Skyrim: Get or Not Get

[Screamarie]

My mother bought it for me a little while ago as a "get well" gift and early Christmas present and...I absolutely adore it. I spend HOURS playing it and what's great is that there's so much to do in it, so much to find and discover. In fact...I should be playing it right now....Why the hell am I not playing it?....*rushes off to 360*

 

[ikoian]

I say it is rather worth it, but I will say that the game is only as fun as you can make it.
To me, playing as a primary magic or warrior type character is utterly boring, with combat narrowing down to hit, block, chomp down cheese, repeat. I had the most fun with stealth though, planning the best way to deal the most damage and find out which target I should open up to before things get hairy. Even then, when playing anything but a iron clad warrior, all the content can be overwhelming, as it was common for me to run half way through a dungeon only to face a spot I couldn't beat just because I didn't bring enough potions or something.
Also, having a bit of imagination to roleplay as your character's thoughts is also a plus.
Bugs are a bit of a nastly bit, but nothing that can't be fixed by reloading a different save file or finding a mod.
So if you got some patience, you might enjoy this. Just keep a clock next to you if you're on a schedule.

 

[Sacman]

Yeah it's a good game... quite absorbing and very organic... Tons of fun to explore the world for hours and just wander around the expansive world...

but with that it's marred by thousands of annoyances... not even big things... just loads of inconveniences that make the whole experience endlessly tedious...

like the fact that shops close at night, meaning that yo have to wait until morning to sell or buy anything... and the fact that they run out of money, meaning you can never just load off all of your items at one place... it all just adds an extra step to what should be a quick stop in between the actual fun parts... The same goes with every other process in the game... like why do I have to find a specific place to cook or make anything, I know it doesn;t make any sense... but it's not as annoying...

Also, it's not particularly engaging either... I mean it can be immersive to explore the world, but it loses all impact once you realize that you're not getting anything out of it and the whole experience devolves into little more than a time sink... I mean the writing is par for the course in gaming, but I'd go as far to say that there really isn;t a story or any characters... nothing has any impact on the world and there's absoluetly no feeling of progression... just lots of mindless dungeons...

Like wise it still shares the problems with other Elder Scroll and Bethesda games in general, in that it's imposible to role play, sure the leveling system works decently well, but it does little for character building and the fact that there is no story or real characters makes it doubly hard to actually express yourself or your character...

but I still had fun with it...<.<

 

[Gennadios]

1. It's no longer buggy. Well, it is, but the major game breakers from launch are fixed. If you don't mind a few super minor quests refusing to leave your quest log and misc quest items stuck in your inventory, it's fine.

2. It's not an MMO, you don't play the game for the f***ing economy. Enter dungeons and kill sh*t. Dungeons are interesting, graphics are great. You'll have enough money for everything you can possibly want around level 60. That's not a problem, level 60 is a pretty epic level.

3. It is overrated, but every Elder Scrolls game since Morrowind, or maybe Daggerfall if you're a grognard, was overrated to some extent. Skyrim is *less* overrated than Oblivion, that's good enough for me. I've bought it on sale for $30 and it was more than worth it to buy all the DLCs at launch.

 

[kouriichi]

Get it. Totally worth every penny. Especially once you get into modding. It can add so much depth to the game, and make it fit your niche's even more.

 

[The_Echo]

Most of the major bugs have been fixed.

Elder Scrolls is a great series. If this is your first romp through Tamriel, I would certainly recommend it. Personally, Skyrim is my favorite. (Though I've only played very small amounts of TES I-III.) The lore is extensive and well done, if you're into that. It's a bit of a timesink, but you probably won't notice. There was a time when I checked my save, thinking I only had about 100 hours, but it turned out to be more than double that.

It is overrated, there's no doubt about that. (Shortly after its release, kids in my school would chant "Skyrim!" to each other...) But it's still a good game nonetheless. And with the Dawnguard DLC out and the Dragonborn expansion on the way, there's even more of the game to experience if you enjoy it.

For 30 bucks, Skyrim's totally worth the buy.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and mods. Totally slipped my mind because I have it on PS3, but PC Skyrim is even better because of all the mods.

 

[romanator0]

It's worth it for the Scenery, Vikings, and shouting people off cliffs.

The combat is boring, the characters dull, the quests static and very hit-or-miss. But the pretty northern vistas are beautiful, the viking lore is cool, and the shouts are fun.

This pretty much sums up Skyrim. Vikings and a cool place to explore. That alone lasted me over 100 hours (although I am a major sucker for nordic flavored stuff).

The combat sucks, you get more money than you can hope to spend, I would say the games balance is pretty much nonexistant and the writing is rather meh.

There are a ton of mods for it though and the chances of you finding some that enhance your personal gameplay experience in a positive way are highly likely.

 

[Chairman Miaow]

I would say wait for the inevitable steam christmas sale where it is 196% off.

