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Available on: Xbox 360, PC, PS3

Skyrim review

Returning with all the power and grace of its star mythical creatures

Words: on November 10, 2011
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A proper epic quest

A lot of people we’ve talked to loved Oblivion but found its actual main story thread boring. They’d play a bit of it and then go back to sidequests and random messing around. Many seemed to not even bother to finish the story and yet play for hundreds of hours. As we said before, we’ll spoil nothing here. Just know that Skyrim’s story is leaps and bounds over Oblivion’s and very much worth playing through. It’s not long – clocking perhaps ten hours for an average player, but the game overall is absolutely gigantic, and we predict it has the ability to provide considerably more hours of entertainment than Oblivion.


Is it better than…

Oblivion? Yes. We think we’ve made it clear why. It’s prettier, it’s deeper, the story is better, the dragons and shouts are stupidly fun and exciting, it’s better balanced, it has dual-wielding, need we go on? Fine: the skill system is more intuitive and somehow deeper, the dungeon variety is mind-blowing, and you can have a zombie walrus following you around and fighting for you.




Dead Island? Yes. Wait a minute, what’s this doing here? A survival horror zombie game? Are we crazy? Think about it: Dead Island is first-person, melee-combat centric, loot-focused, long as hell, has tons of side missions and areas to explore, lets you build weapons, has skill trees, and is full of bugs! Har har. Actually, Skyrim is significantly more polished than Oblivion, and naturally more so than Dead Island. Okay, so maybe it’s not fair to compare them, but not because of genre – it’s because of the gap in quality and imagination. Dead Island has co-op though. Yeah.


Dark Souls? Yes. We all know Dark Souls is amazing. We’re not going to compare difficulty because it’s not relevant here. The main difference is the reward over time. Dark Souls is incredibly rewarding, but it also features a lot of repetition and grinding. It seems long and huge because it takes time to make progress in it, while Skyrim is just plain long and huge. Skyrim just has more to show you, and it can’t be bothered to put barriers between you and those things because then no one would see everything the game has to offer, ever. And you will want to do everything in Skyrim. We love Dark Souls, but Skyrim gets the edge here – not by much, mind you.


For those who skipped straight to the end

Skyrim is sprawling, generous, gorgeous and ambitious. It does what few games can: thoroughly follow through on its ambitions. It could be possible to play only this game for the next year and still not discover all of its mysteries.

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Platforms:

Xbox 360, PC, PS3

138 comments

  • poweref - March 12, 2012 2:15 p.m.

    Skyrim Leveling Guide. All Main and Side quests. Skill and character guide: http://SkyrimLeveling.com/

  • xboxfanboy360 - December 25, 2011 9:23 a.m.

    hey sorry this is the last place i can think of looking okay can someone tell me why i cant run is it a bug or something

  • Dadyo238 - May 23, 2012 10:53 a.m.

    You need to drop some stuff from your inventory. If you carry too much stuff with you at once, it will be too "heavy" for your character,hence no more running.

  • GhostbustTyler - November 18, 2011 9:06 p.m.

    I really disagree with the statement "The monster scaling is so sublime it’s likely you’ll never notice it". I've been playing for a about a week and I'm at level 24. I have the best possible weapons and armor I can have so far, yet I've encountered three bandit camps where the leader have the exact same armor as me, and even lesser weapons, yet they kill me no matter what in 2-3 hits. It's absolutely impossible to kill them and they just started randomly appearing in the game. I mean, I've killed a bunch of dragons, a few frost trolls, and a Dragon Priest, but these guys have pretty much ruined exploring for me at least until I finish the main quest.

  • GhostbustTyler - November 18, 2011 9:07 p.m.

    *leaders

  • Jordo141 - November 17, 2011 1:53 p.m.

    I still think Oblivion is better though... I preferred the main quest and Skyrim is just a total pain to navigate... The exploration aspect is a bit ruined because of that.

  • TheMasterJeef - November 15, 2011 5:02 a.m.

    Apologies for the lack of spacing, seems it removed all the paragraphs I put in >_<

  • TheMasterJeef - November 15, 2011 5:01 a.m.

    Personally? Im bitterly disappointed. I would have LOVED to buy and play this game. But having enchanted weapons needing a 'battery change' drives me insane. To the extent I just can’t play this. I only lasted one weekend with Oblivion due to this. Why Bethesda couldn’t have implemented the system from Morrowind, where weapons charge over time, beggars belief. I can’t recall any fantasy literature when the hero has to worry about how many charges his mighty flaming blade has left!! Plus has Bethesda actually made straight stealth a viable play option? In Oblivion straight stealth (no magic, or two handed weapons) was nigh on impossible. Even critical stealth shots from my bow in Oblivion would just irritate bandits, who would then call all their friends over to bludgeon me to death. It seemed to me that you could only really play as warrior, mage or a hybrid of the two. If someone can confirm if this is playable as a straight ranger/thief/assassin type character (including selling stolen items to normal merchants) and that enchanted weapons aren’t a must have, i would love to pick this up. P.S. I am not trolling, or hating Skyrim. It looks a phenomenal game. However there are elements of gameplay that make this unplayable for me.

