Nehrim: At Fate's Edge, First Impressions (7 hours)
2022-12-25Nehrim: At Fate's Edge is a total conversion mod for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion by a German Team SureAI. It takes place in a different universe to that of The Elder Scrolls, on the Continent of Nehrim, in the World of Vyn.
First Impressions
Nehrim is as if Oblivion was a drinking glass that was shattered on the floor and SureAI picked the pieces, painted them, and assembled them to make a beautiful mural. It is built on Oblivion's Game Engine (Gamebryo). The Gameplay plays like Oblivion other than 1 major change which I will talk about in a bit. The Game is only available in German Voiceover but you can use English Subtitles.
I remember the feeling when I played Oblivion the first time, Nehrim gives me the same feeling except somehow even better.
Open World and Exploration
Let us talk about the Open World first because it is where Nehrim shines. The World is Huge, roughly the size of Oblivion's Cyrodil also very tightly packed and detailed. Nehrim is a Mountainous Region, there are 4 big cities and many towns all over the world.
Wildlife feels more real than Oblivion's. It is one of the elements of the game which is clearly inspired by Gothic, also a German Game by Piranha Bytes. The Animals warn before attacking depending upon Species like in Gothic, unlike Oblivion.
The World is filled with books containing lore written by different cultures from the creation of the universe to the current wars.
Exploration is amazing and rewarding. First of all, there is no Fast Travel which fixes half of the things wrong with Oblivion's Exploration. The World is full of items to find and secrets to discover. The Forest in Nehrim is much better than Oblivion's, everything is hand placed instead of procedurally generated.
The Dungeons are better designed and worth exploring, unlike Oblivion. Every Cave / Mine I went into in 7 hours felt different from each other. All dungeons are handcrafted and exploring them is fun.
* Music / Soundtrack
The Soundtrack is made by SureAI themselves and it fits perfectly into its settings while exploring. It took me immersed for hours. I liked all the Soundtracks which I came across in my playthrough.
Graphics
Graphics are similar to Oblivion's as they both use the same engine. However, Nehrim has more detailed Textures, better water shaders, Depth of field shaders and Updated Character Models.
All in all, when I first booted into the Open World it looked like this
which is not bad for a 2006 game and a 2010 mod.
The Depth of the Field effect looks good but it is always on which makes it annoying sometimes. The Trees look great, you can see individual leaves and god rays.
DOF - ON
DOF - OFF
The Water doesn't look great but still better than Oblivion's.
Story / Quests
Nehrim takes place on the war-torn continent Nehrim. The Continent is divided into 3 political areas - Northrealm, Middlerealm and Southrealm (very creative). The Chancellor of Middlerealm, Barateon has outlawed all magic as well as declared war on Northrealm. The Player is a member of a small Monastery who receives a mysterious letter on his doorstep along with many others which leads them to an old abandoned mine, which is infested with trolls. The Player is rescued by the mage, Merzul who admits the player into little Hogwarts.
The Main Quest is long and divided into chapters which I have heard is amazing and 10x better than Oblivion's main questline.
There are side quests too which are on the same quality level as Oblivion. I have completed 4-5 side quests, all of which felt unique and varied.
Gameplay
The Gameplay is similar to Oblivion, You have classes with different skills which depend on your attributes(Strength, Intelligence, Agility....)
The major difference is Progression. Nehrim ditches the Oblivion leveling system, which is the more you do something, the better you become at it, and instead uses the level system from Gothic, which is you will get experience from doing something (quests, killing enemies) and with enough exp points you can level up and spend your skill points to increase your skill by visiting a trainer and learning from them. Which I didn't like.
There is Crafting too which I haven't touched much yet but made a quick 200 coins profit from it. You can Craft Weapons too which too came from Gothic.
Nehrim pushes Oblivion's Game Engine to its limits, from Rock Physics to the clever use of holding item mechanic in side quests.
Technical Issues
I played Nehrim on steam which comes with many mods pre-installed, which I made it working after some time. However, being on Oblivion's Engine the game is full of bugs. I had 6-7 crashes in 7 hours of gameplay.
More
All 7 hours of the playthrough are from yesterday (24-12-2022) which shows how immersive it is. I will be posting a full review later after a few hundred hours.
Also, Merry Christmas!
