Personally, as with most fantasy RPGs I don't like it very much. But that's just a personal opinion. The itself game is quite well made, there are tons of quests just waiting to be done, sometimes they even come to you. So overall it is a great game, so I guess that for some people the hype is actually quite true.
Good things about Skyrim are the beautiful open world you can explore, easy modding and mod support. Fairly good graphics (there is a mod that makes the graphics look a lot better). You can indeed choose what kind of person you want to be, evil, good, mysterious, a hero, a thief, it's all up to you and I like that.
Bad things about Skyrim are in my opinion the somewhat linear and repetitive quests. You need to play it a lot to get a higher level(and this is when it becomes the most fun). It, like with all other RPGs that I've ever played (except Mass Effect 2 and 3), has a crappy inventory system. Also the voice-actors all tend to speak with a North-American accent, which doesn't suit the game at all, the acting also seem dull and simple in most cases. Oh, and some actors sound like Arnold Schwarzenegger.
I'm not sure if I would have bought this game for the money I payed for it if I had known it would be like this. Still, it is a very good game and all people who like potions, crafting and a general game fantasy style world would love this game.
I on the other hand didn't start enjoying it fully until I started modding it with the Creation Kit kindly supplied by Bethesda for all to use. Creating an overpowered sword and hacking all the poor guards to bits was a great way for me to relieve the stress built up after playing this game without mods.
It also allowed me to customize my character a bit more.
And here are some screens for your viewing pleasure:
I had the misfortune of completing the main story quest first, fulfilling my destiny as the Dragonborn, so as you can imagine no other quest after that seemed quite necessary and this made my personal experience very dull one after I had completed the quest of the Dragonborn.
So I continued playing for a bit but then I discovered the magic of the Creation Kit, it's a mod tool supplied by Bethesda who made Elder Scrolls series.
Now I had the power to change anything in the game and I put it to good use right away creating my "Insane Deadric" sword, a sword so powerful it can kill pretty much anything with just a couple of swings. Same with my "Insane Flames" fire spell, it all gave me that edge a proper badass hero would have without having to spend the rest of my life playing this game.
Funny thing is that shortly after my "upgrading" the enemies in the game started adapting to my newfound power and I couldn't help but notice a connection, I see what you did there Bethesda. *Insert wink wink nudge nudge smiley-face here*
So yeah, "cheating", if you can call it that, might not have been the best idea but it did give the game the realism it needed and this also a better balance meaning only the really powerful enemies can withstand my giant burst of flames and any other enemy will burn nearly instantly after having been set on fire ...AS THEY SHOULD!
Call it whatever you like but saying that fantasy games should stick to a certain code of realism is NOT overrated in my opinion.
Now I'm just waiting for Mass Effect 3 to come out, a game that doesn't need to rely on shoving random quest missions in your face in order to have a good story. Yeah... I sure missed the brilliant storytelling from the Mass Effect games, it really gives RPG genre its undeserved good name.
So, next review: Mass Effect 3 - the Reapers kill commander Shepard and take over Earth! ...probably...
That's it for this blog, have a nice day!
Mikom Ya