The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Review (Switch)

The Elder Scrolls is one of the oldest western RPG and Skyrim remains its best selling entry. The game might have done well on the last generation consoles but on PC, the sales of Skyrim have been rather crazy with more than 20 million copies sold so far. The remaster of Skyrim was announced for the PS4 and Xbox One and it launched last year. This has now been followed by a Nintendo Switch version of the game and a special version for the PlayStation VR.

The Elders Scrolls V: Skyrim makes it the first time the game has released on a portable and since it is one of the most cherished and popular RPG, its importance can’t be denied. The developers could have simply settled on a cheap port for the game but instead they decided to do a proper port supporting the full features of the Nintendo Switch hardware. This has resulted in a game that is without a doubt, one of the best version of Skyrim to play right now, especially if you are in the market for a portable experience.

To start off, the Switch version of the game is essentially the Special Edition with support for all of the post-launch DLCs that were released for it. The game offers enhanced visuals compared to the Xbox 360 and PS3 version of the game although there are some drawbacks for it on the Switch, due to the lower spec hardware, it is still essentially the same experience as the Special Edition that launched last year. This is an important point here because there was a lot of confusion surrounding the launch of the game, when it wasn’t clarified whether the Switch will be getting the Special Edition or the regular PS3/Xbox 360 version of the game.

The biggest perk for the Switch version is the portable aspect of it, but the other features like the motion controls and the addition of Zelda as a playable character are also nice to have here. The motion controls seem to work well from what I have tested so far and they go hand to hand with the first person combat here. Skyrim was never great when it comes to combat but I feel like the motion controls make it a little more fun here, but this opinion might be different depending on whether you prefer a traditional controller or keyboard/mouse control interface.

Despite being released years ago, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim still retains its charm very well. It is often considered as the benchmark of open world games with its excellent character creator and freedom granted to the player. It is easy to get lost in the world and spend countless amount of time just roaming around and thanks to the portable nature of Switch, you can now take it anywhere. Speaking of which, the integration between the game in portable and docked mode is done really well with no major hit on the performance or visuals. The game runs at a dynamic 720p resolution in portable mode which works well for the most part. If you are playing on the big screen, it also manages to scale well next to the PS4 by running at native 900p.

The technological aspect of getting the game to run on Switch needs to be appreciated. This is the same game that was loaded with glitches when it launched on the PS3 and Xbox 360. Fans might remember the infamous save bug that was tied to the amount of playtime you had in the game, and after having spent a considerable amount of time with the Switch version, I haven’t really encountered such game breaking bugs so far. It is clear that Bethesda spent a lot of time perfecting the Switch version and it pays off very well here.

If you haven’t played Skyrim before, this is the perfect time to jump into the game with the release of the Switch version. If you have already played it, it is hard to ignore the aspect of a portable Skyrim that offers both handheld and console mode. Simply put, this is a better deal than the remaster of Skyrim that launched last year for the PS4 and Xbox One.