I’m giving Skyrim another chance, with a bit of help.

I’ve always loved the game world, but the vanilla gameplay never held my interest for long enough to finish the game. I tried once or twice to spice it up by adding mods, but picking them, testing them, and working them into a compatible state took ages, and by the time I finished all that, I was spoiled to the content and had little motivation left to actually play. This time, I decided to try a pre-composed modlist using one of the tools for that purpose that have grown popular in recent years.

Enter Gate to Sovngarde. It’s a collection of nearly 2000 Skyrim mods from a well-known modder who values immersion and balance. I was skeptical that so many mods could coexist without constantly crashing or turning the game into a disjointed mess, but after playing for a few days, I already love it. More challenging, more interesting, more fun.