  • GamesRadarMatthewKeast - November 21, 2011 5:58 p.m.

    Straight stealth is totally viable, considering there's a perk that gives you a 15x bonus to stealth damage. Also, enchanted weapons are not at all necessary to the game. I doubt, though, that even if you want to use them it will be much of a problem because I found boatloads of soul gems throughout the game. I believe there's also a perk that automatically charges your weapon when you get a kill, but I might be wrong about that.

  • TheMasterJeef - November 23, 2011 3:59 p.m.

    Cheers for clarifying that Matthew. I may have been swayed into picking up Skyrim...

  • Fryhole - November 14, 2011 7:18 p.m.

    I'm playing Skyrim right now as a sword and board character and it is so great, being able to kill a dragon face to face is one of the coolest feelings a game has ever given me.

  • DLow - November 14, 2011 3:10 p.m.

    One piece of advise, dont use the stone that makes you do 50% more magic damage, but take 50% more magic damage (dont know the name). Ive been stuck on a necro/mage boss in a dungeon for an hour and he is man handling me with a barrage of cold and lighting spells that kills me in two or even one hit! Unfortunately the door locks behind you and the game saves, which eliminates running away or loading the last save!!So ive been trying different potion combos, shouts and spells. Still to no avail, but had to go to work. Just had to tell someone lol.

  • GamesRadarMatthewKeast - November 21, 2011 5:59 p.m.

    You should really be keeping multiple save files, like minimum of ten so you don't get stuck in places.

  • Gibsonsg527 - November 13, 2011 9:36 p.m.

    Great review and I completely agree on the score 10/10 IMO. Sure there are some technical issues but as a whole its more than just a game, its an experience.

  • rob619 - November 13, 2011 2:43 p.m.

    Is this game really like Dead Island, because I really liked that game?

  • mothbanquet - November 12, 2011 3:17 a.m.

    I've left a few comments on this thread, and for good reason. Yesterday, after getting home from work, I unwrapped and started playing this game. It is now the next day and I'm at work again but almost every waking moment over the past day and night was spent playing Skyrim. Of all those hours, I've only done a few quests. The reason for that is that this review can't do justice to just how much there is to do right from the very beginning. I was stuck in the first village for two hours, not doing fetch quests but going out into the surrounding woods to hunt, tan hides in leather, and then make fine quality armour from that leather to sell to the local blacksmith. Using a bow to pick off whoever I can before going in for Ezio Auditore-style dual dagger kills, this game has brought my character closer than ever to how I envision them. That's not to say it's easy - if you get complacent (especially when playing as a squishy rogue) then it will punish you but the finely balanced encounters make you feel like a badass while at the same time feeling very organic. And then there's the loot - far more and far more valuable than that found early on in Oblivion. Skyrim is drenched in detail, while maintaining an epic scope that nothing can really rival. The best part about all of this is I've only barely scratched the surface. In just a week I'd completed 80% of Arkham City. Something tells me this will last a lot, lot longer...

  • RonnyLive19881 - November 11, 2011 10:06 p.m.

    This is not better than Skyward Sword. That is all.

  • mothbanquet - November 12, 2011 1:21 a.m.

    I love Zelda games too but by their very nature none of them are, or could be, as epic or deep as this. I know it hurts but yes, this is better than Skyward Sword...

  • Mezolitik - November 12, 2011 5:38 a.m.

    Why is every game ever being compared to Skyward Sword? I await the day when Zelda becomes the benchmark for racing games and sandbox horse grooming games too.

  • RonnyLive19881 - November 12, 2011 6:27 a.m.

    I'm 3 hours into to Skyrim(got to the first city, talked to the lady blacksmith and did what she said and got the little dagger and then turned it off) and I don't even find it better than Links Awakening. Feels a lot like Oblivion to me and that isn't a bad thing but it certainly doesn't make it better than Zelda. Elder Scrolls has nothing on the Zelda franchise.

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More Info

Release date: US
Nov 11 2011 (Xbox 360, PC, PS3)
Expected release date: UK
11/11/11 (Xbox 360)
11/11/11 (PC)
11/11/11 (PS3)
Available Platforms: Xbox 360, PC, PS3
Genre: Role Playing
Published by: Bethesda
Franchise: The Elder Scrolls
ESRB Rating:
Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes, Use of Alcohol
PEGI Rating:
18+
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