Anyone who has played The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim can tell you how vast the game's open world is and how much time can be sunk into side quests. This replay value is only increased by the huge amount of Skyrim mods available. However, one of these mods actually discourages lengthy playtimes by starting an apocalypse timer when the player starts up the game.
The Skyrim mod community thrives on creating features and situations that add something to gameplay, whether it adds a game mechanic like this one or lets the player adopt cats. A lot of modders begin by asking a question starting with "what if?" and Grasscid's "End Times" mod asks "What if the Dragonborn prophecy's success wasn't guaranteed?" The mod timer is customizable, but puts the player on a strict timeframe to defeat the dragon before he shows up and starts trying to destroy the world.
When players traditionally play the game, Alduin the "world-eater" won't start enacting the apocalypse until players are ready. The "End Times" timer puts the player on Alduin's schedule instead of the other way around. If players run out of days on the timer, Alduin will appear and trigger the apocalpyse, forcing players to load an earlier save to try and stop the dragon earlier or start a new game entirely. If the first option puts the player in a tight spot with where they are in the game and they're unable to defeat the dragon, they've essentially sacrificed their entire save.
Plus, in order to keep players from editing the doomsday timer if they can't stop the world from ending in time, the mod has an option to "lock in" the date. Of course, players could just not click this option, but then there really isn't much point in downloading a mod that forces a timeline on them then. Also, the mod can be placed onto an existing save, so there's no need to worry about starting a new save.
The ruthless nature of the "End Times" mod is fitting for something inspired by one of the hardest RPGs ever made, Darkest Dungeon. The grimdark dungeon-crawler is unforgiving enough even without the "Bloodmoon" game mode that gives the players a certain number of weeks to beat the game by.
Players can't just fight Alduin when he shows up raining hellfire; they have to put aside some side quests and exploring if they want to use this mod. However, there are tons of essential mods for Skyrim that don't result in the player losing the game within a set time, like relighting and texture mods that can improve the game experience for players of all types.
Skyrim is available for Nintendo Switch, PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox One, and Xbox 360.
Source: Nexus Mods, PCGamesN