The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim review

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of The Elder Scrolls, we're publishing our original reviews of each main game in the series from our archives. This review first ran in PC Gamer UK issue 235, back in December 2011.

Skyrim is our highest rated game in the series—one whole percentage point higher than Oblivion . Reading through Tom's review here, it should be clear to see why. Where his Oblivion review told many tales of his character's adventures, they were all through the lens of the quest log. The actions he described were ones he was asked to do, albeit enhanced with emergent hilarity and personal flair. Here, though, Tom launches into a lengthy retelling of a random combat encounter—a chance moment that occurred purely thanks to the added texture of Skyrim's moment to moment play. It captures a fantasy The Elder Scrolls had previously hinted at, but had never before realised so well.

Don't worry, I'm not going to spoil anything here — I'll steer clear of anything story-related beyond the premise. With another game, that would be tricky. With Skyrim, the stories that come from how the game works are often the best ones.

It's a frozen nation, just to the north of where the previous game, Oblivion, took place. A pleasantly brief introduction sets up the plot: Skyrim is in the middle of a revolt, you've been sentenced to death, and dragons have just shown up. Good luck!

Developer Bethesda Softworks
Minimum system 2GHz CPU, 2Gb RAM, 512Mb 3D card
Recommended Quad-core CPU, 4Gb RAM, GeForce GTX 260 or ATI Radeon 4890
Release date November 11, 2011

At that point, you emerge from a cave into 40 square kilometres of cold and mountainous country, and that's it. Everything else is up to you.

Even after spending hundreds of hours in Morrowind and Oblivion, the sense of freedom in Skyrim is dizzying. The vast mountains in every direction make the landscape seem limitless, and even after exploring it for 55 hours, this world feels huge and unknown on a scale neither of the