When Skyrim came out in 2011 people thought it was going to be big. But the fact that it’s 2018 and people are still playing a single player game like that says something. It did get a remastered version on PS4 and Xbox One in 2016, and that version got an update for PlayStation VR in 2017 that made the entire game playable in VR. Oblivion came out in 2006 and had its share of followers as well, but it was really Skyrim that made the most impact. And with that much success, other game companies wanted to get in on that and started making their games open world and including aspects of Skyrim in them.

The big draw for most people in Skyrim is the lore and the world the game is set in. The main story and combat are okay, but that’s not why people keep playing it. Bethesda created a fantasy world that rivals The Lord of the Rings. I think its legacy will go down the same path as those movies have.

Now, on the flip side of all that, there are games that have come out with much better combat systems and storylines since 2011. I know a lot of people consider Skyrim to be the best game of all time but… I don’t know about all that. This list is going to cover 10 games that were straight up rip-offs of Skyrim and 10 games that did it better than Skyrim. Let’s get to it!

20 It Beat Skyrim To The Punch And Was Still Bad (Rip-Off)

This is one of the few games on this list that actually came out before Skyrim. It came out in 2010 and that was smart on its part because it probably sold better because of it. This is the sequel to Two Worlds that came out in 2007 right after Oblivion. These games aren't bad or anything, but you can tell they are trying hard to get those people that wanted a fantasy game in-between the Elder Scrolls releases. This game is third-person with a kind of Dark Souls-style inventory system. I would actually say the story is on par with Skyrim’s, but the combat is honestly not great. It feels clunky and the sound weapons make when hitting enemies sounds like someone is putting their fingers in mashed potatoes. The music is really good though, so there’s that.

19 A Return To The Dragon Age (Better)

I’m probably one of the few people on the planet that loved Dragon Age 2 and was so excited for Inquisition to come out in 2014. The main reason that I put Dragon Age: Inquisition above Skyrim is because of the characters. You spend so much time with the same characters through the game and get that classic BioWare character development here. Iron Bull alone is worth playing through the whole game!

The main story here is better than Skyrim's 

I also think the combat system is more fun. I like the total control that you get here instead of just swinging around a sword with those awful Skyrim animations. The magic used in both games are pretty equal, but Skyrim wins on the world side. The actual act of exploring goes to Skyrim hands down, but the act of playing the game goes to Dragon Age.

18 Not Even R.A. Salvatore Could Save This One (Rip-Off)

I pains me to put Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning on the rip-off list but it just didn’t sell well and there was so much planned for this game. It came out in 2012, about a year after Skyrim, to pretty mixed reactions. It’s a third-person action adventure game that really focuses on its combat over everything else. It honestly looks and feels like an MMORPG but is a single player only game. The amount of content was on par with that of Skyrim, but more doesn't mean good.

Baseball lengend Curt Schilling was behind the creation of this game 

The only thing this game really had on Skyrim was its combat, but even that could be argued. The environments were bland and the story was kinda bad and kind of just a stupid fantasy story just there to be there. The game was really fun to actually play, but literally everything else suffered.

17 Enter The Dragon (Better)

If you played Skyrim then you’ll know how epic fighting the dragons in the game can be or how kinda… un-epic they can be. The music is awesome, and them exploding on the ground in front of you is amazing, but the actual act of fighting them is just flailing a sword in their face. Dragon’s Dogma came out in 2012 and really changed the way you could fight monsters. It gave you the option to actually climb up on them if they were much bigger than you. Kinda like Frodo in The Lord of the Rings movies. Fighting normal enemies is pretty standard third-person combat, though, and it’s on par with Skyrim there. They are both true open-world games and both have talking dragons, which is interesting. Dragon’s Dogma released on the PS4 and Xbox One with all the DLC and is definitely worth checking out.

16 Winter Came, And We Didn't Even Notice (Rip-Off)

Neverwinter is a free-to-play MMORPG that came out in 2013 for PC. It has a very World of Warcraft/Skyrim feel to it, but it just doesn't play as smooth as you’d want it to. I don’t have a gaming PC so I can’t speak on that version, but I played it on an Xbox One when it came out in 2015 and it ran like hot garbage.

It came out on PS4 in 2016 

Now, look, Skyrim had some technical issues but the frame rate never suffered a ton. There were times in Neverwinter when I would be in town and the frames got to single digits and made it almost unplayable. I get this is an MMO on a console, but still. The world and combat are actually interesting in this game, but I couldn't get past how bad it ran. It’s set in the Dungeons & Dragons universe as well.

15 It Pains Me To Call This A Rip-Off (Better)

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is one of the best games I’ve personally ever played. For this to be the last Metal Gear game directed by Hideo Kojima and it being the first open world game in the series, it’s close to perfection. In most open-world games you have to go to a certain place to get missions and go back to turn them in, but in this you can just select the next story/side mission and you stay in the world.

