Tamriel!!



I'm a pretty novice gamer, but this game is amazing - it's one of those which truly stand apart from the others, so I think you can easily play this before or after (or without!) playing the others in the series (skyrim, morrowind, oblivion).



It's a real-time, online game, which means there's always lots of other gamers playing at the same time. That has its pros and cons. A sort of con is that you likely have to subscribe to get online access - I use a PS4 and had to become a Plus member to be able to log on (but then you get the option of 2 free games each month, and cheap deals etc, so that can be a good thing anyway) - and in relation to that the servers sometimes go offline for upgrades and maintenance and you can't access the game during those times. That's quite rare though, and I've found it to be relatively bug-free.



Because it's real-time you don't have a pause option, which can be frustrating - I find it's best to make sure you've got a few hours free before getting involved in any group events or fights.



It is incredibly interactive - you can join guilds, trade items, make friends, team up to take down bosses or complete trials, do one-to-one dueling...What I liked is that for the most part you can decide how interactive you want to be, and you can also decide the approach you want to take. Once you get up to a certain level it starts to become necessary to team up for fights, but there's always so many other players logged on that it's pretty easy to join a group or tag along.



Do you want to be a healer, a fighter, a thief? What race, gender, armour, weaponry...? And then, do you want to spend a lot of your time exploring Tamriel, crafting items, focusing on the main storyline and quests, or doing all the mini quests?



And that's before you consider all the add-ons that are available to buy. You can get special outfits, different mounts (do you want to ride a horse, or a bear?), pets. And you can also get access to extra dungeons, the thieves and assassin's guilds, Cyrodiil etc.



The fact that it's online means new things are being added pretty regularly too, and it just never gets boring. The graphics and effects are really good too - probably the only thing that would make me suggest playing the older games in the series first. I also play Skyrim, and have to admit the graphics on that do look a bit dated by comparison.



The only thing that I do miss from Skyrim, is the ability to have a home - you have pack space, which you can upgrade (essentially how many items you can carry), and you also have bank space, which again can be upgraded; but I find these always run out really quickly, and it would be nice if I could keep some of the collectibles or armour/weapons, and put them on display somewhere, rather than just selling them if they're not useful. But like I said, it's such a different game, that I find it quite hard to compare them!