Enderal, A Skyrim Total Conversion Mod, Due Next Month
Long time coming
Total conversions are easily the most ambitious mods ever created, which is why so few of them ever actually get finished. They don't just add some new armor sets or tweak a game mechanic or two, they build entire games. But, amazingly, Enderal [official site], a completely new RPG built in Skyrim's engine, is going to be one of the few that actually sees the light of day. Thanks to a tweet from its developer, we now know Enderal will be arriving at the beginning of July, first in German and then in English a week or two later.
Developed by SureAI, a team of 12 coordinating out of Munich, Germany, Enderal seems almost too ambitious in scope. It's been in development since a month before Skyrim launched back in 2011, and features a fully-voiced story in both German and English that should take anywhere from 30 to 100 hours to beat. Deep changes to the mechanics of Skyrim have also been made, including revamping the progression system so that it more closely resembles a traditional RPG with experience points. Add to that a brand new world featuring new art, landscapes, and monsters to fight and Enderal seems like a pretty big package. Oh yeah, did I mention it's also free? Bless these modders. All you need is a copy of Skyrim, which fortunately is on sale through Steam for a tidy $9.99/£4.99.
What has me the most interested is the story, however. Watching the trailer above, which features a whole lot of snippets of dialogue, Enderal feels much darker and more personal than most of the Elder Scrolls games. And its website describes it as "an unconventional story with psychological and philosophical undercurrents," which also has me greatly intrigued.
Enderal will arrive in German between July 1st and 3rd. Unless you can understand German, you'll have to wait until the English version releases later to find out of Enderal has actually been worth the four year wait. But with so much blood, sweat, and tears obviously put into it, I certainly hope it will be.