It is kind of crazy to think that Skyrim is over 10 years old. Even crazier than that is the number of times it has been released, including Skyrim VR, I own four versions of this game! Skyrim Together is one of the most exciting and anticipated mods for Skyrim to ever be created. You can play a very early version of the mod (it is still being worked on) at Nexus Mods which is what I did.
How to Download Skyrim Together
To start using the mod you should download the installer called Harbor. You should also have Skyrim: Special Edition installed on your system (the mod might not work best with the original Skyrim release).
The Program Review
As the name Skyrim Together suggests the point of this game is to make Skyrim a multiplayer experience. This is not some weird mini-game where you play together, but eventually playing through the story with your friends. I have only played this online with my brother, but they are promising support for up to 8 people at the same time. In the current state though, as few people as possible is recommended.
If you have used any mod for Skyrim before, you will be fine using this one. Speaking of Skyrim mods, it is highly recommended that you do not have any other mods running while using this. Technically you can, but I would wager, you will run into problems. Also, you have to have a proper version of Skyrim Special Edition on Steam, this will not work with an illegal copy so keep that in mind too.
One of the players is the person who hosts the server and PVP is enabled by default, as far as I can tell there is no way to turn this off yet. This does mean that you can attack each other, so if you want to play nice you better be careful when swinging a sword or blasting off fireballs!
The way the game unfolds is rather strange as you do quests independently. I am sure this will change as the mod moves along the development. However, when one player starts a quest the other does not join in. It means you have to try and start the quest at the same time to make sure you are progressing together, even doing that though is not exactly ensuring you are at the same point all the time.
This is the main feature that I hope they are working on for the next update. You are kind of just in the same game, playing the story independently. Sure, you can screw around together, cause chaos and even fight, but questing together is a no-go right now. While quests are not synchronized other aspects of Skyrim are.
For example, if you were to open a chest and take all of the stuff inside, the other player’s game would show the chest as open and empty. An area that is locked and then unlocked by one player is unlocked for the others. This to me is what Skyrim Together is about and I am excited to see how they improve on this.
I think that so far, Skyrim Together is a very cool concept. It may be buggy and the non-synchronizing of quests is a bummer, but the idea of it is very solid. They are actively encouraging the community to be active so that they can share bugs and thoughts on the mod. Even in this rather early state, Skyrim Together is fun and well worth checking out.
