Skyrim already felt repetitive the first time

Apart from semi standard bug fix and texture mods.

Try the ordinator mod for a complete overhaul of skill trees to be a lot more interesting. It also makes playing a caster a lot more interesting compared to the vanilla experience. You probably also want the uncapper mod to customize the amount of perks you get per level.

Personally I also use material chest mods that are basically cheats to level crafting skills, I’m not interested in grinding them out multiple times. Up to you if you want to use them to gear yourself as well or not.

If you want the game to feel truly different, you need to change your play style as well. Playing a dual wielding berserker is a lot different than a stealth archer.

I play too much Skyrim (between the various copies I’ve owned, I have ~3.5k hours) and one of the ways I keep it repayable is by using the Enaisiaion overhauls that another commenter mentioned.

They’re made to be largely “vanilla+” type mods, but they overhaul nearly everything. Races, perks, standing stones, the magic system, werewolves & vampires, and enchantments. He also has one that adds a faith system where you can worship the various deities of Tamriel and I think that one is a must have at this point.

Did you try “beyond skyrim: bruma”? It’s only one province of the planned entirety of tamriel, but that was many excellent hours of exploration, and it feels like the plotlines are really going somewhere, whenever they get finished with the rest of cyrodiil. Shame there are some places that feel unfinished (because they involve other provinces), but that mystery made it more intriguing, in my opinion.

Also, it has a soundtrack that I actually like more than the original skyrim soundtrack, and that is saying something.

Edit: finally got down far enough in the other comments to see you’ve played it. Ah well.

Genuine question: then why skyrim? Sounds Like youd have more fun with other games

Play morrowind

TK Dodge RE made melee combat much more interesting when I last played. I could finally enjoy playing someone other than a stealth archer. :)

Adamant and other overhauls from SimonMagus did likewise for various other game mechanics. Some people prefer Ordinator and other overhauls from EnaiSiaion.

Interesting NPCs adds a bunch of potential followers, and the one I chose was fun.

Get a modpack from Wabbajack. It comes with 1000s of mods and makes the game feel entirely new.

I know what you mean.

Bethesda games are kind of a one-time experience.

Surely depends on what kind of gamer you are. For me, the museum-mod (forgot the name) and all its addons made the last run very special despite the aging everything. It totally changed the way I did everything. And it all revolved around collecting all the shit I never cared for.

Have you played: https://store.steampowered.com/app/933480/Enderal_Forgotten_Stories/

I can’t help with mods, but other games scratched the same itch for me. The wild era zelda games (breath of the wild & tears of the kingdom) are a dead ringer, and I probably spent over 600 hours across both. The Horizon series (horizon: zero dawn, horizon: forbidden west) are really good. A bit more story than skyrim, less caves, but still lots to do, and if you don’t know the story, the first game has so much mystery in its world building thats fun to discover as you play!

I prefer the fantasy genre, so similar sci fi games didnt do it as much for me, but some of the fallout games and the outer worlds games are similar gameplay. The Outer Worlds 1 is basically just Firefly but with less charming characters, but i mean its hard to compete with Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, and Alan Tudyk.

Have you played survival mode? It’s a little annoying at first, but now that I’ve gotten into it it feels so natural and I almost can’t play on normal.

Also, Red Dead Redemption 2.

if new experience in skyrim is something you’re interested in, a mod like Beyond Skyrim: Bruma is awesome. i highly recommend it.

i also recommend playing a character with a theme or restrictions. I’m currently playing a character that’s not permitted to use physical weapons or use armor. pure spell caster. and I’ve got a few QOL mods to make mage armor a bit more in line with the other two armor types. and a fun new perk tree (Vokrii) that’s got a ton of class replayability.

its very fun to play that way. and also means you can play a character. or roleplay.

i hope you have fun <3

Try “Enderal”, a free total conversion of Skyrim. New world, lore, quests, skills, everything. It’s pretty good!