Play other Elder Scrolls before Skyrim?

[Arakfalas]

So my friend is begging me to get this, and I am going to once the Winter Sales come out. I have never played an Elder Scrolls game, and am wondering if it's important to play Oblivion and Morrowind before this, or can I start this and be good to go? Thanks in advance!

[Ehra]

Every Elder Scrolls game is made for people new to the series to be able to just jump in, the main stories are failry self contained. There are plenty of books and NPCs scattered around the world that can fill you in on the backstory if you ever get curious.

[Yesh]

I would say it's definitely not requirement to play the other games before hand. They can serve to enrich the experience but Skyrim is an excellent standalone game. It couldn't have recieved such a wide amount of praise if only Elder Scrolls followers had promoted it.

[Arakfalas]

Perfect. That's what I figured with such a huge world like this, and since I have been told Skyrim set the bar, figured start with the best and go from there. Thanks for the feedback!

[Afflicted]

I have played oblivion as well and your right, there are books scattered everywhere, but certain tidbits I wouldnt know/get without backstory from playing oblivion. it isnt neccessary to play the other games but unless you want to read ALOT then your going to be like a third wheel on an inside joke. That being said, oblivion was alright, but skyrim is great. whatever you do, buy skyrim, worth the money.

[Kurai Trickster]

my first game was TES|||: Morrowind :)
after that i'm the biggest fan of this game series))

[Hissing Fauna]

it depends on if you want to know how it feels and their are oblivion references in skyrim if you want to know how it feels playing skyrim(i highly reccomend you get skyrim first due to how big and hard oblivion is i preffer get skyrim first) but it really dosnt matter pick from what you feel like playing

[Acris]

it is better to play them first because of the lore and all that but it is definetly not a requirement you will catch on pretty quick

[Drozdek]

I tried to play Morrowind and Oblivion but today these games are quite old. I couldn't play for more than 2-3h.
It is not important to play them but as you already know - it's good to familiarize with them.

[No Name]

You could always just read on them and the stories contained within each of the older games to get an idea of what happened be for Skyrim. Just go to the wiki pages and do some reading. It is not required to play backwards be for playing Skyrim.

[Chains]

The only reason you should play the others, (I would only recommend Morrowind and Oblivion... Daggerfall is just way to outdated for me) is for the story. Skyrim has a couple of hidden goodies mentioning the past games, like the book of dragonborn mentions 3 or 4 prophecy that must pass for a certain someone to resurrect (spoilers?) and those prochecies are the past games... but MORROWIND IS THE BEST elder scrolls game in my opinion, the graphics are meh... but there are mods for that. The story, the quests, the gameplay, everything about it was perfect, I must of played Morrowind atleast 10 seperate time fully through just to try new things. Oblivion is great to, but I just didn't feel the same about it as I do Morrowind and Skyrim

[daemonslayerc]

Morrowind was truly great, fantastic story and quests. Oblivion I just couldn't get into as much as Skyrim and Morrowind. Skyrim was fantastic - great world exploration and background. Also who doesn't love fighting dragons?

[SENTAR]

you will be fine, just when npcs reference events from past games you will be completely lost, although the reveferences are usually not relevent to skyrims plot. read up on the lore if you want to know

[SENTAR]

Първоначално публикувано от chainheart-effect:

The only reason you should play the others, (I would only recommend Morrowind and Oblivion... Daggerfall is just way to outdated for me) is for the story. Skyrim has a couple of hidden goodies mentioning the past games, like the book of dragonborn mentions 3 or 4 prophecy that must pass for a certain someone to resurrect (spoilers?) and those prochecies are the past games... but MORROWIND IS THE BEST elder scrolls game in my opinion, the graphics are meh... but there are mods for that. The story, the quests, the gameplay, everything about it was perfect, I must of played Morrowind atleast 10 seperate time fully through just to try new things. Oblivion is great to, but I just didn't feel the same about it as I do Morrowind and Skyrim

morrowind was very good, but despite the mods as a complete package it doesn't really compare to oblivion or skyrim. Sure it has some features the latter two dont, but overall each installment is more entertaining than the previous flaws and mods included. Its really the only franchise that truly makes sequals that are superior, despite flaws that do exist in skyrim overall its gfar superior to oblivion or morrowind(and tes1and2)

[omegablue0231]

It's not important. Go to the Bard's College or the College and Winterhold and read if you're curious, they have tons of books including historical books that will fill you in on everything but like I said it's not important.

[Rufus]

Well as far as the timeline goes, the order of the games follows the progression of time. So it is a good idea to play them in order, but not essential as each game is it's own story.

One thing I will say though is that as the series has progressed the graphics have gotten better, but the games have not. And they have become less RPG-like as they go on. Morrowind has a much deeper mechanics system than Skyrim, and overall, imo, is a far superior game. The only problem is the graphics; the younger generation don't seem comfortable playing anything without cutting edge graphics, no matter how good the actual gameplay is. However, if you install graphics mods for Morrowind it will look much closer to current games.