I just finished my first (and last) playthrough yesterday. I ran about 150 mods, most of them geared towards immersion like Frostfall and RND. They couldn't save Skyrim though -- it was still a turd.
The story was unimaginative and bland and full of A or B decisions. That is, when you were even permitted to decide for yourself. Definitely not something you'd expect from a company like Bethesda and a AAA title like TESV. It's even worse if you learned the TES timeline from the previous games because the dragon war this game is based on doesn't fit in the timeline at all; not in Skyrim anyway. Very immersion breaking right there if you're a person that can't just choose to ignore things. The DLC's were equally bad when it came to story. Serana? Why is a devout follower of Molag Bal, Lord of Domination, King of Rape etc presented as a "wouldn't hurt a fly" type of character? Miraak the first dragonborn? Wasn't Alessia the first dragonborn? It feels like they just phoned it in on the DLCs to be honest.
The mechanics were also a low point in the series. What happened to improving upon the mechanics that made TES great in the first place? I hate using this term because it gets thrown around too much but there is just no other way to describe what happened here -- dumbed down. Sure, some things were streamlined but most of them were just kicked to the curb so that the audience wouldn't have to engage their brains at all. Games like that may have a high initial fun factor but they leave you unsatisfied at the end. Lame.
Bugs were also a major detractor in this game and it's just staggering how so many bugs can still be present after two years. Even with the unofficial community patches which address literally hundreds of issues, the bugs and glitches are still common. It's mind-boggling that gamers today just let this slide. Why don't more review sites chew Bethesda out for leaving their game unfinished like this? (Don't answer that, I already know the sad truth. I just needed to ask it.)
Sorry if I derailed the thread a little. I practically played through Skyrim twice since my first character (unmodded) became un-savable for whatever fucking reason 90-95% of the way through the game. So I just needed to vent a little; spending so much time with this game has left me full of bile.
(By the way, if you're the type of semi-OCD person that feels compelled to play through a game that you payed good money for and you haven't yet played Skyrim -- don't. Seriously, don't. Or wait for it to hit $5 so you won't feel the need to complete it should it turn out terrible.)
So to answer the OP's question: Not very. Fuck this fucking game.
