PS3 Review – The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
[Editor's Note] We’re well aware of the widespread issues that many PlayStation 3 owners of Skyrim are suffering from. That said, our review score stands. The Elder Scrolls V: Skryim is deserving of the recognition it is receiving, even despite reports of lag, glitches and bugs. We’ve received emails from a number of unhappy Skyrim players asking us to alter our score or to play more than 60+ hours of the game. I personally have logged over 100+ hours (Level 54, Master of Sneak) into the PlayStation 3 version of the game, and have only experienced some minor lag and a handful of game crashes that required a hard reset of my PlayStation 3. While I don’t deny that users are enduring through much worse issues (we read the forums and comments, too), there are some users that are not. We publicly implore Bethesda to address the issues and the community at large, and have reached out to them for their thoughts on the matter.
If you have any questions or comments, contact anthony.severino@playstationlifestyle.net
-Anthony Severino, Editor-In-Chief
To call Bethesda’s open-world RPGs “massive” would be an understatement of… well, massive proportions. There aren’t many games that can encompass such a wide landscape and still pack it full of interesting locations, characters, and stories. Does The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim continue this heritage even after Fallout 3‘s departure from Bethesda’s fantasy-leaning series?
Yes. Yes, yes, yes, a thousand times yes. Skyrim melds the remarkably user-friendly gameplay of Fallout 3 with the bread-and-butter writing and legend The Elder Scrolls series is known for.
The game opens with the character bound and on his or her way to the executioner. When a dragon, thought long gone, appears and disrupts the proceedings, the Dragon Born’s trial by fire proves to be as exhilarating and entertaining as the most action-oriented of games.
Truly, the balance between action and combat and core role-playing game mechanics is Skyrim’s greatest accomplishment. There are no stats to buff, no levels to grind to. Instead, using abilities repeatedly is the only way to build up your stats and unlock new points for the masterfully created perk system.
That’s really the inherent genius of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. It’s as open a world as the Rockstar epics we’ve come to know and love. You can play it like a hack-and-slash first-person combat game or you can lean heavily on the RPG mechanics to spec your character the way you want. There’s something so elegantly streamlined about the way you interact with the characters and the world. It can hardly feel like a Bethesda game at times.
As you increase your stats you’ll open up the constellations themselves to explore new abilities and powers. Something so elegant as to look to the heavens for your next dual-wielding ability or passive perk needs to be experienced to fully understand it’s genius.
The only way to progress your character through the unlimited number of levels is to DO, to remain as active as possible, and to seek out new enemies and quests. And see you shall. Seemingly every inch of Skyrim has fanciful new enemies to slay or new NPCs to converse with, each with their own unique story.
You’ll certainly want to as NPCs will send you out into the world to discover strange places and characters. Certainly interacting with the different races in Skyrim and hearing how they view the world will make for motivation enough, but it’s the quests themselves that will keep you conversing with people for more to do.
Quests genuinely refrain from becoming grocery errands or menial labor, meaning you’ll actually want to pick up the sidequests characters offer up to you. Even the less-than-key quests townspeople would hand out to you are tracked in submenus. Occasionally Fallout 3 would reintroduce NPCs to you by allowing them to nag you incessantly about something they asked you about way back when you were only level 5. Not so anymore.
Skyrim tracks everything you could possibly need and makes sure to make things conveniently accessible to you at any given time. Even the on-screen compass supports this design decision by using icons so you’ll know exactly what kind of landmark you’re looking for as you explore the massive open world.
And how have I made it this far without praising the game’s engine? Let’s face it. Fallout 3 and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion were ugly by today’s standards. The characters themselves seemed to be hit repeatedly in the face with a shovel fresh from moving manure all day. Skyrim‘s new engine makes even the homeliest NPC look interesting and lively in his own right. Even menial items like the lowly potion ingredient make for graphical splendor in the game’s menus.
Combat and spells are made all the more visceral and enjoyable thanks to the slow-motion killcams and the effects they have on enemies and the environment. Lighting the world on first just to see what burns or raining electricity down on an opponent before switching to your two-handed battleaxe doesn’t get any better than this. So, what is there to complain about?
Even Bethesda’s writing is at it’s best in Skyrim, leaving only nagging technical issues left to complain. AI companions are as dumb as they come, frequently sticking right in your way, possibly while you’re trying exit a door or fighting a giant. Bethesda still hasn’t learned how to make paths to out of the way locations as obvious as they need to be. How many times do I have to attempt to walk up an unclimbable cliff before you’ll provide me with a trail of some kind?
Regardless, these are the kinds of issues that only professional critics will point out. The gamer in everyone will launch Skyrim in their PS3 and sit in awe at the masterpiece Bethesda Game Studios has created.
In terms of raw value, $60 seems like a paltry sum for the massive amounts of content and gameplay within Skyrim‘s heights. It will certainly prove to be the Game of the Year contender everyone can agree upon and continue that sentiment through 2012.
PlayStation LifeStyle’s Final Score
+ Excellent Game Design + Superb Writing and Exploration |  |
-
13 Responses to “PS3 Review – The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim”
Nice!, i’m gonna be getting this next week hopefully i’m trying my hardest to get uncharted 3 and batman:ac out of the way before then because I have a feeling skyrim is gonna consume my life. lol!
From the massive and detailed world to explore, to the great story and dialogue, this game does what few other games have ever been able to do: create a world that you care about, and feel like you’re a part of.
It’s my GOTY so far, and one of my favorites of all time.
Agreed!!!! This is my current GOTY and one of my favorite games this generation. My personal rating is a 9.5/10. It is very close to being the perfect game. There are however, a few minor issues that are keeping me from perfect score.
Typo. You said 10/10 it’s actually 12/10. xD
“…the Game of the Year contender everyone can agree upon…”
Everyone except me. I just can’t stand games with that many bugs at launch and refuse to reward the behavior.
I own the PS3 version and I’m easily 100+ hours into the game. While there are some bugs and glitches, most of them are extremely minor and rarely affect my gameplay experience negatively.
I understand there are a number of users who are experiencing widespread issues. While it is certainly a shame, and Bethesda needs to address this, I want to point out that it’s not the same experience for everyone.
Just as one has to believe that there ARE indeed problems, users experiencing issues need to also believe that there ARE indeed some people who haven’t had such problems with their playthrough.
And that’s cool; I ain’t gonna be the type to tell someone else that they didn’t have a great time, it’s just unfortunate that it’s such a diceroll what type of performance you’re gonna get, you know?
If other people vote it up for GotY, then more power to them and no one in the world can say they are “wrong,” but in the case, I have to politely disagree. Just my opinion on it all.
I heard the whole game is a bug fest and I’m not talking about the creatures
I hear Skyrim is to a considerable amount of players almost unplayable on PS3 and I do not mean because of bugs, I mean 2-3 FPS, freeze, crash etc. unplayable.
How can you even consider a broken, glitched, Oblivion-recycled game GOTY?
I think the overall experiance should still be rewarded with a 10/10 as from what I’ve seen Skyrim is a great game and truley deserves all the praise it’s been getting though at the same time I’m disapointed with Bethesda because these kind of problems I think are what put people off their games,
I’m annoyed not because they ruined the game or because it makes the game bad but because I know there must be a lot of people out there who would buy Skyrim if they had any reassurance things like this wouldn’t happen. Still, it’ll be great being able to sit down and play the game, hopefully I’ll still feel the game deserves it’s 10/10 score.
I love penis.
What a lazy post edit. Use some creativity this time. Sorry my post scared you that bad.
Actually don’t even worry about it. You should just delete all of my comments. I’ll be on my way, now. Peace.