The story is the big reason I wanted this game on this list. It has the least amount of cutscenes in the series but it tells the most impactful story with them. It also runs super smooth and looks gorgeous on the Fox Engine.

14 The Future Of This One Is Dark (Rip-Off)

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic is a game you may have never heard of, and that’s understandable. It came out the same year as Oblivion and tried to capitalize on the success of it, but it kind of didn’t. To its credit, it was trying to do something a bit different with its loose combat and more crazy approach to sword hits. The big thing this game had going was the ridiculous physics it had with its kick function. So there was a button that let you kick enemies, and they would literally go flying in the sky after and it was kind of amazing!

It came out on Xbox 360 with the subtitle Elements in 2008

It didn’t sell all that well, but it did develop a bit of a cult following after it came out on 360. Still not a great game, though.

13 A Light In The Darkness (Better)

As cool as the lore and world is in Skyrim, Dark Souls came out in 2011 and it kinda made that world look like the rock version to Dark Souls' metal version of dark fantasy. The enemy design in the Souls games are so creepy and intimidating! Just knowing that a few hits from any of them can kill you always has you on the edge as monsters like that should. Skyrim feels so safe in comparison. The combat is so much better in Dark Souls that it’s almost unfair to compare the two… but here we are.

The story in Skyrim is easier to follow, but I would say the mystery around the world in Dark Souls makes it more interesting. Each piece of gear has a story behind it. The open world is bigger in Skyrim, but how the world connects in Dark Souls is cool with all the paths that you can open.

12 It Should Never Have Risen (Rip-Off)

Now, I know this is the third game in the series, but once a game like Skyrim comes out, you kinda need to step your game up. Risen 3 really didn’t do that. The world looks alright for a 2014 release, but there isn’t much to do in it outside of the main missions. The combat is pretty simple, and that also makes it easy to understand, but it can become stale a few dozen hours in. I prefer the more serious/epic story of Skyrim. The story and characters in Risen are more on the goofy side. The dialogue options can be a little confusing as well, seeing that they don’t always say what you think they will and saying things seemingly out of order. It’s not a bad game though, just a flawed fantasy game that can’t hold up to Skyrim.

11 This One's Pretty Divine (Better)

Divinity: Original Sin 2 came out late last year and it was all over Twitch for months! I didn’t know much about the game, or the series for that matter, so I watched a fair amount of it for a few days. I know Skyrim is known for its decision making and how they can alter the world around you, but the choices are usually just choose one thing and you can’t do the other. In Divinity you can literally never meet certain characters and entire sections of the game can be locked out based on your choices. That’s nuts for a modern game.

It has one of the best stories of any RPG that I’ve seen

The main draw of the game is the story and combat, though. It has a very deep story that touches a lot of subjects, and the turn based combat looks amazingly well done and has a deep system to learn.

10 Up In Flames (Rip-Off)

Bound by Flame has a bit of a Fable thing going on with the way that it presents choices. If you choose evil options, then you grow horns and things like helmets can’t be worn. If you choose good options, you go in the opposite direction. All that is cool, but, just like in Fable, it doesn’t really matter as far as the main story goes. I would rather have a straight-forward story like in Skyrim and people just treat you different if you’ve been a jerk or not. The combat in Bound by Flame isn’t great either, so I’d say it’s a tie with Skyrim there. It’s not the best-looking game and it suffers from some glitches that shouldn't have been in a 2014 game, like having textures randomly disappear while fighting. It is backwards compatible on the Xbox One though, if you ever wanna check it out.

9 Good Things On The Horizon (Better)

I remember hearing that Guerrilla games was working on something besides another Killzone and I was very interested. Seeing the first footage of Horizon Zero Dawn at E3 blew me away, and once I got my hands on the game I fell in love. It might be the best-looking open world game I’ve ever played. The amount of detail in the robots and the ice, flame, and electric effects they can do is gorgeous especially on HDR on a PS4 Pro.

Aloy is going to be the next huge video game star after this game

The characters and the story are what set this game apart though. And I’m cool with having the side quests be more interesting like in Skyrim, but having a main story in an open world game be this good and deep is nice to have. The connection to humanity is more interesting to me than anything Skyrim does.

8 Fell Before It Rose (Rip-Off)

So, do you remember a few entires ago when we talked about Risen 3 and how it wasn’t as good as other RPGs? Well, let’s talk about the first game in that series now! It came out in 2009, so before Skyrim but after Oblivion, and wanted to go back to the hardcore ways of RPG games. To pick up items you had to put away your weapon and there was no auto save. The combat is kind of stiff and the world is just kinda flat and boring. Oblivion had these huge areas that looked like a real living world and the that was a big reason that world connected so well with people. It did come out on Xbox 360, but it kinda felt like a PC game on a console with the stiff learning curve. They made two more, so some people liked it.

