An Amateur Review of the VIGILANT mod

[MiDiBi]

an Amateur Review

 

 

[iNTRODUCTION]

VIGILANT mod is broken into four Episodes that let’s you join the Vigilants of Stendarr and fight off the daedra menace - This sentence is very shallow, because the story introduced in this mod is deep as the abyss.

 

First, I shall mention that I started this mod at Level 11 and I didn’t even triggered the main quest. Yeah, I completed some quests in Solitude and Windhelm, but only that. I also only found 4 Word Walls and I had one, Firebolt, Destruction spell as an offensive spell.

I also had TK Dodge, Lock-On and Attack Commitment mods installed as a preparation for all those battle I read before installing the mod. With barely having any points in One-Handed I started the mod, and…

 

I was not dissapointed.

 

I made a lot of mistakes during my playthrough, but it was fun as hell. I encourage anyone that wants to play this mod, to make a new character and embrace it from the fresh start. And don’t bring your fire-absorb blade of 100 enchanment. I believe, that if you start this mod at levels like 30-40 you will miss a lot of fun. Besides, like I’ve stated before, I started at level 11 and at the end of the story I was 40 and I really enjoyed my progression.

 

[GAMEPLAY]

Overall the first moments of VIGILANT feel like you are just playing vanilla quests. Kill that, get there, but the farther you venture the plot gets thicker and fights get to be more challenging. Enemies start to be a lot more problematic and when you finaly get to fight the first boss, you dive into utter new experience that vanilla never delivered to you. And after that, there is only more, and more, and more….

 

Bossfights are amazing and even if not always, they are diffrent from each other. I never felt that those fights were repentive or boring, but that’s only my personal experience, neverthless some will say, that some fights lacks something and there might be some truth in this. Vicn made sure that you will feel “Souls”-like vibes whenever you confront a boss and like in Souls series, you can get to use some cheessy tactics if you want. Bosses have their own armor sets, weapons and ofcourse skills. After you kill a boss, you will get most of their stuff and a Conjurations spell that will let you call them for a short time as your friendly “Phantom”.

 

As a matter of fact, all new weapons and armors are unlocked every time you Do/Kill-Something-Important on the new crafting place called Anvil of Stendarr. Some things are really powerful, but those items were made in mind of VIGILANT not Vanilla, so they fit as they should. A couple of weapons have an unique and really fun powers. Also, if you ever played Dark Souls, you won’t be seeing new weapons, but old, good tools you used before.

 

In episode 4 there are no Quests Marks, but there is really a lot to do. You will know, when you will complete something, trust me, but no one will grab your hand and tell you where to go. Use your wits and pay attention to what NPCs say, also as a friendly remainder, read those books - they are not laying around as a decoration.

 

VIGILANT introduces also it’s unique “morality” system - Karma. Karm gained or lost during the last part will affect not only the ending, but also some events that gets to be played through.

 

[sTORY]

To avoid spoilers I will only say that the main story is heavily based on Elder Scrolls lore, but with a pinch of Vicn personal twists. Vicn not only put a lot of stuff that only makes an appearance in the in-game books, but also things you could sight in the TES: Oblivion and some things from ESO: Online if I am not mistaken. Exploring the lore that was wrapped in this mod, you get a solid and believable experience that really fits to the Elder Scrolls mythos.

 

The most used sentence when I was reading about this mod is “Dark Souls in Skyrim” - and I cannot disagree with it, but all the ‘Souls feels are contained in some subtle (but a lot of) references, gameplay and equipment. Story as it is, is heavy TES lore, so if you had any fears or doubts, no need to, VIGILANT is immersive as it should be.

 

[MUSIC]

Music is heard mostly during the boss fights, but it’s amazing. New tracks made by Vicn gets you pumped-up for the fights and gives each boss it’s personal feel. Some tracks are ofcourse better than others. I loved most of them, but there were few which were too short and ended rapidly making the loop somehow awkward. My personal favorites are the White-Gold Tower Battle theme and **** of Order theme.

 

[ASSETS]

For a single mod it gives a lot. Long list of new weapons and armors models (but don’t expect the 4k textures), bunch of new enemies that look really cool and worldscape assets (some of them are retextures, but it’s not bothering at all). VIGILANT uses those new elements to make it’s own personal space and aesthetics more unique. All of this makes some places absolutely stunning visually. There is this sinister beauty that surrounds you when you explore those new places implemented in this mod.

 

[sUMMARY]

VIGILANT is one of the best mods ever created for Skyrim in my personal opinion and I can recommend it for anyone that seeks better fights and immersive, but more dark story than Vanilla. Mod is massive, there is a lot to do, and it will give you a lot of hours of gameplay. Probably I should say, that’s it’s not for everyone, but I won’t - It’s one of those mods, that you should really play if you ever modded Skyrim.

