Would Skyrim make sense if I never played any previous Elder Scrolls games?

[IronWing]

I have never played an Elder Scrolls game. I was thinking about giving Skyrim a try. Is the story sufficiently self contained that I don't need to have played the earlier games to enjot it?

 

[Snock514]

Yes the story is mostly unrelated as far as I know. Each Elder Scrolls game is about a different part of the world and a chapter contained in this new region.

edit: from a google search: "Skyrim takes place 200 years after the end of the last game, Oblivion. Because it takes place so far from the rest of the games in the series (both temporally and geographically), there are few characters or locations that are relevant to any of the past games. That doesn't mean that Skyrim has nothing to offer the stalwart Elder Scrolls fan, though."

 

[CrackRabbit]

Yes, there are references to the other games but it isn't needed to enjoy the story.
I've only played a bit of Daggerfall and Morrowind (never completed either) and I was still able to have fun.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Start with oblivion. Once you play skyrim you'll never go back and play oblivion because of the difference in graphics. Oblivion is too awesome to pass up.

 

[zinfamous]

Almost all of the Elder Scrolls storyline is contained withing thousands of random books that you pick up throughout the game, eating up your inventory.

You will essentially get so sick of reading them, to justify carrying them, that the general Elder Scrolls world won't mean much to you.

Before Skyrim, I played a bit of Morrowind and that was it. I got so sick of Morrowind that I assumed I hated the games--I only learned later that you basically have to free yourself of OCD ultra-completionist habits to properly enjoy these games.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

I never played a single second of an Elder Scrolls game before Skyrim and I was able to follow along with no problem. Even though the story takes place in a world with an existing history, it's a completely standalone adventure. You don't need to learn any of it to enjoy the game.

 

[DigDog]

are you looking for eye candy, or for a gaming challenge?

oblivion is by far the superior game, but skyrim is "more realistic", whatever that means for you.

disclaimer: i didn't like skyrim. i loved oblivion. my opinions are severely biased/

 

[waggy]

Start with oblivion. Once you play skyrim you'll never go back and play oblivion because of the difference in graphics. Oblivion is too awesome to pass up.

/this

though i have to say i got tired of the gates after a while..

 

[Zeze]

I never played any of the previous Elder Scrolls.

Skyrim was my first. By god, the game was amazing. Probably 100% of the storyline is a standalone. You are the chosen hero to save them, etc.

All the factions and backstories are secondary information. They probably make passing reference to previous games at best.

In short, you will miss... absolutely nothing- nothing above 'oh that's nice' references.

 

[HeXen]

Skyrim with all the DLC's is pretty epic in scope, I haven't even got to Dragonborn dlc yet. Playing Oblivion first won't really make Skyrim any more enjoyable, different continent in a different time period but you can find TES lores and history to read on websites that will get you up to speed. All you may miss is references and tie ins written in books.
TES Online however makes me worry that the SP aspect of this game is done forever.

 

[videogames101]

I'm the nerd thats going to tell you Morrowind is THE game to play.

The world is beyond unique among fantasy settings.

The Metaphysics of Morrowind.

The graphics, ui, and gameplay may appear dated but in reality this it is the best rpg of all time. I honestly think oblivion is trash in comparison. However Skyrim is pretty good.

 

[IronWing]

Maybe buy the Elder Scrolls Anthology?
www.amazon.com/The-Elder-Scrolls-Ant...dp/B00E9I1FPI/

 

[VulgarDisplay]

The only thing that mattered to me was how much better the dark brotherhood quest was in oblivion.

 

[Crono]

No matter which game you start off with you'll feel like your placed in the middle of an old world thanks to all the backstory. Anything critical you can pick up in-game, but you can read up online on Nirn (name of the world) if you really want to know more.

 

[frozentundra123456]

I'm the nerd thats going to tell you Morrowind is THE game to play.

The world is beyond unique among fantasy settings.

The Metaphysics of Morrowind.

The graphics, ui, and gameplay may appear dated but in reality this it is the best rpg of all time. I honestly think oblivion is trash in comparison. However Skyrim is pretty good.

Sorry, personally I have to disagree. I tried to start morrowwind 2 or 3 times and could never get into it. Skyrim, OTOH, I loved from the very beginning. Maybe its just me, I know Morrow wind is considered a great game. Oblivion, I would put between the two. Probably better story than sky rim, but ruined by the levelling system.

 

[imaheadcase]

Skyrim was made for everyone to jump in a play, what I liked about it was that if you wanted to go deep into lore you could, or just freaking kill rabbits all day.

 

[SLU Aequitas]

Sorry, personally I have to disagree. I tried to start morrowwind 2 or 3 times and could never get into it. Skyrim, OTOH, I loved from the very beginning. Maybe its just me, I know Morrow wind is considered a great game. Oblivion, I would put between the two. Probably better story than sky rim, but ruined by the levelling system.

