Game worlds… it’s all about game worlds and how much time you spend in them. Elder Scrolls is famous for its sweeping land of Tamriel, ripe with secrets, treasures, and stories all begging to be explored. If you’ve played Skyrim, you’ve probably never forgotten that first time you existed the tutorial cave and seen the entire region of Skyrim stretched out before your eyes in the form of a vast wooded and mountainous valley. If you were adventurous enough not to explore the first quest marker, you could get completely lost in the wilderness.
When does that happen in video games… not often. But the world is just so deep and rich, full of treasures to discover and mysteries to explore. The arguably outdated combat system of Skyrim doesn’t matter as much as it should because the world is so rich with almost limitless possibilities. Exploring and collecting in Skyrim can be so fulfilling, in fact it became a hobby of many to collect mystical potions and rare books. Essentially it was a hobby within a hobby. Head into a town, meet some people, barter, get a drink, and pick up a new quest or two. It’s not a perfect game by any means, but its flaws made it unique. Some things are more beautiful with flaws. And that was Skyrim, from the game’s idiosyncratic code to the inner politics within the game. Skyrim is special because it is a bit like life, a weekend with no plans. You open up the map and ask yourself, what am I going to do today?
The world of Elder Scrolls is uniquely special, and Skyrim got it right. That sense of wonder, a mysterious world filled with awesome lore, creatures and races and monsters and people. All packaged into a graphically beautifully rendered world.
Let me know, what made Skyrim special for you?
Skyrim is absolutely one of my all-time favorite games! I actually play is every few nights with my wife, even so many years after the release. It's her first time playing it, and we are having so much fun exploring stuff together and steadily leveling up. However, we've reached 100 in most of our main attributes now, so I guess we need to change our playstyle to get even further :P
Anyway, great post! I'm looking forward to seeing some other people comment here, and hopefully we get some different perspectives on what made Skyrim so great.
skyrim is great! i love the game!
Man, brought back good memories. My nephew and I bonded over Skyrim. He was the gamer, I was the watcher. lol. I loved the story and the graphics at the time. My nephew has recently started playing it again, but this time it's on his computer. He added a bunch of mods and it looks every better. Thanks for the article! I'll give you a follow.
I love getting to play video games with family and friends. Sharing that experience is so fun.
super super game! i spend hours and hours playing it, to most crazy thing i found was flying with the dragon. omg sooooo great, i played on ps3. and the amazing open world so awesome, was the first time i experienced a open world.
I had only one real issue with Skyrim. I always ended up as an stealthy archers using a bit of magic :D
Great post ! Would you mind if I included it in todays "best of gaming"?
Wouldn't mind at all- thanks for including my post!
Skyrim is such a stunning and immersive game :O I'm going to start playing it again over the summer as last time I rage quit due to a bug :'D
I´ve played this game a long time ago. I had spend more than 200 hours in this incredible extensive game and i earned the platinum trophy on PS3 for the Game. And i would play it again.