There's an argument to be made that mods are an integral part of the Bethesda experience. Every year, modders improve and expand upon titles in the Fallout and Elder Scrolls series, sometimes adding massive amounts of content that give experienced players a reason to come back to the game. One such modder is a user named 'Jshrapnelc', who has created a mod called Northern Springs that adds an impressive amount of new quests and areas to Fallout 4.

The mod, which is in beta for the PC version of the game, offers a similar collection of new content that an official DLC would, though Jshrapnelc claims that Northern Springs is actually bigger than both Far Harbor and Nuka World. In the mod description, he explains that the massive project took 2 years and "an unimaginable amount of work" to complete.

As an entirely new location, Northern Springs offers 3 new settlements, over 25 quests, 3 new followers, and new weapons and armor. The mod also adds 4 jobs into the game, allowing the player to work as a Cage Fighter, Deathclaw Hunter, Book Collector, or Bounty Hunter.

Northern Springs is even voice acted by a number of individuals, though the Sole Survivor is currently not. This may have been a stylistic decision by the modder, as although Bethesda believe the inclusion of a voiced protagonist adds emotional gravity to the narrative, many players think it actually detracts from the role-playing and immersive elements of the game.

Players downloading Northern Springs should be prepared for a challenge. Jshrapnelc recommends that anyone heading over there should be level 40+, meaning that the mod is intended as endgame content for players who have completed Fallout 4's main story and geared up a bit.

Northern Springs is a prime example of what talented and dedicated modders can achieve, bringing huge amounts of content to the game and adding hours of playtime. While Bethesda's Creation Club controversy last year may have caused some temporary concern about the future of mods on Fallout and Elder Scrolls games, it's clear that there are still plenty of modders out there keeping Bethesda titles fresh with high quality free content.

Fallout 4 is out now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

Source: jshrapnelc - Nexus Mods