The only game you would need if you were on a deserted island.
This game changed my favorite genre back to RPGs. The Open-ended gameplay absolutely captivated me.
The one thing that I believe that really supercharged this title past all the other RPGs out there and propeled it far from its counter-part (Elder Scrolls 3), is its Artificial Intelligence. It puts Fable on Xbox to shame so bad because it does everything that that game tryed to do (and with ease). Its great to see that the NPCs (non-player characters) actually have lives and have activities that they take part in at certain times. It actually makes you feel that you are in a world, not to mention the fact that the game space so huge. I took the liberty to forget that there are even any Xbox Achievements to get and I just explored the whole world and played it the way I feel. It feels great to be able to do that, which is why in this review, the 20-40 hours of play time I've spent on the game so far is just about nothing compared to how much more there is to this game. Even the projected 100 hours that is suppose to be the total playing time of this game would be hard to stay true to. If you want to save money by playing just one game, but all means buy this one.
The environments offer some of the best atmosphere in a game I've ever took part in. You can see the individual blades of grass. Trees have life cycles and move with the wind (I unfortunetely haven't played far enough to see how the seasons might change). The game is just great looking and "hand-crafted" well. The developers really spent good time on this title (all 4 years of it). This is the first game that I would absolutely not get bored of from just riding my horse somewhere in the game (plus you can always fast travel in the game if you want to, previously unavailable in other games of the series).
Its insane how much depth this game has. Its just a lifesaver that you have a horse in the game (that is if you want a horse). I recently saw on an internet forum, that you can find a unicorn in the game, and thats just one of those "secrets" that most people won't find, but is in there. Its stuff like that that will keep me playing this game and exploring the world (and the fact of seeing how far up in levels I can put my character through from his experience points).
Sure its great to play those really memorable action games that don't last long (I'm talking about you, Lara Croft), but its great to just get lost in a world where I can be what I want to be, especially in a fantasy world like Elder Scrolls where I can even buy a house and put furniture in it if I want to (which houses are expensive and thats why my character is a thief in the game, LOL).
This game will surely remain on my "Now Playing" list on Gamespot for a long, long time.