How good is Skyrim

[FizzyElf]

So I've been wondering seeing as Skyrim is one of bethesda's better titles and one of the most popular, heavily modded and joked about games ever made, does it actually make it onto anyone's top 10 list? 15? 30?

Seriously the game is a mixed bag inside of a mixed barge, it's plagued with issues, has been re-released onto every platform under the sun, and was built upon an engine that screams for the sweet release of death to this day and yet it constantly gets new content and support from the community and has had a strong following for over a decade now.

So is the game actually good enough to make it onto your top # list or is it just an okay fallback for when you don't feel like playing anything else?

[Rez Elwin]

Depends of you use mods or not. Unmodded Skyrim is only half-decent. Oblivion is a better game in almost every category. I have a LOT of hours in Skrim, 2800 across all versions, it is probably my most played game, however, that is due to mods. The amount and frequency that mods come out allows you to often have new things to do.

One of the reasons Skyrim sits where it is, is that Nobody challenges it. There is not another open-world RPG like Skyrim, Bethesda dominates the market in this genre, and it allows them to make games this way, buggy and nearly unfinished on release.

They make into a playable state down the line while the modders fix all the bugs, and everyone goes along with it. No other developer gets this treatment. CD Projekt Red made Cyverpunk 2077, and that game was broken on release, and people were not happy, near-rabid is their hate on that game. CDPR was liked by many people before that, but that release made people hate them. Not Bethesda, buggy release after buggy release... this is fine.

However, to answer your question, Modded, top ten, yes not sure where but my playtime doesn't lie. Unmodded, I wouldn't be playing at all.

[ReBootXD]

It’s a buggy mess and a shallow rpg, but man is it good fun.

Would I rate it in my top 10? No, absolutely not. In hours played though, it is literally number one; all versions combined I’ve probably put 900 hours total into Skyrim.

[Bomb Shot]

This is my latest answer
https://youtu.be/ztCZifmzDVU

[Melkolf]

Not in my top ten, nor top 20. Maybe scratches into top 30, but then I don't have many games...

However, given that it's so simple, it does well as a fall back when awaiting a new rig, as I am currently doing.

[FizzyElf]

Originally posted by Rez Elwin:

Depends of you use mods or not. Unmodded Skyrim is only half-decent. Oblivion is a better game in almost every category. I have a LOT of hours in Skrim, 2800 across all versions, it is probably my most played game, however, that is due to mods. The amount and frequency that mods come out allows you to often have new things to do.

One of the reasons Skyrim sits where it is, is that Nobody challenges it. There is not another open-world RPG like Skyrim, Bethesda dominates the market in this genre, and it allows them to make games this way, buggy and nearly unfinished on release.

They make into a playable state down the line while the modders fix all the bugs, and everyone goes along with it. No other developer gets this treatment. CD Projekt Red made Cyverpunk 2077, and that game was broken on release, and people were not happy, near-rabid is their hate on that game. CDPR was liked by many people before that, but that release made people hate them. Not Bethesda, buggy release after buggy release... this is fine.

However, to answer your question, Modded, top ten, yes not sure where but my playtime doesn't lie. Unmodded, I wouldn't be playing at all.

Gonna be honest, I have never made it past the wagon in a fully personal vanilla campaign (meaning I wasn't on someone elses save or playing with multiple people passing the controller around) I have only ever made any progress with a modded campaign and find it a lot more enjoyable and stable than the base game.

Originally posted by ReBootXD:

It’s a buggy mess and a shallow rpg, but man is it good fun.

Would I rate it in my top 10? No, absolutely not. In hours played though, it is literally number one; all versions combined I’ve probably put 900 hours total into Skyrim.

2800 and 900 is pretty good for a single player open world, furthest I have gotten in the genre is Fallout 4 with a little over 400 hours played across some 200 different save files. I think skyrim, GTA, Minecraft and maybe the Witcher 3 would be the single player games that each have a good chance of sneaking into people's top ten when scored via playtime either because of how replayable they are or because of how good the sandbox/modding scene is which keeps people around for hundreds of hours when most new releases barley get a dozen or so hours before people move on.

[Rez Elwin]

Originally posted by FizzyElf:

Gonna be honest, I have never made it past the wagon in a fully personal vanilla campaign (meaning I wasn't on someone elses save or playing with multiple people passing the controller around) I have only ever made any progress with a modded campaign and find it a lot more enjoyable and stable than the base game.

