The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition - game review

Eleven years have passed since players first embarked on a journey through Skyrim, one of the top-rated games of 2011. Over twenty million copies sold did not satisfy the publisher's appetite, and therefore Bethesda's production can also be experienced by PS4 and XOne owners. Is The Elder Scrolls V still worth attention?

I will answer this question now. If you've been through this adventure, you've also beaten numerous expansions, and on top of that on a powerful PC, there's nothing new for you in Skyrim: Special Edition. Have you had the opportunity to check the version for PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360? Perhaps it is worth trying the current-genes edition, which looks much better and can boast a full Polish language version. And if this is your first attempt at this title, know that you couldn't have hit a better place.

The fifth chapter of The Elder Scrolls is a typical representative of the western school of RPG games, where the most important thing is broadly understood freedom and the ability to create your own adventure. Skyrim is a classic road game because the journey itself is the most important here, not the destination. This, of course, translates into a storyline, which takes about forty hours to complete, but nothing prevents you from ignoring the main missions and focusing on other activities, while still having a great time. The action of the game takes place two hundred years after the events of Oblivion, the studio's previous game. The realm of Skyrim is a place of conflict between the Empire and its opponents, together with whom we are going to meet the executioner in the first sequence of the game. After creating a character in an extensive editor, a dragon unexpectedly saves us from under the ax, a creature in this universe almost mythical. Soon after, it turns out that the hero we lead is actually the Dragonborn, i.e. a person capable of fighting dragons, knowing their language, and being able to take over their power. Although the story is followed with interest, especially since we shape it to a large extent, the script is full of genre clichés, the interactions between the characters are poorly drawn, and the dialogues are at best correct. Both the story and the narrative do not start with such The Witcher 3, fortunately, the reviewed item has other advantages. The brightest point of Bethesda's game is undoubtedly the great freedom that the developer offers.

As I already mentioned, you can skip the main story quests, completely losing yourself in the possibilities offered by the huge game world. Although completing certain story-related quests opens up new side missions, it is still just a drop in the ocean of attractions. We are happy to talk to the encountered NPCs and carry out their orders or requests? Great. We murder wanderers for nothing to do with human life? We must therefore be prepared for an unpleasant party in the nearest town, where the guards can start chasing us and even throw us into the dungeon. Are some opponents troubling us? So let's make a friendship with someone on the trail to deal with the duo adversary. In many places, we can join a guild and as new members complete new missions. We don't like the activities of its members? So it's time to kill them. Do you have the soul of a digital vagabond? So visit towns and villages, catching up on different jobs. With a bit of luck, you might even get married. And when you get bored, you can go out into the world robbing travelers or hunting game. Exploring Skyrim is pure pleasure, as a new quest, a chatty NPC, or an undiscovered spot is hiding almost everywhere. Greater distances can be traveled on the horse's back or using fast travel points. After several hundred hours spent in the world of Geralt, you missed a game that you should turn on from time to time just to visit a few points on the map? The Elder Scrolls V is a great option, even despite the fact that the side activities are not filled with the story sweets to the same extent as the adventures of the gray-haired one.

We observe the action from the first-person perspective, for which the combat system was designed, so I quickly gave up the optional TPP view. As in every action game, fighting is an activity that we repeat most often. I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, the system offers a lot of possibilities. We can use both the right and the left hand, so nothing prevents us from using both a sword and magic at the same time. Or assign a different type of spell to each hand. Or use two blades in combat. Only we decide how we will deal with the problems, and what is equally important - the broadly understood fight has been skillfully coupled with the development of the character. "If you do something a lot, you get better at it" is the Skyrim rule. Combined with a transparent statistics system, the ability to select perks, and a well-thought-out defense, we create a character that fights in the style that suits us best. Unfortunately, when using melee weapons, you don't feel the power of the blows at all, despite the nice animations of brutal finishers. Even when wielding an ax, I felt as if I was hitting my opponents with a broomstick. On the plus side, I have a rich bestiary - it's worth experimenting with because there is an effective way for practically every type of enemy. Unfortunately, I was also a little disappointed here, because the clashes with dragons - the game's showcase - are schematic and not a big challenge. The world map and numerous menus could be more intuitive, which should be improved in the remaster, but there are more important problems in this world.

The "stand" can provide entertainment for over two hundred hours, and yet the Special Edition also includes three previously released DLC. Hearthfire is the smallest and weakest addition to Skyrim. The main attraction here is ... building a house. We can only put it in specific places, and we have no influence on such basic issues as the style of the building or the arrangement of furniture in the room. Optionally, we can adopt a child from an orphanage and put them in our nest, but the whole fun comes down to exchanging a few lines of dialogue with the toddler. Dawnguard fares much better, opening up the possibility of joining new guilds, and ultimately - turning into a vampire. Taking into account the main and non-compulsory missions, this expansion offers a total of approximately fifteen hours of gameplay. The developer made even more effort with the latest expansion, Dragonborn, which is the only DLC in which we visit a completely new land. The map is not particularly large but full of stories and optional activities. The climate here is clearly different, and several dungeons evoke associations with the phenomenal Bloodborne. The ability to travel on the backs of dragons was promoted as a strong point of the program, but this element is a bit disappointing, mainly due to the control restrictions. Several interesting characters have been written for sweetness, especially one female. After all, Dragonborn remains the most interesting and comprehensive addition to Skyrim - mastering it is a job for over twenty hours.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Special Edition is not a least-resistance remaster, and unfortunately it is not a revival that this title should receive. When I look at releases such as Metro: Redux or Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, I can only imagine how Skyrim would look like this. Despite the larger and smaller fetters related to the combat system and quest construction, TES V is still in a very good position, offering an incredible amount of attractions at a decent price. If you haven't played yet, attack and you might be lost in the world of Skyrim all fall.

Pros:

• A huge world full of attractions
• Freedom with a capital "S"
• DLC included
• Coked visual setting
• Fantastic music track

Cons:

• The game reveals its age at every turn
• Bugs and glitches from older versions