Skywind Gameplay

[Louella Kammann]

Skywindthe ambitious total conversion mod aiming to remake The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, just received a new gameplay demonstration featuring over 21 minutes of footage, released as a celebration of Morrowind's 21st anniversary.

The video shows a rather simple side mission where the player character, the Nerevarine, is asked by Tharer Rotheloth (master of Molag Mar's Tribunal Temple) to find and dispatch the wanted Dark Elf Necromancer Delvam Andarys, who's hiding in a Velothi tower called Mawia.

While describing the gameplay demo, the modding team behind Skywind highlighted 're-imagined assets, creative level design ideas, and more immersive dialogue and scripted sequences' added on top of the structure of the original quest. At the same time, they are still looking for volunteers in various areas, such as voice acting, 3D art, animation, animation, coding, landscaping, sound, quality assurance, writing, and more. You can find additional information and submission forms for all these vacancies on the official website.

Skywind first began receiving gameplay trailers and showcases in 2019. The latest development diary from June 2021 revealed that over a hundred dungeons had been completed, and 35K voiced lines had been recorded. However, much work still needs to be done and no release window is in sight, unlike Skyblivion. The sibling project within the TES: Renewal family now has a 2025 estimated launch date.

Skywind is also directly threatened by the RTX Remix remastering tool. As part of its debut showcase, NVIDIA picked The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind to show off the technology, and the footage looked a lot better than anything that could be done in Skyrim's engine, thanks to the path tracer renderer. NVIDIA isn't going to fully remake Morrowind as they did with Portal, but with the upcoming release of the creator toolkit, it is likely a group of modders will endeavor to do so. Thanks to the RTX Remix tools, they could work faster than projects like Skywind. On the other hand, it would be a mere graphics overhaul. In contrast, this project also seeks to take advantage of the advancement in mechanics and gameplay delivered by the newer version of Bethesda's Creation Engine.

Skywind received a new 'Call of the East' trailer just last month and we thought it would be a while before we got another update. However, the modders of the TESRenewal group were at Gamescom 2019 this week to showcase a gameplay demo of the total conversion mod project.

Keeping the same spirit of the original Morrowind release, Skywind will let you kill pretty much every character in the game, although that might break the storyline. Horses won't be available as well, though fast travel is there as it's baked into the Skyrim engine. On the other hand, some improvements from Skyrim like smithing and crafting are expected to be in Skywind once it releases.

For those that would rather see Oblivion remade in Skyrim, there's also Skyblivion, in development at another TESRenewal modding group. A new trailer for that came out earlier this month, with the makers confidently stating the completion of the project is almost in sight.

Work on Skywind has gone on for years now, but this latest video, below, shows the project is coming along nicely. It shows 20 minutes of new footage, including new world spaces, creatures, environment assets, voice lines, item descriptions, user interface improvements and spells, and revolves around a quest from the original game called Necromancer in Mawia.

In the gameplay, we get a good look at exploration in the Molag Amur region, combat and, in particular, spellcasting as the player makes their way to the top of a tower and a showdown with a naughty necromancer.

"Videos like Necromancer in Mawia take a colossal amount of work and co-ordination to put together, but they also accelerate development as we scramble to get every aspect of the video implemented and polished," the team said.

"Still, some keen viewers might notice gaps - missing dialogue, floating objects, or placeholders from Skyrim. There's space for extra contributors in a number of different roles detailed on our website, and we're always keen to welcome more team members to speed us on our way."

"We're keen to release as soon as we have something stable and playable, but a game this big is a monumental task, and progress from a volunteer team is totally dependent on our contributors' free time.

"This makes it impossible to estimate when we'll be finished, and since a missed release date would be a disappointment for everyone, our mantra is 'it'll be done when it's done'. Progress marches on!"

Morrowind is a game I've often thought would do well from an official remake. Alas, Bethesda seems busy with the upcoming Starfield, The Elder Scrolls 6 and Fallout 5. But with The Elder Scrolls 6 seemingly years out, perhaps a remaster of a game from the studio's impressive back catalogue would help with the wait.

The gameplay video, below, shows off how the modders have recreated Morrowind in the Skyrim engine. We see the player pick up a bounty in town, head off out into the wild and into a dungeon to kill the target before returning for a reward.

This is classic The Elder Scrolls stuff and on the face of it not particularly groundbreaking, but there's a level of polish here we don't often see from mods. The music, voice acting and town AI is all present and correct, and we even get to see some spear combat.

Skywind has been in the works for quite a while now, and we've reported on it a number of times over the years. But this is certainly the most polished gameplay we've seen yet from the mod, which suggests significant progress is indeed being made.

Skywind is also one of the highest-profile mods in the works right now. Such is the interest it even appeared at Gamescom this week, with its developers doing interviews with the press. The whole thing makes you wonder why Bethesda hasn't had a stab at remastering Morrowind itself!

There are lots of ambitious full conversion Skyrim mods in development, and one of the most anticipated by Elder Scrolls fans is Skywind. Modders have spent more than decade meticulously recreating The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind in Skyrim's engine, and long-time Bethesda RPG fans are eager to play it.

Unfortunately, the mod isn't finished yet and Skywind still doesn't have a release date, but here's a treat to make the wait a little more bearable. Today the mod team at The Elder Scroll Renewal Project have unveiled a full 20 minutes of new Skywind gameplay footage, and it looks fantastic. You can watch an entire quest, start to finish, in the video below. Check it out:

Morrowind fanatics will probably immediately recognize the setting, and maybe even the quest itself, which is called "Necromancer in Mawia." The video begins in Molag Amur in the Ashlands as the player strides through a dust storm to visit the temple in the city of Molag Mar. The temple master instructs the player to find and eliminate a necromancer named Delvam Andarys. "Show no mercy," he growls.

The player heads out to find the tower of Mawia, located on a small island off the coast. Along the way we see some magic put to use: a slowfall spell to safely leap from the rooftops in Molag Mar, a waterwalking spell to reach the island, and Ondusi's Open Door to unlock a chest. I really dig the custom animations for that lockpicking spell, as the character turns their hand back and forth as if they're mystically raising the unseen tumblers inside the lock.

There are also a few battles scattered throughout the quest: a quick skirmish with a Nix-Hound and a couple Clannfear, plus plenty of skeletons inside the tower at Mawia. Some bigger fights erupt near the end of the quest as the player takes on a summoned Bonewalker and then the dark elf necromancer himself.

The world of Morrowind looks beautifully recreated, though unfortunately most of the video takes place in the dead of night so you can't really get a great look at the landscape. You can compare the quest in the new Skywind video to a video of the quest in Morrowind and see that it's quite faithful to the original but has also been nicely enhanced, and not just with the addition of voice acting. Empty rooms are now filled with furniture, objects, and lootable items, and while in the original game the necromancer is just standing still in his chamber, in the Skywind video he's prepared in advance and has concealed himself for a surprise attack. That's just what a slippery necromancer would do!

The video ends with the familiar call for more volunteer modders to work on Skywind, which tells me its release is still potentially quite a long way off. But it sure looks like it's shaping up beautifully. While you continue impatiently waiting, you can visit the official Skywind website to learn more about it.

Skywind isn't the only big mod for a Bethesda RPG on the horizon: There's also Skyblivion, which is recreating Oblivion in Skyrim's engine. We got a look at a full four hours of Skyblivion back in January.

Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own."}), " -0-10/js/authorBio.js"); } else console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); Christopher LivingstonSocial Links NavigationSenior EditorChris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own.

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