The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Worth buying? What 300 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 300 Steam reviews actually say.

Very Positive · 94%Very Positive · 94%2011

The verdict

A legendary open-world RPG with huge freedom, atmosphere and endless mod support, but this original Steam version is delisted, bug-prone and breaks above 60 FPS. Skip it for Special Edition.

Great for

Explorers who want a huge, moddable open-world fantasy sandbox and tolerate janky bugs

Main risk

Opening cart/horse physics bug, 60 FPS issues and update-related breakage can make it unplayable.

What players love

Nostalgic, endlessly replayable classic

Mentioned in ~1 in 4 positive reviews

“I've played for over 8 thousand hours and I have never left a review.”
Steam review · 8773.6 h played ↗

“Try other games but allways end up comeing back to this one.”
Steam review · 4180.1 h played ↗

Huge world with total freedom

Mentioned in ~1 in 5 positive reviews

“There is more in this game than you can do in a 1000 hours of play time.”
Steam review · 1354.8 h played ↗

“But it lets you experience the ultimate freedom—in character creation, character development, exploration, and how you choose to play.”
Steam review · 411.2 h played ↗

“The game gives you complete, absolute freedom.”
Steam review · translated · 138.9 h played ↗

Fantastic modding community

Mentioned in ~1 in 5 positive reviews

“With the incredible support from the modding community, there’s just an endless amount of content for what you pay.”
Steam review · 117.9 h played ↗

“still worth playing, even now. mods keep it fresh.”
Steam review · 2889.8 h played ↗

“Mods really make a difference in Skyrim) But even without them it's a great game”
Steam review · translated · 14 h played ↗

Atmosphere and Jeremy Soule's music

Mentioned in ~1 in 8 positive reviews

“Can be solely played for the music even. The atmosphere is unmatched.”
Steam review · 444.2 h played ↗

“Best game, best music, best atmosphere, best views!”
Steam review · translated · 106.3 h played ↗

More stable and moddable than Special Edition

Mentioned in ~1 in 19 positive reviews

“this original version of Skyrim doesn't get as many game/mod breaking patches that negatively affect startup & CTD”
Steam review · 912.6 h played ↗

“The version of the game that's actually reliably moddable without worries of bethesda bricking it again”
Steam review · 91.3 h played ↗

Runs on low-end hardware

Mentioned in ~1 in 21 positive reviews

“I also like the fact that this game runs decently on low end hardware”
Steam review · 18.7 h played ↗

“Its a classic and runs on even lower end laptops!”
Steam review · 19.5 h played ↗

What players complain about

Bugs and crashes

Mentioned in ~1 in 4 negative reviews

“Half the time loading saves or entering towns just causes a game crash, saves break constantly”
Steam review · 91.4 h played ↗

“A broken mess, 3 clean installs and still crashing to desktop.”
Steam review · 189.2 h played ↗

“This isn't a game, it's a bug-fixing simulator.”
Steam review · translated · 19.1 h played ↗

Updates, delisting and broken mods or DLC

Mentioned in ~1 in 7 negative reviews

“It's such a shame you keep breaking mod support for your games. 10+ years of support spat on with each and every update.”
Steam review · 264.7 h played ↗

“What the hell, where are my purchased DLCs and why are the ones that could be bought earlier missing?”
Steam review · translated · 249.8 h played ↗

Boring, repetitive gameplay and combat

Mentioned in ~1 in 8 negative reviews

“the actual gameplay is repetitive and boring as hell.”
Steam review · 33 h played ↗

“Caves, caves and more caves.”
Steam review · translated · 226.8 h played ↗

Weak RPG, story and writing

Mentioned in ~1 in 9 negative reviews

“Good for exploration and dungeon crawling? Yes. Good as an RPG. NO, ASOLUTELELY NOT.”
Steam review · 237.6 h played ↗

“this game seems incredibly superficial and bland, mainly due to the emptiness of the world and the banality of the dialogues”
Steam review · 54.3 h played ↗

Opening cart/horse physics bug

Mentioned in ~1 in 14 negative reviews

“I can not even get thru the first cutscene of the game because MY CART KEEPS STOPPING OR GETTING FLUNG OFF SOMWHERE!!”
Steam review · 0.7 h played ↗

“It's impossible to start the game because of the cart glitch that's been around for years.”
Steam review · translated · 0.3 h played ↗

Breaks above 60 FPS

Mentioned in ~1 in 21 negative reviews

“unplayable if you have a pc and monitor that displays higher than 60fps.”
Steam review · 36.5 h played ↗

“Cant even play this game without modding the files to limit to 60 FPS.”
Steam review · 0.1 h played ↗

System requirements

From the Steam store page

Steam Deck: Playable

Minimum

OSWindows 7/Vista/XP PC (32 or 64 bit)

ProcessorDual Core 2.0GHz or equivalent processor

Memory2GB System RAM

GraphicsDirect X 9.0c compliant video card with 512 MB of RAM

Storage6GB free HDD Space

Recommended

ProcessorQuad-core Intel or AMD CPU

Memory4GB System RAM

GraphicsDirectX 9.0c compatible NVIDIA or AMD ATI video card with 1GB of RAM (Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 or higher; ATI Radeon 4890 or higher)

OSWindows 7/Vista/XP PC (32 or 64 bit)

ProcessorDual Core 2.0GHz or equivalent processor

Memory2GB System RAM

GraphicsDirect X 9.0c compliant video card with 512 MB of RAM

Storage6GB free HDD Space

More games to check

Other games we’ve read the reviews for

See all →

Cyberpunk 2077

Very Positive · 88%

+ Excellent story and characters

− Still buggy and unpolished

analyzed 19 h ago

Aniimo

Mostly Positive · 73%

+ Friendly free-to-play monetization

− Undisclosed kernel anti-cheat and trackers

analyzed 3 h ago

ELDEN RING

Very Positive · 93%

+ Vast, rewarding open world to explore

− Paid Tarnished Edition DLC backlash

analyzed 3 h ago

Stardew Valley

Overwhelmingly Positive

+ Relaxing, cozy and comforting

− Slow, repetitive, boring grind

analyzed 18 h ago

Weekly digest

Fresh games worth a look, in your inbox

The most interesting games we’ve just analyzed, once a week.Once a week we send the most interesting games we’ve just analyzed: the verdict, top pros and cons, and what changed. No spam.

One email a week · unsubscribe in one click