7 A Good Old Time (Better)

Even people who are big GTA fans say that their favorite game of all time is Red Dead Redemption, and with good reason. It’s like playing a video game version of the Clint Eastwood movie Unforgiven, but with more of a sense of humor. And I know what you're thinking: why is a western game being compared to a game like Skyrim? Well, it’s because of the open world. Red Dead set out to make a western open world and they perfected it! There are so many side quests to do in this game, and they can be very small like hunting to mysteries that last the entire game.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is coining out October 26 this year

Skyrim had yet to come out when Red Dead came out in 2010, but I’d argue that the story and open world are better there than in Oblivion and Skyrim.

6 Not So Divine (Rip-Off)

So Divinity: Original Sin 2 made the better list and here we are with Divinity II on the rip-off list, what a time to be alive! Now look, Divinity II is not a bad game at all. It’s actually pretty fun to play. I’d recommend it if you like fantasy games, but it just can’t hold a candle to what Skyrim and Oblivion have to offer. It came out in 2009 and it sold okay because people were itching to play a fantasy game, but most didn’t finish it. The GameStops around me had a ton of used copies after it came out. The story is fine and the combat is fine, but it did kind of come off as bland compared to the other AAA games. With this being a sequel they really needed to set up the production and it just wasn't there.

5 Bewitchingly Good (Better)

I don’t think I’ve ever played a game like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt before. Personally, I played the story of The Witcher 2 on Xbox 360 and it was good, but the third game really set itself apart. I think it might be the biggest game with the most content I’ve ever played. The world is literally full of side stuff to do, and the the main game can take you around 100 hours to beat. Skyrim has an awesome world and cool story, but man, the lore and story goes so deep in The Witcher that it’s honestly not fair. The writing is so good and the combat feels incredible! Having the two different swords to use depending on if you're fighting a human or monster is cool. All the DLC for the game is amazing as well and add so much more content.

4 Not Worth Playing For Ages (Rip-Off)

I’m not an MMO person, but I remember the lead up to Age of Conan coming out. It was set up to be a big deal. It kinda was at first because a ton of people were playing it at launch. But they fell off pretty quick. It turns out that it was just a bare bones MMO that wanted to try and capture the void of fantasy MMOs on the PC. There was World of Warcraft and this just couldn't cut it next to that. It wanted to have an open world like Oblivion, but it kinda fell short of that because the world was pretty flat and not much in it outside of story missions and typical MMO gather missions. It was a solid try by Funcom (the developer) but people just played Oblivion again. Once Skyrim came out this game was dying off.

3 A Wild Wasteland (Better)

I know that Bethesda makes the Elder Scrolls games and the Fallout games, so this is literally the same people just releasing different games, but Fallout 4 blew away Skyrim with quality in my opinion. I’ve always preferred the Fallout games, though, because I just find the post-apocalyptic world more interesting than the high fantasy world of Skyrim. The overall story in Fallout 4 is probably a tie with Skyrim in that they are both a bit of a let down, but the side stuff in Fallout stands out more.

Bethesda finally had good facial animation with Fallout 4

I really liked the weapon customization in Fallout and shooting a gun actually felt pretty good and didn’t need VATS all the time. Skyrim just felt like swinging around a 2x4 with no accuracy and it just felt bad in comparison. The DLC is better in Skyrim than in Fallout 4, though.

2 Not Built For An MMO (Rip-Off)

Now, this mainly applies to the launch version of this game, because when The Elder Scrolls Online launched it was mixed, to say the least. You can tell they wanted to take the popularity of Skyrim and put that into an MMO, and they did that for the most part. But the stuff you were doing was just kind of boring. The combat also seemed off even compared to the mediocre combat of Skyrim. Once it came to PS4 and Xbox One some of those issues were fixed, but the game was still not where it needed to be.

It was kinda just an empty world in the Elder Scrolls universe

To their credit they kept working at it and eventually got the right formula and that brought the people in. The Morrowind expansion was a big thing for them because people loved that game and were itching to get back to that area!

1 An Adventure Worth Taking (Better)

The dream has always been to have a Zelda with a huge open world like Skyrim. We would have the perfect game. Well… enter Breath of the Wild! This was the first truly open world Zelda game and it was almost perfect. The world of Hyrule was almost reborn with the addition of the guardians everywhere and the addition of voice acting. You wouldn't think just adding voice acting would make that huge of a difference to the story, but it does. It takes the approach of The Phantom Pain, with not many story moments, but they are huge deals when they happen.

It’s the best open world game I’ve ever played

The only thing Skyrim has over this game is probably the music. I love the music in Zelda, but the score in Skyrim is legendary at this point. The world is so much more fun to explore in Zelda, though!