Video Game Reviews - Skyrim Mod: Falskaar

Everyone who knows Skyrim, especially modded Skyrim, knows Falskaar by now. This mod is like nothing that we've ever seen before from a free DLC. And it is DLC. While it is not an official add-on, it is on the same scale as one, to the point that it is being treated as one by the modding community. In fact, the mod, which includes its own landmass, voice-acting and questlines, is so large that it comes as a .esm file just like Dawnguard or Dragonborn, and is designed so that it never needs to be removed, like an official DLC doesn't. There are two areas within Skyrim which are altered by the mod, and neither change alters performance in the slightest, and while on the island of Falskaar the bugs never get any worse than those inherent to the Skyrim game engine. This mod is so huge that I'm still not 100% through it, though I have completed the main quest and a good majority of the more prominent side quests. However, because it is so big, I'm going to have to go about this a little differently. We're going to break this review down a bit and look at the design of Falskaar itself, from the land to the presentation, then the characters and acting, and then finally the quests.

Falskaar was put together by a talented modder, Alexander J. Velicky. According to Velicky himself, this mod is his resume to Bethesda. He wants a job with them, and he went so far as to build a game expansion pack from the ground up to prove it. Everything from the land to the storyline has all come straight from his own imagination, and while he did have friends to help him hammer the details out, it is still remarkable the amount of work that he put in, in his free time, for no profit whatsoever. He is clearly someone who really cares about his work and puts in the extra time to make sure that everything is up to a specific standard, and so it is no surprise that the design of Falskaar itself is impeccable. From a custom map to custom books, songs, loading screens, and an original musical score, everything in Falskaar is designed to use the game's resources in new ways which create the feeling that this really is an entirely new area unlike any you've seen in the game before. The towns are organized a bit more realistically than in the basic game, and there are even some details in this mod which are missing in the main game. For example, the main town of Amber Creek, like many Skyrim towns, has a mill, but at this mill there is included a small table where the miller eats his lunch.

This isn't the only place where such things are included, and while this may seem like a small, insignificant detail, it just blew my mind. Small details like this are often lacking in Skyrim, and the inclusion of such details here could not have been more welcome. Other similar details include a room beneath the Amber Mead Inn in Amber Creek where the inn workers sleep. There are no such rooms in Skyrim inns. This always bothered me, and I love Falskaar even more for fixing this.

The land of Falskaar itself is more temperate than Skyrim, with more hills than mountains, and is almost covered in woods. Overall, it greatly reminds me of Cyrodiil, the central province of Tamriel where the game Oblivion takes place. I love Cyrodiil. It is my favorite of the provinces, and the similarity between Cyrodiil and Falskaar really served to dredge up some nostalgia pangs. Not only that, but the design of Falskaar's landscapes adds to the sense that Velicky really knows how to utilize the resources at his disposal. Everything in Falskaar uses the resources from the main game, no official DLC required, and yet much of it is assembled in a way that makes it feel new.

 

Even the dungeons in this mod have a new and unique feel. There is a huge dungeon later on in the main quest which combines assets from three very different types of dungeons, Bandit, Nord, and Dwemer, into a coherent dungeon that is visually interesting and fun to navigate. Even the basic dungeons I feel often improve over the vanilla dungeons, in that most dungeons in Falskaar are far less linear in design than the dungeons in Skyrim. Where the dungeons in Skyrim seem like obstacles for you to pass and nothing more, the dungeons in Flaskaar really feel like they are real caves, or the ruins of temples which used to serve a purpose to a group of people. My favorite dungeon by far is a Nord ruin that used to be a waterfront city. Not only does it really look like an ancient, half-sunken city, it reminds me of a lake-side Ayleid ruin in Oblivion. In fact, if anyone ever gets the Cyrodiil land area working in the Skyrim game, I'd like to see Velicky be the one to actually landscape it.

 

 

If I were to complain about anything regarding the design of Falskaar, it would be the ring of mountains which surrounds the landmass. They seem mildly unrealistic, but I can look past it, especially since the lore of Falskaar says that a representative of one of the gods of the Elder Scrolls universe used his power to reshape the land so that the Nords who migrated there could survive. Maybe he rung the land in mountains to keep snowstorms from getting through and cooling the land once again?

