If the exploration is a little bit lacking, it's only because the quests have been obsessed over. That's enough of a reward for me 50% of the time, and I took some postcard shots when I should have been on the main quest, because there's nowhere quite like Skyrim for screenshots. It's also damned pretty, in a functional kind of way. But you can tell the difference between a world created by the the many skilled hands of Bethesda's game masters and an excitable if incredibly talented amateur. But it's not empty: I found the remains of a battle between bandits and guards I angered a giant and his mammoths by skipping through their camp I was rewarded for a taking a dip in the icy sea with an island of wolves and a dungeon. Where Skyrim would have dungeon openings or angry wizards, there is mostly forest. It's immediately apparent that Falskaar doesn't quite have the noise of Skyrim. Before getting drawn into the local politics, I went for a wild wander. You're met at the gate and led through another dungeon, then roped into a rescue mission in another dungeon before finally being allowed to explore. In the tradition of all portals everywhere, this one breaks the moment it sends you to Falskaar. He was protecting a portal.įalskaar is on the other side of the portal.

A boss fight with a giant mechanical Dwemer confirms this is their territory. I carefully plundered my way through a linear, bandit-protected corridor sliced into the earth, the deeper it goes the more Dwemer influenced design seeps in, like it's somehow leaking in from the groundwater. There are no vampires, here, just more Skyrim. You enter a cave that could be any dungeon in Skyrim, which is the first statement of Falskaar: this isn't a campy theatrical reworking of the main game. If all it had were Jarls shouting at other Jarls, it wouldn't interest me. There's no point in taking on the main quest if I can't simply walk off into the woods looking for adventure. It's about a third of the size of the main game, which was enough for me to play it the way I usually play Skyrim: like a buffoon, skipping through the meadows. It's had peace for a while, but the main land's strife is slowly being mirrored here. Is Falskaar a place? I spent the morning playing it to find out. Can it be done? Skyrim's built for adventurers and sightseers, not just quest hunters. That's a bold claim for an amateur to make. It's a ploy by a 19 year-old modder to prove to Bethesda that he can make something that rivals their DLC, but with a fraction of their resources. Though some glitches can negatively affect the game’s immersion, the sheer randomness of its bugs often produces more laughs than angry fans, like one Skyrim glitch that gave a guard Sonic-like powers.Falskaar is a folly. For example, just last week a Skyrim glitch had a Windhelm guard swimming through the air, creating a hysterical farewell between the NPC and the Dragonborn. That said, not all of Skyrim’s glitches are harmful, with many adding charm and character to the decade-old RPG. While Bethesda has squashed many of the annoying bugs in various updates over the years, there are still many that have slipped between the cracks. There are plenty of instances of Skyrim’s glitches breaking the game, in which frustrated players are forced to reload a previous save to remedy the issue. Despite its popularity, Skyrim is not void of problems, as is with most of Bethesda’s RPGs. Bethesda’s fifth installment to the Elder Scrolls franchise has seen monumental success throughout its decade-long lifespan, having sold millions of copies and spawning nine different variations across multiple platforms. Another Elder Scrollsglitch was caught on camera, resulting in a hilarious Skyrimclip that shows an elk falling from the clouds.

Skyrim angry giant