Okay, fine, I'll start another stealth archer playthrough in Skyrim. A new version of a mod that adds first-person parkour mechanics to the fantasy RPG basically turns it into Mirror's Edge, and I can't wait to escape to the rooftops after picking pockets.
SkyParkour version three has been released, and the trailer for it is amazing. In both first- and third-person you can get the dragonborn to fluidly clamber up onto rooftops or vault mid-sized obstacles. It works with weapons out or sheathed, and you can also do quick steps up smaller sets of ledges so you can smoothly ascend no matter what the terrain is like.
You can easily toggle the mod on or off, and change a bunch of settings, like how quick your clibming animations are and how sensitive the overall system is. It's useful if you don't want to automatically step up or grab ledges.
The main reason I'm excited for this is the new possibilities it opens up for thief characters. I'll admit, I have a save-scumming problem. If I fail a pickpocket attempt, I'll just reload and try again. That's because failure means paying a bounty and losing all my stolen items – which, as a thief, is almost all of them.
Trying to escape is hard on the ground level because guards get in the way and you end up in a scuffle. What should be a slap on the wrist for having your hand in someone's purse becomes a triple homicide and a multi-thousand dollar bounty.
But with SkyParkour, you can escape up onto the rooftops, avoiding fighting altogether and jumping over the streets and alleys until you get to a city's main gate and run off into the wilderness.
The trailer also shows off the sick angles you can get on unsuspecting guards when you shimmy up a ledge and pick them off from up high. This is great for assassins, or even people who want to do a more traditional playthrough and just want to be able to get closer to the dragons as they rain down fire from above.
While you're here, check out the best Skyrim mods you can download to enhance your next playthrough.
