Combat!

Frost Troll

Combat is one of the most important aspects of The Elder Scrolls, and as you might have expected, it'll also be so for Skyrim.

We've always enjoyed picking up a big weapon and go smashing and hacking our adversaries to bits, whilst we scream evil slurs at our screen. At least that's what I think.

So have we evolved from the Hack'n'Slash experiences we had with the previous titles? We have moved forward, but not too far.

First of all, magic will now be equipped just like any other piece of equipment. It is no longer a different system from melee combat, which means that you'll have to prepare your spells beforehand, which means that being a mage will be so much more engaging.

You have two triggers - Left & Right. You can assign any weapon or spell to each hand, you can even dual-wield. Should you dual-wield the same spell and use both hands simultaneously, you will create a much more powerful version of that spell, be that healing or fireball or whatever...

Surrounded by Draugr

Defending, so you don't die, and attacking, so your adversary does. It's always been pretty simple, but the Bethesda game Studios has been looking to improve on that, and making it more challenging and less dull. How did they do this? Well, they made sure that you can't just hold down the block-button by adding something called "shield bash," which is activated if you do just that. You need to perfect your timing to block. It is so far unclear how you block when not wearing a shield.

Unfortunately, apart from that (and the awesome new blood effects) there is not anymore new additions to melee combat on your side. The Draugr, which are undead who rise from the graves to make you join them down there, have been shown to use tactical movement, where they adjust their position according to each other, and not the mindless, independent movement from the previous games.

After beating up your opponent, you will get the opportunity to perform a finishing move, unique for each weapon and creature, meaning that there will be A LOT.

The magic combat has seen more improvement. First of all, spells feel more like this ancient, powerful arcane power that you possess, which is actually a weapon that you choose to yield, instead of a supplement to use when there is a small distance between you and your enemies.

Di-heal

The spells look at lot more authentic, the fireball looks deadly and wielding it will definitely be a great compensation for having a small you-know-what (penis.) Magic battle will also be more engaging. Your shield spells need the same kind of timing that your physical shield does, and you also need to fire at the right time, should the soon-to-be-dead guy battling you also be using a shield spell.

Using an AoE fire spell

Ranged combat will be a little different. You can no longer run backwards as quickly as in Oblivion, which means that you'll have to turn around and sprint away in order to get some air between you and whatever might be trying to kill you. There are different kinds of Bows (no crossbows, I hear) in form of low-end and high-end bows. The low-end (as seen in the demo in the bottom of this site) are strung more quickly, the high-end a little slower. You prepare your arrows for penetrating the heads of your opponents a lot slower overall, in Skyrim, which means that you'll also do good in preparing some poison.

To wrap it all up, I need to say that combat with various creatures in Skyrim, will be more interesting, giving that they now all have more than just one melee and or ranged attack, like they had in Oblivion (which most can relate to.) The Frost Atronach was shown to possess several abilities. The creatures who doesn't possess several abilities, like wolves, make it for it by attacking strategically in groups.

Frost Atronach in Skyrim

Skyrim has seen some improvements, granted that it's few, I do believe that they will be quite enjoyable.