Usually this column is a place to find a selection of mods to download right now, held under a theme, or just my particular whimsy. Not today. Today's the day that I tell you about something special headed Skyrim's way, that SureAI has turned their Sauron-like eye away from Oblivion, away from Nehrim, and onto Bethesda's latest. Let me introduce you to Enderal.
SureAI, for those who don't know, is the mod team that thrust Nehrim onto unsuspecting Oblivion fans in 2010, creating a mod that won a slew of awards from the likes of ModDB and PC Gamer. It replaced Tamriel with something entirely original and much less high-fantasy. On its website it declared "This is a fan-developed game with the aspiration to be able to compete with full-grown commercial RPGs." And they had the means to make it happen thanks to a group of coders and voice actors that rivalled some AAA studios. The result was something that managed to stand up against its creator, a mod that was as good (if not better) than Oblivion.
Now they're attempting to do the same thing with Skyrim. "Nehrim's storytelling had some flaws that we want to get rid of -- there will be more player decisions and deeper characters." Reads Enderal's flashy new website, and with what they've revealed so far -- which is just a sparse few screenshots -- their ambition is already laid out in a heavy statement of intent.
It's not just creating a new world, though. Like Nehrim, voice actors will come in to breathe life into new characters, an entirely new perk system, and new weapons. Laying down an entirely different menu, bringing in new quests, new characters, and an entirely new world to explore. Even a pair of composers are part of the team in an attempt to replace Jeremy Soule's stirring score. The only thing that will really be the same is the engine and that you need a copy of Skyrim to play it.
Where did all of the snow go?
This wouldn't be anything to get hugely excited about if SureAI hadn't managed to pull off Nehrim once before. There are a thousand ambitious mods that get declared, and a good 90% of them fall by the wayside. Just looking over Skyrim's Workshop on Steam you'll see a majority of the mods have been slim affairs that tweak rather than renovate. For Enderal there's already a track record, and an established group of passionate and talented people who want to show what can be created.
There's no word of a release date yet, and with the scope of the project I wouldn't expect one anytime soon. But with all of the fundamentals already in place thanks to Bethesda's work, we're not talking years here. Keep one eye on Enderal's website, and the other on that Frost Giant that's just about to eat your face off. You're about to have a whole new world to explore.