 

[Aerduin]

Well for $30, approx £20 for me it would be a no brainer. The game is huge and exceptionally beautiful, modded up even more so.

As with all TES games the world is what you make of it, there is huge amount of content, and yeah sure the combat could be better, but take a stealth archer type and you wont have to deal with too much of that.. ;0)

As with other comments I would hold off on the DLC for a while though, as the Dawn Guard can get a bit trigger happy.

All said for less cash than a night down the pub this for me is pure win.

 

[TheDarklite]

Good old Skyrim....
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Compared to the other Beth games, I find the engine itself to be well done (and polished - I will probably get cussed for saying that though). I find the gameplay quite satisfying and there is a lot to do. Also the mod support is insane (and the CK is quite easy to learn if you would be interested in modding for yourself).

Combat to me is fluid and responsive, and exploration is fun. The map is also just the right size with just enough variety. Large amounts of quests and plenty to do.

What it lacks though, and this is what saddens me the most, is meaningful consequence.
In games like Fallout: New Vegas the story is well done, and choices you make will have very real consequences in game. Even Fallout 3 had this kind of depth with the Megaton decision.

In Skyrim, sure you can effect which faction dominates the map - but that is about it. There are hardly any deep moral choices. Few situations where you have to choose the lesser of two evils.

It has the technical side of things down, and it has the gameplay down. All it needs is the story.

No doubt Fallout 4 will be incredible...

And to answer the question.... Despite my rant above I do believe it is a solid purchase. You should not hesitate!

 

[Joccaren]

Skyrim is currently discounted by 50% on Steam, and the discount goes in 15 hours. I've heard good things about the game, but also gripes about the imbalanced in-game economy, the constant bugs and the fact that it's 'overrated'.
Come on Escapists, win me over. Should I buy it?

In game economy: You can become rich off just the loot from dungeons, let alone the stuff you make. It takes a fair bit of time, however, because most merchants will only buy $500 worth of certain goods per day, and there might be 3 merchants in a city if you're lucky [Some have more, but then they're generally specialised to meat sellers, and you're not going to be selling much meat so its pointless].
Bugs: Mostly gone now, thankfully. I played originally and it was terrible in this department, however now it works for the most part - at least as far as I've done in my recent restart playthrough, where I haven't done any radial quests or searched areas before getting a quest to do so - which lead to a lot of glitches initially. There have been a lot of bug fixes in the patch notes though, so it should be mostly alright, and nothing gamebreaking.
Overrated: MASSIVELY. Combat sucks, graphics are bleh, dragons are very, VERY disappointing and piss easy to kill, the difficulty mostly just increases how many hits it takes to kill an enemy, and raises their damage, rather than actually making the game harder [This just serves to make it more tedious. Its not hard, it just takes longer to kill enemies]. Stealth is broken late game, as is everything really - it becomes massively OP to the extent that you are basically a god [Though you're not really, you're just powerful enough to kill the strongest dragons in the game in 3 hits], and the game is extremely easy to exploit in a number of ways.

Should you get it?
IMO this depends on whether you're willing to spend time looking for mods, modding the game yourself, or otherwise changing the game to be better. I wouldn't get the Bethesda HD patch BTW. Its looks far better than the original, but takes ages to download over Steam and is nowhere near as good as a number of mods online are - and you're better off getting them if you care about graphics [I have 120 mods installed, most dedicated to graphics, so if anybody wants some recommendations in that department, feel free to ask. I've also modded the game myself so dragons are something you will shit your pants and run away from, as is the AI which in vanilla sucks [Though this is not as stark a difference as the dragons], and edited restore potions so they're no longer exploitable. Oh, and I edited the Stamina system and what food does so its not exploitable, but yeah].
If you download and install the creation kit, you can easily edit a lot of the things in the game to your liking [Though nowhere near everything without SKSE or another plugin], or you could use one of the countless mods already online for what you want - though they're often not quite on the mark for exactly what you were looking for in my experience.

Basically, Skyrim is great with mods. Vanilla its meh in all aspects, expect for it having a large world, but with mods it becomes a very enjoyable game.

 

[Legion]

Personally I think it's a great game, which you can easily sink lot's of hours into. It does have it's issues, but none of them are game-breaking, and they are more down to taste than anything else.

For example I very much prefer to have a character "type" in RPG's. A specialist in certain areas, while weaker in others. Skyrim tends to encourage you to be great at everything, and while it allows for a lot more freedom, I find it tends to make it less replayable, as you can do everything with a single character.

Another one would be that there isn't much depth to what you do. When it comes down to it, your actions and decisions will have no real impact on the world. Some people do not mind this, as it's now why they play the game, but if you feel that might bother you then it may be a reason to reconsider.

For half price personally I would say it is definitely worth the money if your PC can handle it. Especially with all of the free mods you can install.

 

[RedDeadFred]

It's an excellent sandbox, and if you like sandbox settings, you'll love it.

