Why should anyone pick up an old game like Skyrim in 2024?

I’d consider myself a fairly new gamer. I play my fair share of first-person shooters, but my one true love will always be story-based games. Especially those with incredible graphics, such as Cyberpunk 2077 and Red Dead Redemption 2. My first introduction to these games was Fallout 4, which ultimately set older games up for failure; for the longest time, I refused to play games like Skyrim, because I doubted their ability to impress me due to the outdated graphics. I figured there was no way I would actually enjoy a game that didn’t have graphics like a game that was released last year. I was so incredibly wrong.

I finally got to experience the opening scene; I was finally awake. However, I didn’t know what was going on. Who and where was I? The first hour or so was intimidating, to say the least. I consulted my friend about a million times just to make sure I wasn’t going to ruin the experience for myself, and I’m glad I did it. As someone who has never playe a game in the Elder Scrolls franchise, I was completely lost.

For those unfamiliar, Skyrim is an open-world fantasy RPG that was originally released in 2011. The player gets to explore the mythical land of Tamriel, as they take on the role of the Dragonborn – a hero with the power to absorb dragon souls. As they explore their destiny, players also navigate complex quests and influence a civil war between factions. No biggie, but your decisions can decide the course of the whole nation.

Not only do you have to make your first story choice within the first 15 minutes of playing, but you also have to fight your first enemies. Skyrim is quite well known for its fighting and leveling up model; you can specialize in things like archery, magic or melee weapons to name a few. As you use your preferred weapon you simultaneously level it up, allowing you to assign points to more advanced perks in a skill tree, making that weapon even deadlier. These points are accumulated by leveling up your character, which is possible through completing quests and fighting enemies.

Skill tree menu of a player who is at level 33.

Melee weapons have been my pick so far, as indicated by their levels

It took me several hours to get the hang of how the core mechanics worked. I’m not quite sure if this is the fault of the player or if there is simply a massive learning curve to Skyrim, but I felt like I was receiving zero help in the beginning. I kept finding my way into enemy bases as I was crawling my way through the map and gently put, I was getting steamrolled since my level was so low. Even now I’m realizing that I’ve been evenly assigning points to things on the skill tree, when I could’ve just focused on a few; this certainly would’ve helped with not feeling so overwhelmed when fighting higher level enemies.

Skyrim really encourages the player to explore the map and talk to people outside of the main storyline. As you talk with more characters and find new locations, your journal gets filled with side quests to complete. Some seemingly unimportant character in a small town can give you the most exciting and fulfilling sidequest, if you just give them a minute of your time. As a perfectionist, I simply can’t move on with the main quest if there are other, miscellaneous errands to run; I must’ve completed at least a hundred side quests now, and made minimal progress on the main story.

Right now, I’m 40 hours in and loving the experience. It still has its flaws though; yes, the game looks old. There is no getting around that. The graphics sometimes seem jittery due to the fps (frames per second) lock. I’m sure there is a mod for that (another thing that could be discussed in another article; the huge modding community for Skyrim), but I want to experience the vanilla Skyrim, or the unmodded original, first.

A dark and snowy mountainside full of trees, with a waterfall flowing in the center and a female character with a quest pointer on top of her.

I should probably be following that character to get my side quest done

I also made the mistake of not constantly quicksaving in the beginning, and my first death in game came as a shock; I lost about an hour of progress. At no point did the game explain how crucial quicksaves were! There are also things about the game mechanics that annoy me, like the fact that you can’t filter your inventory by weight or value, and you will run out of inventory space. The inventory doesn’t tell you whether a weapon is one or two-handed, which can be problematic in fights. But do these negatives outweigh the positives? Absolutely not.

I can see why Skyrim is viewed as a modern classic by many, and it feels justified. The story is already incredible, even though I haven’t made much progress with the main quests. Most of my time so far has been spent with the incredible amount of side quests and just roaming around the map which is, by the way, massive. The characters in the game have enough complexity to keep you on your toes; is the nice lady a friend or a foe? Am I going to get stabbed in the back when walking through the cozy-looking town? A wrong dialogue decision or accidentally lockpicking the wrong door can cost you your life if you’re not careful. But that’s what Skyrim is all about! There are so many choices to make but no matter what you decide, you will have a great time.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition

Publisher – Bethesda Softworks

Developer – Bethesda Game Studios

Platforms – Microsoft Windows (PC), PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S (via backward compatability), Nintendo Switch (since 2017)

Release Date – October 28, 2016

Genres – Action role-playing, open-world

PEGI – 18

Photos: screenshots from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition (Bethesda Softworks, 2016), taken by Jade Huhtamaa

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Jade Huhtamaa

If you hear someone raving about a game’s graphics or audio design, there’s a good chance it’s me. I’m a third-year media studies student with a passion for story-driven games, eSports, and all things FPS.

#RPG #Adventure #Action #open world