The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim is now over 10 years old, with numerous iterations available for fans to buy. The latest of which is Skyrim: Anniversary Edition, which has added a number of improvements to the game, including 74 Creation Club mods; which range from fishing to all-new stories and questlines. This is the latest in a long line of versions of Skyrim, but it is the most complete and offers the most content so far. The new content of Skyrim: Anniversary Edition is tempting, but players may instead look to build upon the version of Skyrim they already own.
Fortunately for gamers on a budget, The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim is renowned for its modding community, which continues to produce free mods even with the release of Skyrim: Anniversary Edition. Much of the content included within Skyrim: Anniversary Edition cannot be found anywhere else, but for Elder Scrolls fans who are more concerned with making Skyrim look like a modern game, the modding community has a lot to offer. While Skyrim is now over 10 years old, it can still look incredible with the help of graphic mods, which can place it on par with what would be expected from an Elder Scrolls game if it were released today.
Skyrim: Better Environment Mods
Skyrim’s expansive open world is chock full of content to explore; in the form of bandit camps, hidden treasures, and Easter Eggs. Players may spend much of their playthrough of Skyrim simply walking around the landscape hunting for these hidden treasures, so it’s worthwhile investing in a handful of Environment mods. These can help to make players’ experience of the world that much better, and keep them invested and immersed in the world around them.
Players who love exploring the wilderness of The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim may have noticed from time to time that the grass in the game doesn’t look great. For players who find this to be an issue, "Cathedral Landscapes" may be of interest. This mod will greatly improve the density and level of detail of grass, and terrain, without any sacrifice’s to the game’s performance. This means that the grass in Skyrim will look much better, and will pop in a lot less, which can prove to be immersion-breaking. When it comes to exploring the wilds of Skyrim, Cathedral Landscapes may be the most important mod for players to download.
Skyrim has one of the most inviting open worlds in RPGs, rivaled by very few. There’s a feeling of exploration and wonder instilled in the player as they step out of the cave in Helgen, matched with the actual ability to go wherever the player pleases.
However, much of what can be discovered in Skyrim’s world may not be as impressive to the modern gamer as it was 10 years ago when the game was first released. Fortunately, "Enhanced Landscapes" is a Skyrim mod that not only enhances the existing objects that can be found tucked within Skyrim’s landscape, but also adds new lore-friendly ones of its own. This makes the world of Skyrim look a lot more lived-in, once again helping with immersion.
The mountains of The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim are known to be some of the most impressive in gaming. They look stunning and offer an unmatched level of freedom, that allows the player to climb as high as they wish, as long as they have the know-how. While the game’s mountains still look impressive from afar, Skyrim’s "Majestic Mountains" mod can help to make them look even better. This mod improves mountain textures, level of detail, colors, and snow shaders to bring Skyrim’s mountains into modern gaming. With this mod, the already impressive mountains of Skyrim will be taken up a notch, ensuring they remain as some of the most impressive in gaming.
Skyrim: Visual Improvement Mods
Making Skyrim’s environments look alive and breathing is one key element to improving the game’s overall look, but it isn’t the only way. Clearly, in the modern-day, the graphics of Skyrim could do with some updating, and there are a number of mods that allow the player to do this. Improving Skyrim visually is perhaps the best way to make the game look better, without upgrading to Skyrim: Anniversary Edition.
Players may spend a lot of time during their playthrough, looking over Skyrim’s world map. It is fairly detailed, and at times it can help players to find their objective when the built-in compass isn’t quite enough. However, seeing as players spend much of their time looking at the map, it makes sense that this may be one of the first things players would look to update. "A Quality World Map" is a mod that does just that. This mod allows the player to choose between a 3D, highly-detailed world map, or a paper map, and also features Skyrim’s roads. This will not only make Skyrim’s world map more appealing, but also more accurate.
Players may also want to improve Skyrim visually by improving the game’s lighting. This can make the game’s environments, especially indoors or in low-light settings, look much more realistic and generally impressive. Skyrim’s " Enhanced Lights and FX" mod can help in this regard, by aiming to "create a more dramatic and realistic mood" with Skyrim’s lighting. In doing this, Skyrim should look much better, especially where artificial light sources such as torches are concerned. Lighting is one of the simplest and best ways to improve the look of a game, without making any major changes.
In addition to the lighting changes that can be made to Skyrim, players may also look to improve the sky of Skyrim. This may be of particular interest to both werewolf and vampire builds, as these players may spend a disproportionate amount of time outside during the nighttime. "Enhanced Night Skyrim" is a mod that improves Skyrim’s night sky, replacing the existing sky with a high-resolution alternative. The Dragonborn may spend many hours outside under the stars so it makes sense that the player would look to improve this aspect of the game.
While other mods exist that center around improving texture quality and static mesh across the board, making an effort to improve specific aspects of Skyrim’s look can derive spectacular results.
The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim 10th Anniversary Edition is available for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.