If you want fun combat or a challenging experience, or anything like that...skip it.

TES is one of my favorite series, but it has a lot of flaws.

Exactly this, if you are looking for really good combat, then skip the game. If you are looking for exploration and awesome roleplaying then you owe it to yourself to get this game.

In my experience, I have only encountered one really major bug. It was annoying but it wasn't that big of a deal for me.

It may not be a perfect game but it's still probably my favourite simply because of the amount of stuff you can do.

Bottom line: unless you are in the game for the combat first and foremost (go play Dark Souls if this is the case), you need to get this game. It will most likely offer you at least a hundred hours of enjoyment.

Captcha: courtyard deals. Nothing special I know, but I've had this captcha three posts in a row...

 

[Fearzone]

You may not be old enough to have seen the movie Dragonslayer from the 1980s. Pity if that is true, because they don't make movies like that anymore. But if you have seen it, Skyrim is as close as you can get to being in that movie.

Whatever minor gripes people might have about game balance or whatever....

YOU ARE FIGHTING FUCKING DRAGONS.

And it's cool.

Now go buy.

 

[Rait]

Depends what you expect from the game/what kind of player you are. If you're looking for a big, detailed sandbox-ish world , enjoy exploring, pretty graphics and you don't mind the repetitive and broken gameplay I guess its your game.

The combat gets boring as hell very, very quick. Not to mention the game is pretty much broken as soon as you get high-end gear and skills. For example about 30 hours in when I was playing, my sneak was so high it was pretty much impossible for enemies to detect me and I could 1 shot most of them with a sneak attack (and mind you I was playing on the highest difficulty), I could steal anything I wanted so there wasn't any challenge left in the game.

It's basically Oblivion with dual-wielding and snow.

 

[Ringo_Plumen]

Skyrim is currently discounted by 50% on Steam, and the discount goes in 15 hours. I've heard good things about the game, but also gripes about the imbalanced in-game economy, the constant bugs and the fact that it's 'overrated'.
Come on Escapists, win me over. Should I buy it?

In game economy: You can become rich off just the loot from dungeons, let alone the stuff you make. It takes a fair bit of time, however, because most merchants will only buy $500 worth of certain goods per day, and there might be 3 merchants in a city if you're lucky [Some have more, but then they're generally specialised to meat sellers, and you're not going to be selling much meat so its pointless].
Bugs: Mostly gone now, thankfully. I played originally and it was terrible in this department, however now it works for the most part - at least as far as I've done in my recent restart playthrough, where I haven't done any radial quests or searched areas before getting a quest to do so - which lead to a lot of glitches initially. There have been a lot of bug fixes in the patch notes though, so it should be mostly alright, and nothing gamebreaking.
Overrated: MASSIVELY. Combat sucks, graphics are bleh, dragons are very, VERY disappointing and piss easy to kill, the difficulty mostly just increases how many hits it takes to kill an enemy, and raises their damage, rather than actually making the game harder [This just serves to make it more tedious. Its not hard, it just takes longer to kill enemies]. Stealth is broken late game, as is everything really - it becomes massively OP to the extent that you are basically a god [Though you're not really, you're just powerful enough to kill the strongest dragons in the game in 3 hits], and the game is extremely easy to exploit in a number of ways.

Should you get it?
IMO this depends on whether you're willing to spend time looking for mods, modding the game yourself, or otherwise changing the game to be better. I wouldn't get the Bethesda HD patch BTW. Its looks far better than the original, but takes ages to download over Steam and is nowhere near as good as a number of mods online are - and you're better off getting them if you care about graphics [I have 120 mods installed, most dedicated to graphics, so if anybody wants some recommendations in that department, feel free to ask. I've also modded the game myself so dragons are something you will shit your pants and run away from, as is the AI which in vanilla sucks [Though this is not as stark a difference as the dragons], and edited restore potions so they're no longer exploitable. Oh, and I edited the Stamina system and what food does so its not exploitable, but yeah].
If you download and install the creation kit, you can easily edit a lot of the things in the game to your liking [Though nowhere near everything without SKSE or another plugin], or you could use one of the countless mods already online for what you want - though they're often not quite on the mark for exactly what you were looking for in my experience.

Basically, Skyrim is great with mods. Vanilla its meh in all aspects, expect for it having a large world, but with mods it becomes a very enjoyable game.

This basically.
I played it on launch, spent 130 hours on it, 5 of which were wasted figuring out which parts were bugged or spent trying to fix/unbreak the game, but I imagine it's mostly fixed by now though. Also it's not worth following most of the story-lines too closely as they really only range from decent to bad, get it for the gameplay and tweak/mod it to fit your preferences.

 

[Jamous]

Buy it. Most of the people complaining about it are people who are having pretty bad experiences; which, to be fair, to happen. Not worth missing it because you might get one though. And the complaining about the difficulty isn't really a big deal; sure there are exploits, but so what? The Game's still fun.