Hero modders take a break from their 25-year quest to make the rest of Morrowind to make the Oblivion we should have got instead

YouTube

As loyal PC Gamer readers will know, Tamriel Rebuilt is the noble Morrowind modding effort to create every region of the game that Bethesda didn't make itself. Even after nearly a quarter-century, there's still plenty of the province to get to, and the project's current "optimistic" estimated time of full completion is 2035.

You might think, then, that its team would be laser-focused on that and nothing else. You think this because you lack their heroic and Promethean spirit. Instead, a contingent of the Tamriel Rebuilt devs—plus a few pals—has just put out the first expansion in their other project: an effort to make Cyrodiil (the setting for Oblivion) in Morrowind's rickety 2002 confines that adheres to the vision of the province presented in that game, which Oblivion decidedly did not.

Project Cyrodiil: Abecean Shoes released on December 22, bringing the western shores of the Imperial province to a Morrowind install near you. That's Anvil turf, "the largest and richest of the Colovian realms," and players who install the expansion will find "scores of memorable characters, handcrafted interiors, and intricate quests" in the territory's many "plazas, alleys, temples, and wharfs." The expansion features over 160 quests in an area "half the size" of base Morrowind. Which is ludicrous, frankly.

Cast your mind back to Anvil's presentation in Oblivion and you'll note a few discrepancies in Project Cyrodiil's version. It all seems quite tropical, with combed sands and palm trees where Oblivion's Anvil was all rolling green Tolkienian hills. That's because that's what it should be, dammit. In Morrowind, Cyrodiil was described as a dense, hot jungle, but Bethesda decided to turn it into something more traditional, more fantasy-European flavoured when it came time to render it in a game. Hey, fair enough, it probably played a big part in making the game a hit, but I've always wished we could have gotten the original, much weirder version of the region.

Well, now we can, and I doubt these madlads are going to stop here. Between Project Cyrodiil, Tamriel Rebuilt, and their sister-project Skyrim: Home of the Nords (which, yep, is a modding quest to build the province of Skyrim in Morrowind), we'll soon be able to visit damn-near all of Tamriel in the best Elder Scrolls game there's ever been. And by 'soon' I mean 'about a week before the sun swallows the Earth'. Godspeed, modders.

TOPICS

One of Josh's first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he's been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He'll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin's Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you're all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.