Cyrodil was a very bright, friendly place. Even with the Oblivion crisis, and minotaurs, and necromancers and such, the mood never really seemed dire. Up until the end of the main quest, there didn't seem to be much sense of impending doom, or feel of darkness. It was all bright and shiny. Now, Cyrodil is okay being kind of bright and shiny, but Skyrim............I don't know about you guys, but when I think Skyrim I think about a country dwelling in the shadow of mountains. It seems like there would be a lot of long, low mead halls laced with knotwork and runes, filled with drunken, violent Nords. I think it's safe to say that Nordic culture is much less Roman and much more Viking. Roundshields, broadswords, 15 foot tall cave bears lurking in massive caverns under the mountain ranges. Very dark, violent quests with a large chance of dying at the hands of some gargantuan predator of ancient myth. I guess my point is that It's okay for the Elder Scrolls to get a little dark.

Who else is hoping for a darker game than Oblivion?

I wished it could be very scary...

I'm for a bit more darkness and some more creepy moments. I'd like to feel a genuine sense of trepidation when entering a dark cave or long-forgotten tomb.

Yes, definitely more darkness, both in scares and overall tone.

I want Solitude to feel really gloomy. Mind you, I'd like some residents to seem "too happy" there, as if they are rebelling against a psychic haunting. I mean, this is the city of Potema, and the place where Sheogorath seduced Pelagius into madness... it should have a foreboding aspect to it. I just don't care whether it's a bright and happy-looking city, as long as the residents seem like they're really "feeling the ghosts of yesterday". A picture might be worth a thousand words, but I'm looking for the history of the place to affect the MINDS, not the buildings/architecture. Make sense?

I'm liking the linguistics, and i have to admit that would make TESV so awesome.
Tbh i found going into caves and being chased by things a bit scary in Oblivion, but that is most probably becasue i was under a certain influence... =P

It really depends on how Bethesda decides to design it, I would say, Cyrodiil too could have made for a much darker game, if Bethesda had chosen that route, I mean, the plot is about an invasion by otherworldly monsters and impending doom, that could have been pretty dark stuff, but Bethesda in the end chose to portray Cyrodiil as primarily a bright and happy place, and portals to a hellish other world didn't really balance that out enough to really give a very dark and forboding experience (Though the fact that for all the fire and brimstone and gory scenery, the plains of Oblivion still seemed fairly tame might have contributed to that.) Skyrim I could also see making for a fairly dark game, or something a little more cheerful, it depends on whether Bethesda decides to go for a hostile environment and chaotic lands feel or more of a majestic snowy place sort of feel, really.

Whatever happens, I just hope Bethesda doesn't go the route of a lot of other recent games and assume that simply because they're going for a dark or realistic tone means the game can't have colors, we already have enough games where the colors consist of various shades of gray and brown with the ocassional red splashed on for blood, although Skyrim would probably be more white if Bethesda decided to go that route, it would still get dull pretty quickly.

It'd certainly be awesome if Skyrim was more 'moody' than Cyrodiil. Not only tombs or some such, but settlements as well, like villages in the wastes being inhabbited by more hostile, superstitious peasants and eastern Skyrim being more predisposed against Dunmer; not to the point of making it impossible to do anything there, but definitely making it harder for the player (bar brawls with drunken racist Nords ftw). And ancient monsters, yes plz, prefferably large ones. Also I'm pretty sure there's a clan of vampires in Skyrim who live in frozen lakes and can pull you in from beneath the ice; it'd be great if they did that in-game, not as insta-kill but hard to fight off. It shouldn't be a horror game, but you shouldn't feel safe all the time. More unique monsters would probably aid in that, since eventually you grow accustomed to all the ghosts and zombies.

Well remember oblivion was pushing for a T rating, it was only after a mod found a hidden file of nudity that the ESRB decided to make it rated M. I think that is why it seems like tha happier place. I can't speak to much about Morrowind however.

Sure, it could be darker, but real darker, not pretending the world's entire color palette is shades of grey and brown. Meaning that entering a cave should be dangerous, travelling on the roads having a constant threat of bandit or monster attack, etc.

I thought that Oblivion's happy landscape and felling was good for the game itself, but they should certainly make it darker in TESV.

I thinkbur should be darker, it should be like comparing Chris Nolans Batman to Tim Burtons Batman. Musically, It needs deep brass, low woodwind and strings.

I like a little dark setting for TES:V as long as they don't go like Lotr and Dragon Age in terms of "Heavy" colors. Its more the monsters and npc's who should be affected by the dark theme. Like the thieves guild could hvae been hooded and talk in mysteriouse ways, or the people could have been less happy when talking to them. Seriousely, they talk of how good the wine is in Skingrad, and how Chorrol seems like a town of well succesfull people, meanwhile daedra gates have opened all over the land.

I'd rather go for suspeciuse dressed people, with topics that doesn't allways have to be positive.

Same go for monsters, make the Ogres 3 times as high as humans, make daedra actually creepy looking, and make the wilderness do so the player will feel unsafe outside city walls.


