So, in fact, seeing Skyrim at its quietest and most inward-looking is a huge relief. While Skyrim has looked mighty impressive from afar, there was a fear that the nuts and bolts of Elder Scrolling had been subsumed by all that impossibly epic combat and shouting at sky-lizards. In fact, there’s plenty of the number-watching and cave-exploring that we so yearn for. In many ways, it seems incredibly familiar – there’d be no mistaking it for any other game series. On the other hand, the spit and polish on top of it is wonderful. Most especially in the inventory.
Oh! The menus. Oh! With every single pick-uppable item rendered as a full, 3D, rotable object, everything tiered into neat categories and smart features such as tagging favourites for instant access, right-clicking stuff in a looting screen to immediately equip it and a tiny, discrete icon denoting which item is the best of its sort in your bags, it seems to have kept all the good stuff of inventory management while making it far more efficient and look exactly 17 times better. Maybe even 18.
