Skyrim: Legendary Edition – is it worth it?

Skyrim Legendary Edition marks the end of the Skyrim saga with one package that includes the original game plus all its available DLC.

As one of the highest rated games of all time, the Legendary Edition is a great package for those who missed out to experience Skyrim in its entirety – but it comes at a price.

Skyrim Dragonborn screenshot

In the table below, we have compared the prices of Skyrim standard, its DLC as a separate purchase, and the Skyrim Legendary Edition (SLE) bundle. Where indicated, prices are based on current recommended retail price (RRP) at the time of writing. Other prices are based on average retail list prices, or digital store list prices. In the case of the DLC on Xbox LIVE, which uses MS points, we had to break out the MyGaming abacus and do some math to come to an average price point.

Skyrim and DLC pricing (prices approximated)
Retail	Skyrim	Hearthfire	Dawnguard	Dragonborn	SLE
PC	R250	N/A	N/A	N/A	R400
XBox	R450	N/A	N/A	N/A	R600
PS3	R450	N/A	N/A	N/A	R600
Digital Download	Skyrim	Hearthfire	Dawnguard	Dragonborn	SLE
Steam	R300	R50	R200	R200	R600
XBox on Demand	R249	R50	R200	R200	N/A
PS3 Store	N/A	R25	R75	R75	N/A

Bethesda have indicated that their Skyrim team has moved on to new endeavours, suggesting that this is the last we’ll see of official Skyrim content. However, PC gamers will undoubtedly continue to enjoy community created content for years to come. So what do we make of the various DLCs on offer for the game?

Hearthfire: 70%

The PC modding community created a handful of “build your own home” mods for Skyrim, so Bethesda decided to give all Skyrim fans an official polished take on this concept and at a reasonable price.

For console gamers this is a neat addition to make you feel at home in Skyrim. For PC players this is a good option if you don’t want to mess around with mods. For the tinkerers, a similar result can be achieved using mods.

Hearthfire screenshot

Dawnguard: 65%

Dawnguard was the first major Skyrim DLC, but it carried a hefty price tag.

Despite adding a number of new items and side quests, the main quest was noticeably unpolished and arguably unfinished in some areas.

Skyrim Dawnguard screenshot

Dragonborn: 85%

Dragonborn was certainly more worthy of its association with Morrowind and Skyrim; it provided a decent amount of new content and game dynamics.

For hardcore Skyrim addicts it’s an essential addition, but for casual players there is already more than enough content in the vanilla title.

Skyrim Dragonborn screenshot

Conclusion

Skyrim Legendary Edition would work great as a birthday present – but if you don’t own Skyrim by now, chances are you’re not too interested anyway.

If you fall in the category of gamer who just wasn’t able to grab the game until now, then this is obviously the ultimate Skyrim package, and the overall game is fantastic as ever (I’ve sunk over 500 hours into Skyrim so far).

If you just want a taste of the game everyone was talking about over a year ago, I’d suggest you just pick up a copy of vanilla Skyrim or wait for the Legendary Edition to go on special a few months from now.