2021 saw the tenth anniversary of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Bethesda celebrated by releasing a new version of the game known as the Anniversary Edition. This new version brings with it numerous new pieces of Creation Club Content, some good, some bad, and it’s time to take a look at them all. We have covered Creation Club releases extensively in the past, and all creation club content for Skryim is included here, so look at those reviews for info on previous content.
New Homes
New player homes are a big part of the modding scene and Creation Club has no shortage of them. There are four new homes here and sadly they are not all created equal. That said, this is home to one piece of content that stands out as among the best and will be covered last.
Gallows Hall
This is both a house mod and a quest mod, with a puzzle quest that begins when entering the location. This puzzle may throw off some players but is very satisfying when completed. There are some very unique effects in play during the puzzles and the quest is a standout, but sadly the home is not.
While this is a great necromancer-style home and very unique, it is not the best home. It is lacking a lot of what players look for but does have some elements that are great for roleplaying as a necromancer. The home contains an altar for crafting soul gems and a unique forge for crafting constructs to follow you for example, and there was a lot of potential here, but it’s too big for its own good.
There are also new items as well, such as some new helmets and new staff in the form of the Staff of Wyrms. These items are a nice addition and the staff, which revives enemies to fight for you, is a good item, but the lacklustre house ended up holding it back. It’s possible modders might fix it up later.
Bloodchill Manor
This is a player home from Eleanora, who is well known for making excellent player home modes. Players will be given a quest to attend a dinner party that turns out to be a vengeance plot, but the quest itself is very basic and just a way to introduce the house. There is nothing wrong with that though, as the house is extremely nice to have.
This is a vampiric-style player home and is perfect for vampire playthroughs. Eleanora did an excellent job here, as every part of the house looks amazing and detailed, from the coffins to the items laying about. It is not the best house but it’s a great one nonetheless.
Nchuanthumz
A study in what could have been, this is a dwarven player home that had so much potential. This content starts out with a short quest to find a dwarven ruin and take out bandits and claim the ruin as your home. From there the quest shifts to building up the decrepit ruin and to do this, players must restore the dwarven manufactory.
There will be several quests given to restore the manufactory and while this is done, players can restore dwarven automatons to fix the home and aid them. This is one of, if not the largest homes in Creation Club and that sounds great in theory but is actually kind of impractical. This home becomes a massive case of the problem of style over substance and not living up to good ideas.
The dwarven automatons do not really do much, and the manufactory feels pointless after the initial quest. The home is too big for its own good and lacks a lot of details like display options and getting to the home feels annoying as players must go through a lot of locations just to get to it each time. This is one that brings the Anniversary Edition down.
And now for the best player home content.
Farming
This creation gives a small quest to gain ownership of a farmstead, which soon brings up many more quests at the actual farmstead. Players will need to hire a steward to run the farm and workings to tend to the farm as the farm expands. This adds a lot of roleplay elements and feels like a more in-depth version of Hearthfire’s homesteading.
Players can build things like an apiary and stables and profit off the farm as it is upgraded numerous times in multiple ways. There is a lot of replay value here and this is an add-on that will keep players busy for hours. This is hands down the best player home content from Creation Club and is better than some free mods out there.
Items and spells with quests
The new content also includes various items and spells as well. Some come with quests, some do not. The quests range from very memorable and ones that make sense, to ones that are incredibly lacklustre and do not even give decent items
Bittercup
This creation sees the classic item return from Morrowind and is the standout here. Finding a shine outside of Falkreath will give players a choice of power, wealth, or nothing, and each will give a completely different quest and reward. The choices are locked in once made, so to get the other choices, players will need to do a new playthrough.
Each quest gives several choices and options for how to go about them, and while no spoilers will be given, these are really fun to experience. One path will take players to a gladiator arena while another will get them a nice new follower. And of course, the Bittercup item is here and will raise the highest of your Magicka, Stamina or Health and decrease the lowest one.
Bow of shadows
This creation sees the return of the titular bow and brings a very small quest to get the weapon. Players must stop an assassin, and the quest does actually make a lot of sense. The bow grants invisibility for thirty seconds as well as increased draw speed, making it great for stealth archer builds.
The Contest
This content brings a very short quest to take on the webmother from Elder Scrolls Blades. The quest involves tracking down two warriors who tried and failed to kill the giant spider, killing her, and then looting weapons and armor from the corpses of the adventurers. These include a new armor set and the Iceblade of the Monarch. It’s a simple and involved armor and weapon mod and feels fun.
Headsman’s Cleaver
On the other hand, the Headsman’s Cleaver content is a massive step back and sees you get a weapon from bandits following a request from the owner to take out said bandits. Players get to keep the titular weapon which is from Elder Scrolls, but there is really nothing special about it. This content is just very forgettable
Goldbrand
This creation does have a memorable quest that will take players all over Skryim to find a way to break into a tomb and recover the sword. This is a decent-sized quest and will also seep players fighting off a cult while doing their archaeology. Goldbrand itself is a decent sword that sets fire to enemies and deals bonus damage to enemies that are on fire and is pretty strong all things considered.
