Skyrim Fan Interview: First Impressions

Tuesday, members of the Skyrim team (Game Director Todd Howard, Lead Designer Bruce Nesmith, and Lead Artist Matt Carofano) answered questions from the Elder Scrolls community on Bethesda’s forums. In the Q&A, the team offered some clues as to what we can expect from the next installment in the Elder Scrolls saga.

What is clear is that there many areas of continuity. For instance, Skyrim will follow in Oblivion’s footsteps regarding the lack of spears, medium armour, and mark/recall spells, all of which were present in Morrowind. While perhaps disappointing to some fans, this author had no real problem doing without these things in Oblivion. It was a small price to pay for not having to deal with getting pairs of armour pieces if I didn’t want to look stupid.

Whyyyyyyyyyy?!?!?

Also noteworthy: enchanted items will still require soul gems to regain their charge. This is kind of annoying, but again, it didn’t detract from Oblivion too much. Finally, the player character has no voice beyond the visceral combat grunts of Oblivion and dragon language shouts. Yet again, not a big deal. I’ve no problem with the strong, silent types.

"........"

There are, however, many changes to look forward to. One of the big ones is a “completely redone” facial system with “multiple hair styles, beards, scars, and face paint,” a welcome advancement. Hopefully, this character creation process will not take place in a dark, dank prison cell or in the bloody sewers. Another change is improved and varied enemy AI, something I certainly favour, given the ineptitude of the AI of a lot of the NPC's in Oblivion...

There are a lot of changes to items and how they are used. First, the cuirass and greaves have been combined into one piece of armour. In addition, the team said that the variations of armour "are more than we've ever had." The loot system will be based on the "encounter zone" you're in, and can be higher or lower than your level accordingly. There will also be "special" loot that drops randomly regardless of your zone. These seem like pretty good developments; simplified and more varied armour should be a plus, and the "encounter zone" system sounds like it maybe an improvement on Oblivion, if only a modest one.

Here we see the infamous "This loot had better be worth it" encounter zone.

Enchanting items has also been revamped. Enchanting will now be a skill, and you'll learn enchantment effects by "breaking down magical items." This doesn't sound as thrilling to me, mainly cos I'll have to waste time being good at another skill. I'll probably end up forking over the septims to have someone enchant for me.

Moving beyond items, the way the player character interacts with other characters will be changing. First of all, Fame and its seedier counterpart, Infamy, are gone, replaced by NPC's acknowledging "the specific things you've done rather than just a generalized reputation." I feel like this would lead to some confused and/or inconsistent dialogue, like, "You're that guy who saved our town! And....the guy who later murdered all of our nonessential inhabitants...I....I don't know how to feel about you..."

We all know why this wench is essential...

Lastly (I promise), there will be romance in Skyrim! In which the player character can participate, I mean. You can get married, have the missus move in if you've a house, and have a right swell time being married. There really aren't any details past that, so we still have no idea as to the mechanics of relationships (romantic or otherwise) other than they can be formed, and that they will influence character interaction, hopefully to a greater degree than merely determining whether or not you'll have to pay a fellow to spill the beans. Which is both trivial and annoying.

All in all, the news provided in the fan interview makes this author want 11/11/11 to be RIGHT NOW. Sadly, we must wait more. It seems, though, that the wait will be worth it. Cheers.