Intro:

The game of Skyrim is about the world of Tamriel like in the previous titles such as Morrowind and Oblivion, except this time, it’s taking place in a land far to the north called Skyrim, land of the Nords one of the 10 playable races inhabiting Tamriel.  The story is about the Dovahkiin (Dragonborn) in 4th Era 201; 200 years after the Third Era ended, which is after the events of Oblivion (the previous title).  The Dovahkiin is supposed to find his/her way, and unlock new secrets about the world of Tamriel in a time of strife and conflict between two major factions; the Imperials and the Stormcloaks.

Scale:

• Great
• Good
• Decent
• Not bad
• Bad
• Nope

Game:

• Graphic: Good
• Sound: Good
• Animation: Decent
• Story: Great
• Quests: Good
• Classes: Decent
• Crafting: Good
• Modding: Great

Details:

• Graphics are good but not the best that could be achieved at that time. That being said it does have its wonderful scenic moments.
  
  
• Sound is pretty good, I mean sure, it does have a few hitches here and there, but nothing is perfect and the game can be fixed with mods.
• Animations the movement of certain things such as horseback riding, holding or swinging weapons is not on par with what you would expect, but you learn not to pay too much attention. Small things like if you have your weapon unsheathed, it doesn’t look the same in 1st person as it looks in 3rd person.
• Story of the game is great and if you are very interested in the story of Elder Scrolls it has plenty of past stories. For example, Skyrim is taking place in the 4th Era Year 201 which is 200 years after the Septim bloodline (which was in the 3rd Era 433) ended with the last Emperor – Martin Septim –  when he sacrifices himself and the Amulet of the Kings to banish Mehrunes Dagon from Tamriel ending the Oblivion Crisis. All of these great things being said, some aspects are very bare bone and skimped on such as the conflict between The Imperials and The Stormcloaks which feel forced and weakly implemented.
• Quests are good but not good enough in my opinion to merit a great rating.  It does not mean they are of poor quality; just some small aspects that haven’t been properly polished or balanced such as “Go kill this Dragon”.  You kill the dragon return to get your payment and you get 100 gold.  It may sound like a lot, but it isn’t, especially if that Dragon happened to be ancient and very powerful. The amount of gold does not scale with the difficulty of the enemy nor does it scale with your level.  Not trying to be greedy but you’d think your life is more worth given that you just killed a Dragon. It’s something small that bothered me and it might not bother you. Other quests are perfectly fine and well designed.
• Classes are only decent due to the fact that you can literally have every single class tree fully unlocked if you have the time and patience, I’ve even found a way to level up some skills without even doing much and you can reset when you reach level 100.  Resetting a skill drops you back to 15 but gives you a Legendary Status on that class.  You retain the skill points that you acquired with that class and then use them again. Of course you start from scratch with that class, but if you have an easy way to level it up it also means you can just keep resetting and keep getting endless amount of skill points which in the end makes you a Jack of all Trade/Master of All in which case class is a very irrelevant term.
• Crafting is good, easy to understand, and easy to get to. Materials might be the only hard part of the crafting system, but with a lot of patience and some hours of farming you can pretty much craft everything. Just take a tour of Skyrim and you can level up everything.  Keep in mind though you have a limited amount of weight you can carry before you start walking and that also means you can’t instant travel places.  Trust me, your weight limits are the first thing you want to test.
• Modding is the best tool this game has that makes it so wonderful besides the story; it’s the ability to morph it into whatever you want to. The modding community is a gift to us the players, from new texture of grass to a full overhaul of character creation and the world of Skyrim, to even the making of whole new content.  If you ever get the chance to play this game, make sure that after you’ve finished the game at least once, that you try modding.  It’s a wonder that makes dreams come true, but of course there is also the “darker side” (adult content, fetishes etc.) of modding.  I mean darker side in a kind way because there is place for everybody in this game and even the “darker side” has good looking content.  Problematic things like the weak story of the conflict between the Imperials and Stormcloaks can be fixed and further deepened with mods. There are even mods for “Wanted” quests (like “Go kill this Dragon”) can be better fleshed out.

Conclusion:

The game is an uncut gem on its own but with the help of the modding community it can be made to shine and look brighter than anybody’s future. It’s worth the money and especially at the amount of content you get and you can double that amount from mods.  Now that the Special Edition version has come out, buy that and you also get all DLCs included.