The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has been able to firmly establish itself as the defining roleplaying game experience of the last decade, and now the experience can go anywhere you want to take it with its arrival on the Nintendo Switch. The fact that the Switch is a hybrid console/handheld system makes for a unique experience in itself, and the little nods added into Skyrim for the sake of it being on a Nintendo system, specifically, also add a nice touch.
Skyrim, for those who have not yet experienced it, puts players in the role of the Dragonborn – a person with the soul of a dragon. The region of Skyrim itself is in civil turmoil, as a war rages on between the Stormcloaks and the Imperial Army. Heralding the apocalypse itself is the dragon known as the World-Eater, Alduin; despite dragons long being thought extinct, Alduin has returned to the mortal realm in order to resurrect them and reestablish their power.
The game first arrived on November 11, 2011 for PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3; it has since been ported to the current generation of consoles in high-definition, received a graphics overhaul on PC, and has also arrived on virtual reality headsets in addition to debuting on the latest Nintendo console. Much as it’s the current gaming community meme to joke around about how Skyrim is going to continue to receive new ports to new systems before Bethesda actually makes a sixth Elder Scrolls entry, the fact that Skyrim can continue to exist among far more technologically-advanced titles is a testament to how good the game really is. The action-RPG gameplay remains as solid as ever, and the fact that you can play the game however you want gives the game a level of replay value that other RPGs simply don’t have. Want to go full-on with heavy armor and a huge sword? Go for it. Interested more in destructive magic? That’s there too. Want to rely on stealth tactics with a bow and arrow? Absolutely possible.
Skyrim is a huge open world, full of possibilities and dangers lurking around every corner. No two individual experiences will ever be exactly alike. And that’s what’s made the game the benchmark by which all other open-world experiences have been judged against for the last six years (and counting).
The Switch edition is just as good as any other console version, with the sole blow against it being that, due to hardware limitations, the graphics aren’t going to be on quite the same level as the PS4 or XB1 – but it comes close. The biggest thing that the Switch version has going for it, though, is the fact that by the nature of the console itself, one of the most epic RPGs of all time is now portable. And honestly, the game looks great on the Switch’s built-in screen. I wasn’t sure how much I was going to like shrinking the world of Skyrim down that small, but it looks and feels great to play.
There are a few hidden treasures in the game that are exclusive to the Switch version – namely, the Master Sword and Link’s tunic from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The bright blue tunic looks extremely goofy against the muted tones of the mountainous region, but I’m not complaining. The amiibo functionality is a nice touch that allows for some pretty choice equipment to be had early on.
For a six-year-old game, Skyrim holds up remarkably well. It’s still the gold standard in the industry, both for roleplaying experiences and for open worlds, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that it still manages to find an audience. Even if you’ve played it before (as I have – several hundred hours between all versions I’ve owned, don’t judge me), it’s worth revisiting on the Switch.
-Carrie Wood