One of the most important parts of being at the top of your game is that there are always going to be contenders for your throne. Bethesda now finds itself in that very position, which is a challenge all on its own. However, it also carries the expectations of having to make a solid follow-up to a title that sits comfortably among the most beloved open worlds of all time.
Elder Scrolls 6 has already kept us waiting for 8 very long years since its 2018 announcement, and the open world genre has grown in the interim. We’ve had so many successful titles, each bringing something new to the table to create a genre that now comes with so many options for players, it can be hard to choose a favorite. Crimson Desert has dominated the stage in that space this year, and its presence makes things very interesting for Bethesda.
The studio is now challenged with balancing the nostalgia that its players come to expect, while crafting an experience that feels modern. It needs to create a world that’s as compelling as Pywel, whilst retaining everything that was good about Skyrim in the process. That’s a tight rope that we wouldn’t want to be walking, and there are a few reasons for that. Let’s dive in!
A New Brand of Open World
Let’s begin with Crimson Desert’s strengths and how those features speak to Bethesda’s need to pay attention to what has gone well in Pywel. Aside from the obvious draw of three playable protagonists, there’s the question of how they manage to get around a map that’s quite astoundingly large. You’ve got a pair of magical wings with a crow motif, a shield that doubles up as a sort of propeller that lets you glide along huge gaps, or a rocket pack that makes the game’s verticality a welcome presence.
That each of these unique methods of traversal is tied to a specific character, with specific ways to use them to navigate environmental obstacles, makes for an interesting trichotomy between Kliff, Daminane, and Oongka. It’s rare that an open world has you ignoring the fast-travel system since you’re incentivized to travel on foot and discover more of the map, but that’s exactly what Crimson Desert has done.
Speaking of the map and getting around in it, physics-based interactions make that so much more interesting. You could use your Axiom Claw, for instance, to latch onto a tree, pull it down, and then use it as a catapult to launch you into the air, from where you get to use even more fancy manoeuvres to cover large distances in a jiffy. That’s just one example of how you get to use the world around you to your advantage.
Of course, with intense boss fights, combat that feels like you’re watching a well-choreographed movie, moments that have you staring slack-jawed at your screen, and an extensive world-building effort to make Pywel feel alive, all count in Crimson Desert’s favor. It’s a playground that feels alive and welcoming to your presence instead of a map full of quests for you to take on. The quests are there, yes, but they’re framed by an exploratory loop that often supersedes them.
Of course, Bethesda has done quite a few of these things in Elder Scrolls 5, and we’ve even put that one in conversation with Crimson Desert a while ago. Skyrim and Pywel have a lot in common despite the intervening years between their respective release dates, but we aren’t saying that Bethesda needs to copy Crimson Desert’s new features.
However, it does need to ensure that Elder Scrolls 6 comes without the usual open-world stiffness that players have come to associate with its games in recent years. It would be harder to forgive thanks to Crimson Desert coming along, and it isn’t just because of the reasons we’ve spoken about so far.
But before we elaborate further, it’s a good idea to see why Bethesda does stand a fair chance of making its upcoming addition to the Elder Scrolls franchise a world that can be very hard to leave once you begin to truly live in it.
Masters Of Their Game
Come on, people. It’s Bethesda we’re talking about. Yes, there have been complaints about recent titles not coming together as well as Skyrim did, but they’ve still got quite the edge when it comes to crafting open worlds that draw you in and keep you within the confines of their maps.
The studio’s strength isn’t spectacle, not in the way Crimson Desert presents it. But the world-building on offer can get so darn intense it’s honestly hard to keep track of them all, not to mention the intricate relationships that they have with each other and the way those connections play out in relation to you, the player.
The narrative is another area where the studio has a distinct edge. Crimson Desert’s main campaign was a tad too disjointed for us to recommend it without reservation, despite the lore being adequate enough to keep us interested. But that isn’t what Bethesda does. The story on offer in the studio’s creations is known to weave itself into everything you do, with weird side missions and compelling NPCs being a natural part of your journey as you make your way across the world.
While it’s too early to comment on the modding scene in Crimson Desert, it would be safe to give Bethesda the win on that front as well. Each of its games has been so naturally quirky that they sort of encourage modders to get creative. That’s not to say that people haven’t been doing the same for Kliff and his comrades in Pywel (that Iron Man one continues to live in our heads rent-free), but it’s simply too early to pit those creations against the ones on offer for any of Bethesda’s titles.
There’s also the unprecedented amount of player freedom and agency that comes with a choice-based narrative that Crimson Desert simply cannot match up to, despite doing quite a good job of letting you loose in its massive world as early as it can manage. Having the things you decide influence the direction that the story takes is definitely a feather in Bethesda’s cap, and makes you feel like you’re living another life parallel to the one you’ve got in the real world.
If we were to weigh in on Bethesda’s chances, we’d say that the studio just needs to play to its strengths, as it does not need to take Crimson Desert head-on. Instead, it simply needs to remember what we love about its games, and have enough of that in Elder Scrolls 6 to remind us about what makes the worlds it creates as special as they are.
But it’s now time to talk about the one area that the studio must take into account, and probably work towards emulating once its upcoming title is in its players’ hands.
Consistent Evolution
Aside from all the things that we love about Crimson Desert in-game, there’s also the developer’s excellent post-launch support and its player-focused approach to adding new features to the game. The turnaround times on each update are nothing short of astounding. The fact that it only took a couple of months for Crimson Desert to be quite a different title from what its release build used to be is something Bethesda needs to account for, and probably prepare to at least match up to.
That’s because the studio is generally used to a long cycle of updates and additions to its titles, spread out over many years. It’s an approach that has worked in the past simply because it was how things were done. But that’s changed now in a world where Pywel feels like it’s constantly evolving to keep us on our toes, or have us eager to return to it, thanks to the addition of features that are actually meaningful to players.
That’s an area Bethesda must consider improving on, especially if Elder Scrolls 6 comes with all the usual quirks that a title from the studio carries. Even in the absence of those quirks, it’s still a good idea to emulate what the developer has managed to do in some form. The game might not need to be as rapid with its patches and updates, but the studio must be cognizant of how player expectations have shifted in the last couple of months on that front, courtesy of how Crimson Desert has approached things.
Elder Scrolls 6 doesn’t have to be flashier or more stylish than Crimson Desert. If anything, it needs to be confident in its own identity and tailor the experience to the story it’s trying to tell, and the kind of life it wants you to have in the world it gives you. But it does have to showcase a sort of evolution of Bethesda’s tried and tested formula, a shift that proves that the studio is capable of changing with the times.
Crimson Desert isn’t the only title that Bethesda must anticipate comparisons to when it finally drops Elder Scrolls 6. It’s going to be compared to every single open-world title that’s been released over the years since we had the pleasure of having an unforgettable adventure in Skyrim. The upcoming title is a comeback of sorts, and it’s one that the studio must try to get right from the get-go, while ensuring that its players feel like it’s right there listening to their ideas and feedback from day one.
However, we must say that if any single studio is capable of coming back to the open world genre with a bang, we’d certainly think it’s on Bethesda. It’s up to the veteran studio now to ensure that that’s a winning bet.
Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.
Crimson Desert May Be The First Real Test For The Elder Scrolls 6
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