Delve into the combat of Skyrim

Game Informer scores more hits to their site with their latest article on The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. This time we are discussing combat.

Bethesda's gone back to the drawing board and crafted a new combat mechanic unlike what has previously been seen.

“We wanted to make it more tactile in your hands. I think if you look at our previous stuff I sometimes equate it to fighting with chopsticks – you sit there and swing them in front of yourself.” -Todd Howard

To solve this predicament, Bethesda has changed the pace of combat into a more brutal and intense experience. Characters now react violently to blows and first-person camera tricks now commonplace in shooters will come to this WRPG. We've also got special kill animations, taking another page from their previous Fallout 3 work.

Blocking is also a bigger deal now. You need to time when you raise your shield and can do a bash move if you're precision is just right. Another big thing is specializing in a specific weapon. Each type of battle-item you use has it's own particular perks along with it to make the character's choices in fighting style more defined. And at the end, Todd wants to drive home the idea that backpedaling won't work as good as it usually does in games. You're slower while moving backwards, so you won't be able to run up, smash and retreat like you did in Oblivion. If you try that, the enemy is libel to charge at you and knock you down. If you want to run away, you'll have to actually turn-tail and sprint to safety.

And now for magic. Keeping in line with their new vision of tactile combat, Bethesda has employed an idea from a not all that unlikely source. It's no secret that the Bethesda and Irrational Games are buddies. Apparently Todd was so impressed with the idea of "Guns go in your character's right hand. Powers are on the left." that he decided to use it for that kind of flexibility and diversity in battle for his game. I kinda suspected there was something to do with BioShock in the announcement of assignable hands. As a fan of that series too, I'm excited to play The Elder Scrolls: BioShock style.

Mr. Howard is a bit sheepish to answer the question of whether or not you'll be able to combine to offensive spells, but even without that potentially amazing feature, mages will still be able to vary their combat-style with the over 85 spells divided into five schools of magic. When asked about why Mysticism was axed, Todd responded,
"It always felt like the magical school of mysticism – isn't that redundant?"
So it looks like the spells that previously occupied Mysticism will now be thrown into the other schools.

The way you employ your spells is new too. You can now hold down a fireball spell to make a flamethrower, put a fire rune in the ground to make a magical trap, or assign fireball to both hands and make a double down of flaming magic. Also, different types of spells will cause different things to happen to your enemies and environments. Fire hurts the most, lighting drains the enemy’s magicka and frost drains stamina and slows down enemies. This means you'll have to conditionalize your magic usage. Lastly, magic duels sound intense. The tactic you should use according to Bethesda is to have offensive spells on one hand, defensive on the other. When the opponent wizard casts fireball, you cast firenull. Then bring out a lightning spell and drain the enemy's magicka while damaging them, unless they cast grounding or something. You'll be relying a lot on potions.

And finally we've got new stuff on bow and stealth users. First, arrows can deal one-hit kills if your good enough and your aim is true, they're more limited (quiver max?) and valuable and zooming, draw-power and defensive bash moves will make an appearance.

Stealth is supposed to work more or less like Oblivion, but with additions. Enemies, upon hearing or seeing something strange will go into an alert mode. If you have a higher sneak skill, you'll be able to grab some shadows easier than others. And to cap it all off, daggers are now ultra deadly. An up-close stealth attack with a slender blade will cause 10X damage! It has it's own perks too, but those are under the "Stealth" banner and not "Blade" I guess.

That's all for now! Grab the next issue of The Great Gate Gazette whenever the next time Game Informer reveals some more news, which will probably be in like two days or something.

Source: You know where