Without mods, it's a greedy, lazy, dumpster fire that would be better off as a $5-$10 DLC for Special Edition. Mods of course transform the game into something actually worth playing (wait for it to go on sale though still). I give it the Thumbs Up because it deserves a Mostly Positive, I feel. If It ever gets to Very Positive, I'll change to a Thumbs Down. I hate binary review systems.

Here is my guide for getting modded Skyrim to work.


Here's how I got mods to work with it: the Skyrim Special Edition Nexus[www.nexusmods.com] with Vortex mod manager.[www.nexusmods.com] Make sure you get the Skyrim VR script extender[skse.silverlock.org]. And unlike other games with Vortex, you have to manually install the mods to Skyrim VR from the downloads page. Vortex says the mods aren't designed to work with the game, but almost all Special Edition mods work so it's fine.

This is my old modlist that I've since changed. Keeping the modlist below for posterity, but I definitely recommend checking out my guide I linked to above for an up-to-date modlist with links provided.
I'm on my phone and can't remember the names of some of the dependencies that some below mods need.

• VRIK Player Avatar
  
• HIGGS (Hand Interaction and Gravity Gloves for Skyrim VR)
  
• SkyUI VR
  
• No Stagger Mod
  
• VR FPS Stabilizer
  
• Haptic Skyrim VR - Spellcasting and Enhanced Bow and Melee Haptics
  
• Im Walkin' Here VR
  
• Centered Messages Box VR
  
• True 3D Sound for Headphones
  
• Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch
  
• Skyrim VR USSEP and SSE Compatability Patch by Lysinine

• VR Perk Extender
  
• Ordinator
  
• Ordinator VR Patch
  
• Apocalypse - Magic of Skyrim (w/ Ordinator patch)
  
• Dual Wield Block VR
  
• Spell Wheel VR
  
• LeanWolf's Better-Shaped Weapons
  
• Immersive Weapons
  
• Immersive Armors
  
• Diverse Dragons Collection SE

• MystiriousDawn's HD Skyrim Overhaul
  
• Enhanced Lights and FX
  
• Onyx - VR Weathers
  
• Lanterns of Skyrim II
  
• Ethereal Clouds - Special Edition
  
• Ethereal Cosmos - Special Edition
  
• Realistic Water Two SE
  
• Sounds of Skyrim Complete SE
  
• Immersive Sounds - Compendium w/ patches

• Locational Damage SKSE VR
  
• Sprint Jump VR
  
• Security Overhaul SKSE - Lock Varations
  
• Security Overhaul SKSEVR
  
• Magical College of Winterhold
  
• Thunderchild - Epic Shouts and Immersion
  
• Helgen Reborn
  
• Skyrim Immersive Creatures Special Edition
  
• Immersive Patrols SE
  
• Rich Skyrim Merchants
  
• Achievements Mods Enabler
  
• Immersive Citizens - AI Overhaul SE
  
• Follower Trap Safety

I highly recommend this. I also recommend three mods.
-VRIK player avatar: This mod adds inverse-kinematics so that you can see your own body (which works astonishingly well), but also allows you to holster weapons on your hips, legs, shoulders, arms, and even your stomach. There's a weapon for every occasion, and no more looking through menus.

-Natural locomotion: Adds a more natural and immersive way of moving. I've never been able to play without it for prolonged periods, and I also use it for multiple games. Find it on Steam.

-MageVR: You can cast spells, powers and shouts through physical gestures. You'll never need to open the favourites menu again. It also adds immersive archery, where you need to pick up arrows from your quiver before lining a shot. You can also gulp potions physically by bringing a controller to your face and mimicking the action, with stamina/magicka potions being picked automatically depending on what you need. What a mod!

Combining these mods, you should never need to pause when playing Skyrim VR; equipment is handled by physically placing it in your body, and spells by making body gestures. My latest play-through is around 20 hours in, and I haven't opened the favourites menu even once.

Tips: The best classes to enjoy Skyrim VR are rogue (with daggers and bow), and Mage. Any melee weapon bigger than a dagger feels lacklustre due to weightlessness. If you play Mage, get the mod 'ward functionalities extended' which makes your wards actually useful, and also Apocalypse spells which grants you more versatility, like being able to conjure walls and picking up enemies in the air.

Due to popular request, honourable mod mentions that didn't cut the top 3:
- Archery Mod (More realistic arrow physics)
- Ordinator (More dynamic perk overhaul)
- Dynamic seriously dark dungeons (Realistic darkness)
- Frozen electrocuted combustion (Better spell effects)
- HapticSkyrimVR (Spellcasting and bow feedback)
- Mortal Enemies (enemies can miss when attacking)
- NoStagger mod (stagger doesnt work well on VR)
- No HUD VR (much more beautiful without HUD, and you don't need it)
- Point the Way (adds roadsigns so that you don't have to look at the map or HUD..)
- Destructible skyrim (can break all the furniture, it's gorgeous)
- I've got around 100 mods for graphics enhancement.

Skyrim VR is only worth it if you plan on installing a bunch of mods. With that said, this is an excellent mod list to check out: https://github.com/Kvitekvist/FUS.

