I had originally thought this review was gonna be a negative one, mostly because of the crazy price tag this VR experience has. I mean, they are asking 60 bucks for a VR upgrade of a 14 year old game that most of us have already bought multiple times. Just the thought of that made me have a sour taste in the mouth before having even launched the game, and I am someone who considers Skyrim to be one of the best games ever made.

But I bought it on sale for 15 bucks, which is a good deal since VR games are usually priced a bit higher than nonVR titles. It is a hobby for the privileged and the “elite” apparently. But I gotta say, after having been playing through parts of the game now in VR, I have to admit that this is a pretty damn good VR experience and probably the best I have had since I got my own headset, at least for the technology we have now.

First of all, I have been playing Skyrim since it had its first release in 2011 and I have 100%ed the achievements 3 times, once on the Xbox 360 and twice here on Steam, and the VR version will probably be my fourth time. So, I really love this game and therefore I also know there is bias when I talk about this probably being the best VR experience available. I guess I'm trying to say, that if you didn’t like nonVR Skyrim, chances are you also won’t like this, so find something else to play if that is the case, I know that not everyone like this game.

Beside just finally being able to step into this immersive world and feel like you have a presence there, this game plays exactly like its nonVR counterpart. Every single mission, NPC, object and whatever is exactly like how it was in the original game. The only difference being that you can swing your weapons, balance your shield and nock your bow and this is really why you play this. The combat in the nonVR version is really basic and some might call it boring, but in this VR version, it is far from boring. I especially like archery a lot. It is in my opinion by far the most fun class in VR, since it requires minimal movement and has the most interactive combat that isn’t just swing like crazy. And with it being VR, your shooting speed all dependent on your own speed and ability to rearm your bow. That means that you can essentially rapid fire and kill normally “strong” enemies really quickly, as long as you move fast enough. It is super fun.

The input detection is also really good, I haven’t had any issues that I can think of in terms of the game not registering movement or touch correctly. It seems to be pretty spot on, but it is also expected from a product with a 60 euro price tag, so not something to celebrate.

The game isn’t perfect. It does have a few minor issues and bugs. The only two issues I feel are worth covering are the stamina issue while moving and mission triggers.

If you choose jump movement, which most people probably will, then stamina drain will be an issue you will face immediately as you get into the game. Moving around will feel incredibly slow and frustrating, since it essentially is just like throwing a fishing line and waiting for it to charge back up so you can throw again. It would probably have been better to disable stamina for movement entirely and just nerf the distance a bit. Luckily I quickly found a workaround myself while playing. When you crouch/sneak, stamina drain will get disabled, allowing you to move indefinitely, and since there is nothing to keep you from spamming your thumb sticks in a direction, you can essentially move faster than normal Skyrim running speed while sneaking. This gets you to places much faster and it also levels up your sneak pretty fast. Just something I wish I knew before I started.

There is also another issue, which relates to mission triggers. This game seems to break a bit more than I remember the original game did. Just to clarify, I didn’t mod this VR version or change anything at all, it is totally vanilla. But I have had mission triggers fail on me, nothing yet that couldn’t get fixed without the need of the console though. But just in case, I recommend you manually save after every mission. It sucks to go back.

I am overall really satisfied with this game and I highly recommend it when on sale. For the full price though, it is a tough one. I guess it will all depend on your income and how in love you are with this game. I personally wouldn’t have enjoyed it as much as I do now if I knew I paid 60 bucks for it though, but I'm not gonna stop you either.
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Help me out by following my Curator, I’d really appreciate it!!