Strangely enough, I’d never played Skyrim until just recently. I know, it’s one of those games, but it just never appealed to me much. I’m more of a Final Fantasy type girl.

But, PlayStation had the complete set on sale for the special anniversary edition, so my husband bought it. It sat around in the download queue for a long while (kids make it hard to play many video games, after all), but I finally tried it out.

Here’s a quick review based on what I’ve seen so far.

First, the music is the best part of the game.

Just like every other gamer and music listener out there, I’ve heard the original “Dragonborn” theme song, plus several dozen fan covers over the years. It’s one of those songs. It appears everywhere. But even the incidental background music for the game is amazing. I immediately added the whole album to my already-long Video Games playlist on Spotify.

It’s the kind of music that makes the game even more real. It fits perfectly with the setting, and the action (or lack thereof) at the time. The composer (Jeremy Soule) is a genius, raking right up there with Nobuo Uematsu.

The version of the game I have for the PS4 is obviously a remaster, so that means the graphics are a little better than they were a decade ago, but they’re still great. When the game was new, they were probably breathtaking. The landscapes, the varieties of character faces, outfits, armor, and so on, are incredibly detailed, especially for the time.

I’m still at the beginning of the story, so I can’t say much about it, but the short version is: I’ve been staying up way to late to figure out what’s going on. So far, the story is excellent. Just enough of a hook to get you interested, and then payoff after payoff, but with more mystery lurking just around the corner. The worldbuilding (especially the history of the dragons in Skyrim) is very extensive. Someone really did their homework.

The creators also did a great job with their almost-Norse society. You have to give them credit for all the little tidbits they put in there, but you don’t have to be familiar with Norse mythology to get it.

About my only complaint are the controls. As I said, I’m more of a Final Fantasy girl, so the melee style, plus needing to go into the menu to switch from my one-handed sword and a shield, to my sword and some magic to heal myself before the dragon cooks me, is rather irritating. I’m hoping that the longer I play, the easier it’ll get.

So, based on my small amount of play, I’ll give it 4.5 out of 5 stars, with additional commentary pending game completion.

Or . . . at least, completion of the main story line. From the look of it, this is one of those games with a nearly endless list of sidequests and achievements. If I wanted to get 100% completion, I’d have to wait until my kids got out of college.