Skyrim’s Design Is Actually Great

Who wants to follow a build guide?

The new version of Oblivion might have amazing ray traced lighting for this camp, but it also has an arcane pile of math that my brain can’t let go of, thus preventing me from enjoying the lighting to its fullest. PS5 Pro screenshot of Oblivion Remastered captured by the author.

If you somehow travelled back in time and asked me fifteen years ago which Elder Scrolls game had the best overall design, I’d say “Oblivion” without hesitation.

Now that I’m hip deep in this week’s new remake/remaster of the game, I’m not so sure about that.

Oblivion was the last of the hyper-fiddly Bethesda games. It’s a pile of systems, mechanics, and player options that allows for a huge variety of different choices, with just a dollop of mainstream friendliness on top. As the studio went on into making the Fallout games, Skyrim, and Starfield, that dollop grew and grew and the systems got cut way down.

Some of that was probably the nature of successful games snowballing together to continue successful trends — but now that I’m looking back at all this with a more critical eye, I think it was also good design.

In the original version of Oblivion, it’s very easy to build a character that can’t complete the game simply by playing it like a normal human. The game hands out attribute points at each level up based on a secret formula and as such it’s not always beneficial to stick to your preferred skills. Getting the best bonuses at each power step requires careful planning, and it’s more than just clicking the right menu…