 

A land, however, is only a small part of a fantasy story. More important than the land is the characters, and Falskaar has some really cool characters. Some standouts, at least as far as I'm concerned, are the Jarl (king) of Amber Creek, a noble, war veteran, family man who, unlike many of the Jarls in Skyrim, actually cares more about his people than himself, and will go out of his way to serve and protect them, the Hjorgunnars, two brothers who live and hunt in the woods outside of Amber Creek and get some of the best lines in the entire mod, Varrina, a young girl learning to be a chef from the inn workers at Amber Mead Inn, Kalevi, a Wood Elf who works on a farm with his father, who worries that his father may not be his real father, and the villain, Yngvarr, who really seems like his evil actions may be a result of his upbringing. I don't plan to spend too much time on the characters, because talking about too many of them for too long will give too much away, but, to put it simply, there are more likable characters per square foot in Falskaar than there often seem to be in Skyrim itself.

 

As for the voice acting, for free voice work, I don't think it could be better. Even for paid voice work, I think most of it would be at least par, and this was all done for free. It's mind-boggling. Everyone, even Bandits, who could have been voiced using the game's stock voices, receive new voices in this mod, and sound good. In fact there is only one voice that I found a little annoying, and that's the voice of the priest, Thorlough, but it's less that he played his part poorly, and more that it sometimes sounded like his recording equipment wasn't as good as it could have been, which isn't really his fault.

 

More important in a fantasy story, however, than the design and the characters, is the story itself, and Falskaar has one Oblivion of a story. You are the Traveler. You come to Falskaar mysteriously through a Dwemer portal from Skyrim with no way to return, and your coming is foretold. In fact, there is an old prophesy passed down in Falskaar that says that your arrival marks the beginning of "the worst", that being the worst conflict that Falskaar has ever seen. This is saying a lot, as Falskaar has seen its share of war. You arrive, and immediately you learn that conflict is building again, but that no one knows the instigator. You come to the Jarl of Amber Creek with information that Yngvarr may be behind the escalation of conflict, and let's just say that the Jarl, Agnar, isn't happy.

 

 

He doesn't wish to believe that Yngvarr, the Jarl of another city, would be foolish enough to renew the conflicts that their peoples have mostly left behind, but eventually it is proven that you are correct, and that Yngvarr is behind the problems plaguing the land, but his goals are so much greater than anything that anyone could have guessed. Yngvarr wants to become immortal, and he has a plan to go about it, too, one which might work. You, as the Traveler, are expected to take part in stopping his plans.

 

That isn't all, either. Falskaar is full of questgivers giving out side quests, from Bandit hunts to rescue missions, to fetcher jobs, and while some of them are no more in depth than those in the main Skyrim game, it soon becomes clear than several of them actually fit together and involve a plan by a corrupt priest-turned-necromancer who wishes to "save" Falskaar through wicked means. I don't plan on spoiling any more of either of these questlines, but know that both are engrossing, featuring interesting, attention-grabbing locations and dialogues which promise to keep you thoroughly entertained. Additionally, the story, while non-cannon, is written to fit well into the lore of the Elder Scrolls universe. I really get the sense that Velicky might know the lore even better than I do. He certainly knows it as well as the people who made the game to begin with, and that's saying something. In fact the one issue that I have with the Falskaar story is that the end of the main quest comes rather abruptly, and while the ending is well done, it could be a little clearer what exactly happens. I have heard that it is left this way in case Velicky ever wants to expand upon it, but still, I feel that it could have been handled a little better.

 

More than interesting, though, the quests are difficult. While many of the enemies are on par with Bandits, they really give you a run for your money. They spawn often, and they attack hard and fast, and while they only utilize the standard game AI, the way they are organized throughout their respective dungeons really makes a difference. Let me put it this way: I use the mod Ultimate Follower Overhaul to travel with four followers at once, Mjoll the Lioness, Serana, and two mod followers, Odvar the Afflicted and Cienna, I have maxed out Heavy Armor, One-Handed, Two-Handed, and Conjuration skills, and I still struggled to overcome several of the mobs in this mod. It's true that I play at Master level difficulty, but still, this is impressive.

 

Falskaar is more than a resume (a very well-written resume, btw), it is a gem among mods, and a love letter to the fans who wish for more Elder Scrolls. With no more official Skyrim DLC coming from Bethesda, it is mods like Falskaar which will satisfy this desire, and satisfy is does. If you play Skyrim on PC, download this mod. There is no reason not to, it doesn't affect the stability of your game at all, and it may actually enhance your gaming experience greatly. While nothing is perfect, and therefore Falskaar is no exception, it is pretty darn near close. I give Flaskaar an unprecedented 9.5 out of 10, and I thank Alexander Velicky and his team for their work, and hope beyond hope that we will be seeing more of it in the future.

 

 

 

**P.S.** While they are not giant per se, this mod does include oversized Mudcrabs. Ones that you can fight. This is already an improvement over base Skyrim, and in keeping with Elder Scrolls tradition, so, you know, kudos for that.