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News video games 14 July 2022, 15:21

author: Miriam Moszczynska

Things Skyrim Could Have Done Better in Player Hindsight

Skyrim is far from perfect, as players have proven by discussing what could have been done better in the game. Fortunately, some flaws can be patched with mods.

No game is perfect, even The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. There was a discussion among the community about what Bethesda's game could have done better, and we selected the most interesting ones out of all the suggestions.

What could Skyrim have done better?

If I say that there were many suggestions, I don't think it will surprise anyone. Every player has a different opinion, although there was no shortage of those seconded by several thousand other users. Without further ado, here is the list of things that Skyrim could have done better.

  1. Better roleplay elements. According to a player by the handle Asadaduf even Civil War-related quests don't actually change anything except the names. He cited as an example a situation in which, after killing Ulfric, he asked a guard standing right next to the character's body when the war would end. In response, he received: "when Ulfric dies."
  2. Relationships with characters and marriages. According to meaningtwothree they lack depth, and just establishing relationships is silly. Other players also pointed out the lack of spousal interaction. The only thing that fuels the relationship a bit is that our other half can be kidnapped.
  3. Reputation system. Players are annoyed by the fact that despite being a hero (or villain) in Skyrim their achievements go unnoticed by common folk. However, this can be fixed with a mod called Skyrim Reputation, which makes reputation work as it should.
  4. Better combat system. Among the comments, this problem has appeared more than once. The community mainly draws attention to the fact that after a while the combat system gets boring and it's hard to make any progress. This problem especially appears during mid-game, when the player is already quite strong, but not quite at the top of the food chain yet.
  5. Learning spells. In Skyrim, in order to learn a certain spell, all you have to do is buy a book and voila, you have a new skill in hand. Such a solution does not appeal to players and many of them prefer the learning system offered by a mod called Better Spell Learning SE. Thanks to it, our character will have to spend an amount of time appropriate to the difficulty level of the spell reading a given volume to actually learn a spell.

The suggestions are endless

The issues listed above are just a drop in the ocean of mechanics and systems that could have done better in Skyrim. The community also pointed out the modest number of voice actors, the mediocre TPP camera work, or the animations during combat, which sometimes leave much to be desired.

And while some of the bugs can be fixed with mods, let's hope that when we finally get to the release of The Elder Scrolls 6, many of the shortcomings mentioned by players will only be a thing of the past.. What else do you think should be changed in Skyrim? Or maybe you just patched the gaps in the game with mods ?