Well it is, even now the game still has some bugs, the Unofficial patch is one of the most downloaded mods for a reason. My first thousand hours were on console, from day one. When I got the game on PC in 2012, I modded it immediately.

Originally posted by FizzyElf:

2800 and 900 is pretty good for a single player open world, furthest I have gotten in the genre is Fallout 4 with a little over 400 hours played across some 200 different save files. I think skyrim, GTA, Minecraft and maybe the Witcher 3 would be the single player games that each have a good chance of sneaking into people's top ten when scored via playtime either because of how replayable they are or because of how good the sandbox/modding scene is which keeps people around for hundreds of hours when most new releases barley get a dozen or so hours before people move on.

I have 400 hours in Fo4 as well, kinda wish I didn't. I have only beaten that game ONCE, and I have no desire to ever play it again. Fallout 4 is decent shooter and a terrible Fallout game and RPG. Even mods can't save that game for me.

GTA and Witcher have good stories, and GTA also has an Online Mode. Minecraft is also the Ultimate Sandbox game, you can pretty much make the game yourself, which also includes online. Online games always have a longer life than average because almost any game is fun with friends, even when the game isn't good it can be fun.

That said, Skyrim IS in a lot of peoples top ten, but I would always want to ask if it's modded or not, because Oblivion is objectively better than Skyrim. If somebody says otherwise, they probably never played Oblivion

[UsernameTaken666]

That is an obvious subjective answer. Since you own the game, maybe play it and answer your own question?

[DeathStroke]

skyrim is . . .fine . . . the only real reason its remained so popular is that it doesnt have really any direct competition . Oblivion is a significantly better game hampered only by the technology constraints of its time. Ive put thousands of hours into Skyrim , and I will still play it in spurts but if there had been something similar but better to scratch that itch id have given up on it years ago . Without all the improvements made by mods ect the game stopped being worth anyones time a decade ago. Unfortunately Skyrim is pretty shallow overall following Bethesdas desire to continue to water all their products down.

[FizzyElf]

Originally posted by UsernameTaken666:

That is an obvious subjective answer. Since you own the game, maybe play it and answer your own question?

How would me playing the game allow me to determine how it ranks for other people on a case by case basis?

[SpeedFreak1972]

Well lets be honest here If I like it it wouldn't mean you like it CS2 or COD are popular games, however I don't like them I can go to the forums and ask it there and most forum dwellers would say it's great, but that doesn't makes it a good game for me. I personally would say look for a lets play and see for yourself how it stacks up.

[Fitness Lauch]

Overall it's really good to be honest but like previous people said earlier that's mostly because of mods. The game is closer to an open source project than pretty much every other game, that's its main strength.

Without mods it'd be a bit meh. Vanilla graphics do also look rather bad, even for the time when the game was released. It certainly wouldn't have anywhere close to the amount of daily players without mods and would be far behind other rpgs like BG3, Elden Ring, Witcher etc.

[SpeedFreak1972]

The mantra of modding is don't like something change it

[Docsprock]

It is by far my #1 game played with well over 10,000 hours between the versions. Fallout 4 is #2 with over 6700 hours. (Unknown thousands of hours for Oblivion, Morrowind, Daggerfall and Arena.)

[The Zanzibarbarian]

Skyrim. Bannerlord. X4. It all depends what piques my interest.
I can be doing something totally unrelated, maybe watching a film, and either see or think of an idea that gets my attention, and then I go from there.
The above three games are my go to games. Other games come to the fore, for a bit, but normally they fade back into oblivion (NOT the game!) again to leave me with these three.
I don't like games where you are forced to play the way the devs want you to play it. Though, if there is a story line that can be delved into, you can pursue it as and when you want too.
Oh! And all three of those games can be really heavily modded. So that helps a hell of a lot.
As Speedfreak1972 mentioned above, if you don't like something, change it with a MOD.

[alexander_dougherty]

Originally posted by FizzyElf:

Originally posted by UsernameTaken666:

That is an obvious subjective answer. Since you own the game, maybe play it and answer your own question?

How would me playing the game allow me to determine how it ranks for other people on a case by case basis?

How does knowing how other people change how much you like or dislike a game?

Knowing how a games ranks for others only gives you a vague idea of whether or not it's a good game for you personally.... Where as playing the game tells you the answer much more precisely.
Take FO4 for example, good game, good mechanics, etc but I personally don't enjoy it, I don't know why, but I get zero enjoyment from playing it, and that's the important bit for me. I don't care how many people enjoy it, or why, I personally do not...

And I can't see how You and Skyrim would be any different.