Skyrim is a great fantasy world to explore, but technical problems and questionable design shoulder it from perfection.
Skyrim is Bethesda's best-looking game to date, and it brings to the table everything The Elder Scrolls is famous for, good and bad. It is a tremendously fun game and I recommend that all fantasy and RPG gamers give it a try... but, I can't give it a truly high score, here. This is a review of the PS3 version, and the multitude of problems with the port, coupled with some questionable mechanics choices, make this game less than perfect.
First, the good. Skyrim is beautiful. There is perhaps more detail in this game than any other I can think of, if you consider the great scope of the game. Scenery abounds, with rolling hills, forests, blizzards and mountains. Monsters have slick, well mapped textures and great animation. Magic shimmers and weapons shine. Every line of dialogue is voice acted well, the music is a swelling, lilting orchestral fare. For fantasy immersion, there is no equal.
Gameplay is a sort of first-person-shooter scheme adapted to fantasy. Basic attacks with weapons are possible, as is shooting various spells, usually as projectiles. RPG elements abound. Like previous entries, skills are trained with use, so a swordsman eventually becomes a capable warrior, and a sneakthief and expert pickpocket that can pull the clothes off people's backs.
Players can interact with virtually any object in the sprawling landscape and towns, and this is a great feat, as usual. This is not a game for kleptomaniacs.
There are a multitude of quests that can be explored, and a few hours into the game your HUD will be filled with dozens of objectives. Aside from the main plot, there are many others, of varying length. Only a few will take more than a few hours to complete with concentrated effort, but there is so many you'll likely spend 100 hours before you run out. Also, many characters in the game can generate missions for you infinitely, for minor reward. Though it was touted highly in the press, the quests created are somewhat simple, and can sometimes reuse randomly-generated characters and locations. Still, it is a promise that the world can never be totally exhausted, which is welcome.
The big-league fights of Skyrim are among some of the most satisfying battles in Elder Scrolls, giant dragons, giants and undead wizards of terrifying size await you. I much prefer them to the endless Oblivion Gates quest of Oblivion.
The element that ruined Oblivion for me (the strict world challenge scaling) is unfortunately still largely present here, though to a lesser degree. Gone are the days of invincible townspeople, armored bandits, and fabulously wealthy shops... somewhat. They definitely made an effort to make the world's level adjustment seem somewhat plausible, which was sorely needed. It still has problems though, which I'll get into in a moment.
Now, the not-so-good. First and most important: technical problems. Skyrim is a somewhat poor experience on the PS3 platform, unfortunately. As of release, Skyrim had serious performance issues surrounding extended play, which is unfortunate for a game of this size. A few patches have been released since then, but the 1.3 release has introduced more problems than it fixed. By reducing the draw distance and eliminating a few texture effects, the performance issues have somewhat subsided, however, the game now suffers from a great deal of freezing. I experience a total console freeze (no response except for power) every time I play Skyrim for more than 2 hours now. It is frustrating and unhealthy for my console. I don't know if they will ever fix it, but it makes it near-impossible to enjoy the game.
Aside from this, Elder Scrolls games have always been buggy in general, with odd behaviors and collision detection, but as a series fan I'd come to expect it. Worse though is that some quests are also bugged in such a fashion as to render a large portion of the game unplayable if not executed properly. As an example, I made one city (Markarth) virtually impossible to navigate without constant guard harassment, simply because I went back to an area where a quest started and was locked into a conversation that had already occurred, with no means to abort the quest or escape. Similarly, an animation bug made the shopkeepers of another city (Solitude) in permanent attendance to a festival that would not end because the M.C.'s animation would never finish. These bugs are among the worst in the series I've ever encountered.
Unintentional problems aside, I'm still not happy with the overall challenge design of Skyrim. Like each other game in the series, enemy encounters are scaled to the player's level (to some degree or another), which means that the enemy faces greater challenge as they accumulate power. Unlike Oblivion, not all the game's elements are subject to this, which is only a step in the right direction. Level scaling in Skyrim creates such oddities as bears that are more deadly than dragons, bandits of enormous power, and exiled barbarians fielding dozens of powerful wizards. Players will encounter Cave Bears and Drugar Deathlords and Trolls where there were only regular Bears, Drugar, and Wolves before.
As a result, if care is not taken when advancing your character, it is quite possible to make the game harder by gaining power. As all skills, even those not useful in battle, contribute to the overall challenge level of the game.
As a fan of the series, I was also somewhat sad that some of my favorite features (such as spellmaking, levitation, crossbows) are still missing. However, the new item crafting systems are fun, and a valid replacement in my opinion.
The Verdict:
Skyrim is a fun game, and GOTY material. Unfortunately, this is a PS3 version review, and the game-breaking bugs and frequent freezing couple with some design shortcomings that make it impossible to recommend this version. Given the choice, I probably would have rather had the Xbox360 version, since it has problems of it's own, but less severe. Naturally, the PC version would be best, but that wasn't an option for me.
If you must play the PS3 version, I suppose I can't fault you, but I would recommend avoiding downloading any patches for the time being. The 1.3 fix does help with the performance issues of long-term play, but you won't notice since it's likely to freeze before you reach that point.
Skyrim is Bethesda's best effort yet, a step in the right direction, but I can't recommend it for PS3. Sorry. Fantasy, magic and action fans should definitely try it, though.
+Beautiful graphics, loads of voice acted dialogue
+Open world to explore, millions of things to interact with
+Plenty of character advancement options
+Fun (if simplistic) combat
+World scaling issues of Oblivion are somewhat addressed
-PS3 version has performance issues
-PS3 version 1.3 patch introduces crippling freezing
-Some quests have game-breaking bugs
-World scaling issues of Oblivion are only somewhat addressed