EugeneSleepuls  Joined: 30 Jun 2011
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 Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2012 2:02 pm
Post subject: A look into 10 years of Gaming using The Elder Scrolls. |
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I want to start off this piece by saying that I honestly 100% believe that older games are not better than new ones. That is not to say that they are bad, it's just both eras have their own good and bad games.
I have been meaning to write something like this for a while, but I have been struggling to think of what games to do it with. I wanted to be able to make a good comparison between a series on how the evolution of gaming and the industry has changed it. My first thought was the Legend of Zelda series, but outside of the game engine changing, which makes for more interesting puzzles, not much else has changed in the series (I have not played Skyward Sword, which I heard was more of a proper RPG so I cannot make any claims about it.). Then I went back to the big three: Megaman, Mario, and Sonic. Sonic has had a bad run for the most part and only in recent years is it making a return to good video games. Megaman for the most part remains unchanged outside of a few spin-offs here and there, and Mario has the same problem with Zelda, some are 3D some are 2D and I cannot accurately compare them. I need something that has for the most part remained the same, but has changed with the industry. The Elder Scrolls!
For purposes I will only be using TES:III-TES:V, and using them as specific and overcharging examples of what happened to the industry and gaming in general. So the timeframe we are looking at here is 2002-2012.
For many, Morrowind was the epitome of the RPG gaming. It had a huge open world, a steep learning curve, RNG mechanics out the wazoo and you could do ANYTHING. If you wanted to be a levitating orc barbarian beating people to death with a stave, you could do it. Ever wanted to beat a God to death with a lock-pick? You can do it in Morrowind. There is a reason why games such as Fable, Oblivion, and even Skyrim are still compared to Morrowind. It really was a RPG-masterpiece, and has my vote for the greatest game of all time.
So what does Morrowind have that it's successors don't? For one, everything in the game is a limited resource, there is only one-set of daedric armor that you can find at level 1 if you so wish and even then it is incomplete unless you have the Tribunal expansion. Even the world feels different from Skyrim and Oblivion, the buildings and even the plant-life are down-right strange. The east cost of the island has people living in Mushrooms. MUSHROOMS! And there are four ways to travel: boat, silt-strider, mage's guild, and traveling by foot. There is no fast-travel which gives the world a better feel. For a long time people have described playing Morrowind as being a stranger in a stranger land, and you are NOT welcome. Morrowind's gameplay gives the player a traditional sense of the RPG. Complex equations are used that factor in level, skill level, stamina and luck to determine if you hit someone much less do damage. Suddenly choosing to close the distance by sprinting becomes a risk. Also unlike most modern RPG with respec options or perks, Morrowind sticks close to the Class system with your major skills determining if you level up or not (Oblivion veterans will find the same system). Even then what you do during the leveling-up period determines how many points into an attribute you get. Morrowind represents a time when developers were just learning how to get things right, and by combining it with state of the art game engines they could deliver a masterpiece of a game that will be remembered.
Oblivion came out in 2006, 4 years after Morrowind and it came with an engine overhaul that danced on the edge of the RPG and Action-Adventure line. Oblivion kept the leveling up system from Morrowind while introducing a new and improved combat system. The result was a massive hit for Bethesda with Oblivion coming out on Xbox360, PS3, and PC. However this marked a new evolution in gaming, with Oblivion receiving much attention in the PC modding community. For the first time people could affect Oblivion how they want, graphic updates, a revamp of certain system, new weapons, new worlds, new character models. The peak of which was a standalone non-TES adventure mod and a separate mod that had the player travel to Elswyer the home-land of the Khajiti. However, all this was not without sacrifice, for all of the technological advancement that Oblivion had over Morrowind it did lose some game aspects that people were not happy with. Oblivion had the fast-travel system, which many were unpleased with, it was also the first Elder Scrolls game where you could become the leader of every faction, but more importantly Oblivion lost many choices.
-The Light, Medium, Heavy armor went down to just Light and Heavy.
-Loading screens throughout the world were taken out in favor of Cities and Towns being their own separate area.
-As a result Levitation was taken out of the game due to certain areas not having been fully rendered in the over-game world.
-Throwable weapons, spears, and crossbows were taken out.
-Werewolves were taken out
-Armors were consolidated to: helm, boots, chest+pauldrons, gloves, and pants. You could not wear undershirts, or robes/dresses/skirts over the armor.
These changes left many Elder Scroll veterans unhappy at the lack of customization. Others were including many new players loved Oblivion. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion represented a time where many developers found themselves making sacrifices and trying to reach a larger audience; this was by no means a terrible thing after all, this is a business they are trying to run first and foremost. None the less Oblivion was a beautiful combination of main-stream needs with traditional RPG elements that captured the hearts of many.
Then in late 2011, the latest Elder Scrolls game came out: Skyrim. Featuring a new graphics engine, new combat system, a new world to explore, and a more modern leveling up system; Skyrim was seen by many as the true-sequel to Morrowind. Initially there were many bugs, and the moding season was non-existent, all that changed when the creation kit came out. These days you can mod Skyrim into completely different looking game, with more combat, more weapons, more dragons, and a beautiful landscape. The Enchantment system was completely revamped and a new crafting system was added.
At the moment, the Moonpath to Elswyer mod, which was a fan-made fully voiced 2-3 hour adventure is seen as an amazing example of what can be done. Within a year of its release, there are already project to remake Morrowind and Oblivion using the Skyrim engine. However just like Oblivion, more sacrificed were made.
-The Mysticism tree was fully removed
-Unarmed was removed
-The weapon skills were thrown into one of three: One-Handed, Two-Handed, Archery
-Spell-making was removed
-Armors were simplified even more to a: head, chest+legs, boots, gloves system.
-You could only wear one ring
-Classes, starting signs, and attributes completely removed
However, with the inclusion of Dawnguard and Hearthfire, Bethesda, had added and changed some things about the game.
-Crossbows are back in.
-Perk tree for Werewolves and Vampire Lords
-Players can build homes
Furthermore Bethesda has put in blank-slates of Morrowind and Cyrodill in order to help player create mods. Skyrim represents modern gaming at its best/worst. The loss of in-depth customization for more way-of-life improvements but still allowing players to build the character they want. Essentially Skyrim shed away the in-depth hardcore RPG elements while keeping the core RPG elements and adding as-you-go customization instead of locking you in at the beginning. Which is really how we are seeing games evolve these days, the core elements are there and we get all of these new options to customize looks, guns, gameplay, whatever we want. We are no longer weighed down by our choices at the start and with Dragonborn adding a re-spec feature, a player can now choose to play a character how they want or completely revamp them 300 hours in.
So which of these was the best? All of them really. All three games, all three eras still have a dedicated moding, and playing community to this day and proponents of each game will sit there and declare why their game is the best.
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