very tedious, but a good time sink for the depressed.

Freedom! No, not a quote from Braveheart but this is the one word I would use to describe what I consider to be the best open world RPG of all time, and probably my favourite game of all time. I myself have sunk in nearly 500 hrs into Skyrim and I'm still only on my second playthrough. I've heard of others playing 200 hrs without touching the main questline. Skyrim offers so much choice to the player it's staggering, and the soundtrack is absolutely epic. An absolute classic!

Gotta watch out for those darn arrows to the knee.

All about that mod that turns all the dragons into Macho Man Randy Savage. Cream rises to the top baby.

A really odd game to rate because the game is legitimate trash without mods, but modding has made it worthwhile to play. Still, modding can't save it from the bland and underwhelming story, boring and poorly designed quests, barebones writing, forgettable cast, and how often the same dungeon designs are repeated. Mods can improve the combat, add quests and characters worth a damn, and make cities and magic feel more expansive and interesting, but a lot of things about Skyrim are unsalvagable.

Like an endless bowl of oatmeal. Skyrim has heaps of "content" that will keep you occupied when you'd rather not think about the real world, but it's certainly not a game worth playing when you have other things worth doing.

The world is so big, so immersive, that it will take you at least 80 hours to really explore it all. In that time you'll have more quests than you can count. You can pursue the main quest or head off to do whatever you like. NPCs are so numerous and yet so varied, for personalities, for wants. I doubt I'll ever tire of this game.

underwhelming main story, very few interesting side quests, low quality combat and incredibly repetitive both in terms of terrain and the majority of the side quests

It's a good game but definitely not an rpg. Imagine a role-playing game where you can be the head of the assassins, thiefs, warriors and mages at the same time.

Oh boy. Setting is NEAT but not INTERESTING, gameplay is absolutely fucking atrocious, writing is awful. That being said, this is probably the greatest modding platform of all time; with a solid mod setup this is an 80. Shout to 3DNPC and EnaiSinon's works being a good 20 points worth of that 80.

Well... if you go really heavy on the mods ('m talking 15+ hours spent on modding), and especially the ones that add new content and quests, you can have a lot of fun with this game. Especially "Interesting NPCs" is highly recommended. But taken purely on the merits of the base game... boy, it's really shallow and boring. I wonder how Bethesda hires its writers, because the dialogues and quest design are SO bad that I feel there must be some terribly interesting secret behind it.

I found it oddly a very expansive and freeing experience but a bit monotonous at the same time, with the combat and dungeons feeling a bit samey after a while. But just wandering through the world is no doubt a fun experience, with this great fantasy vibe that will pull in any lover of the genre.

Absolutely amazing. Take a formula that has worked well in the past, and then make it even better. Even if every character you ever try to play is a stealth sniper archer, there is just so much to explore in this game. And, man, once you start modding it, the game takes on almost infinite dimensions. A true achievement in gaming, and here's hoping that they will eventually try to top this one.

Starts off incredibly strong but, after you kill your first dragon, it becomes a repetitive slog punctuated by the rare interesting event.

As a standalone with DLC it's a huge massive achievement. With mods it becomes something out of legend. It's repetitive but the amount of times you can just stumble upon some massively scaled dungeon etc. makes up for it.

Great for those who enjoy exploring and hoarding loot from various rapscallions in a medieval style fantasy setting. What this does it does really well, and with it's vast playing area, unlimited quests and varied locales there's always something interesting to do.

Score is for Skyrim with all the DLC and certain mods (notably SkyUI, Frostfall, Realistic Needs/Diseases, Alternate Start among others) - vanilla is about 70-75. Highlights are Solstheim, Blackreach, the freaky lighthouse, the vampire quest in Morthal, and the first time you climb that mountain to get to the Greybeards. The best though is when you fight a bandit and it goes into cinematic decapitation view, with a head flying away yelling "IS THAT ALL YOU GOT?!" p.s. Stormcloaks are for chumps

The dead endure.

same as oblivion, but I love this one a bit less than the first one, thus 99

A classic - I actually didn’t enjoy this as much as Oblivion, but it’s still great in its own way. The combat is much improved but is still honestly not great compared to contemporaries around this time. These games get by with their sense of discovery and exploration. I wish they would take more narrative risks, but overall it’s a great time and has almost infinite replayability.

Uninspiring game that held back its genre with mediocrity.

