Despite the glitches, Skyrim is still the masterpiece it was built up to be.
The theme of Skyrim is a familiar one: play your character how YOU want to play it. There are no traditional classes or attributes as seen in many RPG's. Leveling up is done by using particular skills to increase their rating, which contributes to one's overall level. The skills are, for the sake of simplicity, divided up into three groups: mage, warrior, and thief. Each skill is leveled up separately, however, eliminating the restrictive class system of many RPG's. For example, if a player wanted to level up archery, they would simply have to use bows to take out their enemies. If they wanted to level up heavy armor, they would simply wear heavy armor, and it would level up as enemies attack you. As your character's skills level up, various "perks" become available to make your most-used skills even more versatile and powerful
The world of Skyrim is huge, with hours upon hours of interesting, varied quests to pursue. Most of these quests are easy to find, but some require investigation and exploration, giving the player great incentive to go out and poke around whatever area they find interesting. Roaming gets especially interesting when the player starts to encounter dragons. Many of these beasts appear randomly, and fighting them is always an absolute thrill. Nearby NPC's and enemies will react by running away or fighting them, verbally expressing their fear and awe. This mechanic shows the game's incredible depth. For example, a dragon attacked a town I was walking through, prompting most of the village to take up arms against it. It flew around, breathing fire at not just me, but all of the NPC's as well. Just before the dragon's death, the town's blacksmith rushed up to attack the beast with a sword, which proved to be foolish, as he was promptly chewed up and thrown lifelessly aside. When I later returned to the town, the blacksmith's wife reminisced over her dead husband, relating to me how he used to dote on their daughter. This kind of interactivity really immerses the player, making each and every character you meet seem worth caring about (also creating a personal vendetta...damn you dragons! He was a father, you bastards!)
The combat can be played in either first- or third-person, and it gives a variety of spells and weapons to take down one's enemies. The enemies scale in difficulty as the player levels up, which can lead to some difficult battles depending on which skills were chosen to upgrade. Luckily, many of the characters you meet will be glad to assist you on your travels, evening the odds in battle if faced with numerous enemies.
Various glitches can often interrupt this otherwise incredible gaming experience, however. These glitches can range from minor visual hiccups to crucial points in quests simply not showing up. The ability to save at any point, along with the game's frequent autosaves (it stores three autosaves) help alleviate these problems, but they are frequent enough to be annoying. Combat may also be frustratingly difficult at times, even on the "normal" difficulty. This is obviously a personal opinion, and the perceived difficulty will vary among players, but it's something to take note of nonetheless.
Despite these minor shortcomings, Skyrim is still a masterpiece among modern RPG's. The sheer volume of fun, varied activities available is astonishing, giving hours upon hours of entertainment value. Anyone who remotely enjoys RPG's is sure to enjoy this one.