So, I just finished Nehrim – At Fate’s Edge and I must say, it is the coolest type of “mod” that I’ve ever played. Everybody probably knows what type of game Oblivion is and how poorly executed it really is. But how many knows anything about Nehrim, the total conversion mod for Oblivion? This game was made with Oblivion as the foundation but with a completely new story and lore and it’s just mind blowing. It’s way longer than Oblivion in story, way better, richer in graphics and so full of things to do.
The game however is fully voiced in german, which was a bit jarring to me at first, but as the story progresses, it really starts to sound strangely natural and fits really well. Probably because the voicing was of really high quality (unlike most mods) and generally better sounding than even vanilla Oblivion.
The story takes off when you, as the main character, responds to a letter that invites you to a gathering of sorts but who would have known what that letter really would mean for your future. The game goes on with sending you on various missions and all the while you never get the feeling that you’re special. There are others like you that does the same thing. But towards the end, the game gives you some fun choices to feel a bit more powerful, even for just a slight while.
The game even introduces romance with the sweet and caring Kim, an aeterna that used to be a slave. He (he’s a she if you play as a male) is one of the sweetest characters I’ve ever seen in a role-playing game and I’m sad that the story wasn’t deeper for the two love birds.
My red headed half-aeterna made her way through the world with a bow and perfect sneak skills. In the end she almost one shot killed anything while stealthy with a 5x sneak bonus to her damage. Well towards the end of the main story anyhow. The game is sort of never ending and I’ve already spent over 65 hours in it.
A thing with this game that I thought I would complain a lot on was the fact that you get achievement for almost everything you do. From surviving lava to finishing a battle with just 1 hp left, from exploring sights to killing enemies and so on. But in the end it was fun to see what the achievements was about even though I would have wished that they were harder to get, to make me work for it.
Speaking of harder, that is something that this game pulled off really nicely, to be as hard as Morrowind is at the beginning to really make your work for it. The fact that you have to really fight at the beginning is something that I like, the only negative part with that is that towards the end, it might get too easy imo.
The game overall is truly mind blowing and the feeling of it being built on Oblivion disappears after a few minutes. The places that makes up this game is breathtaking and so varied. From snow to deserts, beaches to thick forests, and large cities to small camps. The lore is also really interesting and fun to explore.
(The arena was a fun place where I defeated a big monster.)
It’s also worth noting that while Oblivion with mods (and even vanilla Oblivion) always used to be kinda unstable for me, Nehrim worked much better with almost no crashes or anything, despite being much better looking and having much more items and such. So that was refreshing too.
The time it must have taken to complete this with just the will and freetime of the people that did it is awesome. The same people that did this perfect mod, also made the “Cube Experimental” mod for Fallout 3. I’m amazed that there is such people out there still, well done, this is epic. If you haven’t played this game already, I suggest that you do that.
(I even got my own castle, and a statue of me standing outside it.)
I Hate Loading Screens 
A mod based on Oblivion, another TES game I have fond memories of, I personally have not seen that instability you mentioned, even if I can’t remember me playing Oblivion as much as Morrowind.
To point out a few things about the review to start with, you got a nice easy flow on the text, loved reading through it, informative with a good mix of nicely taken screenshots.
It was also easy to read on the smaller screen of a mobile phone.
How much did the German language put you off? Was it possible to follow in the story (subtitles or easy German to understand? )
You mention there where a few fun choices to feel more powerful, is there any you can give example of or would that spoil too much of the game?
What was it about Kim that made him(/her) so sweet? Would the character be very similar if playing another gender, beside it being a different gender.
Achievements are always an interesting point, it gives something to work towards even if they are easy if there are many it can still be a challenge, do you feel there was that much of them that it still presented a challenge to get them all? Did you have a list before hand so you knew what to work towards?
The scaling of a game and how hard it is, well it is just that – hard. Would you think a solution could be to scale the NPCs that spawns (at least in enclosed dungeons) would dynamical scale towards your current gear, spells and stats?
That was all the questions for now, hope it wasn’t too many, as I said at the start of this comment you present a nice flowing text, one that is easy for me to follow and makes it interesting to read, I really appreciate that you take the time and effort to write these!
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It did not put me off at all, though I thought it would. It fit perfectly.
It is subtitles all over the place and letters/books are translated as well.
I would spoil the game if i would tell you that, so play it yourself, heh.
It is the love story in general that made it so sweet, the integration into the main story and his personality. I wouldn’t know if he is similar or not on the female side, I haven’t tried playing male.
I did not have a list for the achievements and they were almost to easy to get, and too many really.
I prefer it to be as it is, maybe making it a bit more difficult towards the ending as well.