Unfortunately, Bethesda didn't capitalize on making this version of Skyrim as immersive and amazing as it could be. Thankfully, modders have. Buy this game, download mods and play as a stealth archer for the 500th time (but better). With mods, this is quite possibly the best version of Skyrim available.

Recommended mods:
-VRIK
-Open Cities
-Dragonborn speaks naturally
A bunch of visual overhauls like...
-Any ENB of your choice
-Skyrim 2020 Parallax
-Realistic Lighting Overhaul
-Static Mesh Improvement Mod
-High Poly Project
-JK's Skyrim (If playing with Open Cities, make sure to download the patch)

Make sure to check out the SkyrimVR subreddit for modding guides and other mod recommendations.

Edit: I should mention that the mods recommended above aren't required. They're just recommendations for better immersion.

Just a quick review to confirm or deny a few things for those waiting on these details. Especially those who played Fallout 4 VR.Tested for 2 hours with the Vive and progressed past the Bleak Falls Barrow quest. I've already played Skyrim so this is simply about the VR aspect. This is not a new game in any respect and looking at some of the other reviews, it appears some people thought it was a new title. It is exatly what it says it is. Skyrim, in VR!

Pros:


Looks as good as can be (for the games overall age) and tracking is perfect.

Lots of options for movement, be it smooth locomotion or teleportation.

Supports left and right hand play.

All GFX settings are changeable to you can scale up or scale down depending.

Suprisingly clear distance rendering.

Character customizeation is avalible.

You have hands sometimes.

Runs very smoothly.

No skybox issues. The stars are where they are supposed to be.

All weaponry and spells worked well and I'm still not decided which one I want to focus on though archery is looking pretty good right now. Stealth archer is a lot of fun so far.

The sun setting and the gameworld turning to night. For some reason it impressed me when it never did in the flat version.

The Weather! There's something great about being stood in a snowstorm and not freezing your nips off!

Stealth. You can set the game to register you physically ducking for stealth or just a squeeze the grip buttons to duck. It's a small feature but a good one.

You can play seated with a gamepad if you want to (I have not played this way but the game supports it).

Everything looks amazing.

No really...everything looks really amazing.

Spatial audio is spot on. I was able to pick bugs out of the air with ease due only to hearing where they the little critters where.

Fist fights work properly.

Even though I've played it all before I did have a few genuine immersive moments where I forgot "it's just a game".


Cons.

Spiders. Lots and lots of giant spiders. Arcanophobes beware.

Still a port of a desktop game and as always, that will dissapoint the pureists.Certain things are just going to be point and click because of it.

World (or at least building scale) is on the larger size but you can scale your hight to recitfy some of this.

After playing Fallout 4 VR, certain GFX's now look dated (though I'm sure for those inclined, mods will help a lot).

Long bow seems slightly off in angle but that could be just me.

Lighting on npcs seemed wrong untill the sun started to set ingame.

You dont have hands sometimes.

I used to be a VR gamer like you till I took a hardwood floor to the knee. Yeah...down side of it being immersive is it's immersive. There's some irony in going stealth archer then busting up your knee by trying to be a stealth archer.


It's nothing new storywise. You've (most likely) done it all before and this is not going to offer you anything new if you're bored of Skyrim.


Neither pro nor con.

Mod support. An official posts from Jess@Bethseda says no support but I'm seeing reports that many do work. I have not personally tried them so can not comment. Many worked in Fallout 4 VR so it's safe bet many work here as well.

Swimming. There are diffrent options to swim in game and it's better than Fallouts attempt but it's still not perfect.

Crafting. It's just a point and click affair like it always was (which I expected) but it would have been nice to have swung a hammer or held a weapon to a grindstone.




Conclusion:

So far so good because the pros do outweigh the cons. Many of us have played Skyrim before and know what to expect story and gameway wise. Nothing has changed there in the least nor should anyone expect it to. If you've never played Skyrim buy it, you're in for a treat. If you have played Skyrim, it's still a great experiance (better than vorpex in every sense so far) and is genuinly a fun way to experiance the game but if you have an issue with the price..wait for a sale. If you're the type who does not enjoy motion controlled games is supports seated and game pad mode just like the PSVR version.

If you want keyboard and mouse...Vorpex is your only option.

As a closing comment (as I wont be updating this again) if you begrudge buying Skyrim again..just dont buy it. Moaning about it and attacking those who do opt to pay isnt going to make this game go away or lessen the fact other devs will port older games to VR. We need big games like this and we need more of them. I've played both flat Skyrim and Flat Fallout VR to death but in both cases, the VR versions have given me a world to re-explore and getting another couple of hundred of hours worth of gameplay out of each game is worth paying for since this sort of update takes time and money to produce. It also proves that VR gaming is viable for Bethsedas future endeviours and it's a safe bet it will be built in as standard in many future titles.

Now if only we can convince them to port over Fallout New Vegas...

