Ok, ok, so maybe I’m being a little dramatic. But, seriously, I’ve spent so many hours modding my Skyrim game instead of actually playing it. Don’t get me wrong, modding is amazing and shoutout to all the modders out there! You do wonderful jobs, and you helped my game to look and play fantasically. But then I just… fell out of love with it.

The more I modded, the more the game lost soul. Even the mods that were meant to add to the immersion, started to feel too much.

When did you start playing Skyrim? For me, it was December 2011, after poking my head into my sister’s room and asking her what she was playing only for her to reply ‘Skyrim’ and ruin my social life forever. I became addicted. The game quickly became my all time favourite and I couldn’t wait to get home from school to play it. What mayhem would my character get up to today? Would I fall victim to a mudcrab? Would Nazeem finally fall onto my blade?

There was something about Skyrim that kept me coming back; I couldn’t escape. From the rich stories, quests, and characters to the gorgeous scenery and soundtrack. I became lost in its world and spent every waking moment I was free within it.

Then I got my first pc and modding became available to me. I started small, then quickly became obsessed with modding my game. This continued when mods came to the Xbox One and then Series X. And then, at the beginning of last year, I bought the gaming pc that I’m currently using to create this blog. I’d download hundreds of mods and even tried out a couple modlists with over 2000. Once installed, I’d hop on to play and only get as far as visiting High Hrothgar for the first time (around lvl 10) before quitting.

I felt sad. I loved Skyrim and I wanted to play it but I didn’t know how to anymore. As I’d play I’d notice faults with mods, incompatibilities, and would ponder adding another. I’d watch other peoples modded playthroughs and realise I wasn’t playing it ‘right’, and would want to start a game with a new character.

Thing is… there is no ‘right way’ of playing Skyrim. I only came to understand this recently.

So, this New Year I decided I wanted to do a full playthrough. I didn’t want to keep restarting. I didn’t want to have to worry about mods and whether my game was going to crash because of the amount I had. I didn’t fully step away from modding though.

The above image shows you how my game is today. I have some basic graphics mods installed like Skyland, Happy Little Trees, and Realistic Waters. As well as some that smooth skins – because the wrinkly Breton foreheads were… not a look, haha! And, finally, just a couple improvement and immersion mods like Ordinator, Wintersun, and Headhunter.

I kept combat, animations, and most other things vanilla. I’m also on Master difficulty because I get a challenge without it being too difficult. I don’t use survival mode as my character tends to get peckish every 2 seconds, plus I don’t have loads of free time outside of work to game so I will allow fast travel every so often but limit it as best I can. (I am also a major loot goblin so don’t fancy having my carry weight halved!)

Controller is how I’ve decided to play the game because that’s how I first started playing Skyrim and I want to recreate that charm as best as I can. The goal is to not take it too seriously, to roleplay lightly, and just to have fun with it! If I can do that then I’m sure I’ll fall in love with the game all over again. I can’t wait to start this new adventure!!