During the Xbox 360’s launch window, there was one game in particular many people were looking for, offering a gorgeous open world and a deep story to satisfy a starved RPG fan base from the original Xbox. That game, of course, was Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and for all of the good the game had to offered, there were also glaring issues. After spending some time in a post-apocalyptic wasteland (see Fallout 3), Bethesda is returning to much more familiar ground with Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. This is no ordinary sequel; a new engine has been built from the ground up, helping to shape what promises to be an all-new take on the familiar franchise. Skryim will take place in the same world of Tamriel, 200 years after the events of Oblivion unfolded. The province of Skyrim is undergoing a massive civil war, as has been foretold in the Elder Scrolls, and the return of the god Alduin, who takes the shape of a dragon and wishes to destroy the world. In typical Elder Scrolls fashion, you’ll start the game in prison until you’re freed, because your destiny is to fulfill a prophecy to save the world.
The massive improvements Bethesda is making to Skyrim are obvious from the start: the class system from Oblivion no longer exists. Instead, you’ll have eighteen skills available to raise-up and help you gain experience. In addition, as various skills get leveled, you’ll gain access to various perks, skill-specific abilities found within the “skill tree,” similar to a talent tree found in most MMOs. The combination of a planned 280 perks and 50 upgrade levels allow for lots of customization for your character, a mainstay in the Elder Scroll series. Weapons are customizable at the forge and are able to be assigned to each individual hand, which means dual-wielding is back and this time it works great. Specific weapons will grant abilities in combat, such as a dagger allowing the player to gain bonus damage or finishing moves and shields can either bash or block. Bethesda plans to ensure that each weapon has its own unique role, and players are rewarded for playing multiple roles; sneaking around won’t be so time consuming and useless anymore as stealthy attacks with daggers promise incredible damage.
One of the most-popular changes to the game involves the NPC’s AI, using an updated system called Radiant Story, which allows NPCs to do whatever they essentially feel like and gives Skyrim a more realistic atmosphere. In Fable like fashion, NPCs will interact with the player based on their actions throughout the game; certain side-quests will be available pending actions by the player. Sufficed to say if you piss someone off, they’re not going to offer you a quest and may even steal your goods. More importantly, NPCs plan to encourage players to venture into areas and dungeons they haven’t yet explored, removing unnecessary backtracking and repetition but still letting the player decide when to move forward with the story. Even though these are all improvements to the gameplay engine, Skyrim will be getting somewhat of a visual overhaul as well. First and foremost, players will notice a new art direction; the green plains of Cyrodil are long gone and replaced with somewhat of a Norse inspired environment, filled with snow-capped mountains, lush forests, waterfalls, and more.
Sufficed to say, the region of Skyrim looks beautiful, filled with its own folklore and history that promises to be an important part of the game’s story. Bethesda didn’t necessarily need to go back to the drawing board and redo their entire graphical engine for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, but it’s a really good thing the did. The internet backlash against Gamebyro and all of its issues was infamous, and Oblivion had a tendency to lack environment variety. Not only does Skyrim appear to fix most of these issues found in Oblivion, it looks to completely shatter them and distance itself from previous entries in the series while still staying true to the roots of the universe’s story. After seeing just over a hour of direct gameplay last week we are more excited than ever to get our hot little hands-on Skyrim in the coming monthes. Bethesda is evolving their award winning series and people should be really excited come November 11, 2011 when The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim releases for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and Windows PC; “the greatest date ever” – according to Mr. Howard.
