To celebrate the 30th anniversary of The Elder Scrolls, we're publishing our original reviews of each main game in the series from our archives. This review first ran in PC Gamer UK issue 235, back in December 2011.
Skyrim is our highest rated game in the series—one whole percentage point higher than Oblivion. Reading through Tom's review here, it should be clear to see why. Where his Oblivion review told many tales of his character's adventures, they were all through the lens of the quest log. The actions he described were ones he was asked to do, albeit enhanced with emergent hilarity and personal flair. Here, though, Tom launches into a lengthy retelling of a random combat encounter—a chance moment that occurred purely thanks to the added texture of Skyrim's moment to moment play. It captures a fantasy The Elder Scrolls had previously hinted at, but had never before realised so well.
