Ten Years of Skyrim

Last week saw the tenth birthday of Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim!

It seems almost hard to believe that Skyrim is now ten years old, and in a year or two we’ll be seeing the next instalment of The Elder Scrolls game. While this isn’t a post speculating what the next game could look like, it will be more of a post to reminisce about Skyrim’s past ten years.

Prior to playing Skyrim for the very first time, I didn’t have much knowledge of Bethesda or The Elder Scrolls. I’d heard names of games a knew a tiny amount about Bethesda, but that was it. It wasn’t until a few months after Skyrim’s release that I actually took a chance on the game. It was actually a comment one of my friends made about being able to fight dragons that caught my attention and a couple of hours later I was now the happy owner of a copy of Skyrim on Xbox 360.

I honestly had no idea what I was getting myself in to. This was my first Bethesda game and first Elder Scrolls game. I made my way through the starting few hours of the game, following the story, getting lost and dying a few times while I got to grips with it. I continued chipping away at the game before stepping away for a few months. When I did return, I started a new game and made my way through Skyrim again on Xbox 360.

I kept jumping in and out of the game over the next few years. Continuing to play on console and also PC. It wasn’t until the Special Edition was released that I decided to start yet another adventure but this time experiencing aspects of the expansions. Again, I got to the point where I stopped playing for one reason or another. It wasn’t through any bad experience with the game, but it was probably more to do with moving onto a different game or real life happening.

At one point or another, I’ve either owned or experienced Skyrim on each platform it has currently been released on, except for PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch. There’s been a number of times I’ve seriously considered picking it up on Nintendo Switch too, but that’s a story for another day.

With the Anniversary Edition of Skyrim now here, it felt like the perfect time to start another adventure in the world of Skyrim. This time I’ve chosen to play on PC and have actually explored a few mods for the game as well. So far I’ve been enjoying my new play through despite only being a few hours in. Most of the mods that I’ve added were more cosmetic/graphic changes than gameplay, although I have my eye on a couple of gameplay mods as well.

It’s been nice jumping back in to the game again, and it has been somewhat refreshing to start a new game again. Skyrim for me has always been one of those games that regardless of how long it’s been since you last played, you can pick up pretty much where you left off or just know exactly what or where you need to go.

There’s still a lot of Skyrim left for me to explore, but for the time being, you’ll find me fishing in game again!

Happy tenth birthday, Skyrim! Here’s to many more adventures and discoveries!

Have you jumped back into Skyrim recently? Let me know!