Bethesda's behemoth, now portable. Wandering Skyrim anywhere you like is still seductive, and the freedom of approach hasn't lost its charm. The engine shows its age and bugs persist, yet the sheer volume of content remains colossal.
Your verdict
Category
Open-World1 player16+
Description
The Dragonborn explores the northern province of Skyrim and faces the return of the dragons. Published by Bethesda, released worldwide in 2017. A vast open world, shout powers, guilds and factions, and support for the Zelda amiibo.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim review
4/5
Art direction
★★★★★
"Striking"
MAX
Music
★★★★★
"Legendary"
4/5
Story
★★★★★
"Captivating"
Jeremy Soule wakes "Dragonborn," Nordic choirs hammered out in draconic, the moment a dragon swoops from the sky. Elsewhere, wandering pads accompany the trek through the tundra, nearly erased to let the wind speak. That contrast between the epic and the contemplative matches the freedom of travel and remains one of the most instantly recognisable signatures in role-playing.
Gameplay
"Masterful"
Holding all of Skyrim in your hands changes everything: scale a peak on a whim, loot a house, abandon a quest to chase a wolf. Combat is basic and the engine stiff, but the freedom to improvise your own adventure stays rare and intoxicating. People still dive back in because few sandboxes swallow a player so completely.
Fun
"From the very first minutes"
Addictiveness
"Obsessive"
Step out of a cave, spot a distant ruin, veer toward it, stumble onto a quest, then three more: Skyrim's open world turns every walk into a string of detours. Skills that level through use, gear you keep refining and dungeons begging to be cleared feed an endless sense of progress. It's easy to load up for "just one quest" and stay, and mods extend it forever. The flip side: that sprawl can bury the main story for hours.
Difficulty
"Easy"
Lifespan
"Massive"
Skyrim can be crossed in any order, and you can ignore the main quest for dozens of hours without ever growing bored. Guilds, caves, dragons, books to read and trinkets to collect form a world that answers your every whim. That total freedom, letting you write your own story, is why people still replay it more than a decade after release.
The world's vastness lets everyone forge their own legend, yet a few encounters tower above: dragons swooping from the sky turn a routine trek into a sprawling battle of Shouts and steel. Alduin crowns the saga, and the freedom of build means magic, blade or Thu'um shapes a clash that feels deeply your own.
A questionable morality
Chosen by destiny to save the world from dragons, this hero mostly spends his days swiping every plate, wheel of cheese and stray gold coin from the homes of honest folk. We rifle through drawers under the owners' noses without a shred of guilt, because the adventure demands it. That Skyrim's savior ends up a compulsive burglar is irresistibly funny.
Is The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim still worth playing in 2026?
Skyrim may be nearing fifteen, yet its open-world formula stays curiously seductive. The freedom to write your own story, to climb a mountain or walk into any house, keeps an undiminished pull. Skyrim breathes adventure despite now-dated tech and stiff animations. Combat was always its weak link, and the quests sometimes lack depth. But the scale of the sandbox, the wealth of guilds and the ease of getting lost for hours explain its longevity. On Switch this world fits in your hand, which remains a weighty argument.