Alternate Armors
This creation brings eight new armors to Skyrim from The Elder Scrolls Blades, although not all of them are full armor sets. These are all unique armors and not tied to level lists either, for both the good and bad that brings. Each armor does have a minor quest to get them, which are nice, but ultimately nothing special.
Items and Spells without quests
These are the creations that do not have quests but instead just add items into the world to be found or bought from merchants.
Staves
This creation is super basic but still decent as it adds in staves from Morrowind by giving them to merchants and various chests. These are 1:1 recreations from Morrowind and decent for background content. They have good stats as well, so these are a decent side item to find.
Fearsome Fists
This content adds fifteen new types of gauntlets that augment unarmed damage by adding bonus damage per strike and increases based on armor type. These are good for the early game but not for the late game unless the situation involves a fistfight. That said, these do look great and are good for roleplay appearances.
Necromantic Grimoire
This creation adds in new necromancer spells and items all over the world of Skyrim, including to chests in various locations and to merchant stores. Among the spells are new conjurations of skeleton warriors and new summons like the bone colossus and ancient death priest which are very powerful. There are also a number of support spells to manage the conjurations including one that lets players sacrifice their conjurations and split them in half. This content also brings new robes which are great for necromancer roleplay as well.
Horse armor
These are two sets of horse armor based on the horse armor from Oblivion. Players must go to a stable to use the armor on the horse if they want, but there are some bugs in the creation. This is extremely lacklustre and nowhere near as good as ones from free mods.
Quest Content
These creations are full quests and have a lot going for them to various degrees. Some are better than others, but all have something nice to them.
Fishing
This adds fishing spots in Skyrim and new fish to find such as fish who show up based on environment and location. Players can also fish up other items including junk and rare items as well, so it is beneficial to spend time fishing. There are two main quest givers here, but there is no voice acting and so it is all done with notes.
The various quests include catching certain types of fish, getting taught how to fish, teaching others how to fish and participating in fishing contests. These quests will take players all over Skyrim and along the way, gamers will unlock new rods with new bonuses and benefits including a dwarven fishing rod. There are some great unique quests here as well as bosses like a giant enemy crab.
Along the way, players can help one of the quest givers set up shop in Riften, which is nice, but a lot of the overall content just feels basic and not well implemented. For instance, there is a ton of content but the fishing itself doesn’t feel special. The fishing isn’t a very involved process, and a lot of time is spent just pressing the same button over and over with little interaction, no skill needed and no moving the rod.
It’s a case of some of the content being great and some not so much here, and it could have been done better.
Redguard Elite Armaments
This is mainly a weapon and armor pack mod but it’s included here in this section because the quest is very well done. Players will join a Redguard spy network and work to build up trust, before doing recon work to find a missing spy and go on a rescue mission. Players will get a new armor set and new swords, which are amazing in design.
One of the new Swords is Boneshaver, which causes extra bleeding and is taken off of an enemy during the rescue mission. The added Redguard armor and sword set is a welcome addition and overall, while this isn’t the mod amount of content, it does have a memorable and substantial quest that feels fulfilling.
The Cause
This is a very meaty DLC-style creation that is heavy on nostalgia. The main quest will take about an hour to complete but there is a lot more to do besides just the main quest. Sadly, there is no voice acting like in most Creation Club content, due to the fact that voiced dialogue would need to be translated to multiple languages.
The Cause is very fun for Oblivion fans and involves returning to fan favourite areas to take down the returning Mythic Dawn. There are multiple ways to go about the quest, and some great rewards such as the weapons Scourge, Torment and a new staff, along with a daedric horse. The Cause is held back from its attempt to be a real DLC though, because of the limits of Creation Club which ruin the immersion a bit.
Ghosts of the Tribunal
Easily the biggest content here alongside Farming, Ghosts of The Tribunal is also the most ambitious piece of Creation Club content ever. The quest starts out with finding a new dwemer ruin and soon presents multiple ways to go about the events that follow. Ghosts of the Tribunal has actual dialogue here, and while most of it is reused dialogue, it is a great touch that makes this content stand out.
Players can fight against a cult, or passively infiltrate them to progress the story, and doing multiple tasks and quests given for the cult feels satisfying to advance the story, Ghosts of the Tribunal adds two fully customized armor sets based on previous games that stand out above other armors, in addition to tribunal masks, shields and more weapons and enchantments from prior games. The side quests here feel satisfying to do and make this feel like what Creation Club should have been all along.
General thoughts
Skyrim Anniversary Edition may have an uneven quality of content, but overall, while some content is better than others, is worth the upgrade. There are a number of changes to Creation Club implementation here, as quests do not start automatically when installed, but now are triggered when certain conditions are met. With standouts like Farming and Ghosts of the Tribunal, there is a lot of fun, and other content gives a solid basis for modders to build on. Overall, this is recommended.
Disclaimer: A review key was provided in exchange for an honest review.
Reviewed on PC.
Also Available On Xbox One, Xbox Series, PlayStation4 and PlayStation 5.