In terms of immersion, Skyrim is a pretty amazing game that few others could hold a candle to. The fifth Elder Scrolls game definitely deserves its spot among the best open world games that have come out in the last 20 years. So much work was put into the game to create an entire world that players can get lost in, with all sorts of secrets and adventure to be discovered.
That being said, Skyrim was a massive project for the developers, and even after its initial release it wasn't without its own inconsistencies and hiccups. Let's have a look at 10 of those mistakes that can still be found in the game today.
10 Ain't No Mountain High Enough
Skyrim has some pretty impressive cliffs and mountains. While in a lot of games these areas would be inaccessible, Skyrim lets you scale most of these cliffs either on your own or with your horse. This just isn't realistic.
In reality, these cliffs would require some serious skill to climb, especially when the wind picks up and every rock is covered in slippery snow and ice. However, in Skyrim all of that is possible. Just like Todd Howard put it: "See that mountain? You can climb it".
9 You Again?
While travelling around Skyrim, the player will quickly notice a rather strange thing: this one guy in Solitude sounds like the person back in Whiterun.
This is a common issue in Skyrim. Most NPCs sound the same because they all share the same voice actor. It does break the immersion a little bit, but if you compare how many actors Oblivion had (8 in total) to how many Skyrim had (70 in total), we've definitely come a long way. Hopefully in the next Elder Scrolls game the team can afford an even larger cast.
8 Here, Hold This For Me Please
Alchemy is one of the many crafts you can dive deep into in Skyrim. By mixing various ingredients together, you can create powerful concoctions to help you in battle. If you manage to craft poison, you can either use it to coat your weapon with it or use it to poison a target. All you have to do is select the Pickpocket option and put the poison in their inventory, which is what makes this mechanic so weird.
Is the Dragonborn grabbing their enemy by the nose to forcefully pour poison into their mouths? It just doesn't make much sense.
7 Getting Away With Anything
While there is a police force in Skyrim, it's definitely not the most efficient one. Guards can be easily bribed, so long as you happen to either be a Thane of the hold you have a bounty in or if you just happen to have enough gold in your inventory to pay off your bounty.
Some factions like the Thieves' Guild offer a new way of also bribing the guard. No matter how you look at it, you can get away with anything as long as you're rich. Jail isn't exactly something you need to be afraid of.
6 Unlikely Loot
Skyrim's various dungeons, cities and random locations have pretty good design. They're coated with delightful clutter, from valuable loot to garbage that's there just for the aesthetic. However, if you really think about it, would you actually pick up a random slab of raw meat you found at an abandoned camp site?
Finding food in dungeons that have been sealed for centuries seems even more of a hazard, and yet some players have reportedly found fresh vegetables and other perfectly edible food items in the inventories of Draugr.
5 One Of Us
There's a ton of different factions and groups to join in Skyrim, each with its own set of rules and guidelines. Some might be considered evil, while others defend the just principles of law. You would imagine that as a member of the Dark Brotherhood, you're probably not welcome in The Companions, or any other faction for that matter.
However, even if you flaunt your Brotherhood armor openly in front of members of another guild, no one will care. And let's not even get into how you eventually become the leader of each of these factions!
4 Highly Coveted Soul
Just as you can join all factions and become a leader in all of them, you can also swear allegiance to all of Daedric Lords. Considering that most of these Daedric creatures are engaged in heated rivalries, it seems rather strange that you can go around offering your soul to all of them simultaneously.
Not only that, you can do so even if you don't fully represent the values they stand up for. As a vampire or necromancer, you can still swear allegiance to Meridia, who's known to absolutely hate all undead creatures.
3 I See You
Skyrim is full of daunting enemies, and one such kind are the Falmer that lurk mostly in Dwemer ruins. Legend says that these were once Snow Elves, enslaved by the Dwemer kind and used as cheap labor. Once the Dwarves disappeared, the Falmer remained behind in these ruins. They turned blind and feral in their isolation.
However, despite not being able to see, many Falmer still wield bows, a weapon that requires excellent eyesight to use. Unless they have incredible echolation capabilities like bats, it doesn't make much sense.
2 Just Imagining Things
Stealth is one of the most powerful and fun skills to use in Skyrim, especially if you find yourself outnumbered in a difficult dungeon. While it feels great to outsmart your enemies by sneaking in the shadows, sometimes they're just plain clueless.
They might spot you, but if you manage to crouch behind cover and get back into stealth mode in the nick of time, they'll immediately forget you were ever even there. I mean really, did they think the Dragonborn was just a figment of their imagination? Seems unlikely.
1 Weightless Money
We understand that many of the design choices made for Skyrim were made with the gamers' convenience in mind. Some unrealistic features are needed to ensure the game is even playable. However, we really need to nitpick about this: weightless gold.
Your money has no weight in Skyrim. Septims are made from gold, but as soon as they are turned into coin they apparently become weightless. A more realistic option could have been giving your coin purse a base weight value rather than making it weightless but ah well, we accept this, Bethesda, despite it making no sense.