Now that The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has been announced and dated, us fans are seriously wondering about the gameplay elements. The engines from Morrowind and Oblivion had their faults that all true fans of the franchise could easily point out to you. Overall, Bethesda Softworks has given great title after great title, and here’s what they should do/avoid to make Skyrim an instant classic like Oblivion.
First off the game’s engine, which they have already announced is new, is attempting to put fans at ease. However, the same was said during the transition from Morrowind to Oblivion. Morrowind had great RPG elements with a sub-par action system. Oblivion had great action with sub-par RPG elements. We can only hope Skyrim will bring the perfect balance.
Keep the great storyline going! The storyline from Oblivion truly made us feel as if we were immersed in an epic tale with the fate of all of Tamriel in the balance. Oblivion is honestly a tough act to follow, and with the public automatically skeptic towards sequels of great games, Bethesda will have to really think of an adventure worthy of the Elder Scrolls name.
We need uses for all the useless items we find laying around in boxes. I can’t tell you how frustrating it is sneaking into someone’s house at midnight, picking the lock on their chest, only to find a pair of tongs and some calipers. Even just raising how much they’re worth would be doing us a big favor, as they’re just there for no logical reason. As a side note, I’d be happy even if I could just throw plates at people.
More assorted weapons and magic. The weapon selection is fairly good already, however, we wouldn’t mind seeing some spears, halberds, and crossbows. I know a lot of you are saying, “What? There was tons of magic in Oblivion!”. Now I beseech you to think, were there tons of spells, or several versions of the same few spells? I know, I just blew your mind.
Side quests may very well be better than the main storyline. We all loved joining and rising through the ranks in guilds, and dungeon crawling. In fact, my significant other didn’t know there was a main storyline for quite some time. If Skyrim is going to live up to it predecessor, I’ll expect no different. It would be understandable if the Dark Brotherhood didn’t return, however, there is no excuse to remove the others.
Although this isn’t really going to make or break the game, a cool catch phrase near the beginning of the game! Anyone who truly enjoyed Oblivion could tell you what Uriel Septim told you to do before his demise, “Close shut the Jaws of Oblivion”.
All in all, I can’t see Skyrim being a miss. Bethesda is a company that really learns from their past mistakes and have some of the most successful sequels in video game history. As long as they continue to learn and adapt, they’ll continue to be the unstoppable force their company is of late. Building upon Morrowind and Oblivion can ONLY make a monster of a game…as long as they pay attention.
Happy New Years!