The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Anniversary Edition (Xbox One/Xbox Series X|S)

Game description:

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Anniversary Edition is a 2021 remastered version of the 2011 game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, the fifth installment of The Elder Scrolls series. It was released for PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5 on November 11, 2021. The Anniversary Edition contains a copy of the Special Edition, including the expansions Dawnguard, Hearthfire, and Dragonborn. The Anniversary Edition also includes 74 Creation Club mods, all 48 currently available ones plus 26 new, unreleased ones, adding up to a total of around 500 new gameplay elements for Skyrim.

Gameplay:

At the beginning of the game, players select their character's gender and race, with 10 choices for the latter, including races of humans and fantasy races such as elves and orcs. The player chooses the character's appearance; this is not necessarily permanent, however, as an in-game mechanic allows for changing the appearance later. Characters have three primary attributes: health is how much damage the character can take before dying, magicka is depleted to cast spells, and stamina allows the character to perform heavy "power attacks" or sprint. A status bar for each attribute appears onscreen when the attribute falls below its maximum value. Attributes regenerate over time and can be refilled faster by drinking potions, casting regenerative spells, or through various enchantments. Characters gain experience indirectly, via leveling up skills. The 18 skills are divided evenly among the three schools of combat, magic, and stealth. Each skill has its own experience bar, which increases when the character performs an action in-game related to the skill. For example, crafting a dagger increases the Smithing skill, and dealing damage with a bow increases the Archery skill. When a skill's experience bar fills, the skill levels up and the bar is reset. After enough skills level up, the character levels up, enabling the player to increase the maximum value of one of the three attributes and providing a perk point. Perk points can be spent immediately on a skill-specific perk or stored for later use.

Dawnguard:

Dawnguard revolves around an ancient prophecy predicted by an Elder Scroll. The Dawnguard is an organization dedicated to hunting vampires who attempt to stop the return of a powerful clan of Vampires named the Volkihar who possess the power to turn into monstrous "vampire lords". The Volkihar's leader Lord Harkon intends to use an Elder Scroll to permanently blot out the sun. The player can choose to either aid the Dawnguard or join the Volkihar, becoming a vampire lord themselves in the process. The DLC includes new armors, items, weapons, characters, etc.

Hearthfire:

Hearthfire revolves around acquiring and improving land, allowing the player to build and customize their own home. The add-on also introduced adoption, giving players the option of adopting up to two children to live with them in their personal home.

Dragonborn:

Dragonborn involves the player character (the current Dragonborn) coming into contact with the first Dragonborn, Miraak. The expansion takes place on the island of Solstheim, previously featured in the Bloodmoon expansion for The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind.

Game review:

Skyrim is certainly an adventure you can’t afford to miss. It still includes many of the original version’s bugs, ugly character models, and weak combat animations, but the memorable world benefits hugely from improved lighting and effects. There's also some appeal here if you've played before and want to relive Skyrim with the current generation systems.