Sometimes a game introduces major features that make you sit up and pay attention. I’m thinking ideas on the scale of Red Faction’s destructible environments or Half Life’s delivery of story. Sometimes it’s the little things that catch your attention, like when you throw a dead wolf into the river and it flows away with the current.
That’s one of the things experienced by one of the guys at Game Informer, who had time with the game recently. He goes on to explain a few more features of the game, both in terms of gameplay and story.
At a point in the story which focuses particularly on the Dark Brotherhood, the writer divulges that it’ll take a little more than the odd murder to join that organisation. With a perk offering 15x the regular attack rate for a stealth attack with a dagger, keeping to the shadows is well rewarded, if challenging.
A visit to the local tavern offers a couple of quests; the first from a drunkard who wants to try a rare ale, the second points you in the direction of a boy wishing to hire the services of a Dark Brotherhood member. The boy offers you the opportunity to kill an overly-dominating school mistress, the reward for which will be the attention of the real Brotherhood.
If this story tells me anything, it’s that Skyrim is going to offer far, far more that a questing system. It’s going to be deep enough that you’ll need to work if you want to craft your character in a certain way.