Wet and Cold Skyrim Paid Mod Review

This is the start of a potential new series called Paid Mod Review. The idea here is that will Valve allowing modders to sell their content, players who are interested in purchasing these mods will need a way to tell if they're any good before plopping down some cash. Check after the break for a transcript of the above video.

*UPDATE*

The mod now has a DMCA takedown notice disclaimer on the Steam Workshop site. This could be legit, or it could be people upset about paid mods doing it, so we'll have to wait and see how it shakes out.

Welcome to a new series here on Twinstiq, Paid Mods Review. As you probably know if you’re watching this, Valve has allowed modders to charge for their mods if the game developer approves. We’re not here to talk about whether this is right or wrong, that’s for another video. In this series we’ll be reviewing the mods so that you don’t waste your money.

My name is Billy C for Twinstiq.com, and today’s mod is “Wet and Cold” by Isoku, for Skyrim. The mod is meant to increase your immersion in Skyrim by adding a few small details, mostly affecting the NPCs. With the mod enabled, and none of the optional mods, you get water dripping off of characters during rain or after you get out of water, and it looks alright. Honestly I would have prefered less drops pouring off of you, or have a lot of drops early on and then quickly slow down to a few. Right now it just feels like your character is exploding water out of their torso and legs.

Another nice effect is NPC breath fogging up in the colder areas of Skyrim. Your characters breath will be visible while you’re running, but the NPCs will also have their breath fog up while speaking, and it’s a nice touch. The mod doesn’t add this effect to all creatures yet though, but it’s enough that I don’t really mind. For a full list of creatures check out the mod link in the description.

The final vanilla effect for the mod involves snow accumulating on your character’s hair and armor. It affects you as well as the NPCs when it’s snowing, and when a blizzard picks up the wind sounds like it’s really rushing past you while snow builds up on your body. It never gets very thick so you aren’t going to be covered head to toe, but it looks nice.

NPCs will also react to all of the weather effects as well, heading into their homes if it’s raining, with Argonians and beggars just sitting outside in it. If it starts snowing then everyone will head inside, to their home if it’s close or an inn if it’s not, and that can be a pain in the butt if you’re trying to find someone.

While all of this is nice, my favorite parts of the mod only work with Skyrim Script Extender also installed. When you have SKSE then NPCs will equip hoods and light cloaks when it starts raining, or massive fur lined hooded cloaks if it’s snowing. They don’t seem to do this if you’re watching, so you can be stalking an NPC when it starts snowing, turn around for a second and when you look back he’s got a cloak and hood on, but it’s not a deal breaker.

Sadly I did notice a performance hit while using the mod. I ran around for an hour before installing the mod to get comparison video and my FPS never dipped below 60. After I installed the mod there were a few moments in heavy blizzards, or in crowded areas when it started snowing, where the FPS dropped for a few seconds. Granted, I’ve got a decently powerful rig and it could have a greater effect on others, so keep that in mind.

There are several optional mods that this mod will take advantage of if you install them, and I’ll link to that in the description below. So, overall what do I think of the mod? It’s a nice addition to my Skyrim gameplay that adds to the immersion factor. I wouldn’t bother with it without the SKSE additions of equipping cloaks, but with that and several of the other optional mods I enjoyed “Wet and Cold”, and I’ll be keeping it installed in my Skyrim when I’m not reviewing other mods.

Author: Billy C
Game: Skyrim
Mod: Wet and Cold

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