Great story? No Great characters? No Can you kill a dragon using a legendary fork that deals 5,288,375 points of damage? Yes, and that makes it the best game, fight me.

Incredibly mixed on this game its simultaneously one of the best games ever and mediocre which balances out to an average rating. Cookie cutter dungeons abound but also engaged me for hundreds of hours and had some great sidequests. In retrospect I can only think of more bad things about it. This game really highlights the flaws of open worlds as opposed to more focused experiences. I'm probably never playing this game ever again

great game.

Extremely cool open world that's lost some of its charm since it came out. Combat sucks and Bethesda open worlds just don't hold up the same anymore.

Man, these guys hate milk.

Can we, as a culture, agree to be done with this game now? I don't even remember why I liked it to begin with.

Pure addiction

only a bit of problems with my ps4 mods. havent played much. it immersed me nice though

This game is the definition of open world.

I loved it and was completely immersed in it when it released. Now it's still fun, it's a huge game. But after hundreds of hours it does get repetitive and grindy at times. Especially because I got corrupted save files and switched platforms so had to restart two or three times.

Not my kinda game, but still alright.

Ambitious with a sprawling fantasy world into which a lot of thought clearly went. There's literally hundred of hours of content to be explored and experienced. However, it also comes with all the flaws of its Bethesda engine and some of the dungeon crawling can get very samey. Nevertheless, a tour de force of a software.

Best Game of all time

Skyrim fixes most of the problems of Oblivion. It has a far more interesting setting and the quests are of a much higher quality in terms of writing and execution. Its world is nuanced and interesting and worth exploring every corner. While the combat is not the strongest suit ever, it gives you so many options to play, everyone is bound to find something they like. This is, in my opinion, Bethesda's finest work.

these games fucking suck. every environment looks the same and every character sounds the same. if you enjoy spending seventy hours fetching mushrooms to fulfill a prophecy, might I interest you in something called "outside." anyone who prefers Elder Scrolls over Fallout is telling you that they're a child with a brain of mush

I think I have 400 hours in this game and still haven't even progressed halfway through the main quest.

I did spend hundreds of hours playing it, but heh, the role-playing kinda sucks. It's more like a neverending grind. It has some great bits, though.

I'm one of those gamers who ENTERED the Elder Scrolls series at Skyrim. So much of the lore and the backstory are so foreign and unknown to me. Maybe that hinders the experience, but I like to think that it helped, in a specific way - I can address Skyrim as JUST Skyrim. I'm not locked into comparing it to its predecessors. As a game, Skyrim is a masterpiece. It's so deep, it's so engaging, it's so much fun. It's routine for me to just lose a day in Skyrim. Among the best RPG's I've ever played.

I'm going to be honest; this is not as good as previous Elder Scrolls games. It got a MASSIVE amount of hype, but at the end of the day, it doesn't hold a candle to Morrowind. The combat and magic systems have been drastically improved, and the perks are great (if you mod them), but from a story perspective, it's just not as good as its predecessors. Still a great game by all means, but doesn't carry the same weight or feel as Morrowind or even Oblivion.

Skyrim is without a doubt an amazing game. However when compared to the others it falls a little short. Mostly due to it's map. The games atmosphere is a little to downbeat and the areas are a little to snowy. Otherwise it is a very well crafted game and a worthy successor to the astounding Oblivion. Almost...

Deserve a high vote thanks to all the mods that enhance the gameplay making it more deep: weapons, quests, survival gameplay, higher definition textures. But still, they made a great work creating the atmosphere, it's a pleasure just walking around Skyrim.

When this came out, it blew my socks straight the hell off. Couldn't really fathom the depth and detail. An awe inspiring feat compared to it's 2011 peers.

Too many hours have been spent in Skyrim.An experience that I'd recommend to anyone.

ES5 Skyrim is an improvement on its predecessor, Oblivion, when it comes to world-building, combat mechanics, alchemy, leveling, and overall immersion. The NPC's are less stiff, the voice-acting far better, and the side-quests more interesting and bountiful. Skyrim is as close to ES3: Morrowind in overall quality as a modern ES is probably going to get.

Great world to explore, excellent leveling system as always (one of my faves in all of RPGs), wonderful music. Unfortunately, combat has always been a weak link, the story is only decent and fighting dragons eventually gets boring, which should never happen.