I love Skyrim, and I have heavily modded Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim. Of the three, Oblivion was by far the worst, from its uninteresting locations and dungeons to its horrible storylines (DB in Oblivion was the exception). Note that Skyrim wasn't THAT much better, however it got the exploring and living world quite a bit better, and combat just felt better. However, in terms of deeper and more interesting questlines (and more of them in general), a more varied environment, and the biggest contributor to TES lore, Morrowind takes the cake. And the pie. And the very last Twinkie you were trying to stash away.

All being said, if graphics are a concern, there are PLENTY of mods that will bring them all up to date, even Morrowind looks pretty darn pretty.

 

[Rhezuss]

IMO the 2 must play of the Elder Scrolls is Morrowind and Skyrim. You can skip the others and don't regret a thing. Well, Daggerfall was awesome too so if you can forget the outdated graphics you should give it a try too.

 

[Stringjam]

I didn't think either Oblivion or Skyrim had a story worth even paying attention to (even though I did), so I wouldn't worry about it.

I know I'll get flamed, but to me they're both just generic RPG fodder in both story and dialog. No matter how much you (or more accurately, "I") tried to understand or get into the characters, I just couldn't find anything that really made me care who or what anybody was. With great stories and characters, you don't have to try so hard in the first place to connect with it.

That said, I still loved playing them based on just the gameplay and world exploration alone. From that approach, I thought Skyrim was vastly superior to Oblivion.

 

[Dannar26]

Like others have said, by and large the game puts an emphasis on running around beating stuff up rather than knowing the near-tolkeinesque level of background lore. If you get off on that stuff, then you'll be like me and do nothing but read the many and varied tomes for your entire play session. Multiple times.

Let me also echo something that others have said, and this goes for all of the sandbox Bethesda games like fallout and TES. You needn't read all the books. You'll burn out if you plow through the books too quickly. Secondly, don't feel you have to loot every barrel, sack of flour, baskets ect... The vast majority have junk in them. I stopped playing Fall Out 3 after literally looting half the capital wasteland. The lockers in my house were jammed with damn near everything except for tin cans.

Another reason I stopped was due to playing it on the xbox. Bethesda games are meant to be modded. Do a little bit of reseach and get some mods. Theres a Skyrim thread here worth checking out, but you'll have to search to find it as it's a bit buried. Most of the uber enthusiasts here with deeper pockets than I (much respect) have already discussed the game to death back when it was new. Late comers like us can really benefit from all that knowledge. It's also an awesome time to get into this game from a bugs-have-been worked out standpoint.

Last thing I'll do here is explain one lore aspect that's relevant without doing any spoiling. Tiber Septim, the first emperor/founder of the empire, was deified. He is worshipped as the god Talos. Humans, especially the nords, were into Talos worship. The elves never really warmed up to the prospect of a human born god, so to avert more warring the current emperor agreed to outlaw Talos worship. Jarl Ulfric and his stormcloaks were like "hellz naw" and have been waging an insurrection to free Skyrim. Both sides have good and bad points to them, so it's not like a star wars thing where the empire is completely bad and the rebels are clearly good.

 

[HeXen]

I didn't think either Oblivion or Skyrim had a story worth even paying attention to (even though I did), so I wouldn't worry about it.

I know I'll get flamed, but to me they're both just generic RPG fodder in both story and dialog. No matter how much you (or more accurately, "I") tried to understand or get into the characters, I just couldn't find anything that really made me care who or what anybody was. With great stories and characters, you don't have to try so hard in the first place to connect with it.

That said, I still loved playing them based on just the gameplay and world exploration alone. From that approach, I thought Skyrim was vastly superior to Oblivion.

Let's just tell it how it is. It's no FF7

 

[KentState]

I could not even tell you what the story is of Oblivion and I put in probably 80 hours when it came out. Skyrim is a completely different story, though some of the guilds are still alive, but they have new stories of their own. Also, Skyrim is probably the first game that I ever spent the time to play through a second time. According to Steam I'm at 141 hours.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

You need to start with arena and work your way up or it's just not worth it...

 

[IronWing]

You need to start with arena and work your way up or it's just not worth it...

I bought the Anthology set so I may just do that.

 

[Geosurface]

I'm someone who's been with the series since Daggerfall and never enjoyed any of them as much as I did Skyrim.

Daggerfall was great, Morrowind was awesome, I didn't care for Oblivion much... but they all had something to offer. None of them drew me in like Skyrim did. I clocked hundreds more hours in Skyrim than the other 3 I played, combined. I even played Battlespire a little bit btw haha.

I say go straight for Skyrim, and I suggest avoiding Oblivion in particular.