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By Azura, By Azura, By Azura! The Grand Champion, back for more adventures! Can I come along?! Please please please!! 😉
Hehe, wow look at all that beautiful scenery… Very cute character too! (Red hair ftw! Hehe) This Mod/Conversion looks amazing :O I -really- love that forest-from-above/valley picture, and the Castle with the bridge to the entrance! That valley looks full of mystery and life… This really does seem huge… Brilliant picture taking, really captured a lot of the beauty of this Conversion!
– How big is this Mod would you say, world wise? As expansive as the Oblivion Vanilla, or even bigger?
Fully voiced in German isn’t so bad. I myself watch Japanese Anime, and after a while you do start to get used too it. (Plus I find the German language sometimes funny, especially when they get angry! Their words are quite colourful! Heh). Nice to see also the voice actors really put heart into it! Oblivion Voice actors eventually began to blend, and everyone sounded the same (Especially hearing that damn Guard -anywhere- in the world say “Stop! You violated the law!” over and over… I’m allowed to kill what I want thanks! >.> And your twenty or so twin brothers in each city said the exact same thing!)
– Looking through the pictures, I don’t notice any Subtitles. Are their English subtitles when talking to NPC’s or is it literally all in German? Also stuff like Letters you read, Books also? There might even be a mod out there that adds English subtitles and translations, who knows, unless its just the voice acting that’s German.
The story start sounds nice and simple, albeit Elder Scrolls cliché! Receiving a letter and such telling you to go somewhere, heh. Though I myself sometimes like the idea that you aren’t ‘special’, so to speak. Later on maybe but at first it just feels to coincidental if they suddenly find you, this amazing special person who has a great destiny! (-Points at Skyrim and waves fist!-I hated that damn Prisoner start with the Dragon appearing and ‘Wow I’m the Dragonborn! All I wanted to do was cross the Border!’ heh… At least in Oblivion it sort of felt more like they just stumbled upon you, and Morrowind was the most believable start.)
– When you say ‘others like you’, I’m guessing they’re all interactive in the story and you meet up with them at points to find out what they’re doing?
– Also ‘doing stuff like you’: What kind of quests/missions did you (and the NPC’s) have generally? Like, hunting, retrieval, information gathering, etc etc…
Ahh nice, some Romance! Something Elder Scroll’s really lacks, to be honest. (Marriage in Skyrim doesn’t count, because you just wear and amulet of Mara and “Wow you are available?! Let’s marry!”, “Er, do I know you?”. Heh, total waste of time too, especially if you marry someone like Aela, or Lydia. Useful as a companion, then she just goes and becomes your housewife.). Nice to know too there is an option for both male and female, even if its the same person but just switched genders, but they didn’t go into much detail with the love story? A shame, though I guess Elder Scroll’s really isn’t one for Romance, unless you mod the hell out of it.
Went for Bow/Stealth, I see. In my Oblivion Vanilla I was a total shambles. Had a sword shield, bow, magic, no stealth: My first playthrough of it was horribly flawed because I was so young. However, wow, that damage does sound amazing! The true beauty of an Assassin is when played right, I doubt much can stop you as for one: They can’t see you, and two, they’re dead before they even knew what the hell was going on! Also lots of hours… Oblivion main story didn’t take long at all, the only part that took long was repeatedly closing those damn Gate’s, which eventually became a blend of running up the same tower to touch the same orb. Blah blah blah…
– For the Romance part, how much detail did it go into? I see you wrote it’s very sweet and one of the best you’ve seen, though was it in that way because of how it was wrote to be viewable, or how subtle the approach was and the eventual bringing together of the Romance? Does he come as a regular Companion too, or just appear every now and then? ( Looking very cute and shy behind him in that picture too! 🙂 )
– For the playstyle as well, the world looks rather open to be fair. Did you find it hard to use a stealth approach? Judging by one of the pictures of that heavily clad Knight and his buddies too, that looks a bit hard for just you and your bow? ( Unless you kicked their metallic studded arse’s! Wooo! Haha 😀 ). Also damn at that picture with the creature with…Dual Glaives? I think they’re Glaives…Look cool either way, and dangerous! (Also that Glass Armor is sexy! 😀 Much better then the ugly Vanilla green style!)
– Continuing on actually with the playstyle, did the conversion change fight animations and such also? I’m guessing that dual Glaive weaponry required some extra animation work, so I’m just curious as to whether or not they worked on changing more animations.
