Skyrim is my most played game ever, but honestly a vast majority of that playtime was not spent on the main storyline at all. The game is best when you’re doing side quests and just exploring the world (and modding of course, it has a massive modding community, literally half of all mods on nexus are for Skyrim). The main quest is fine, but it’s nothing special. It’s your run-of-the-mill “you’re the savour of the world” type thing. But the thieves guild and dark brotherhood are both a lot of fun, the civil war is really fun too, and there’s just so much care put into the environment. Go check out random caves and camps and pay close attention to your surroundings, and you’ll see so many stories there that never get explicitly told. Environmental story telling is Skyrim’s strong suit for sure.