 

Lastly I will say that I had some CTD’s during my playthrough, but I don’t have High-End machine and I have a lot of other mods installed, so I can’t say if it’s really an issue if you treat your mod list with wisdom. For those that can get those nasty CTD’s I will only say that Save-A-Lot tactic and PCB (purge cell buffer) Console Command saved me a lot of tears.

 

VIGILANT mod by Vicn

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/67103/?

 

VIGILANT - An Amateur English Translation by Aelarr

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/81844/?

PS: Aelarr is currently looking for voice actors to make a solid dub for this mod. If you have any experience in VA make sure to PM her!

PS2: It seems that Aelarr got most of the major roles filled already! So be wary!

 

 

 

Edited March 8, 2017 by MiDiBi

[freddark]

Thanks for the review, and I thought Aelarr is of the gentle sex, no?

 

Hope the VA goes swiftly and smoothly.

 

Good luck.

[Elias555]

>VIGILANT mod is broken into five Episodes

If the pic at the top is ep 4, what's ep 5?

For new players: If you're playing an evil character you'll have fewer episodes and miss out on a chunk of content but on the upside you'll be able to replay it.

 

Good review all up. I think one of the negative aspects is how long and forced episode 4 is. You touched on this by saying the gear is meant for VIGILANT, not vanilla and I wholeheartedly agree. Not sure how else VICN could have done that part though, it was done like a full game instead a huge DLC. All the cool stuff you get during ep.4 is contained because once you're out, nothing will be a challenge unless you forgo it all. When I finally finished ep.4I felt like my character finished the game. Didn't feel like I finished some long quest but a main quest and my character was 'done'(reached god tier) and it was time to make a new build. That might be appealing to some but it takes me a very long time to come up with a build(usually I have to make my own mod) to make this old game feel fresh and having that character prematurely reach the end of my playthrough is kind of disappointing.

It's still the best quest/guild/new land/weapon/armour/new creatures/bosses mod there is though lol ..Oh, and I haven't even heard the boss music but I imagine it's dark souls inspired which is a big plus.

[MiDiBi]

freddark: Oh, my. I was not aware of that fact. I corrected that right away.

 

 

Elias555: That was a typo on my behalf. Fixed.

About the length of episode 4, well, I really enjoyed that part. To be honest, the fourth part was the core of this mod. I hated episode 3 in One-Peculiar moment (Headphones).

About the music, I saw few tracks on You Tube, not all of them, but still.

Edited March 8, 2017 by MiDiBi

[Elias555]

freddark: Oh, my. I was not aware of that fact. I corrected that right away.

 

 

Elias555: That was a typo on my behalf. Fixed.

About the length of episode 4, well, I really enjoyed that part. To be honest, the fourth part was the core of this mod. I hated episode 3 in One-Peculiar moment (Headphones).

About the music, I saw few tracks on You Tube, not all of them, but still.

Ah! I thought that I might've missed something or it was newly added.

It is the core of the mod, I just would've preferred it to be broken into sections so I could do other things but that wouldn't have made sense. I also use earphones and didn't enjoy that part but the second time I was ready and lowered the volume considerably.

I'll have to check the music out myself.

[MiDiBi]

If you seek the music, I think that if you type Vigilant OST in YT search panel you will find some tracks. Ofcourse, you can also use BSA extractor and some xwm converter to just have those tracks on your HD.

[Aelarr]

Finally got the time to read this. Very nice review - covers all the aspects of the mod, in my opinion. :)

 

Also, our VA project is going pretty well - we're fully cast, in the process of recording all the characters (some of them are already done) and all our voice actors are amazing. I think it will be well worth the wait. :D

[Elias555]

Finally got the time to read this. Very nice review - covers all the aspects of the mod, in my opinion. :smile:

 

Also, our VA project is going pretty well - we're fully cast, in the process of recording all the characters (some of them are already done) and all our voice actors are amazing. I think it will be well worth the wait. :D

Excellent news! Will you release an early incomplete version?

[Aelarr]

 

Finally got the time to read this. Very nice review - covers all the aspects of the mod, in my opinion. :smile:

 

Also, our VA project is going pretty well - we're fully cast, in the process of recording all the characters (some of them are already done) and all our voice actors are amazing. I think it will be well worth the wait. :D

Excellent news! Will you release an early incomplete version?

 

 

No, sorry, only the full version will be released. Considering the mod is finished, I think that's preferable than releasing by acts or something similar.

 

We will have some sort of closed beta for those interested who helped with the project, just to help me find any blunders and make a general check-up, but this will not take long - I imagine a week or so. After this, voice pack will be released for public on Nexus. But we're not far enough for this yet - I'd say we're about 40-45 % complete as of right now (this is still good progress, in my opinion).