Warning some spoilers for Skyrim's Civil War and Dark Brotherhood questlines to follow

I used to struggle to come up with answers whenever I was asked why I played games, I’ve been playing games since I was young, my family played games so it was only natural that as soon as I was able that I started to play them too. But now I’m in my twenties it’s become more of a question of why I keep coming back to games and that I can answer, I play games mostly for the chance to interact with fictional worlds. As much as I love books, TV and films, Video gaming is the only medium that you, the consumer, take an important role in the fictional world around you. I love the fact that the player can interact with the world itself and I love the fact that you are essential to moving these stories forward. So it’s no surprise that I was highly anticipating Skyrim when it was announced.

However, when I finally got my hands on the game I found myself disappointed but I couldn’t put my finger on why. I can’t say it was a bad game nor was it badly made and yet the game left me completely cold emotionally; there was no anger or joy, I felt nothing and that is a huge problem. I hated Final Fantasy XIII but I would never say it was a wasted experience because at least it made me feel something but looking back at my time with Skyrim I honestly felt like I should have been doing something else. So where did it go wrong for me? Sadly it was the lack of immersion, both on a gameplay front and on a story level, not once did I feel I was a part of this world and while that may sound silly in a game where Dragons are trying to destroy the world I’ll try to explain what I mean.



the first thing that struck me was that there is an odd weightlessness to the player character, the ease at which the PC moves breaks the illusion that the player is a full bodied person in the game and instead made me realise that I was playing as a pair of floating arms attached to a camera everytime I picked up the controler. Compare this to Dark Souls where the types of armour affected play style, heavy armour made you a tank but the lack of speed made you vulnerable while light armour had the opposite effect. Skyrim on the other hand had virtually no penalties at all for the type of armour you wear, by endgame I was wearing the heaviest armour I could make and still I could jump and run at the same speeds as when I was wearing no armour at all. Not only that but the melee combat lacks feedback, enemies barely react when hit and there is very little variety in how weapons behave. For example a mace in reality is a heavy, unbalanced weapon and yet in Skyrim the PC wields it the same way they would a sword, in fact the only difference in weapons are appearance, stats and if you were generous the type of damage it causes. Now, one could argue that these are minor complaints but I see it as unwillingness on Bethesda’s part to think about how gameplay affects immersion and evolve, in fact despite the new perk system and a new UI the basic gameplay of Skyrim has changed very little since Oblivion and perhaps even Morrowind.

But the gameplay was not the only thing that broke immersion, for a game lauded for the freedom of choice it presents not once did I feel what I was doing mattered. One of the major plot points is the group known as Stormcloaks rebelling against the Empire, which despite being kind of derivative there was some interesting potential in the story. A lot could have been done about the Empire suppressing religion, the Stormcloaks racism and the suggestion that the Empire is not as strong as it appears; any of those hints could be used to give life to the conflict. But after a series of really repetitive and dull quests to capture forts one side was declared the winner and then nothing came out of it, there is no effect on Skyrim apart from the shallowest of changes and all I got as a player was an inferior piece of armour and a sense of apathy. Ultimately if it did not matter to the land of Skyrim then why did I waste 5 hours doing the questline? Somewhere along the way this civil war storyline with huge potential became nothing but filler. Bethesda could have made this feel like a true civil war with cities changing hands or maybe quests where the player had to get the mages and the guilds to pick sides. Instead everything seemed peripheral, almost like it was happening in another dimension, even when a city is besieged the only consequence was a change in Jarl and some minor damage to what looked to be a gazebo.


Well I think that's a gazebo anyway

But it wasn’t the only storyline that left me cold. By the time I had finished the Dark Brotherhood quest I’d supposedly assassinated the Empire and once again no one cared. I just killed the leader of the most powerful nation in the land, why was that not a bigger deal? The whole Dark Brotherhood storyline looked good on paper; killing the Emperor, the Dark Brotherhood being destroyed and the Brotherhood having lost its way but none of this mattered as it had no pay off. Killing the Emperor is and should be a massive deal in the world of the Elder Scrolls, Oblivion had its plot started by the assassination of Uriel Septum, but in Skyrim there was little mention of this Emperor's death long after the deed was done. While this could be written off by news not being spread that is a massive stretch and it is more likely that the questline was added because the writers thought it would be cool.

I have an idea that could lead to all of these issues being fixed but it may be a suggestion that will get dismissed out of hand. So here it goes; make the next Elder Scrolls much, much smaller. I’m not speaking just reduce the size of the country that the new game will be set in, I’m speaking of taking a cue from Assassins Creed II and just use one huge city and its outlying countryside and while there can still be dungeons the number of these need to be greatly reduced. Don’t think that I am suggesting this because I think the series should go in a new direction however, what I am proposing is that for one game Bethesda should spend resources on the what needs to improve, namely the gameplay and the writing. Bethesda uses the size of its games as a crutch; it can excuse the failings of its game engines and the poor storytelling because consumers seem content with the amount of content the games provide.



By reducing the size of the game Bethesda could focus its resources on refining the basics. A smaller pool of characters to work with will allow for more frequent use of unique character models and dialogue. Less towns and villages will mean less copy and pasting of buildings and more distinct architecture. By reducing the amount of random dungeons we could forgo encountering the same groups of bandits and Draugr and perhaps bring in creatures unique to certain dungeons and even mini bosses that aren’t just reskinned character models. Having a smaller world would allow Bethesda time to look at how the player character interacts with the world around them, adding a little a little weight to both the controls and the effect the player has on the world. And perhaps Bethesda could even think of a way to make the third person an actual viable play style.

Much like a bodybuilder obsessing over building one set of muscles Bethesda is currently focusing the majority of its resources on making bigger and bigger worlds while neglecting its other aspects and the series is starting to suffer because of that. Bethesda needs to get out of its comfort zone and return to a smaller scale. By doing this Bethesda could afford to take the risk and return to square one, spending time and resources figuring out how to improve its gameplay without having to worry about trying to provide enough content to fill an entire world. I trust that given time Bethesda could create an instalment of the Elder Scrolls where the gameplay is finally deserving of the worlds they can create and that, Ladies and Gentlemen could be something truly special.