Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls 6 is still in active development, and it’s definitely not releasing this year. Elder Scrolls 6 was announced the same year that Rockstar released Red Dead Redemption 2—the game that every Twitter gaming account likes to compare against every other game that’s ever been released—and there’s just one feature I hope Bethesda tries to replicate for its next major RPG.
Outside of Starfield, Bethesda has always excelled at making its worlds feel alive, usually via the use of its often-clunky Radiant AI system. In Oblivion, it was mind-blowing to see characters leave a city and walk across Cyrodil to go on their own quests, even if they rarely had something to say if you bumped into them.
There’s only one other developer and one other game that has really replicated this feeling, Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2. As you explore its dense open world, you’ll find strangers across the world that you can have fully voiced micro-conversations with characters as you pass walk pass them on foot or on horseback.
Coming across a group of O’Driscolls, a rival gang, on a bridge may cause them to shout at you. “This is our bridge!” they’d scream, giving you the option to try and defuse the situation or even antagonist them more. In Red Dead Redemption 2, this ends up creating a tonne of dynamic situations with normal NPCs, and dynamism has always been the beating heart of Bethesda’s RPGs as well.
In Red Dead, there’s always something you’ll encounter across your travels that puts this interaction system to the test. You’ll find a man with his foot in a bear trap—do you help him or do you rob him while he watches? Hey, that man looks like he needs help, but now he’s just stolen your horse. This man looks like his horse is upset, I’ll talk to him. Oh, I’ve distracted him, the horse has kicked him in the face, and now he’s dead.
Obviously, it wouldn’t be completely easy to translate Rockstar’s NPC interactions into The Elder Scrolls 6. First and foremost, Read Dead Redemption 2’s version largely works due to its voiced protagonist, a feature that shouldn’t be anywhere near Bethesda’s fantasy RPG, and one they wisely ditched after Fallout 4. However, with Elder Scrolls’ powerful roleplaying systems under-the-hood, we could have even more variations of encounters
With Elder Scrolls 6, some situations could only be defused if your speech skill is high enough. Maybe some situations may be easier to defuse or easier to antagonise depending on your race; for example, if you’re an Argonian then Dark Elves might be less trusting of you. (Is it really Elder Scrolls without fantasy racism?) There is a lot of depth that can be had from a system like this, even if the text-based dialogue system may make it less easy-to-use.
While I’m a huge fan of Starfield, it’s true that Bethesda’s last RPG felt significantly less alive. While largely due to the sheer scale of its sci-fi world, it’s also because its NPC interactions and simulation weren’t a priority to the point where even its biggest cities feel less lively than even Riverwood did in Skyrim. The life of Tamriel is why I love Tamriel, and I hope that Bethesda is working on increasing how life interacts for its next game… whenever it releases.
Even eight years after its announcement, I still don’t really know what I actually want from The Elder Scrolls 6 other than a deeper role-playing experience compared to Skyrim. For all of its great gameplay ideas, Skyrim has always felt like it has offered the least role-playing of Bethesda’s fantasy series, and more NPC interaction similar (but not the same as) Red Dead Redemption 2 could help to move the needle forward, although it would be a lot of work.
Currently, we know absolutely nothing concrete about The Elder Scrolls 6 other than the fact that its another Elder Scrolls game. Nevertheless, judging from Bethesda’s recent past, it should at least feature the same role-playing systems the series has been built upon for decades. Whatever the game ends up being, I’m just excited to jump back into the world of Tarmiel hopefully sometime before my demise.
