Looks like we finally have some more details about the mysterious Skyrim. You won’t have to wait until February to find out the details that will be discussed in that month’s Game Informer because all of the details have been leaked and are available for your reading pleasure.
First of all we now know that Skyrim will be set 200 years after the events that happened in Oblivion and you will be playing as one of the Dragonborn. Your main objective in the story is to stop the dragon god Alduin who is the world eater mentioned on Game Informer’s back cover.
Quests have changed as well, at least the way that you will be given them. Something that developers are calling a dynamic quest system will make it so that players may only receive certain quests if they have a certain level of proficiency in that quest-specific skill, or on your actions throughout the game so far. This means that you won’t be having any vanilla playthroughs of the same quests happening again and again in the same ways.
Also changed is the leveling system. The more you use a specific skill will level it up overtime as it did in Oblivion but the amount of skills to level has been cut to 18 which is down from the 21 used in Oblivion. But in a more interesting update, the Perk system from Fallout 3 will be returning as you level up your main character you will have the ability to unlock perks.
As you leveled up your player in the Oblivion you may have noticed that enemies leveled up just as much as you did. Meaning that a measly rat could pose just as much danger to a high level character as a Xivilai daemon. But that isn’t going to be the case anymore. Enemies will only be scaled up to when you first entered the area and then remain that same level even as you advance. Plus this will only happen in critical areas of the game which means that leveling up will help immensely this time around.
So we know about the story, the change in quests and the change in levels, but what about the combat? Well there is a new duel wielding weapon system as well. This means that you can assign any weapon or spell to each of your hands. This means that you can use two swords at the same time, or an axe and a sword, or a sword and a lightning bolt. The combinations are of course endless and a welcome addition to the game.
Beyond these changes there will be a weapon creation system, better graphics of course, better character creation, the ability to run faster, finishing moves for the brutality feel, and an NPC dueling system which allows you to hold a duel with any NPC that accepts. Now all of these changes and enhachments sound like exactly what fans of the series have been looking for, and I am most certainly excited to see all of these changes coming when the The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim releases on November 11th 2011.