A hard start, nice to know they may have got some inspiration from Morrowind to make the game feel like you’ve achieved more and worked harder when playing! (Going back to the Achievements too, I agree with you there. Lots of games have a ton of pointless achievements, which I believe I posted about in one of your earlier Reviews.). That variety of landscapes really is shown too in the pictures! For RPG’s, my favourite landscapes to explore are generally either dense forests, or snowy mountain tops! Nothing better then battling your way through a storming snow blizzard to find shelter, or traversing deep in a forest with just the sound of nature around you, that feeling of caution but also curiosity a wonderful mix.
– What was your favourite area of the game? And I mean that by, what do you feel made you fall for the Mod most of all in terms of the environment? Was it the instanced maps for missions, or just a certain area of the world that felt and looked amazing to navigate?
– A stable Conversion as big as this? Another testament to a great Modding Team, like the Morrowind Overhaul group! Did you have many Mods on apart from Nehrim too, like you had in Morrowind, or did you just want to enjoy the entirety of Nehrim in itself? 🙂
A very interesting, and brilliant review here! You are great at taking snaps of the quality of these Mod’s. Just that forest/valley alone is making me want to roll an Elf and go exploring! I may have to look at this soon, especially on my new computer. Plenty more space for Mod’s and all sorts. Glad there was no spoilers too! These pictures and review was well worth waiting for!
Can’t wait for the next Review! Game on, and keep showing us these brilliant piece of work you find! 🙂 Sorry for there being a lot of questions again too, though I did warn you in the Morrowind review! ( 😛 ).
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It sure felt bigger but I can’t say for sure.
Yes, there were subtitles for when people talked, books and such is also translated as well. It is really nicely done.
No, not really, well you do have Kim, but you are far too busy doing your own objectives that you hardly keep up with what is going around.
It would spoil the story if I told about the objectives that I got, heh.
The love story is detailed, and really sweet. It works really nice and is incorporated into the main story as well.
He is a companion, but you do stay separated for a few moments in the game as well.
No, imo stealth is the easiest approach to the elder scrolls games, it lets me see the enemies before they see me. And the world is completely open for the taking.
That battle with the knights was a large battle that my high athletics/acrobatics and stealth handled really fine. I ran like hell up on a cliff and entered stealth, problem solved.
The woman with the dual weapons (there aren’t such weapons in the game, she is special) doesn’t have glass armor, tbh I dunno if there are glass armor in the game.
It might be so that they change the battle animations a bit, you could dual wield a sword and a blocking sword at the same time.
The game isn’t instanced at all? And everything made me fall for it, it is a perfect landscape.
I played Nehrim “vanilla”, they packed the mod with enough things. I just added a “bullet camera” for my archery.
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Looks bigger…Or that’s just me admiring the Valley shot again and again! Hehe 🙂
Oh? That’s good! I don’t mind subtitles at all, plus good they translated it all for books and such. Shows they took their time to make it friendly for everyone.
Ahh okay. I can understand that, looks like there is a -lot- to the conversion, and more then just the quests. Also that’s okay, spoiling is bad after all! (Though you can always spoil it in German and I’ll be like “Wut?” 😛 Hehe)
Incorporated into the main story? Nice! So it’s got an important role at least, and isn’t just a side quest detail 🙂 Romance does need a big part in some RPG’s to feel closer to the characters.
– This might be asking for a spoiler basically, but how does the Romance first begin/they meet? Is it a random encounter or do they already know each other from jobs?
Yeah I can see that. Though in Skyrim (And other Elder Scroll’s) the Stealth was horribly flawed (I’m not sure whether or not you’ve seen those jokey animations where you shoot an arrow from stealth, the guard checks for a moment, then walks away with an arrow in their head like “Probably nothing.” Eheh.), and wow! That’s cheating! 😛 Stand and fight! 😉 Haha, nah, if ya got stealth, and ya know when/how to use it, then do it!
– How did the enemies react when you went back into stealth? The same as Vanilla Elder Scrolls, where they’d roam for a bit then walk away, or did the conversion add a little improvement?
Oh? Huh… Had a similar detail to Glass, but okay. And ahh, she was the one who got the cool dual weapons! See that in some singleplayer games… I remember an old Western PS2 game called ‘Gun’, and the final boss had a 12 barrel -exploding shell- shotgun! That thing was insane!… Although once you kill him, you unlock it, and I just went… Crazy with it…Heh.
Not instanced at all? Wow, that’s some serious optimizing there! But yeah, the conversion does look beautiful… As shown by your excellent screenshotting!
– What were the ambient sounds like and the music? (If there was much custom music added)
Bullet camera, nice! So you can see exactly where you arrow pierces their puny AI brains! 😛 Trying to think… Yeah, Sniper Elite had that, it showed the bullet going through the skeleton and everything. Love ‘bullet/arrow cam’. Also on Mortal Kombat the ‘body cam’, I guess, is damn awesome!
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