The Elder Scrolls 6 Reveals Big Gameplay Improvement From Skyrim

The Elder Scrolls 6's release date may be years away, and we still don't know what platforms it's coming to, however, Bethesda recently took the opportunity to tease players on what to expect from the next-gen game and the first proper installment in the series since The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. And it will come as no surprise that Bethesda is promising The Elder Scrolls 6 will be bigger and better than Skyrim. Illustrating this point, Bethesda's Todd Howard reveals that cities will be more expansive and dynamic.

When Skyrim released in 2010, its cities were pretty substantial and large by the standard of 2011 open-world games. In 2020, many of its settlements look small and airy. According to Howard, creating big, sprawling cities has been a big focus for the development team.

Unfortunately, Howard didn't divulge many other details, let alone specific details, on how large cities will be. And of course, bigger isn't always better. What makes a city feel believable, especially when it comes to scale, is how dense, populated, and well-realized it is. The Witcher 3 did this very well, and it looks like CD Projekt Red is about to set another bar in this regard with Cyberpunk 2077.

Some of the cities and towns in Skyrim are quite big. In fact, even Oblivion had some very large cities and towns. However, none of them felt alive. And this will be the key for Bethesda when it comes to The Elder Scrolls 6.

Last time out, with 2015's Fallout 4, Bethesda Game Studios didn't get this right. Towns, cities, and other settlements felt hollow. Not only was there not enough NPCs, but there was no believability to the routines of these NPCs. This is to say, creating a vibrant, dynamic, dense, and well-realized world is not exactly Bethesda Game Studios strong point, but it sounds like the team is trying to change this, and these changes may very well be facilitated by the new engine that's been created for the game.

The Elder Scrolls 6 is in development for the PC. At the moment of publishing, there's been no concrete word of a release date, a release window, or even platforms beyond the PC.

H/T, Develop: Brighton Conference.