Modders have put an awful lot of effort into making sure Skyrim has continually evolved and expanded in the years since it was first released into the world.
Many have focused on changing the game by adding unique characters, useful mechanics and fresh adventures to it, with a few even going as far as giving your Dragonborn the chance to have an immersive brawl or earn Dibella’s blessing without rudely breaking into a temple.
If you want to pass the time while you wait for Starfield or Skyblivion to arrive by getting into some brutal battles with Tamriel’s NPCs, a new mod might be worth adding to your load order.
Have you ever wished that Skyrim’s combat was a little more furious and frenetic?
The mod in question is called ‘Deadly Combat 2023 Edition’, and is the latest work of modder Borgut1337. Some of their previous projects have given Serana the chance to transform into her Vampire Lord form and distributed a bunch of tattoos to various enemies across Skyrim.
This time, they’ve decided to release a new iteration of their popular mod ‘Deadly Combat’, which was originally released for the OG version of the game back in 2012, before arriving on Special Edition in 2017.
Borgut1337 describes the 2023 edition of the mod as being: “Highly similar (to the previous versions) in terms of features, but highly optimised using many of the latest technical developments, (namely Skyrim Script Extender plugins), in Skyrim Special Edition modding.”
As such, it’ll still endeavour to make the game’s combat “look and feel more impactful”, with a faster pace and increased emphasis on the importance of player skill in defeating enemies helping to make things more exciting for those who crave more of a dynamic challenge than the vanilla game offers.
Among the revisions that should make the mod’s changes to the likes of enemy AI and blocking mechanics feel more seamless than they did previously are the use of Powerofthree and Sasnikol’s ‘Spell Perk Item Distributor (SPID)’ to distribute scripts to NPCs and the addition of a plugin to control timed blocks by the player.
If you want to customise what the mod does a little bit in order to suit your preferences, you can also grab MaskedRPGFan’s ‘Deadly Combat 2023 Edition - MCM’, which allows you to toggle features like timed blocking on and off for either your character or NPCs.
Regardless of whether you’re now carving your way through an incredibly intense sword fight with some foes, make sure to follow us for updates on Starfield, The Elder Scrolls 6 and the interesting world of Bethesda game modding, including our top mods of the month.
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