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I hope for alot more racism. Look at how humans have torn eachother up just over skin color and imagine how bloody history on earth would be if instead of different colors of skin there were people with pointy ears or scales or fur. Oblivion towns looked too much like little Noah's Arks with two of every race living happily side by side. I always play as an orc so it would be great if a couple nords followed me on my way out of town and confront me saying stuff like "We dont like your kind around here".

For as long as it isn't anything like Fallout 3 that sometimes needs prozacs to be played I would really like it if the setting was somewhat darker than Cyrodiil and if there were at least a few regions which looked a bit like Dementia in the Shivering Isles.

I think I'm the only person who doesn't like dark places. I get scared enough in Oblivion when the battle music turns on and I can't find the friggen monster then he attacks me from behind and it scares the hell outa me lol.

Same here. I hated the fact that I needed the combat music to not be pants-pissingly scared every time I went into a cave or ruin. And even then I kept a change of clothes handy

Yes! The vampire tribe from that "Immortal Blood" short story would be freakin' awesome. They should look large, slightly distended, pale. Not the [censored] ass ones from Oblivion, however cool they were. That Skyrim tribe (their name escapes me) should be horrific opponents.

I'm hoping that it will have a much darker theme and in general in some a places a feeling of hopelessness and a grimer more hostile world but not try to over do it. Overall go for realism and often bleak where there are plenty of faction infighting and chaos with disase effecting more then the beggers, starvation where there are famines and the threat of invasion weather by Arkivel (Not how its spelled I'm sure) or the other providences and with it paranoia.

Just don't try to make a Dystopia which would be a major turn off for many people.

I hadn't thought Skyrim would get the "darker and edgier" treatment, but it's possible (assuming Skyrim is indeed the setting of TES V, which we don't know yet). Here's a quote from the PGE 3rd, written (in-game) a few years before the Oblivion Crisis:

A dynastic feud, attacks by H?rme bandits and frost trolls, and a series of annihilating winters of alternating floods, droughts, and fires has crippled the area that was once considered the Imperial City of Skyrim. The population blamed and then curiously exalted the leader of the local witches' coven, Jsashe, a self-proclaimed priestess of Lorkhan. The Witch-Queen of Whiterun, as she is called, now wields effective control of the county, though her magic has not brought prosperity as of yet. http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Pocket_Guide_to_the_Empire,_3rd_Edition/Skyrim

So maybe Jsashe and her cult will make an appearance? Who knows.

I don't think the game has to be excessively grungey, but I would like the atmosphere to feel bleaker and more brooding. This could work particularly well in Skyrim, where you can imagine things like just barely making out the silhouette of a city beyond a blanket of fog, with only the weakest shivers of the occasional brazier or torch making its way through. You wind your way down a hill, a dark, oppressive overcast sky watching over your every move.

I always imagined Tamriel as not being a particularly bright place - lively, sure, but very dim, like the Middle Ages. People are paranoid and live in fear for their lives every day, there's always some threat of treachery or or political intrigue, and you can't just expect to stroll around and be greeted warmly by everybody you encounter. In many ways I want NPCs to be more like those of Morrowind's, where everybody seemed to constantly be preoccupied and wary, if not disdainful towards outsiders. There's the occasional generous person, but many people really couldn't give a damn if you were new in town. I do NOT want everybody shouting off "hello there!" to you like they did in Oblivion.

I hate to say it, but Fable 2 actually did a good job making some areas of the wilderness dangerous. I think some areas of skyrim should be darker. Nights should be darker too, to add to the effect.

Well, actually, Cyrodiil, in my eyes, was one of the best places to have that dark, eerie feel. The Imperial City especially. A city full of greedy politicians, beurocrats and thieves is bound to have a dark side to it. I missed that from Oblivion. Skyrim seems to me more about Nordic culture. I've always seen Nords to seperate into different groups. There's the Skaal types - not very dark - tree huggers, the generic type - kind of a noble barbarian feel, they like the fighting and drinking, but have a civilised side, and then the major alcoholics. The alcoholics would be the only ones to really have a dark side, and since they're alcoholics, I doubt they'd have the money or the power to cause mass devestation.

While I'm not arguing that I hope there's some darkness and corruption in the next game, I just don't think it has much more potential than a lot of other places. What I want to see is tension between the natives and the Empire. With the loss of Uriel, I would think that the empire could get even more oppresive in other areas. It's now run by the beurocratic politicians. They want money and land, whereas Uriel (arguably) wanted to unite the provinces, with less care for money and land.

The empire is one of the greatest forms of greed and corruption in Tamriel.

I dont care if its darker or not, but some more greyness wouldnt hurt.

Ah, man, if Bethesda could pull off some horror aspects to TESV, I would buy the game twice. The creepiest thing in Oblivion was either the room underneath the lighthouse in Anvil, or maybe the occasional necromancer layer (Lost Boy Cavern imo was the creepiest, which is the only reason I remember it) but even then the effect of everything wore off after a few minutes.