The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition Pre-Review

Okay, so I’ve played approximately 70 minutes of the remastered Skyrim, which has just come out and is nowhere near enough to make a valid review. This is a tiny amount of a game which will take at least 130 hours to complete, which is over two weeks at eight hours per day. Of course, I can write an opinion with only half of that play time, but surely by the time a game is released I should have played enough -- I’m writing for the media, not some random blog. I have connections within the industry!

Except Bethesda have decided to only let the media have the game one day in advance. It’s a new policy, announced a day before this new version of Skyrim came out. And Bethesda only actually sent me the Steam key eight and a half hours before it unlocked, because I could preload it but I wasn’t actually allowed to play it. Nor install the Day One patch, either.

But I didn’t write this to bitch about Bethesda, and their insane idea that not sending advance copies to the press will net them great review results because of a fluke with DOOM. I wrote this to give my impressions on the game, again of which I have roughly 70 minutes of playtime with.

The graphics, of course, are the main improvement. I only played Skyrim on console, so I only ever saw screenshots of various graphical mods. Honestly, so far this hasn’t impressed me graphically. Yes, it looks fantastic, and the character models are incredibly detailed compared to the old ones -- but I’ve not seen a landscape that has made my jaw drop, as often happened with some high resolution modded Skyrim screenshots. I’m playing on High graphics settings, so maybe that’s it.

Speaking of mods, the console version of Special Edition also allows mods, so long as they’re not too big or contain new assets (depending on your console). I’ll wait to try out some of the early mods until I’ve played a few more hours, but I have already had a look at them on Bethesda’s site.There are a few non-graphical mods I want to try out, such as added signposts and non-human skeletons.

Sound-wise, the game is identical so far. The voices are done by a couple of handfuls of people, the soundtrack is identical and the other sounds are also the same. Some remasters go back and get various re-recordings made -- but not Skyrim.

I know I already mentioned the graphics, but I feel the textures are lacking. Walking around and looking at the ground, it’s pretty identical to what it was on the PlayStation 3 version of the original game. I was honestly stunned by the detail on the dragon at the start, and it startled me like hell when it burst through a wall despite me expecting it to happen. A few minutes later I was close to its wing, however, and it was just as blurry as any of the ground textures.

I’ll finish this pre-review by giving a score. As it’s Skyrim, you know it’s going to be high -- except I’m taking points off based on what I’ve seen so far. As an update it’s lacking, and appears to be just an excuse to get the game on current-gen consoles -- where it’s £10 more expensive than the PC version when purchased digitally.

6/10 - the graphics don’t make up for the bugs and severe lack of polish.