Ever since Morrowind released on PC’s back in 2002, I’ve been absolutely infatuated with The Elder Scrolls franchise – Whilst I haven’t delved back into The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall and The Elder Scrolls II: Arena, I’ve played through each and every one of the 3D Elder Scrolls titles, from the shores of Vvardenfell to Cyrodill, to the icy mountains of Skyrim and all across the world of Tamriel in Elder Scrolls Online – One thing, however, that has always burned in my mind is “What lies next for The Elder Scrolls VI”..?
Regardless to say, whilst it’s been over 6 years since Skyrim first released, there have been a large number of Bethesda titles released – One of which being the rather lukewarmly received Fallout 4 – Being the first Fallout title to put a face and a voice to your protagonist, it garnered somewhat mixed reviews for it’s repetitive structure, somewhat flat world and poorly-priced DLC; regardless to say it didn’t set a good precedent for the future of Bethesda’s big-named IP’s, especially after the very well received Fallout 3 (I’m not counting New Vegas as it was developed by Obsidian Studios, not Bethesda directly), however Fallout 4 brung a lot of interesting innovations to the table that may be implemented within some of Bethesda’s future titles…
UI Improvements…
Credit to Schlangster and the rest of the SkyUI Team for the original image – You can download SkyUI over at Nexus Mods!
For a start, the adoption of a more fluid UI, especially in gathering resources and looting items from enemies could easily be a thing that could feature and be expanded on more within The Elder Scrolls VI – Something we’ve seen already implemented into Skyrim through the efforts of talented modders over on the Nexus – The feeling of having one consistent, immersive user interface would be something that would help to boost up the already high levels of immersion present within Skyrim – One thing I always personally hated was having to access my items by pausing the entire game, opening an honestly ugly looking main menu and navigating through clumsy screens; something that mods like SkyUI help to fix, but doesn’t totally remedy the whole UI situation.
So what would I propose for The Elder Scrolls VI? Make the majority of the UI fluid and immersive in nature; make it so that, in order to look at our World Map, we need to equip a map and look at it – In order to read letters, have our character actually pick them up instead of just lazily having them swoosh the letter onto the screen; small details like this make a large difference to the overall feeling of these sorts of First & Third Person RPG titles, and can go a long way in selling the world of The Elder Scrolls VI as an actual, living, breathing world.
Weapon & Armour Modifications…
Another brilliant (And unfortunately under-explored) mechanic present within Fallout 4 was the game’s Weapon Modification system; being able to take guns and melee weapons you found in the wild and modify them with various parts and items that had a visual difference on your equipment; not only did this allow you to stick with a single weapon throughout the entire game and modify it into your own personal handcannon, but it gave you a feeling of progression when you got that next big upgrade for your gun.
Adapting this to The Elder Scrolls VI would be a bit of a difficult task, considering how things like swords are rather difficult to modify, especially given the setting’s technology and crafting tools; however, being able to take an iron sword and modify it with different grips, handguards, blade types and enchantments would be a brilliant addition in my opinion, especially given the many weird and deadly concoctions of the Daedra that could be applied to some of the game’s strongest weaponry – Imagine being able to turn your boring, old Dwarven Metal Sword into a chainsword or some odd Dwarven weapon!
The Evolution of Settlements…
One of my favourite additions to the world of Fallout 4 was the inclusion of Settlements – Whilst they ultimately served no proper purpose other than something to do, it would be brilliant for The Elder Scrolls VI to give Settlements an actual purpose (Either through a set of quests or an actual, rewarding sub-mode), and to make them more enjoyable to build and ultimately live in – Given the unique and somewhat beautiful architecture of Tamriel, the very real reliance on proper food production (Fishing, farming, hunting, etc) and trade caravans, I can see Settlements becoming far, far more than just going back to Preston Garvey and claiming more land for no good reason.
Better Stealth & Combat…
Let’s not kid ourselves here – The Elder Scrolls hasn’t always been a franchise that prides itself on it’s stealth or combat, however whilst Bethesda themselves haven’t directly played much with their main gameplay mechanics, one of their subsidiary development studios, Arkane Studios, have had more than enough experience with building extremely robust stealth and combat mechanics through the extremely well received Dishonoured franchise; often being heralded as one of the most innovative and refreshing franchises in the last few years, Dishonoured has garnered a lot of love for it’s addictingly good gameplay – So much so that, and I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but…
…I think Bethesda should leave the majority of the combat and stealth in The Elder Scrolls VI to Arkane Studios. The Elder Scrolls has, with the exception of the improvement of combat between Morrowind and Oblivion, never really innovated it’s combat from what was built for Morrowind, and honestly the age really does show – So many people are begging for a total combat and stealth revamp for The Elder Scrolls, and The Elder Scrolls VI could be the franchises’ brand new start, just like how The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind was.
The Modern Gaming Market…
To round off this article with a somewhat depressing note, there is one big elephant in the room – The modern gaming market. Games now-a-days have become more and more reliant on Microtransactions and Loot Boxes; so much so that it does pose a serious threat to The Elder Scrolls VI – One thing that I think nobody wants is for Microtransactions to swarm into the game via loot progression, settlement items or armour, however in all honestly, it seems like a matter of time unfortunately, given that traditional progression systems and “getting your money’s worth” seems to be going the way of the dinosaurs.
So… Those are my face-value expectations for the future of The Elder Scrolls VI, if it ever gets announced, that is…
Let us know your thoughts and expectations down below in those ever-so-lovely comments!