Starfield and the legacy of Skyrim




The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was one of the biggest releases in Bethesda Softworks history. It was a game that released to great fanfare among the gaming and general public. In comparison with the other entries in the series, Skyrim was probably the first truly mainstream RPG that people had actually played in their lives. Now, this is not to say that there were not other RPGS out there that were popular with people. World of Warcraft had made a great splash in the realm of MMOs, getting as close to 11 Million players by 2010. However, in the single player rpg market, there was no game like Skyrim, except maybe for the release of Mass Effect in 2007. 

Skyrim and Starfield: Grandfather of the Modern Open World

Mass Effect's release in 2007 definitely helped to pave the way for the release of Skyrim a couple years later. However, Skyrim truly overwhelmed Mass Effect in sales with its open world. The release of the game of the year Fallout 3 in 2008 also helped to cement Bethesda's reputation as a world-class game developer of open worlds. I have been playing these games since 2007 and I have been incredibly impressed with the skill and the passion that has been put into the open worlds that Bethesda has made. 

Starfield is simply the next in line of evolution for open worlds. The Skyrim setting, which is arguably based on the unconquered Germanic regions north of the Roman Empire, was less appealing than that of the warm and inviting Cyrodill province. However, Skyrim was better able to repersent its setting than that of Oblivion. The fourth game had so many dungeons outside the Capital city, which was the heart of the Septim Empire. That never made any sense to me. I always felt that Skyrim's cities, while small made more sense with their surroundings than any of the towns or cities in Starfield. There were farms and small villages that were surrounding the cities, which is more realistic than anything that I saw in Oblivion. It is important to remember that the game technology between the release date of Oblivion in 2006 and release date of Skyrim five years later had changed. In comparison with other games of the time, Skyrim is one of the better looking games of that age. 

Skyrim looks really old now, especially when one is only playing it on the original version of the game. However, the modders have done a great job with this game, allowing for it to continue for many years to come. 

Skyrim managed to sell millions upon millions of copies, becoming one of the best selling games of all time. This is one of the great achievements of Todd Howard, who leads Bethesda. After selling all those copies, you would think that the company would be done. Not so with Bethesda Softworks, they were just beginning. 

Skyrim would recieve countless dlcs and mods. The game to this day is beloved by many fans of Bethesda's work and even though it had flaws, it is considered to be one of the best games ever made by company in the United States. In comparison with the other games of this generation, Skyrim stands head and shoulders above what we see in RPGS in this day and age. 

No Man Skyrim: Starfield is the next Skyrim


Starfield has been compared to many games but I believe that it is the heir to the Skyrim legacy. It will continue to build upon that legacy to give a great video game experience. 

According to this article from thevideogamer.com, many people on Reddit are expecting that this game will be better than Skyrim in terms of exploration. That is to be expected. Skyrim was released several years before Starfield. I expect that the exploration in Starfield to be next generation in its scope. There will be no game that will be like it. It will set the standard for all space exploration games to come. 

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