The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrimwas a massive hit upon its initial release all the way back in 2011. Since then, it’s been re-released multiple times on multiple platforms over the years. That said,Skyrimis far from a perfect game despite its undeniable success and deserved critical acclaim. Many have argued its flaws over the years such as its somewhatunderdeveloped locationsor lack of player agency in the main story, for example.
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This has only become more common as the release of TheElder Scrolls 6draws nearer. People are more anxious than they’ve ever been when it comes to ensuring that the nextElder Scrollsgame not only learns fromSkyrim’ssuccesses but also its failures.
6Increased Player Agency
This is a problem that goes beyond theElder Scrollsseries, butSkyrimis sort of infamous for being somewhat of a railroady experience in comparison to previous outings. The player has virtually no influence on the outcome of the main story and there are no unique endings for the main quest.
Granted, neitherOblivionnorMorrowindhave multiple endings either, however,Daggerfallhas five different endings.Skyrimcould have brought this back by taking a page out ofFallout: New Vegas’book and could have included in-depth ending slides for the main story and major faction side quests. This way, the player has a much greater incentive to replay the game in different ways. It would be really cool to seeTES 6do exactly this.
5In-Depth Crime and Law Systems
Skyrim has a rather simple systemof crime and justice. The player will commit a crime like theft or murder and, after being spotted by a guard, will pay a fine, bribe the guard, or serve a night in jail depending on the circumstances. It is not a very complex system, and it doesn’t play any role in the player’s relationship with a particular faction, town, or city, and it doesn’t factor into any quests.
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Fallout’sfaction reputation system would’ve been an interesting thing to see integrated intoSkyrim, especially since unlikeFallout, theElder Scrollsdoesn’t take place in a post-apocalyptic wasteland.Daggerfallin fact had a whole court system in which the player used their skills to plead their case, with the outcome being dependent on how well they defend themselves.TES 6would do well to learn from these games and improve onSkyrim’srather basic system of crime.
4Bigger and Better Cities/Towns
It’s no secret thatSkyrim’stowns and cities are smaller in size, even when compared topastTESgames(though they’re drenched with personality). Some have speculated that this is a result of the world being so dense with locations that not as much time and resources could be devoted to the cities and towns as was needed to make them truly impressive.
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It’s actually somewhat common for players to add mods that make the cities and towns significantly bigger and denser than they are in the vanilla game.TES 6is quite a ways away, but it would definitely be nice if the developers are able to put more time into making the cities stand out more and truly be major in-game hubs. They need to be places that draw the player in beyond just being places for them to offload their loot.
3Better Skill Checking
Unlikeother Bethesda titles,Skyrimdoes not feature a whole lot of skill checking in dialogue. There are few, but they relate entirely to the Speech skill and don’t yield very many rewards. In comparison,Fallout: New Vegasis a game that had quite a few different skill checks beyond just the speech skill scattered around the game. These would also allow for a multitude of outcomes ranging from obtaining better rewards for completing objectives to unlocking alternate paths during quests. Skyrim, on the other hand, mainly relegates skill checking to getting better prices, bribing guards, and scaring muggers.
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TES 6, whenever it launches, should really try to outdoSkyrimin this area. It could incorporate more skills into the checks themselves and for a greater number of purposes. This would increase the significance of the player’s build by emphasizing their advantages and disadvantages specifically through dialogue options, making skill checks much less trivial to the play experience.
2More Consequential Character Building
WhileSkyrim’scharacter-building system is certainly fun, the game does make it very easy for the player to create a “master of everything” type of character. Normally in a role-playing game, and even in some of the pastTESgames, the player builds their character along the lines of a specific role with well-defined strengths and weaknesses and that build defines the experience the whole way through.Skyrimon the other hand easily allows (and in some ways forces) the player to become extremely overpowered to the point that individual builds don’t matter all that much both in terms of game difficulty and in terms of content accessibility.
Thankfully, Bethesda seems to be willing to move away from this philosophy as evidenced by the upcomingStarfield, which looks to be placing a renewed emphasis on character building. If this strategy is successful it might lead to a similar return to form inTES 6.
1Realistic Faction Questing and Interaction
Doing faction quests inSkyrimcan definitely be fun,however, much ofthe faction questlinesinvolve the player starting as a nobody and becoming the leader within a few short hours (or days per in-game time?). Furthermore, most factions don’t interact with each other at all. The Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild interact a little, but that’s about the extent of it.
What would be really cool is if doing one faction’s quest affected other factions and their questlines in some way. Perhaps the player can form alliances or wage war against other factions for control over cities and towns scattered throughout the world. The player could, rather than just becoming the leader inexplicably, join a faction and do jobs based on their character build, which itself could potentially determine how the questline progresses. This would be one of those things that, shouldTES 6try and experiment with, make it well worth the wait.
The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrimis available on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch.
