Is it over.....already!? Skyrim excels in every way except one major element of an RPG.
I'll start with the pros, of which there are many!
--Very immersive atmsophere, both by way of visuals and environment. You really feel like you are in the land of Skyrim.
--Stunning visuals. From the epic vistas of the mountains of Skyrim to the character details and facial animations, this is by far the most detailed of the Elder Scrolls series, and I don't mean by way of just improved graphics.
--Tons of hours of gameplay. I have already spent 75 hours playing the game and have only done the main quest, Thieves Guild, and a dozen or so miscellaneous quests.
--Combat is much more fluid than in past Elder Scrolls games, making the experience that much more immersive.
--Good voice acting. I have yet to hear a real cheesy line delivered, but there has to be one somewhere, right?
--Very streamlined leveling. I was worried that they would have dumbed the leveling down too much, but i actually enjoy the changes.
Now for some cons, of which there is really only one, and you can probably tell it from the title.
--I mentioned there were tons of hours of gameplay, which is very true. Unfortunately these hours of gameplay do not come from the main story. Try about 7 hours of gameplay from the main story. Is that not bothering anyone else? An RPG that boasts of how many hours of gameplay is in it, yet it provides a minuscule amount of those hours to its actual story.
-- The story is solid, but when I finished it, I was sitting there thinking, "Is that really the end of it, that took me like 30 minutes to beat....". I wanted there to be more, not necessarily because it was so good, but because i came away with a feeling that it was incomplete. You don't get attached to any characters involved, you don't really get that feeling of the world about to end. It really didn't move me in any way.
Skyrim is a great game with a short and incomplete main story, so don't get your hopes up for a good one. It will entertain you with all of the side missions and guild quests, but just dissapointed with something I was hoping it would excel at this time around.
-- T.