What made Skyrim so good?

[King Aragorn]

Now, before someone goes ahead and says ''Another one of X thread talking about popular AAA title...'' I do not hate Skyrim. I like Skyrim, it's a good game, but am I the only one that finds it overrated?
The game has many glaring issues. From horrible clunky combat, tons of bugs, lack of impact and choices on the world *I give a Stormcloak city to the Empire...what I get are different colored guards. Even bloody Talos statues are still around*.
The game also suffers from pretty bad characters and storyline. But even then, I still enjoy it. The world they crafted is pretty awesome, and I enjoyed the new UI, and also the new organic skill system. Also, the dungeons were a much needed improvement over Oblivion, even if they still are a bit repetitive at times.

So, I ask, what do people enjoy so much about Skyrim? what makes it so good to deserve those 9's and 10's?

 

[Danceofmasks]

Skyrim's good, but not great.

However, those mods. Ooooh, mods ... after installing over a hundred gigs of mods, the game got really entertaining.

 

[Zeh Don]

Well, it's really a matter of it's company I feel. Which other open world fantasy RPGs this generation have lived up to Skyrims level of quality? I feel that, frankly, none have come even close - though some have been good in their own right.

I'm with the OP in that I preferred the fantastical nature of Morrowind. However, the charm of the gritty and bloody world of Skyrim and it's time were not lost on me, and they have a place in my heart. So does Oblivion, and the land of Cyrodiil. It's not for everyone - and I still have Morrowind, and thanks to modders it gets better every time I play it - however I at least appreciate one AAA game series doing something different every time.

 

[Fallen-Angel Risen-Demon]

Because Dragons, I guess. Or rather, the features that were considered "Awesome". Being a Werewolf, Shouts etc.

For some people, those features instantly make something great. The hype, and all that.

 

[Bertylicious]

I liked Skyrim and I thought the combat worked fairly well, at least until high level when it all went a bit wrong.

On reflection I guess what really made it great was just having loads of stuff to do all the time. Every location was brimming with quests.

 

[kage]

I've played most of hours of Skyrim mod free, that being said I do love what mods can do for the game. The thing that makes Skyrim and its predecessors so good is the fully open world that allows for literally hundreds of hours of free roaming creating your own 'story' if you will.

Of course Morrowind and Oblivion both offer the same thing so I think that while not necessarily a good thing, most of the hype of Skyrim comes from its graphical upgrade from the older games which unfortunately many gamers find overly important. Personally I find that the quality comes from the larger variety of enemies to kill and places to go. Now the caves do get quite repetitive but I find that the map is a bit more varied than the other games especially from my experience of Oblivion.

 

[zxvcasdfqwerzxcv]

I think it's down to the open world and exploration. When its all new, its a fantastic experience of discovery.
After so many months of play, the Skyrim actually starts to seem small though! Still everytime I pick it up, I usually come across something I never did before.

 

[putowtin]

Personal Choice
I like Oblivion, but only go back to it now to replay the Dark Brotherhood quests, and have sunk more time into two Skyrim characters than all 7 of my Oblivion characters.

It's like Fallout,
I like Fallout 3, but by Talo's (see what I did there!) I love New Vegas!

 

[Sack of Cheese]

The fact that there're so many places to see I guess. And the leveling up system was addicting!
Although I sank 120 hrs into Skyrim before I realised it was boring. Now I can't even bring myself to finish the DLC, everything seems so stale and soulless. Mods made it entertaining for a while though.

At least Oblivion has better questlines: Brotherhood and Thieves Guild.

 

[piinyouri]

Open world fun/hijinks.

It also functions as an RPG sandbox/storybook where a little imagination can go a long way.

 

[havoc33]

I enjoyed Skyrim, much more so than Oblivion (level system seriously flawed, to the point where the game became broken for me). The open, vast world was beautifully constructed. I loved travelling around and discovering new parts of the world. The story though is a bit flat, and don't offer much in the way of interesting and deep characters like seen in Mass Effect. Clunky battlesystem needs to be improved upon as well.

 

[Mr Cwtchy]

For me it was the incredibly open world and the freedom to go wherever the hell I pleased. Dragons are awesome too I guess. Do I think it's overrated? Not really.

And just to note, you're never the only one who thinks ANYTHING. EVER.

 

[porous_shield]

Nothing. It was a boring bland world with a mediocre story. The combat wasn't even very good because first person swordplay sucks.

 

[Zhukov]

I guess it was the exploration. It got the big epic landscapes right.

I may be the wrong person to ask. I recently tried to play it again and gave up 20 minutes in after realizing there wasn't anything to do besides kill and loot.

 

[J Tyran]

Afraid I'm with the OP, I found Skyrim really, really dull and nowhere near as absorbing or fantastical as Morrowind. Preffered it to Oblivion, but still not a game I'd highly recommend.

I can't understand how the mods add much depth to it either? I play offline 360 so have no mod access anyway, but all the mods I have seen don't seem to add anything of substance to the game?

When those guys get going they will have Morrowind and Cyrodil redone with Skyrims graphics and a whole load of changes in the mechanics. The Fallout guys are the same, they made a mod that links the Capitol Wasteland with the Mojave desert. You can take a train between the two and you can play every single quest and side mission and all the DLC, you get New Vegas style guns and gun play too.

The Bethesda modders are ferocious with the amount and the quality of stuff the can turn out. Some mods are small and dont change much, some mods are stupid but others add whole new quest-lines or even drag the older games up to the standards of the newer ones graphically.

 

[Windcaler]

IMO the game is alright but not great. Skyrim could have been a lot worse but to their credit they took a pretty crappy combat system thats been that way since Morrowind (one of my favorite games of all time) and improved upon it. However combat is not what I play an elder scrolls game for. I play Elder scrolls games for the world and the immersive atmosphere it presents which is why I consider Skyrim, at best, mediocre. For me, Morrowind was the most immersive world they made with daggerfall right behind it. Skyrim just didnt have the same thing going for it. The nereverine while the chosen one couldnt be the chosen one of everything, where the dragonborn can. The dragonborn also has the full knowledge of skyrims geograhy at his beck and call while the Nerevarine had to find his way around in Vvardenfel, a place he had never been before. This is just a major problem that breaks my immersion and makes it difficult for me to enjoy Skyrim in the same way I enjoy past TES games

 

[shrekfan246]

Funny how the opinion of Skyrim has changed from "OMG GREATEST GAME EVER!" to "Yeah, it was okay" in the year and a half since it released.

It was one of the few open-world games that has actually grabbed my attention, and the only Elder Scrolls game to keep me playing for more than an hour, so for that I say it's pretty good. Would've been a lot better if Warner Bros. hadn't pitched a fit and thrown their toys off the pram about the modders making a full-scale version of Middle Earth as a total conversion for Skyrim, though...