I have thousands of hours put into this game across various platforms, and yet, I'm not sure if I would recommend it. I'd give it a neutral rating if I could. This is coming from someone who was previously a Bethesda fanboy.
In my opinion, this game is the last good game Bethesda made, and marks the start of Bethesda's downfall just to appease to a more casual audience and becoming greedy. It worked for sure, but at what cost?

They removed the class and attribute system, they removed several skills (5 skills removed) and completely dumbed down the leveling system, they removed the fame/infamy system, removed the spell making system, skipped out on writing original and interesting questlines for the factions, and most NPCs are lazily written. The UI is horrible to navigate. I've personally never been a huge fan of the art style (or maybe it's the color grading?) but that's just my opinion. The graphics are still alright, I guess. The voice acting is okay, nothing spectacular. There are exceptions.

It's still AFTER 13 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ YEARS ridiculously buggy, and they keep breaking the game and mods by adding meaningless "updates" that do nothing but add Creation Club content, better known as paid mods. This is infuriating, and it's one of the major problems I have with the game. You need to mod it to make it enjoyable, unless you don't mind a more simple RPG. If you do end up going down the modding rabbit hole, it can be really fun and immersive. But it's empty and bland without mods. Wide as an ocean, but with the depth of a small puddle. I'll give it to Bethesda, they're really great at creating beautiful worlds to explore, and that's one of the biggest positives. I can spend hours and hours just exploring. But they do not know what an RPG should truly be. No character feels unique thanks to there being no class system present.

When it comes to the quests, most of them are glamorized (including radiant) fetch-quests. "Go to X, kill/get Y, come back".
The main questline is actually pretty good, but heavily rushed with a constant false sense of emergency. If you do end up focusing on the main quests, you'll get overpowered very, very quickly and it takes away the sense of progression. It never feels like you deserve those powers. In Morrowind, you started out as a pile of crap, and worked your way up to a demi-god. You had to EARN it. Everything gets handed to you on a gold-platter in this, and it's boring.
Another thing is that even when you have literally saved the world, the NPCs won't care. They won't really acknowledge you, even if you have god-like dragon powers and have become the leader of every single faction in the game. It's so weird when everyone treats you like you're the only one who can save the world during quests, but at the same time they don't think you're that important. The war also feels absolutely pointless. All that it does is changing the kind of guards patrolling certain cities.

It's even worse with the factions. You basically become the leader of every faction almost immediately after joining without having to put into any sort of significant work. Compare that with how it worked in Oblivion and especially Morrowind where you had to work your way up the ladder in order to earn the faction's respect.
The factions are also very disappointing. Seriously. They all (especially the Companions) feel rushed. The Dark Brotherhood follows a VERY similar path to the one in Oblivion, but it's extremely predictable and is again way too rushed. Some of the assassination quests can be quite fun and creative though. The College of Winterhold has a pretty decent story, but again also heavily rushed. The Thieves' Guild isn't about stealing.
The Blades are now pathetic and useless.
The Daedric quests can be quite interesting, though.
It's also quite weird that you're forced to, for example, serve a Daedric god in the afterlife if you want to progress certain questlines. Where's the freedom in that? It doesn't affect the gameplay, but this is supposed to be an RPG, right?
Oh, most quest-related NPCs are essential so too bad if you want to get rid of someone you don't like. Like Delphine.


Combat is alright, I've never had a problem with it. It's kinda slow and clunky, but I don't play this for the combat so it's never been something I've ever really cared about. It's not Morrowind combat, so I'm happy. Only downside I can think of is that you can't use spells if you're wearing for example a sword and shield, like you could in Oblivion and Morrowind.


Despite all of this, I still play this occasionally and I always quite enjoy it. But only after installing 200 mods. I personally think that if you need to heavily mod a game to make it enjoyable, it's not a good game. I can play Morrowind and Oblivion without mods just fine, but not Skyrim. This game has an empty sense of fun.
If you like simpler RPGs that give you a lot of leeway, exploration freedom and flexibility when it comes to the skill system, and don't care too much about the lore and writing quality, this game will be just fine. If you want proper writing and lore, a proper class/skill system, unique characters and factions, then go for either of the previous games. For that reason, I can't recommend this game.