Nehrim is a mod that may be unfamiliar to some people. Especially those that left the oblivion modding scence shortly after the release of the game. Those who stayed loyal were given a treat. For people just trying out this mod today, it has a lot of expectations to stand up to. Some people say this should have been the actual game, that it should be called Elder Scrolls IV: Nehrim. And as of writing this first paragraph, I am almost at the same level of those who have never tried it. However, I have played the introduction. Similar to oblivion, this game throws you in a cramped area that you are so eager to escape out of. This is a game with a huge world, we want to explore. However, even though I don't like being forced to do that first quest before you are let to go about your freedom, I thought it was a very good taste of what was to come.
Storytelling and questing.
Having played oblivion mods before, with most you can tell they were made by an ameatur. This Nehrim "mod" might as well been made from the ground up and sold in the stores. I really enjoyed the introduction to the game. It made you feel helpless, and at times it was suspenseful as you are being chased around, when all you have is your bare hands and a very weak healing spell. At times I felt stuck, sometimes due to bugs in the game, others due to me being deprived of sleep, but overall it wasn't a very challenging experience. It definitely wasn't a huge maze of caverns, but I was happy to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
When you first get out of the mines, you would think it is freedom time, hoever it still isn't. You are stuck in a little establishment, and eventually you discover it is being attacked by a few mages. This is part of what I would consider a brilliant side-quest. Some dumbass gets his head stuck in a Helmet, and you have to find a way to get it off. With a little bit of thinking, you figure out you need to get some soap. Once you find some it pops right off and you are done with the quest. What I was impressed about was the number of ways the quest could have been completed. To get the soap for the poor guy, you had to get it to fall off of a wall (random, I know). And to do that, you have to anger the mages I was talking about earlier in the paragraph. And this is by using a bow and arrow. You could either waste your coins on one from a shop (which I did), or you can pick a lock and loot an area with all kind of goodies (which I discovered afterwards).
My point is, this mod was definitely created with thought, it is not linear, it is as if a huge team of developers took the time to make it. It is very impressive. It deserves nothing but a perfect rating from me, because I think this is the best mod you are going to get if you are looking for a total conversion.
UI and graphics
Going into Nehrim, I knew I wasn't going to be blown away, especially with Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim coming around the corner, but the game doesn't disappoint. The "god rays" look good as sunlight passes through the trees, and the added wildlife is an added touch you don't usually see in oblivion. Also the menus are a little different. When you level up, you have to go into your inventory and go into your Journal to give points to what you want. I'm not sure why they did that, it may just be a limitation when it comes to how much they can actually mod. The map is also very impressive, you can do a standard view, a larger view, or a full screen view which is pictured below.
Download Nehrim
To get started, simply download Nehrim from either our servers or BitTorrent, and also the update file. If your collection isn't very stable or you would wish to resume your download at a later time, I would recomend the bit-torrent download. Just use a torrent program like utorrent to open it.
Click here to download Nehrim | Click here to download 1.1.1.1 English Update | Click here to download Nehrim through Bit-Torrent
Install
Installation is a breeze, the only issue you may come upon is that it doesn't default to your oblivion directory during install, so it may have a hard time finding it, so make sure you know where it is, usually in your Programs/Bethesda Softworks/Oblivion folder. Once installation is complete, you are done. The game is installed totally seperate from oblivion, it copies all the files it needs and it has its own laucher. Before you start the game, double check the grahpic settings are what you want, and that all 3 files are checked in the data files section. I had an issue with it running, but it was because Nehrim.esp wasn't checked.