Look no further than the Skyrim mod Warden of the Coast if you’ve ever wished for a little bit more BioWare in your game. Warden of the Coast is a fully voiced, DLC-sized adventure that takes its cues from Mass Effect and Dragon Age, two of the best RPG games outside of Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls series. It asks you to assemble a party from nine BioWare-style companions, each of whom has a specific loyalty mission, and it offers a player-driven narrative with multiple endings.
Skyrim mod Warden of the Coast, created by Gabriel ‘TheBawb’ Johnson, sees you travel to an isolated island where the Daedric Lord of Destruction, Mehrunes Dagon, has unleashed the jaws of Oblivion once again. In order to stop him, you’ll be teaming up with 9 companions, each of whom are fully-voiced, will level up as you progress, and have their own BioWare-style loyalty quest line. Their opinion of you can change through dialogue options as well as quest choices, such as who you choose to kill or spare.
Much like you’d expect from the likes of Dragon Age and Mass Effect, you can bring up to three companions with you on your journey, which is said to take roughly 10-15 hours for a single playthrough. You’ll quite likely want to replay it once you’ve seen it through, however – there are five main endings on offer depending on the paths you choose. Warden of the Coast, initially spotted by DSOGaming, features “over 9,000 lines of skilfully voiced dialogue” from 27 voice actors, making it feel more like an official expansion than a fan-made mod.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a BioWare-style expansion without a little love in the air, so there are a total of seven different romance options that you can pursue. TheBawb says they are planning an update to allow your chosen romantic partner to become a marriage candidate in the main game once the quest line is complete. They’re also hoping to add in some idle banter between members of your active party, to truly complete that BioWare feel.
You can watch the launch trailer for Warden of the Coast below:
If this all sounds compelling to you, you can download the Skyrim mod Warden of the Coast at Nexus Mods. In order to start your new adventure, you’ll first need to finish The Way of the Voice, the main quest that sees you meeting the Greybeards at the peak of High Hrothgar and learning how to use your Dragonborn shouts. Once that’s done, you can begin your journey by visiting any of the main game’s major cities.
PCGamesN recently spoke with the team behind Skyrim Extended Cut, a mod aiming to completely overhaul one of the most beloved and best open-world games with new story content that stays true to the original game’s vision. We’ve also got plenty more of the best games like Skyrim, if you’re finally feeling ready to branch out from your time in Tamriel – but not too far at first, of course.