Few games have occupied as much of our time as Bethesda’s sprawling fantasy RPG, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. A detailed world, compelling narrative and what felt like endless side quests made the world of Skyrim feel close to infinite. So when Bethesda announced that they’d be releasing Skyrim for PS4 and Xbox One, some were left wondering if jumping back in again would be worth it. Well here are a few reasons why you might want to pause before stepping back into the boots of the Dragonborn.
It doesn’t solve a lot of problems
The original Skyrim was a grand, epic fantasy adventure. Filled with things to do, dungeons to explore and dragons to slay. It was also, on occasion, a buggy, unpolished mess. Plenty of players might have seen Skyrim: Remastered and hoped it would fix some of these. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Characters still get stuck in tables, pieces of dialogue skip at random and oh lord those loading screens! One of the biggest issues with Skyrim was it’s interminable load times. It seems that the added hardware power here hasn’t fixed that problem either. The game is as brilliant as ever. But you’ll find yourself waiting for it. A lot.
It doesn’t look that much better
Don’t get us wrong. When you’re outside exploring the vast open landscape, Skyrim: Remastered shines. The mountains and vistas are gorgeous. The weather and lighting effects make the world feel even more real and immersive than before. But when you enter one of the games many, dungeons it’s a different matter. In the original, this shift wasn’t so jarring. But now, compared to the exteriors, it’s clear Bethesda didn’t put the same effort into upscaling the dungeons.
You’ve probably already played it.
Skyrim was a massive hit. Outselling all previous Elder Scrolls games. For the longest time, it felt like Skyrim was the one game that you had to have! By now plenty of players have sunk hundreds of hours into the game. Do you want to start over from scratch again for the sake of some new lighting and weather effects?
Competitors have come along
Skyrim set the standard for open world adventuring when it came out in 2011. But the thing about standards is that people meet and surpass them. Since Skyrim’s release, we’ve had a whole host of new open world games to challenge its claim to the throne. From the incredible Witcher 3: Wild Hunt to Bethesda’s own Fallout 4. Skyrim is a classic, no doubt about it. But gaming has moved on since 2011 and so have gamers themselves.
The price tag
Let’s face it; this is the real kicker. The idea of paying full price for a game plenty of us stopped playing several years ago is ridiculous. The high price point of games means that you have been pretty wise how you pick your games. Rather than invest so much in a game you already own, seek out new games and find new adventures. If you’ve never played Skyrim then, the remastered edition is a great jumping off point. But otherwise, at least wait until the price drops.
