Review: To Skyrim Or Not To Skyrim?

Skyrim was released on the 11th of November and has since sold upward of 3.4 million copies. Outpacing both Gears of War 3 and Fifa 12 while keeping up with Battlefield 3 sales. Skyrim itself has outsold its predecessor by 600%. For an RPG that is really quite impressive. Skyrim is the fifth instalment in the Elder Scrolls series and is easily the biggest and the best looking game in the series to date. Hardly surprising considering Bethesda have created a unique brand of open world games.

As players run through the land of Skyrim they will bear witness to dense woodlands, snow-capped mountain ranges, crystal clear rivers running throughout the map and battle a wide range of monsters from mudcrabs to dragons. Players will navigate their way through blizzards, take shelter from thunderstorms and when there isn't a cloud in the sky, they can look up and see auroras piercing the dark of the night. Skyrim is a leap forward in terms of graphics. As the player explores they are treated to luscious skies, dynamic lighting, amazing water textures and ever changing weather effects. Everywhere the player looks they are faced with amazing panoramic views of mountains, clear skies, stars at night and not to mention the odd dragon that catches the player off guard.

Character customisation has been simplified from Oblivion. Depending on how you want to play there are several skills to gain levels in. After gaining enough levels in the aforementioned skills you gain a level up and can upgrade abilities such as lockpick, one-handed weapons, heavy armour and destruction spells. These provide many possibilities for character builds. Whether you prefer charging in with a sword and shield or slipping in to the shadows and slinging spells at your enemies there's something for everyone's style.

As great as Skyrim is, there are, of course, bugs. These vary from characters attaching themselves to environment to the rare instance where a previous save needs to be reloaded after the game crashes. The plot reveals its pleasures in inches, one quest and side-quest at a time. It's utterly immersive and the player will forget about the outside world for a while. Skyrim easily has enough content to keep even the most hardcore of gamers busy. And with the discussion of downloadable content, there's sure to be even more places and quests to see to.