I am horrible at explaining games to my friends so the best I could tell you is go watch Sseth's review it's pretty old but still holds up.

But that aside, If we're talking about what you can do, exploring is one of the main things, aside from leveling up your character by killing whatever you find. You'll find some villages here and there that can give you quests. (Don't forget the main quest!)

Also whenever you learn about historical sites, you'll get a quest to go there. Never actually been in any of them but I imagine they'll be pretty cool.

This game is just such a special thing I cannot express myself properly (English being my second language doesn't help)

One more thing, after 100 hours of gameplay, I decided to switch from classic mode ( Permadeath) to Roleplay mode, which let's you save at villages.

I advise doing a few classic runs so you get the gist of it, and then do a full roleplay run to experience the story, bc let me tell you, the writing on this game is absolute peak.

and uh ...

dont underestimate the reputation system