Stealth and sneaking are a major part of how we play The Elder Scrolls, with each game having a number of skill trees dedicated to one or both of those. However, the stealth mechanics themselves in Elder Scrolls games over the years have left a lot to be desired. We obviously don’t expect Bethesda to go ahead and make a game that boasts of stealth mechanics similar something like The Phantom Pain, but whenever The Elder Scrolls 6 does come out, it needs major improvements in the area.
Having a little more nuance and depth to the stealth of The Elder Scrolls wouldn’t hurt. Something as simple as enemies reacting to things like sight and sound, or reacting to seeing dead bodies or other things in their environments, and in general being much more sensitive to those things would add so much to the stealth sections of the game. And if Bethesda have a solid base to build off of in that area, maybe they could even have specific areas and missions that focus more heavily on stealth than on combat. That would also serve the purpose of adding more variety to the game design and the game in general.
Maybe Bethesda should look to what a studio owned by themselves, Arkane, is doing with games like Dishonored, or what Eidos Montreal have done recently with the Deus Ex games. Obviously, those games have a much larger focus on stealth than The Elder Scrolls does, and we don’t want or expect The Elder Scrolls 6 to turn into a stealth game, but a bit more depth and polish to the sneaking mechanics in general would be very much appreciated.
What do you think? Agree with our assertions? Disagree? Either way, tell us what you think in the comments section below.
This article is part of our series on Bethesda’s next big entry into the world of The Elder Scrolls. Through this series we take a look at the possible new features that Bethesda can add into the next The Elder Scrolls game, based on what they implemented in the previous entries and player feedback.