Visceral Gratification (article)

Anyone with vague interest, or who even knows someone with vague interest, in the video game world knows that on November 11th Bethesda launched the fifth installment of The Elder Scrolls series. As fan of the games since 2002, I'm not shy in admitting that I eagerly awaited the launch of Skyrim months in advance. I even waited outside of my local game retailer in sub-freezing temperatures for two hours waiting for the midnight launch.

After having spent nearly 35 hours on Skyrim in one weekend, I could write a novella of praises I have for it. The developers went to painstaking measures to ensure that the world was beautiful and varied. I personally shivered the first several times I went out exploring during a blizzard, and spent at least an hour walking through the lush autumn forests, enjoying the way the sunset was hitting the yellow trees and hopping off the streams.

In addition to being one of the most visually striking games I’ve ever played, the redesigned level system has made playing much simpler. It’s a sin to imagine the number of cumulative hours I’ve spent planning my characters on previous Elder Scrolls games. I would do everything short of making a flow chart to figure out how I could juggle every skill I wanted while still raising all of my stats. Bethesda was able to trim huge amounts of fat away from character creation without making gameplay overly simplistic, the way Fable III blundered.

The experience Bethesda gained from working on Fallout 3 is evident in a few ways in Skyrim, specifically the combat. This gave way to a problem I had with the game, and led me to question Bethesda’s direction.

Skyrim’s combat is a far cry from the old "hack away until the other guy fell down" of Oblivion. Often times when you finish off a character, the game will go into a two or three second, VATS-style, scene of your character running them through with a sword, or hammering a final blow on their face with your cudgel. Or if you took the stealthy approach and came up behind the enemy, undetected, you get a satisfying throat cutting scene. This is enjoyable, and the scenes never become boring, but they leave something to be desired.

I’m rarely impressed by excess gore in video games, but it really felt Skyrim should have pushed the envelope more in this regard. The game opens with your character witnessing a public execution. A prisoner is put on the headman’s block, and, I admit, I cringed when the executioner’s pole arm whizzed through the air, and decapitated the character with a visceral slice, leaving the character’s to head roll into a basket. This is where the serious gore ends though. After making Fallout 3, it seems like it would have been obvious for Bethesda to include some meaty head explosions or limb severings.

This omission really struck me the first time I picked up a mace and got into combat with a particularly difficult bandit. After a long, difficult fight, I’d whittled his health down to a sliver, and he fell to his hands and knees. I relished the moment as I walked over to him and charged a heavy swing aimed straight for the top his head. The hit connected, but with no blood, no crunch, and not even a groan from the bandit. He just fell limp.

“What the hell is this?” I thought to myself. After a serious fight, a shining moment of blood soaked victory is the perfect icing on the cake that is a game's combat system. That’s why smashing the faces of thugs on Dead Island was so enjoyable. That’s why knifing on Battlefield is so satisfying. Don’t misunderstand, I would be disgusted if Bethesda had gone the MadWorld or Mortal Kombat route - going into medical detail of what you had just done to the other guy's internal organs, and reminds you of how depraved and desensitized to violence you are. But in a game where a good majority of the combat it spent swinging a sharpened slab of metal at someone else’s face, no visceral gratification is a serious let down.

Assassin's Creed II and Brotherhood are keen examples of flowing combat systems with incredibly satisfying coup de graces, with the omission of excess blood. You gain a very strong understanding that the hammer Ezio's swinging is heavy. Seeing him counter a guard's attack, pelting him across the temple, and hearing a crack as the guard collapses into a pile is fulfilling. To take away such a satisfying reward for learning, and perfecting, how to fight in the game world is like finding out your diploma is printed on recycled toilet paper. Sure you feel accomplished and are proud you pulled it off, but can't shake the feeling that the entire thing is shit.