You can revisit the Gothic games in Skyrim with this mod and play 32 voice-acted quests

Piranha Bytes has long moved on from the Gothic games it first created in 2001 (it's making things like Elex now) but fans still pine for the series' unforgiving open worlds—so much so that a group of modders have banded together and recreated the Gothic universe within Skyrim. In its latest update, which has been three months in the making, the mod introduces voice acting for its 32 hand-crafted quests.

Gothic Orpheus is a total conversion mod for Bethesda's RPG that focuses on the fall of Myrtana, one of the Kingdoms in the Gothic series. It's a full story that starts after you're captured by Orcs and forced to sail to Khorinis, a nearby island. As well as the 32 quests and many locations from the first two Gothic games, it includes 52 custom items from the series and tweaks to Skyrim's gameplay that aim to give you more ways of solving problems you face.

"There are multiple ways to solve a problem, not all of them the sort of thing a champion of the people would do in the light of day. Be good, be evil or just be a complete idiot. Any and all options are open to you."

The latest update also fixes issues with the AI, which was previously causing companions to get stuck on the environment.

You can grab the mod for the standard edition of Skyrim here, or click here for the Skyrim Special Edition version. To install it, unzip the folder and stick the files in your Skyrim\Data folder (in steamapps). To reach the revamped Gothic, find the portal that spawns near the cave you emerge from after you escape Helgen at the beginning of the game.

Here's an older video showing the mod in action:

And if you're feeling especially nostalgic, Gothic II (the best in the series) is £8.99/$9.99 on Steam and the Humble Store. It's on GOG for a little bit more.

Thanks, DSO Gaming.

Samuel is a freelance journalist and editor who first wrote for PC Gamer nearly a decade ago. Since then he's had stints as a VR specialist, mouse reviewer, and previewer of promising indie games, and is now regularly writing about Fortnite. What he loves most is longer form, interview-led reporting, whether that's Ken Levine on the one phone call that saved his studio, Tim Schafer on a milkman joke that inspired Psychonauts' best level, or historians on what Anno 1800 gets wrong about colonialism. He's based in London.