IGN’s The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Second Opinions

After awarding the title an almost-perfect score in their pre-release review, the folks at IGN have decided that after having been three weeks out, it’s a good time to give Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim a second, slightly more critical (but just slightly), look, and rounded up the opinions of a few of their editors on the open-world title. Here’s a snip:

I should hate Skyrim. The people in the office that know me best keep walking by, seeing Skyrim on my TV and snickering because they’re certain I’m having a terrible time. But I’m not having a terrible time. In fact, I’m loving Skyrim.

I should hate Skyrim because it’s everything I don’t like in video games. It’s plagued with bugs. The ballet of random events frequently results in miniature train wrecks. Combat mechanics are clumsy and under-developed. I dislike inventories packed with irrelevant items, don’t want to upgrade or craft anything, and would much prefer a brilliantly-shaped linear experience to a sloppy open-ended series of disjointed quests. So why am I thirty hours deep into Skyrim? My honest answer: I don’t know.

Skyrim is, by any measure which I value, a bad video game. But it pulls me in, just like Morrowind and Oblivion before it. I enjoy the sense of vulnerability at the start of the game and get great satisfaction from overcoming it. Once I lose the fear of a saber cat around the next bend, no longer worry about a cave filled with bears and am confident I can take on anything in the game without first saving my data.well, I’ll probably quit playing. I’m not interested in completing Skyrim, but I do want to ride this sense of adventure for as long as it’ll last me. I may clock in another twenty hours. Or maybe tonight is the last I’ll spend with Skyrim.