We return to Skyrim 5 years after its original release to check out how the remastered special edition holds up after all these years
The Elder Scrolls series is probably the greatest fantasy RPG series ever. Sure the Witcher 3 has a better story and better graphics but in The Elder Scrolls the character I create is mine, the choices I make are mine and the Journey I undertake is mine. I can create multiple characters and play each one differently, something I can't do in The Witcher 3 and this freedom is what I feel elevates it above the competition.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim arrived 5 years ago and since then has won hundreds of game of the year awards from various sources. Skyrim is set 200 years after the events in the previous game Oblivion. The empire is in turmoil amid a civil war between the Imperial Army and the Stormcloaks and as you're being led to your execution for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, the dragon Alduin attacks and you narrowly escape. A short time later if you follow the main quest you defeat a dragon and absorb its soul finding out that you are Dragonborn, people that are blessed with the ability to use the magic of dragons, which is called Thu'um.
The Elder scrolls themselves are artifacts that have all events, past, present and future written in them, but they cause blindness and insanity in those that have read them, and it's in these that you discover that it's your job as the Last of the Dragonborn to stop Alduin the world eater from destroying the world of Nirn.
The special edition brings together the main game and all 3 pieces of downloadable content (Dawnguard, Hearthfire and Dragonborn) with improved features and most importantly Mod support. Mod Support disables achievements, which is a shame as there are some awesome mods that don't cheat, they just add extras to the game or improve the immersion such as the Open Cities mod by Arthmoor which removes the loading screens when entering cities or some of the various graphical overhauls that are listed. I can understand that cheats could be hidden within mods and it would be a momentous task to sift through all of the code in all of the mods before allowing them on the marketplace so perhaps this was the easiest option.
The game boasts an improved frame rate, textures, colour saturation and details with greater draw distances over the last gen versions and it has improved Volumetric lighting effects so you get things like shafts of light when walking through forests. This was where it was most noticeable. The other noticeable changes are to the save system with a new quicksave function and saves that are now sorted by character like in Fallout 4.
After 5 years there are still bugs in the game but most importantly there are significantly less game breaking bugs. One of the most annoying bugs I had in both the last gen version and this was with the Legend of Red Eagle quest that was repeatable, every time you read the book that started the quest it sent you after the sword even if the sword was previously collected or more annoyingly if it was still in your inventory.
This is a worthy purchase but Bethesda could have done more, such as an extra piece of DLC as there is little except the mods and a lick of paint to attract returning players. It's still a fantastic game, even though it is showing signs of aging, it is a classic and people will probably still be talking about it years later. I know I'll be telling tales of my adventures in skyrim to my children long after I've taken an arrow to the knee.