Without question, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was one of the biggest video games of 2011, and some consider this role-playing gem by Bethesda one of the best video games of all time.
This is not surprising taking into account that Skyrim offers hundreds of hours of gameplay and interesting quests to tackle in a huge fantasy world.
Actually, Skyrim (a province in the game’s fantasy setting of Tamriel) is one of the most detailed, biggest fantasy worlds ever created, and the game’s open-ended gameplay and endless replayability mean many people are still enjoying the game to this day, with Skyrim hitting new game platforms such as the Nintendo Switch recently.
Something else which has made this a favourite of many RPG fans is the great number of user modifications (mods for short) which have been released over the year. These player-created mods change many aspects of the game, adding new quests, characters and improving Skyrim’s graphics and overall looks, while there are other even more ambitious mods such as Enderal that are basically entirely new games in their own right.
There’s one mod currently in development, though, that aims to offer Elder Scrolls fans more than they bargained for… This mod, titled “Beyond Skyrim”, aims to recreate the entire continent of Tamriel, letting you wander beyond Skyrim and into neighbouring provinces such as Cyrodiil, which was the setting of Bethesda’s earlier game The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. And surely Elder Scrolls fans would love a chance to wander the streets of the Imperial City or explore the elven ruins seen in Oblivion once more, that’s for sure.
Of course, being able to return to Morrowind (the setting of the Elders Scrolls part 3) is also an enticing prospect, even if fans have already been able to do that thanks to the Morrowind expansion for The Elder Scrolls Online, while another fan project currently in development (titled Skywind) is attempting to remake The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind using Skyrim’s mod tools too.
More interesting about Beyond: Skyrim though, is being able to visit the provinces that haven’t featured in the official Elder Scrolls game to date, such as Elsweyr. This is an arid region (mostly desert) and home of the feline-like Khajiit, and an area yet to be explored in Bethesda’s single player games.
Of course, given Beyond Skyrim’s scope, it remains to be seen whether the modding team can get this project done in a reasonable amount of time, that is, before Bethesda releases the eagerly anticipated Elder Scrolls VI game.
But since the Maryland-based company does not appear to be currently at work on another Elders Scrolls game, this should give the modders behind Beyond Skyrim plenty of time yet to finish their creation, so here’s hoping this turns out to be another Skyrim mod worth talking about when it’s released some time in the future.