I just beat Skyrim for the first -and probably last- time.
The game itself is pretty fun, nothing to write home about though. The reason I say this is that you have fun in the same way as most other “open world” games. You start playing for a bit, get bored after a few hours, start looting and murdering, get bored of that after a few hours, turn the game off, come back a few days later, rinse and repeat. I feel the same way about this as I do nearly every other open world games, aside from BotW, Minecraft and maybe just cause. This is probably why I’m not a huge fan of the open world genre. I honestly think it’s overstayed it’s welcome.
The biggest issue with Skyrim as opposed to other open world games is that the character movement and mechanics are not open world friendly. For one thing there are way to many places that the developers didn’t intend on you going. This is apparent from the amount of times I struggled trying to walk anywhere that didn’t have a perfectly horizontal surface. You get stuck on everything in this game. The other issue with mobility is the worst mechanic in the game- weight limits. Having restrictions on inventory is easily one of the most frustrating things ever. I mean I guess technically you can carry as much as you want, but what’s the point? As soon as you reach your limit you’re too slow to do anything. If Bethesda’s intent was to make something fun they missed the shot by a mile. You end up having to get rid of all your cool items just so you can end up walking a pace that doesn’t make you cry. I talk a lot of crap about the storage limit in BotW, but at least there it was limited to just weapons.
Another problem with the movement is the camera. Open world games just don’t work with a first person camera. When they do it’s usually because their terrain is so simple that it doesn’t require you to be able to actively view your surroundings. But Skyrim’s terrain is detailed to a fault, so having a first person camera is just begging for trouble. There is a third person camera, but it’s absolutely awful because it lets you see the back of your head and nothing else, plus it keeps switching back and forth between a true third person camera and an over the shoulder camera whenever you pull out your weapons.
I have mixed feelings about the combat. On one hand the actual fighting maneuvers are really fun, and the sheer amount of fighting styles is impressive as all hell. On the other hand, your non-combat movement is so terrible that it’s a miracle that you’d be able to hit anything with all the different times you get hung up on a simple twig.
The game is not polished at all, but what did I expect from a game made by Bethesda. Maybe it’s just because I’m playing on the 360 version.
The story is.... eh. There are some really interesting moments, like at the end where you’re effectively in Valhalla fighting the final boss with warriors of the past. But the majority of the main quest story was kinda boring. Also the ending was just plain lame. No end cutscene, no credits, nothing. You don’t even stop playing or get sent to the menu, it literally just carries on like you just beat a normal sidequest and not the “world eater.”
I know I’m crapping on the game a lot here but I genuinely did enjoy my time with it. The amount of stuff you can do is insane. Like mind bogglingly insane. There are multiple in-depth crafting mechanics, side quests, gear, locations, etc. Every place has a buttload of lore to explore, and it makes the game feel alive (aside from the people walking into walls and shouting over each other whenever you simply walk by and whatnot).
Overall, I can see why people enjoyed this game, but it’s not a game I can really see myself coming back to. 6.5/10.