Because Skyrim’s dragons and dead guys were never quite tough enough, the game is now adding something more dangerous: weather and hunger.
They’re part of an update called Survival Mode, which is coming to Skyrim Special Edition on PC, Xbox One and PS4.
Whole parts of the map (below) have now been zoned to reflect the climate, with players needing to be careful in colder areas to avoid freezing to death. You can keep warm with armour and clothing, or by standing near a fire.
Your stomach is now part of the game too, with players needing to eat to stay alive. Don’t eat and you die, eat enough and you get a “well fed” bonus. Eat raw food and you can get sick, eat cooked meat and it’ll have you feeling great.
Other stuff it adds:
- Fatigue will run your magicka meter down, and you’ll need to sleep in a bed to recover.
- Fast travel has been disabled.
- The amount you can carry has been drastically reduced.
- Shrines aren’t free anymore, you need to pay gold to use them.
That last point leads us neatly into the fact that Survival Mode is part of Bethesda’s controversial Creation Club, and is being advertised as “free for one week”. If you get it during those first seven days you can keep it for nothing. Anyone downloading it after that is going to have to pay.
There’s a beta available now for anyone playing on PC, while PS4 and Xbox One get it “early next month”.