Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim review

The game’s complex world was built using Bethesda’s new Creation Engine for Skyrim, and it’s an obvious improvement on the Gamebryo engine used in Oblivion. Combat and levelling are more balanced, for a start – obviously weak creatures stay weak, so high-level characters won’t encounter wolves that can tear through dragonscale armour, while more important and powerful foes are more challenging to start with, and their numbers and stats continue to level with you accordingly. Further additions include sophisticated dual-wielding for spells and weapons, with the potential to double the power of your attacks. There are still odd moments when bits of scenery get stuck through each other, but the level of detail in the game is phenomenal, from snowfall to dragonflight and butterflies that flit around the game’s less wintery areas. We’d really like it if our footprints appeared in the snow behind us, though, if only for a few steps.

Skyrim’s world is undeniably beautiful and the rugged terrain is in keeping with the themes of the main plot

We’re completely immersed in Skyrim, and anticipate spending hundreds more hours to see it all – it’s brilliantly engaging and a strong contender to become one of our favourite games of the coming twelve months. However, we have a number of complaints beyond the absence of footprints in the snow. The game’s controls have obviously been designed for convenient cross-platform development, but this comes at the cost of some versatility for PC gamers. Navigating your inventory involves a lot of scrolling through lists. Other features just aren’t immediately obvious, such as the ability to rotate the map and assign shortcut keys to favourite items by going to your Favourites menu an pressing a number key while the object is highlighted.

Fortunately, a wealth of fan-made mods is already available at skyrimnexus.com so, like Oblivion before it, it’s safe to assume that any complaints you might have about the game, its combat engine or graphics, there’s a good chance that someone’s already on the case.

Although there are a few things we’d like to see fixed, Skyrim is a brilliant game even by the high standard set by this year’s releases. Like its predecessors, it’s the sheer depth of the world and the realism of the people who live in it that grabbed us and keeps us playing until the early hours of morning. Whether you measure a game’s quality by hours of play, depth of story or potential for action, there’s something for you here.