The prologue blew my mind, and I've gotten further in the story and I just couldn't help but post a review. Every single quest I've played has thoroughly engaged me. The towns feel so much better than Skyrim towns, every single person is doing something. Buying from someone, sitting and smoking a pipe, engaging with the youths. You walk into a tavern and each person has a personality. There are solitary drinkers, people enjoying the bard, women gossiping. You couldn't mod Skyrim to this point without some serious expertise and research. Whoever made this mod-list has a ferocious writing capability, not to mention the game knowledge. I respect every ounce of effort that was put into it. It's a whole new game. An inspiring victory for gaming. If only triple A companies could replicate a shard of the jewel that is indie-creativity. Simply put, it's Skyrim if it made you feel things.

This did come out well after Skyrim. Most of my point in writing this review is an imaginary response to Todd Howard. You could (not so easily, maybe) make a wonderful game with the exact same engine that you used to make Skyrim. If you can't you should pass the torch to someone who can.

This game made me unable to enjoy Bethesda RPGs.

While it doesn't escape the Creation Engine's jank, SureAI created characters, stories, and a world that puts Bethesda RPGs to shame. It makes me angry knowing that such a small studio (SureAI) could produce an amazing game but Bethesda is satisfied with a quantity over quality approach in their games. Looking back I am not surprised after seeing Todd being excited about giving players 1000 planets in Starfield that are procedurally generated. Who would want that?!

Enderal is not perfect by any means: the voice actors in the first town are charmingly awful. But other than that, you would not know it was produced by such a small team.

Cannot recommend this. I'm sure there's some level of "skill issue" involved, but this game design is not clicking with me at all.

The combat is just... bad? I don't know if there's mandatory out-of-game reading required to be able to figure out what you're supposed to do, but it isn't obvious to me. I went for an Archer archetype, and after cheesing two packs of wolves with rock shenanigans - the only way to survive them - I'm out of arrows. Attempting any kind of melee leads to near-death for every single fight, and now I'm expected to make it through a cave filled with trolls? I haven't figured out how it's possible to defeat a troll in melee combat, they manage to hit me even with dodging, and blocking only does so much. I also can't just outrun them without taking lethal damage. I'm left with the feeling that either my chosen starting build is simply not viable, or there is something fundamental about this game that I am not understanding.

I am so early in the game that the only direction I've been given is through this one area and nothing I've attempted is working. I clearly don't get this game and nothing about it is convincing me to push through this or start over. It's honestly extra disappointing given all the praise this mod gets. I really wanted to like it but I don't feel like it respects my time at all. I guess it's back to Morrowind for now.