What an amazing game, to be remade. The only thing better than this, would be Morrowind remastered or Elder Scrolls 6.

The game works great, from day one. No crashes unless you alt-tab out of it too many times (in the fullscreen version), then it might get stuck. (fixed)

The new engine is fantastic, you no longer get wind or rain or snow, while under a cover; the water flows naturally and slows down on obstacles; you can have real large scaled battles due to the 64bit engine, without lagging like hell.

Updated performance : With a 1080ti and a 8700k, game runs at constant 60 fps at maximum settings 4K with many mods. The game lags a bit while looting but I am hoarding a ton of loot so I assume that's the issue. (also using SKYUI)

So, this new engine is fantastic and I highly recommend this version to people with the PC to run it AND the ones that don't have the PC to run it (presuming they do hit the minimum requirements) since it's very well optimized.

Mods work but disable your achievements, this should be fixed by Bethesda (even though there is a mod that works with the beta update of the game) I mean they could just disable achievements if you modify your stats or make gear better, enemies weaker, but then again you can do this using the console too. I guess this is just for console users, since on PC we can do way more "cheating" and still not lose achievements.

Besides that, it's mostly the same game. With less bugs than the old version. I do not recommend the unofficial Skyrim community patch mod. It broke and it imposes some "balances" to the game that not everyone might agree with. At this moment I think it's just a cheap fast re-upload of the same mod for the Skyrim normal edition.

For those that don't know anything about the game, let me explain to you, as fast as I can. This is an open game RPG, even though on many levels it lacks the "RPG" elements of the old RPGs, as some complain. But as someone that played Gothic 2 as my personal first RPG, I think this is a great example of freedom and RPG elements. Basically you can do almost anything and if you can't, there is a mod for that, or a construction set (offered by Bethesda for free) where you can modify it yourself.
Unlike most games and RPGs, you level up by leveling up your skills. You have every skill possible, from one handed, two handed, block, light armor, heavy armor, smiting TO (magic) alteration, illusion, destruction, restoration, alchemy TO (rogue) pickpocket, sneak, archery, lockpicking, speechcraft etc. You just run around the world and do whatever you want, however you want and increase your level. You can just speak to people or sell stuff and level up (of course, not up to a very high level if you don't level up other stuff also). I do not recommend leveling up non-combat skills at first, since you might die to the first real enemies you encounter and also use perks for those skills you use in combat.

Perks. While not perfect for some, and not highly complex for others, you get one attribute point per level and one perk point per level. Perk points can be used to enhance your Skills previously mentioned. Making your skill way more powerful even from the start, perks do have requirements (skill level or previous perks) and also there are a lot of mods that modify the perk trees, to make it more interesting.

You have loads of quests, you just walk around and get quests just by hearing conversations, reading notes/books, even dogs will give you quests. Some quests are simple, others lead to more complex and hidden quests, others lead to amazing or funny quests. The fact is, unlike most RPGs, you are free to explore and do whatever you want without having the main goal of the game, to save the world. You can do that whenever you want and if you want. You can build houses. Huge houses. Or restore castles using mods. You can be a werewolf or a vampire. You can join factions and become their leader (though questlines for these are much shorter than in Morrowind and with less requirements to join or advance).

Armor and weapons, while less unique or amazing weapons and armor can be found, it does look better than in previous Elder Scrolls games. And you can actually enhance it if you're a blacksmith. And you can enhance that even more if you use enchanted gear. And you can enchant gear better and blacksmith better if you have alchemy. Which in return can make enchanted gear that allows you to create more powerful potions.
Err... what I'm saying is, level up Enchant, Smiting and Alchemy when you're hitting that 40-50 level you should max them out and build some of the best pieces in the game or enhance the gear you have. Having smiting from a low level also helps sell stuff & make every piece of armor/weapon better overall so this should be a priority. You can use a smelting mod to benefit even more and level this faster. I also recommend you go to Riften fishing huts and find a desperate Argonian there, that will give you a quest (I won't say more, but it will help you a lot in Smiting).

Anything you don't like, can be fixed or modified with mods. And yet, even without, the game is simply amazing and breathtaking.
If you want, though I don't recommend it on the first gameplay, you can use the console to make yourself stronger, invincible and add everything you want in the game, just google for the commands. If that's what you like, the game allows it.
Another hint for new players and old, if you do kill someone or someone gets killed, open the console by pressing ~ and click on their corpse with your cursor, then type resurrect, press Enter and press ~ again.
And the last hint, even though I didn't get stuck at all in Skyrim SE yet, press ~ and type tcl (without having anything selected, to make sure this is true, click the exact same place twice), press Enter, then press ~ again. You will now be able to walk through walls and fly but enemies might also fall through the ground and such. So after you are not stuck, just repeat the process and type tcl again.

Overall I must say I'm very pleased with the Special Edition. With a few mods and this game looks better than many games that came out after it. Runs smooth and has the same amazing music, gameplay, freedom as before. Not to mention, this is how you repay fans, for every game, you give them the "updated" version for free, regardless of the fact that it uses a new engine or you just added "HD textures". Thank you Bethesda.

Edit: ♥♥♥♥ you Bethesda. You knew many people had the game crash when they logged into bethesda.com on mods, you knew and you didn't solve the issue. YET YOU MADE THE SAME ISSUE APPEAR ON THE MAIN MENU WITHOUT CLICKING MODS OR CREATION CLUB. Game crashes on main menu, same with Fallout 4. Just pirate the game and use free mods too, since you need to disable your internet to play this! I had to uninstall 150 mods and reinstall 3 times to make sure, when the issue was 100% Bethesda. Thanks!
Edit 2: Finally after many years this issue has been fixed. I mean it took them a long time but yea, it's fixed and it should only be fair that I recommend this again.