The Elder Scrolls VI: Sentinel Needs to Evolve Past Old Systems

Bethesda has finally named its next major fantasy role-playing game: The Elder Scrolls VI: Sentinel. The reveal is small, but it matters. When the game first appeared in 2018, all you got was a short teaser and not much else. The new footage is pretty much the same, but now it includes some sand in the shot and a title.

The timing comes down to an anniversary. Skyrim originally launched on November 11, 2011, which puts it at roughly 15 years old this month. Even so, the occasion cited for the reveal was actually the studio's 40th anniversary, so the milestone being celebrated isn't the game's birthday at all.

As the name suggests, the game is set in Hammerfell, which lines up with what the rumors had been saying for a while.

On a map of Tamriel, the province sits out to the west. It's the home of the Redguard people, and that's really all you need to know to place it. The area is known for its desert look, but the terrain isn't uniform. You can already see a good chunk of the region in The Elder Scrolls Online, which gives you an idea of how the setting has been handled before.

Along with the desert, there are mountains and coastal cities, and those coasts leave room for swashbuckling, trading, and shipping-style content. To the north you have the Iliac Bay, and to the south there's a sea lined with small coastal towns, so ships, sailing, and the ocean could play a part. One simple way to sum that up would be Skyrim with boats.

The studio has already done dragons, after a fashion, and spaceships with Starfield, so sailing the seas could be the next step. The title of The Elder Scrolls VI: Sentinel raises a few points of its own. Sentinel is the capital of Hammerfell, and the game takes its name from that city. That could mean the city will be large and central to the story, or the name could have been picked because it's part of the lore and sounds good. There's no answer yet. For some people, the word brings up the X-Men robots before anything else.

Beyond the title, the region has mountains and deserts, and the description mentions more biomes, which could add variety. A game made entirely of desert worries players who have seen plenty of fantasy desert settings, many of which they found dull.

It highlights how Bethesda and The Elder Scrolls VI: Sentinel can put their own spin on it.

In The Elder Scrolls Online, Hammerfell draws on Arabic influence in many of its buildings, with domes, arches, and minarets, and it's still unknown how that carries into the new game. A lot also depends on when the story takes place.

The series has a following that goes back to Morrowind, and plenty of theories are already circulating, partly because of a quote that appears in the trailer. Many read it as a sign that the game could be set around the time of Skyrim or later. That game took place hundreds of years after Oblivion, so people are watching to see whether the series keeps jumping forward like that.

Reports also say The Elder Scrolls VI: Sentinel will dig into the lore behind the Elder Scrolls themselves. The teaser hints at it a little, but what that means in practice isn't clear, and neither is the period of Tamriel and Hammerfell the game will land in.

It could bring different civil wars, rival factions pulling the Redguard population in different directions, influence from the province next door to the north, and possibly High Rock too, and how the studio handles that is still unclear. Many of these finer details won't be answered for a while. Beyond a new setting, plenty of players want to see more that sets the game apart, and Bethesda is widely seen as needing to step up.

Patience with Bethesda has worn thin among part of the community, and Starfield is a big piece of that.

Reactions were mixed. Some players had a decent time with it, though it landed below what many expected, and the criticisms are well understood. A common complaint is that it still felt stuck in the studio's old ways. The hope was that it would shed more of that weight.

Some parts did, like the ship content and the look of the city, but the bones still felt like those of a standard game from the studio. The design DNA is why people like those games in the first place, so the thinking is that it needs to evolve further, with more compelling gameplay, new hooks not seen before, and more interesting RPG dynamics.

That's seen as one area where the studio could really step things up. Obsidian now technically sits under the same umbrella after Microsoft reorganized, which has led to speculation that the studio could consult with Obsidian on quest structure and writing for The Elder Scrolls VI: Sentinel, along with breakdowns of how quests are built.

That's speculation, and nothing suggests it's planned. Either way, it reflects how much some people think needs to change, since part of the hardcore gaming community has moved on from the studio. If Obsidian did get involved, it would be a notable shift.

On the other side, millions of players don't argue about any of this online and simply love the studio's biggest series.

Sales numbers reach well beyond the hardcore crowd. None of that excuses the criticism, and expectations are high partly because of how much Skyrim sold. When it launched, it felt like the next big thing to many people, especially those who hadn't played many games or many fantasy games, so The Elder Scrolls VI: Sentinel has to give that same feeling again.

Time is also a factor. A source says the game is still at least two years away. That isn't surprising, since the 2018 announcement felt early, and interviews from that period had the team sounding awkward about it, with the message being roughly: the game would be made eventually, and here's a logo and a teaser.

Full production likely hadn't started in 2018. The team is clearly working on it now, but games of this size take a long time. Two years from now is 2028, and with the delays that tend to hit big releases, 2029 is possible. That makes The Elder Scrolls VI: Sentinel a long wait.

Each entry in the series has its own flavor of fantasy. Morrowind has a strange, outlandish feel. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion reads like a traditional fairy tale, with unicorns, knights, a nd goblins. The game that followed Oblivion went all in on Nordic wilderness and winter.

A desert version has to stand apart from the many fantasy desert games where you run around fighting giant scorpions. While scorpions will probably turn up here too, the task is making a setting tied so closely to Redguard culture feel distinct and new across Tamriel. That's the main thing to watch as The Elder Scrolls VI: Sentinel reveals more.

Not everyone is optimistic, and some players already expect the game to be bad and consider the studio a lost cause.

That loss of faith ties into the XBOX restructuring, layoffs at the studio, the new people working there, and the reaction to Starfield. Others stay hopeful for a good new entry even if it might not nail it, and for fans who have been around since Morrowind, a new game in a couple of years is something to look forward to. Some people plan their year around the next big release, and The Elder Scrolls VI: Sentinel is now on that calendar.

Away from that, recent sales news shows people are still buying traditional games. Remedy reported that its revenue jumped 226% after the launch of Control Resonant, which is now the developer's fastest-selling game and a key milestone for the company. It's a creative, somewhat weird, experimental game that takes swings, and seeing players buy it is encouraging. For Remedy, it's a big step.

Phantom Blade Zero has also announced it has sold more than 4 million copies. It isn't really a Soulslike. It's a traditional action-combat game, the same broad category as Onimusha and others, which is a subject for another time. Both results stand out because gaming news tends to be full of bad news.

Another story making the rounds is a rumor that Ubisoft or another company could buy Arkane. The rumor is unconfirmed, and some people are wary of it, given the saying about being careful what you wish for. It doesn't settle on one buyer; a sale to Ubisoft is only one possibility, and what a deal would mean for Arkane is unknown. Until Arkane or Ubisoft says something official, it stays in rumor territory.

Control Resonant, from Remedy, was also enjoyed by fans for the most part, and Phantom Blade Zero got a similar reception.

The second one has a learning curve, and it takes a while to get the hang of it. The action, spectacle, combos, and chaos stand out, and the game is sufficiently challenging. The story isn't the focus, but the game does a good job of making you feel like you're pulling off cool moves, with over-the-top animations that look realistic and flow and chain together across the weapon types you pick up.

The shock meter pushes you to swap weapons on the fly so you can string combos together. Blocking and parrying take some getting used to, but they make you feel stylish. The game will still grind you into the dirt at times, yet it also lets you play as a badass, which is what some players want from a game.

For now, The Elder Scrolls VI: Sentinel is the story to watch, with a desert setting and a release still years away, alongside the strong results for Control Resonant and Phantom Blade Zero. Anyone wanting a preview of the setting can still visit it in The Elder Scrolls Online.