Where do you even start talking about Skyrim? It’s one of the best games of the 2010s, but more importantly, even if you bought this close to its 2011 release (like I did), you could still be playing it and still have new things to see and do. I’m not exaggerating: with the massive amount of content in the base game, the sprawling quest lines and skill trees added by the official expansions, and the intimidating amount of mods, you could very feasibly play only this for your entire life, if you wanted to. Sure, this is true of all the Elder Scrolls games, but Skyrim looks the best, has the most mods, and is generally the most fun to play, with streamlined gameplay systems and what seems like the largest selection of places, factions, and quests to date.
In terms of design, Morrowind is still firmly on top of the pile, offering up frightening depth and a story that puts the weird side of Elder Scrolls lore in the forefront, but Skyrim is probably the one I’d most recommend to somebody who’s never touched the series before. For one, it’s the kind of sequel where you don’t need to know anything about previous entries to understand, with a 200-year time jump from previous installment and a cluster of introductory missions that expertly guide you through what’s going on and how it affects the places you’ll see. Famously, of course, the wealth of side missions and just general things to do and explore means you’ll almost inevitably be ushered off the course of the main story by one of the hundreds of different potential encounters, and chances are you might not actually even get around to finishing the story.
That’s okay, though, because out of the many hundreds of hours of content Skyrim offers, the main story is not exactly the most riveting stuff. For all the talk of prophecy and grand destiny, none of what you do as the messianic Dragonborn is as interesting as just exploring the different areas of its nine holds and literally seeking adventure. Maybe it’s because the ongoing ‘civil war’ subplot and the apocalyptic events of the main story have very little effect on the way the world is, but something about Skyrim’s existence as an exciting medieval sandbox feels detached and almost contemptuous of Skyrim’s existence as a single-player action game where you fight dragons.
At the end of the day though, for all I can quibble about whatever tiny little problems stop this from being the best game ever made, it’s just not a factor in recommending or not recommending this. Skyrim is a spectacularly large game packed to the brim with content, and the sheer variety of what you can do and be has been enough to keep me coming back for regular visits, eight years later, so it would be downright irresponsible of me not to recommend it.
Dylan's Morsels 