Step 0: Trust the random online guy (me) for advice because he spent hours figuring out this.
Step 1: Buy the game
Step 2: Run the game Once without any mods (This is required for mods)
Step 3: Download and install Vortex[www.nexusmods.com]
Step 4: Download the VR Mod List [next.nexusmods.com]
Step 5: Fix the VR Mod List
1 - After Downloading all mods, download "SkyUI" latest release and drag that to vortex for installation.[github.com] - It should be named something like SkyUI.v1.2.1.7z (not the source codes)
2 - Next Find and Remove (uninstall) "Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch" - causes the F*CKING GAME TO NOT RUN
3 - Download older version of "Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch" [www.nexusmods.com] - And install through drag a drop on vortex
4 - Find and disable "FNIS PCEA2 - Player Exclusive Animations (dynamic) SE - FNIS PCEA2 7.2"
5 - Find and disable "BodySlide and Outfit Studio" - causes crashes when character creating
6 - Find and disable "Sexy Skyrim SE Statues v2.1" - causes conflicts with other mods
7 - Settle conflicts. It is pretty easy to do this. Just use common sense to figure out which mods go before and after.
OPTIONAL 8 - Disable "Realm of Lorkhan - No Shards Version (by Benjapo)" - this will allow the game to play its original story in the beginning. You will be floating in the cart for the first 2 min but after all the cinematics you are playing the actual story mode.
Step 6: Rate this review so other blokes can see it. You are welcome.

Game might still crash every now and then in the beginning but this will make it enjoyable to actually play. And trust me, DO NOT PLAY THIS GAME WITHOUT MODS. It sucks.

Do i recommend this WITHOUT mods?: No.
Do i recommend this WITH mods?: Absolutely!

At the very least two mods that instantly makes this vr experience 20 times more immersive and should be a crime not to have:
- HIGGS (Hand Interaction and Gravity Gloves).
- VRIK (Player Avatar).

Install VRIK, HIGGS, and PLANCK and it's the best singleplayer VR game of all time.

A conditional recommendation:

Skyrim VR without some key mods is kind of a really jank vr port. Its functional but lacks a lot in terms of vr usability. Luckily modders have (once again) saved the day in a very broad sense. There are tonnes of mods that will improve the VR experience but there are only a few that are *Essential* they are as follows;

SKSEVR (just makes other stuff work, is probably the trickiest to use since you have to run this instead of skyrim vr itself, this opens the game after it runs itself. I added a custom game to steam and added pictures for it to make it easier to use. If you don't want to deal with it just ignore the auto sneak and jump mod)
Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch, and a new vr compatability patch for it. Previously you had to use version v4.1.2a (You need this exact version)~
SkyUI VR
Menu Mouse Fix (makes it so you can use the vr controller to point a cursor around on menus and pulling the trigger to select things)
VRIK (Gives you a body with holsters for items, and if you are using an index its controller bindings because the defaults ones are terrrrrrible)
SMIM (Makes it so that bumps on textures match up better with bumps on the models, there is a light version as well)
Simple Realistic Archery VR (makes shooting bows more natural)
Grass FPS Booster (More grass and improved fps somehow, I don't know how it works but it does and its amazing)
A Quality World Map - Classic with All Roads (the normal map is hard to see because of 3d clouds)
Spell Wheel VR (does items as well, its like a better favourites menu)
Auto Sneak and Jump VR (Being able to physically jump in vr is really fun but uses SKSE to enable the jumping)

Personally I also like really good audio when I play so I also consider

True 3D Sound for Headphones (Makes the rather dull base audio more surround sound)
Reverb and Ambiance Overhaul (Just kind of balances all the audio to be better through headphones)
EWS (Enhanced Waterfall Sounds, it makes it so you can hear waterfall audio from further than 30 feet away. With this you get a low bass rumble coming in from quite far away, its very nice and natural)

And thats it, with those the game is entirely fun and playable in vr. It can be further improved through mods, I am currently running close to 200 mods that most of the graphics and enhance a mostly stock skyrim experience to make it run and look better in vr. The best start with IMO is usually some performance optimizing textures because Skyrims a hog, followed up with some improvements to water, mountains, mist, etc. Or maybe just use the Dyndolod (makes it so you can see buildings, rocks, waterfalls, trees, and grass in the newest version, from further away by making small textures for them in the distances. Its pretty automatic in version 3a)

Then the skys the limit, maybe add a little bit of Oblivions map in with Beyond Skyrim Bruma, or make the Reach bigger with Beyond Reach.

If you have the time to mod this, it goes from a 1/10 port to the most fun you will ever have with videogames.

The easiest way is through Wabbajack which will automatically install hundreds of mods for you. With mods you can have a body, pick up objects like in half life alyx, and throw your weapon and have it fly back to you just to name three. The purpose of having hundreds of mods is that the graphics, performance, and mainly gameplay will all be improved to the standard you would expect out of a AAA Open World RPG VR title.

The problem with vanilla skyrim vr is that the port was just too lazy and barebones, with all systems and mechanics not translating well into vr at all. Mods fix literally everything and it really is the only way to experience this game if you ever end up buying it.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/19PhkPbhh0d8_ZoKj5mGBpmUIMU10c_7P94X9FpIuyak/edit