Mods are a wonderful thing. For the most part, playing with mods is a PC-only thing, and it is understandable why. When you play with mods, you are risking that all too faithful mistress, the crash; and she is not a fair lady when you are playing with many different mods. That is the reason today I want to talk about playing a game, with mods, on a console, and not entirely breaking the game, but instead liking the game more.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is a game that I’m sure everyone and their mother has played. It has come out on every platform, including that time it came on a metal woman in a cylinder called (WARNING: strong language) Alexa, food storage devices, pagers (google it!), and kid’s toys. I wouldn’t be surprised if kids that were born the same day as its release have played it. To quite a few, it’s the only good thing Bethesda has done; which is something that I’d take objection to if it wasn’t for my most recent experience of the game.

You see, growing up a dyslexic, I saw RPGs as a task. RPGs, especially those of the early to mid-2000s were every text-heavy, PC-based, mammoths that could fill libraries with the amount of text you’d have to read. Even then, the few that would feature actual dialogue that was spoken were either high fantasy or that one Disney and Final Fantasy cross over. To put it politely, I hate high fantasy and I’d never been one for its final form either. Fortune changed, The Witcher 3 and Fallout 4 sat me down and put me in my place. Though I’m still not a fan of that Kingdom Hearts madness.

Skyrim is an RPG that’s still quite text-heavy, very high fantasy, and is hyped more than your mum’s cherry pies by the late 80s band, Warrant. Taking place in the mythical lands of Skryim on the continent of Tamriel, it follows on from others in the series. The only other one I’ve played is Oblivion; because if you’re going to put Picard in a game I’m going to play it. Nevertheless, I’ve always found it hard to get past those first two hours or so. That was until this week.

This is primarily thanks to the alt-start mod that lets you pick a different start for yourself, roleplay being the focus of the mod. Sure, you could be someone captured crossing the board, like a boring person, or you could be an imperial that owns a great hall, joins the legion, and ransacks everything. Yes, by the time I knew it several hours had passed, and I was covered in more gold than a fan backstage at a Spandau Ballet concert. The issue is, this is where I gravitate towards with all RPGs; I’ll play for the money and not the character.

While it made sense in The Witcher, it is Geralt’s job after all, I’m just a woman that owns a big sword, wants to explore, and likes to play with fire when there are humongous spiders about. Nevertheless, while I could use mods, cheats, and otherwise to get all the gold in the world, I spend the better part of my time stealing or earning it. Sure, I used mods to unlock a door or two, or modded the console field of view to be greater than two nanometers, but my black magic aside, I’ve finally gotten into the land of Barney’s friends wrecking the joint.

For the most part, I think the reason I’ve found enjoyment in the venerable Skyrim now over the many other times I’ve tried is exploration. Before I’d been playing the vanilla game: “Oh no, a dragon. Quick bore the death out of me doing this spider bit again, I really love that bit.” If you haven’t played the game, I’m sure you’ve seen that section of the game a million times. With the alternate start, I was able to pick my slightly more exciting start of stealing all my own stuff to pawn it off minutes later. However, with that start, I by chance selected the lands furthest to the west, Markarth.

From there, I’ve been playing Middle Ages Murders and solving everyone’s mysteries in the land of Skyrim. Who needs a main quest to follow when I have all the pilfering to be doing? From here I’ve set out on a gallant quest to get to Whiterun, which after many hours, the death of all the vampires, and my lengthy stay in Solitude to find a woman I made my lover; I’ve not gotten to it. This is what The Elder Scrolls is best at, just a bit of a wander around a map larger than my left bum cheek.

That said, I have found getting around a little precarious, most notably because of the great big mountain I spent 10 minutes climbing up, (without a horse,) with a lot of jumping. I knew Skyrim was known for the climbing engine being about as well made as politician’s promise, but I honestly didn’t think I’d be able to jump and slide up a mountain at a degree that would send a pensioner down at terminal velocity. If I could hop up North Cold Rock Pass, I can’t wait for a horse to walk 90 degrees up thin air and take me to the ISS.

While I’m also bringing some critical thought to this game that will result in me getting roasted at the stake, the combat is awful. I don’t expect cover shooting in an RPG, but I don’t expect to stand by a wall and tank arrows. I honestly stood by the outside wall of Fort Hraggstad either tanking arrows like a champ or watching them bounce, then I’d pick them up and fire back. At any length, firing a bow on a controller might as well be trying to spit on your enemy from a mile away, but that’s a funny little story of using someone’s own arrows to kill them.

Back to the melee, however, it is weightless and overpowered. Well, that’s the case when you are using weapons that in a classic RPG I’d be too ungainly to even hold, nevermind slit up some vampires because a ghost told me to. I’m pretty sure most RPGs would be too stringent and tell me if I try using a two-handed weapon I’ll go blind after a while. When swinging my steel greatsword I’ve found myself to just float around like that bee that bothered Muhammad Ali all the time. I don’t believe while wearing three tons of iron, holding half the world’s possessions, and wielding a sword that big that I should be doing donuts around the enemy.

I guess my point today was to say, if you haven’t given Skyrim a chance yet, or if you have and couldn’t get into it, try modding it. I have this affinity towards hating RPGs for the smallest thing, and I’m just loving this one because I’ve been able to bend and break it. Yeah, the combat is a bit weak, the graphics look like they were touched up from PS1 quality to PS3 quality, and some burks will walk up to you and tell you their life story for the reason of, you being there. However, the constant exploration, interesting characters to meet, and general fun to be had makes it all worth it.

Sure, the quests might not be as deep and exploratory as something in The Witcher 3, but nothing is. The quests are the usual Bethesda mallark of: Go here, kill everyone, and then come back for another place to kill people, but it is still fun. While others would harp on it not being what it once was, it has that same quality Fallout 4 had on me of, “I will own this land by hook or crook!” Whether I can create penis statues or not to lay claim my land is a wholly separate matter I’ll work out with the dragons later.

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The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

$24.99

8

Score

8.0/10

Pros

• Fun world exploration.
• Great mods.

Cons

• Dull combat.
• A cluttered control system.