Skyrim's huge mod scene makes my wait for The Elder Scrolls 6 less painful

Skyrim's huge mod scene makes my wait for The Elderberry Scrolls 6 less painful

(Image credit: Bethesda)

Information technology'south been nearly a decade since The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was released in the fall of 2011. Since then we've seen the open up-world first-person RPG get re-released on multiple panel generations, and even ported over to the Nintendo Switch and virtual reality.

While prolific, in both its vanilla and 2016 Special Edition forms, Skyrim now looks rather long in the molar, with a game engine that very much belies its age. But Skyrim'south support for mods and all fashion of tweaks take extended the game's life massively. And a new video showing off what happens to Skyrim when ane sticks 500 mods and ray tracing on it reminds me just why it'south such a special game, and triggers quiet excitement for The Elder Scrolls vi.

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Mods for an Elderberry Scrolls game are nothing new. Skyrim'south predecessor Oblivion has mod support on the PC, and Skyrim came with it pretty much from the get-go. Steam Workshop support afterwards made it trivially piece of cake to access and use multiple mods in the game without breaking it.

Now, YouTube aqueduct Digital Dreams has taken this support and actually run with it, giving Skyrim Special Edition a 4K makeover, a large heave in graphics and ray tracing, also as hundreds of other mods. I've embedded the video beneath for your viewing pleasure. Suffice to say, with plenty of visual mods the game looks miles apart from its original course, yet even so unmistakably Skyrim.

Making one of the best games of all time even better

Such mod projects are aggressive, but serve to show how malleable Skyrim is. And they also allow you take an old game and make it await a lot newer, customizing information technology pretty much to your liking.

I've not flirted besides heavily with mods myself, simply opting for the official loftier-res textures for my get-go major playthrough of Skyrim. But as I polished off the main campaign and the multitude of major side quests, I started to wait at ways to tweak some of the annoyances out of Skyrim, and mod support was the answer.

Subsequently hearing various guards tell me for the hundredth fourth dimension tell me "I used to be an charlatan similar yous, until I took an pointer to the human knee," I found a mod that got rid of the repetitive vocalization lines. Then I started to dig further, tweaking map markers, audio, and adding extra content into the game.

While I like to play games as the developers intended, having ploughed hundreds of hours into Skyrim I've got to the point where there's non much else to explore. Merely while I bemoan the filibuster of PS5 exclusives, seeing Digital Dreams' video serves as a reminder that there'due south and so much that I could still wring out of Skyrim.

Merely it as well gave me a dose of nostalgia and reminded me of just how skillful Skyrim really was.

Sure, The Witcher iii offers a more compelling story to frame its open-world, Blood-red Expressionless Redemption two provides smarter systems and more dynamic environments, and Breath of the Wild makes traversing its ruined mural an utter joy. But at that place actually aren't many games, at least outside of developer Bethesda'due south library, that give y'all the feeling of being in a whole country to explore.

Why Skyrim is yet worth playing today

Skyrim screenshot — (Paradigm credit: Time to come)

While the Witcher iii felt similar yous were dropped in a county, Skyrim conveyed the feeling of moving across an entire land on a large continent. Multiple cities over seeing specific areas — Winterhold in the North, Falkreath in the S, Riften in the East and Markarth in the Due west, and more — each conveying the cultural particularities of the slice of Skyrim they occupy, made the game'due south setting feel like a fully-fledged fantasy nation rather than only a map to explore.

And while the master storyline wasn't the about dynamic, the myriad of side quests — from full-fat secondary stories of the Thieves' Guild, Nighttime Alliance and The Companions, to elementary tasks — gave the expanse of Skyrim real grapheme and depth. Quests will see you lot crossing fields and fjords, plumbing the depths of cave networks and dwarven ruins, and scaling ancient Nordic fortresses built into snow-capped mountains. Some end in a elementary advantage and an entry in your periodical marked off, while others provided surprisingly poignant stories about lost ghosts or tales embroiled in Skyrim'due south rich history.

Not only does Skyrim provide this breathless go-anywhere wonder from the very start, it communicates that it's a state embroiled in fantasy geo-politics, cultural scuffles, hardships and successes for those willing to graft or cheat their way to the top.

While it can't quite deliver the nuanced environmental storytelling of Souls games, which have seen people launch whole YouTube careers based around deciphering lore and stories from items, symbols, architecture and environments, the country of Skyrim still tells its own tales. A skeleton in a cave might be clutching a periodical saying how the person ended upwardly in that location, with an entry noting foreign scratching noises; venture further and yous may observe that person ran afoul of giant spiders or the Falmer, seemingly corrupted elves with a murderous intent.

All that aside, Skyrim remains merely a wonderful nation to explore. Even in its vanilla form it however presents you with some screenshot-worthy vistas dappled in autumnal sunsets or covered by a star-studded sky.

During the multiple coronavirus lockdowns when I couldn't get out of London to the countryside, Skyrim offered me some respite as I shuffled through the deciduous woods of Falkreath or crossed the misty hills and mountains surrounding Markarth. Coupled with the fabulous soundtrack, and a good glass of wine or whiskey, and Skyrim delivered some wonderful escapism.

With all the transformational properties of modding, there's plenty of reasons for me to keep revisiting Skyrim for years to come. Merely my recent experience with the game too makes me feel very positive about The Elderberry Scrolls 6.

Sure high-fidelity open-world games are at present a dime-a-dozen. But few developers capture that Bethesda magic when it games to making a virtual world you simply want to lose yourself in. I'm currently playing Assassin'south Creed Valhalla and every bit good as it looks, it lacks that certain "what'south around that corner" drive that Skyrim gave me near a decade ago and still manages to do today. Fallout 76, meanwhile, may have suffered a terrible launch, but every bit my colleague Marc McLaren says in his review of the latest Steel Reign update, information technology'southward now close to being the game information technology always should accept been. And over again, that Bethesda open-earth magic is a big function of it.

Then with the lessons learned from Skyrim and the plethora of modern inspiration to depict upon, I'm rather confident that Bethesda will not only make The Elderberry Scrolls 6 a visual treat, just also requite me however another compelling country to explore for literal years.

The only fly in the ointment with all this is that Bethesda's next large game Starfield is set to get in late 2022, meaning The Elder Scrolls 6 isn't likely to exist released for a good few years yet. Merely I won't moan, as I like sci-fi exploration but as much equally fantasy open-world wandering. And while I wait, I can but mod the heck out of Skyrim.

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Roland Moore-Colyer is U.K. Editor at Tom'due south Guide with a focus on news, features and stance articles. He often writes well-nigh gaming, phones, laptops and other bits of hardware; he's also got an interest in cars. When not at his desk-bound Roland can be constitute wandering around London, often with a expect of curiosity on his confront.