I haven't done a whole lot of Skyrim content on the blog, but that certainly doesn't mean I don't want to do more. I've covered a couple of really great quest mods, reviewing them, but Skyrim is probably my favorite game ever because of the mods, so I figured that I should give the mods a little more love. Skyrim wasn't the first Elder Scrolls game that I ever played, but it was the first that I played with mods, and now I simply can't imagine the franchise without them. So here is my list of the ten (ish, I haven't decided on the number for sure) Skyrim mods that I find essential for anyone's playthrough. Note that this list will not include things like the Unofficial Patches, as they are no-brainers. Another no-brainer is the fact that, because Skyrim needed to be viable on many different gaming systems, it doesn't look as good as it could, and a PC gamer should consider downloading some texture mods.
Also of note is the fact that this isn't a top whatever list. I don't consider any one of these mods better than any others on this list. They are all equally essential in my book.
-Helgen Reborn: The first (of two) mods that I've reviewed here. This mod gets fixed better and better on a daily basis, thanks to the excellent work of Balok on the Nexus. Using it hits performance hardly at all, and is only a little unstable in one out of the way, already-pretty-unstable area. It fixes one of the main issues I've had with the game forever; that Helgen gets burned down, and no one ever fixes it. The mod is fun and crazily well-built, and there is no reason not to try it. It should be noted, however, that this mod should never, ever, be active when you start a new game. Keeping it on causes some pretty strange stuff to happen, let me tell you.
-Falskaar: The other mod that I covered here. This mod is as good and as large as any of the official DLCs, and works the same way. If you are okay with using the official dowloadable content, then you should be using this mod too.
-Master of Disguise - Real Faction Armor - Faction Overhaul: There is a civil war going on in Skyrim. The two sides are brutally fighting each other all across the map on a daily basis. So why can I walk up to members of either faction wearing armor of the other and suffer no negative reprocussions? Well, with this mod installed, I can't!
-Enhanced Lights and FX: Does exactly what it says on the tin; it enhances the lighting and the related effects to greatly enhance realism. It is a breeze to install, and shows no performance issue significant enough to write home about. Absolutely outstanding.
-Realistic Needs and Diseases: A fantasy RPG with no survival element is no RPG, and, well, Skyrim has no true survival element, even though the components are all there. This mod takes those components and makes them into what they always should have been, and is fully customizable!
-Deadly Dragons: This one requires no selling. Dragons are wimps, except with this mod.
-Climates of Tamriel: A beautiful mod which really takes the kinda lame weather systems of Skyrim and bumps them up a few notches (BAM!) into something truly impressive and worthy of Tamriel's harshest province. Made by one of the best, and best-known, mod makers ever, I simply could not live without this mod in my load order. It just makes the game look so much better, especially when combined with the likes of Enhanced Lights and FX.
-Lost Longswords: Longswords have been a part of the franchise since he beginning, except in Skyrim. This is unacceptible to me. This mod fixes that problem by adding great, lore-friendly longswords to the game and adding them to the leveled lists, which is actually a great segue into...
-Immersive Weapons/Immersive Armors: I count these two fantastic compilation mods as one because, at one point, they were. These mods take all of the greatest armor and weapon mods, puts them together, and adds them to the game's rather sparse levelled and crafting lists, allowing for more options all around, in terms of looting, and smithing.
-Jaysus Swords: Very similar to the previous mod, this mod adds some of the most beautiful modded swords to the world of Skyrim. When I say beautiful, I mean it. Look the mod up if you don't believe me. There are swords for practically every theme, allowing for a much better range of character building options for the immersion enthusiast.
-Skyrim Audio Overhaul: A relatively new mod, and another spectacular realism mod that gives the ruins and the grand halls throughout Skyrim the cavernous atmosphere that they deserve, and gives a real sense of distance to the open spaces of the grand, open world of the game.
-Anything that enhances distant terrain: Because the distant terrain in this game is sooo ugly.
-Anything by InsanitysSorrow: Seriously, check out his work on the Skyrim Nexus. It is gorgeous.
-The Skyrim Places series: In a game where the number of available towns to explore is pretty low, this mod adds more spice to the land of Skyrim in a lore-friendly way by adding cities that were placed in Skyrim in the previous games of the series into the Skyrim of, well, Skyrim. Better yet, these places are fully integrated into the radiant quest system of the game, so it's like they've always been there!
-UFO/AFT: Part of a fantasy game is the ability to travel with a merry band of companions. While Skyrim one-ups other Elder Scrolls titles by allowing one companion, this is not nearly enough for me, and the ability to customize and direct them is pretty meh. Either of these popular mods will fix both of these problems.
-A Quality World Map: Because a map should have, you know, roads.
-MCM: Mod Configuration Menu: A menu mod which allows for the customization, in-game, of mod settings for any mod which is compatible, which is most of them. Part of the SkyUI mod, which is great, but not really neccessary.
-Immersive Hud: Allows the toggling of the in-game heads-up display with a bound keypress. By Gopher, Let's Player and modder extraordinaire!
It should also be noted that some of these mods run using the Skyrim Script Extender (SKSE), something that every modded Skyrim should run just because it helps stabilize the game a bit. An amazing SKSE installation guide by the afformentioned Gopher can be found on his Gophersvids YouTube page.
Well, that was way more than ten, but I stand by them. It's pretty amazing that I could narrow the list down this much, considering the sheer number of mods that I run on my game. Anyone who wants to play a serious, immersive Skyrim game will find several gems on this list. There are other great mods around, but no matter how hard I try, these are the mods which I simply cannot imagine my game without. Check out the Nexus pages for them and see what you all think. More Skyrim content to come down the road, including, if you all are lucky, a series of stories based on my own personal gameplay experience!
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