The US magazine Game Informer recently shipped, with lots of juicy information. Thanks to some readers of the magazine who posted the information on the net, we now know the following details about Skyrim:
- The game is set in Skyrim (obviously), home of the Nords and north of Cyrodil. It is set 200 year after Oblivion during a civil war.
- There are 10 playable races to choose from.
- The engine is brand new and has some interesting (if presumably processor-intense) features like dynamically falling snow and wind which determines the flow of water
- There are now 18 skills to choose from – and Mysticism is out and Enchanting is in
- There are finishing moves, and by the looks of it, dual wielding
- Players can forge their own weapons.
- Quests will be randomly generated and the game will ‘tailor’ them to your preferences, as well as using a level scaling system more like that of Fallout 3 than Oblivion
- Five cities with far more dynamic NPCs – apparently, if you kill a shopkeeper another NPC might take his/her place
You can read the original article and more scans from in-game screenshots at the PS3 blog Badass Panda.
Here at Mana Pool we’re highly excited by this news, although a few things make us feel uneasy. The dynamic quests could be a massive failure if done badly, and there’s still level scaling which we’re not fond of. The combat changes will hopefully make combat far more interesting than in Oblivion, and hopefully the finishing moves will prevent the sensation of fighting a continual horde of rag-doll dummies that was present sometimes in Oblivion.
We’re also a bit sceptical of the NPC praise, as the Radiant AI of Oblivion was similarly praised before release, only to be toned down in places because guards would massacre towns. There also seems to have been little mention of whether they’re going to have a large cast of voice actors this time. Still, they seem to have learned from some of the mistakes of Oblivion, so here’s hoping that Skyrim will be as good as it’s starting to look!
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Skyrim Review
18 November 2011 1:00 PM | 9 CommentsHere are the top 7 things I hate about Skyrim. I’m not going to bore you with the details of the game itself, I’m going to work on the assumption you’ve heard of it and the other Elder Scrolls games, and that you are fairly...
Looking good, and much as I expected. Of course, Bethesda doesn’t ever really innovate (from Morrowind on, their games have been very much alike – yay for flamebait), so it’s always pretty much clear what to expect.
As for the NPC AI and such: That’s marketing for ya; exaggerated claims to increase enthusiasm to increase sales. Don’t read too much into that.
I like what I see, so now to stay away from marketing and previews and such, and enjoy the game when it comes out. This is going to be such a long year…
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Oh, comment number two: The dynamically generated quests are interesting. I suspect this means either more text-only dialogue or the use of generic sound snippets/templates combined into semi-proper dialogue. Or a system such as in Dragon Age: Origins or Two Worlds II, where you take letters/notes containing quest instructions. However they’re doing this, I’ve no doubt that this is in addition to standard more story-based quests.
Bethesda would receive approximately infinite praise – at least from me – if they’ve reintroduced Morrowind-style dialogue (which they most certainly have not).
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There’s a post somewhere on Elder Scrolls forums that clarifies level scaling system. . . . Found the link:
http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.php?/topic/1156332-is-level-scaling-backnoooooooooooo/page__st__40__p__16933097#entry16933097
Also, not sure about how you describe dynamic quest system. From what I gathered elsewhere, certain quests will close off depending on choices–whereas you seem to suggest that the quests are procedurally generated. I maybe wrong, of course. . . .
I share your concern about NPCs. Depends on how fast the shop is “retaken”. I liked the fact that Oblivion quite literally allows you to break the game by killing quest-specific NPCs. I don’t want it to be like Fable 2 where no matter how many villagers you kill (if that’s your thing) they keep respawning instantly.
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