Elder Scrolls yet.

The main reason this game is so critically acclaimed is due to the fact that the game is gargantuan and the fighting system is incredibly well done. There is almost too much to do. Want to do close range melee fighting? You can! Want to be a stealthy bastard and crit for over 9000? You can! Fancy being a mage that can burn any enemy to a crisp? No problem. That’s not even mentioning the fact that throughout the game you can level up any number of skills. These range from being able to pick locks like houdini, to enchanting weapons and even being able to craft dragon armour as a blacksmith./p>

Dragons, how could i forget? This is probably the most exciting part of the game - taking on a fucking dragon!

After initially learning you are dragonborn and that you absorb a dragons soul after slaying them, you realise your main purpose in this game is simple: find every dragon, engage them in epic battles and make their souls yours!

Once you’ve gained their soul these can be used to create shouts, which are pretty much the coolest spells available. Shouts are the skills which will save you in a losing battle or allow you to take on enemies that seem unbeatable. They range from things such as ‘Dragon Breath’ which can knock an enemy back while setting them on fire, to ‘Whirlwind Sprint’ which allows you to travel at the speed of light accross a certain distance.

Although Skyrim has many, many positives, it sadly also has some minor flaws that tend to spoilt it in places. The menu system is well made and allows you to access everything you need quickly. However, ridicilous things such as there being 5 or 6 different types of potion with various names make it very confusing at times. Do i need the potion of extreme healing? Or maybe the potion of plentiful healing? Or perhaps even the potion of vigorous healing? Who knows, because I certainly don’t. 

There are also a fair amount of bugs in the game that sometimes tend to ruin a quest. After a dragon attacked me during a quest at the mages college the quest bugged and is now uncompletable...However the dragon’s corpse in the middle of the college does make it look far more unique than before. Most of the time though, the glitches can turn out to be harmless and generally pretty hilarious: Video 

These minor flaws are easily outweighed by the massive perks. The game has fun quest after fun quest which you are more than happy to sink hours of your life into. The dialogue is well done and the game is very simple to just pick up and play. The only thing I can see this game benefitting from is perhaps some multiplayer options. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want a million online people running around in my game screwing it up (i.e. this game should definitely never be an MMO). However I would love to do a dungeon with a tank and a healer who happen to be on my steam friends list, that would really take this game to the next level. 

This game is by no means perfect but it is most certainly my game of the year and an easy 5 stars. If you don’t own it...put it on your Argos christmas list.