The last installment has more of an open world feel like Skyrim. It's much more story based. I haven't played any of the other Elder Scrolls to know if the others in the series with Skyrim are heavy on the story.

Dragon Age (Origins with the expansion Awakening, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition) has some fantastic characters and has a story arc that goes through all of them. I think it's a blast to play and tend to play each game several times. I played the first two games about four times through and I've already got tons of play throughs planned for the current game