Skyrim - 80 Hours In

I should be bored by now right?  But I'm not.  Not even close.  The more of it I play, the more of Skyrim I see (even with the lag causing occasional irritation), the more of it I want to play and see.

I've been thinking this week, 'Is this the best game ever?'

I wondered that at the end of my Uncharted 3 review but that was a bad shout.  Not because it wasn't an amazing game but because Skyrim has spun what I thought made great games on its head.  Uncharted took away my ability to choose, Skyrim has given it back in spades.

'What weapon shall I carry?  What magic shall I focus on using?  Where the fuck shall I go next?  What skill set shall I level up?  What perk am I really going to benefit from?  Shall I do some mining?  Maybe I should chop some wood?  Or cook a stew?  Or make a dagger?  Or kill that dragon?  Or sell that diamond ring?  Could I get married?  Do some pickpocketing?   Learn a new shout? A new spell?  Or.... or... just go for a walk.'

On and on it goes and it feels like it'll never stop.

The amount of decisions should be overwhelming but the game never punishes you for going off and doing your own thing, it's quite possible to semi complete a quest just by wandering into a random dungeon and finding a random object.  You'll only realise it was important when you speak to character later on.  Or maybe you won't ever speak to them and you'll just keep that lute in your inventory forever...

Honestly, I've not been hooked by a game like this since Final Fantasy VII.  And that was a long time ago, in a universe far far away.  80 hours into this and I feel like I've only started to scratch the surface of it, with FFVII I was off searching for the KOTR* by then riding a big golden bird.

Skyrim isn't perfect, no game is.  But it's the best RPG I've ever played, which for me, makes it the best game I've ever played.

*KOTR: We're not really on the same page are we?