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Initial release date: February 14, 2019
Platform: Microsoft Windows
Genres: Role-playing game, Action game, Adventure
Introduction: Today I was scouring a videogame forum when I read a thread about this game called “Enderal: Forgotten Stories Special Edition”. Apparently, Enderal is a full game mod based off of The Elder Scrolls Skyrim main game. I game on PC time to time but never understood the lust for mods by the PC community. I stand corrected. I must say after making 10 gameplay videos for Enderal I can finally see why. Enderal Is a full blown RPG adventure game from top to bottom. I loved playing through Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim. So why the hell not try this. Spoiler alert: The little I played is good.
Presentation: So like I reiterated in the latter paragraph. This is a high fantasy inspired RPG PC mod based on Skyrim with it’s own identity related to it’s story. Enderal has it’s own original story. Spending a few hours with Enderal: Forgotten Stories Special Edition I haven’t noticed any bug or glitches. This game seems polished. However, my screen was too dark in dark areas and I have no clue if there are torches in this game so that kinda sucked. Could of been my monitor settings, who knows. Enderal’s atmosphere gave me small Pirates of The Caribbean vibes early in-game due to it’s plethora of pirate NPCs and ship sequences.
Gameplay: I played and beaten most Elder Scrolls videogames so I have a good base of experience gameplay-wise as to Enderal. I really really liked the gameplay in this. It’s similar to Skyrim with it’s DNA (being it’s mod and all). My PC Specs: Ryzen 9 3900x, 32GB DDR4, Geforce RTX 2080 Super, 1TB SSD, ASRock X570. With this set up I was getting 60 fps with mostly maxed out settings. Enderal ran and performed great on my PC overall. As far as what type of gameplay Enderal has. Think Skyrim. I am currently playing as a battlemage. I’ve conquered Cave Trolls, Mud Elementals, wolves, crabs early in-game. I also played through a few maze-like ruins and dungeons searching for loot. Enderal a very similar looking leveling up system to Skyrim. Lots of looting, exploring and NPC dialogue trees fleshes out the gameplay-loops.
After exiting an early in-game Sun Coast abandoned tower where I had defeated a Cave Troll, I met a NPC named Finn. I spent at least ten minutes exhausting dialogue options and shopping his wares. Maybe it’s the fact I played this on a PC and not on Playstation 3 (Skyrim) but the combat feels much better than Skyrim. Sword swinging, aiming my electricity/fire magics was smooth as butter. Jason duh, 60fps vs 30 fps. Nothing to see here people! Anyways, Enderal Forgotten stories Special Edition has enough Elder Scrolls DNA in my opinion. So yeah, I had fun with the actual gameplay to gameplay moments…so far.
Audio/Music: This is where Enderal: Forgotten Stories Special Edition falls flat compared to Skyrim. It’s not to say I think the voice actors performances or ambient sounds are bad. It’s more how high a bar Skyrim and it’s orchestra/voice actors were at the time. Overall NPC dialogue sequences were decent as well the sounds creatures made. I did get a mild sense of atmosphere early on from the “little” sounds like footsteps, wildlife, weather etc. Furthermore keep in mind this game supposedly has big city hubs which I haven’t reached yet. Overall the musical score and sound design could improve. Just saying.
Graphics/Visuals: It looks as good as Skyrim Special Edition on PC (without any extra crazy graphic mods). I don’t expect much from this outdated ass Bethesda engine. Textures and character models are okay-ish. Creatures looked better than NPCs which surprised me. Sun Coast during the daytime cycle looked good with stellar artwork and good draw distances. The world is littered with insects, animals and NPCs that give good visual atmosphere. Overall however Enderal looks well below average for a PC game in 2022. I know it was made years ago thank you.
Judgement: All of my impressions are based off of making just ten gameplay videos of Enderal: Forgotten Stories Special Edition that you can watch here. Enderal has a grand sense of scale for being a Skyrim mod. I mean it is it’s own game and looks and feels like it to boot. I enjoyed the gameplay as it does feel better than Skyrim. The visuals are archaic in 2022 which is to be expected. The sound design and music could be better but it’s not bad, just not the big budget Elder Scrolls levels. From what I read Enderal has a 40 hour campaign which is long. The open world alone can triple that I’m guessing. Now I can see why PC gamers are crazy about mods, I am sold! And you know what’s the best part about Enderal Forgotten Stories Special Edition? It’s free as long as you have STEAM Skyrim Special edition. Thanks for reading – Jason
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