» Sat Feb 19, 2011 8:36 am
The screenshots so far do seem to speak of a better atmosphere than Oblivion created, at least prior to the use of some of the mods I now have installed, and Bethesda's promises lead me to expect the same. Although I'm a little dissappointed by the brightness of the one interior shot of a dungeon we've seen so far, but that's just one screenshot whose atmosphere I have any criticisms for, so that's pretty good, and it's only one screenshot, so maybe other dungeons will be darker, and this is the sort of thing I'd imagine could be changed before release.
Of course, there are factors that contribute to a game's atmosphere which can't be seen in static screenshots as well, animations, for example, can help a lot. Past Elder Scrolls games suffered in this regard due to bad character animations, will Skyrim be better? I hope so. Sound is also important for atmosphere, and in any game with a clearly defined story, the writing will also ultimately effect the feel of the game, those factors of course can't be seen in screenshots. Hopefully, Skyrim won't dissappoint there either. But only time will tell, the few samples of in-game music and sound effects don't tell us much because how well they build the game's atmosphere will ultimately depend on how well they're used. No matter how good your music or sound effects are, its not going to help you're atmosphere if they're not used in appropriate places.