
Skills have also been completely reworked. Expect to use magic and melee in equal parts if you want to survive the first few hours. Enderal, on the other hand, requires a much more multi-classed approach. In the original Skyrim, specialization was the key to quickly leveling up and ultimately overpowering your enemies. Combined with enhanced graphics and revamped character models, the game feels fresh and much more lifelike than anything Bethesda Game Studios has put out in years. The story itself is interesting, but what makes Enderal resonate is an original and fully voice-acted cast of characters. The goal is to link up with a group called The Order, and then embark on a quest to uncover the mystery of the Red Madness, a mental illness running rampant. The opening few hours include a roughly linear set of introductory quests designed to ease me into its new gameplay systems. Before long, I learn that my latent powers are emerging through a sort of late-blooming magical puberty.


I begin as a castaway stranded on an unfamiliar shore, plagued by horrifying dreams filled with madness, murder, and flame. SureAIĮnderal is a new fantasy world all its own, created by the team of experienced non-commercial game developers at SureAI. That’s because it looks and plays very differently from a traditional Elder Scrolls game. It’s called Enderal: Forgotten Stories, and it’s the most fun I’ve had in an Elder Scrolls game in years. This time around, a free total conversion mod has me completely hooked.

I traipsed through the same starting villages and towns that I had explored back in 2011, then up the mountain to the first big dungeon, only to walk away bored each time. Each time, my journey through the homeland of the Nords ended abruptly. Same with the version made for virtual reality that arrived in 2017. When the remastered version of The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim landed in 2016, I jumped in with both feet.
