The Elder Scrolls 6: 11 Past Mistakes Bethesda Can't Repeat

11. Nail A Reliable Combat System

In a world before Dark Souls caught on and showed the industry how to 'do' tactile third person combat properly, we had the likes of Skyrim and all its forebears going for the whole "just flail around and hope for the best" setup. Sure there's a block button, you can unlock a dodge-roll (of sorts) and different weapons have different damage arcs, but when it comes to reliably swinging your blade and hoping to hit home, good luck.

Returning to a mod-less console Skyrim now highlights just how far we've come in the last six years, as Skyrim itself continued the aforementioned "hit n' hope" structure set in motion across the entire franchise. There's zero animation put into any clashing of steel, no limb-targeting or even a reaction for the most part - instead enemies will press ahead and continue in your general direction no matter what.

That's without mentioning that even when you do block, the animation doesn't take 100% of incoming damage until you find a specific shield, blade or equip the right spell.

Simply put, Skyrim's combat was fine, and we went with it for the sake of exploration, but it desperately needs an overhaul.