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The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim’s recreation on Unreal Engine 5 looks downright breathtaking. Naturally, this has sparked a debate among gamers looking forward to the next title in the Elder Scrolls saga - will The Elder Scrolls VI look as good as the UE5 recreation of Skyrim?
Christian Gomm of Myrkur Games is the person behind the Unreal Engine 5 recreations of Bethesda’s 2011 RPG. They have reconstructed the Riverwood village and the Western Watchtower area inside Unreal Engine 5 and showcased them in two videos that have taken gamers by storm.
Unreal Engine 5, first unveiled by Epic Games in May 2020, is what many gamers believe to be the next big thing in terms of the graphical fidelity of games. Unreal Engine 5 enables developers to build sprawling detailed worlds with photorealistic lighting, at the same time delivering unprecedented framerates despite the sheer amount of graphical extravaganza.
The Elder Scrolls VI will run on Creation Engine 2 and not Unreal Engine 5
Bethesda is currently busy on Starfield, which is slated for release on November 11, this year. The company has mentioned that Starfield, and eventually The Elder Scrolls VI are being developed on Creation Engine 2. This is the successor to the Creation Engine which was used in creating The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim in 2011, and Fallout 4 in 2016.
The choice of a game engine is not so plain and simple, as it would seem to an uninitiated gamer. The question might come to mind why every modern game like Starfield or The Elder Scrolls VI is not being developed on Unreal Engine 5 when it clearly puts all the competition to rest, at least in terms of visuals.
However, graphics, although important, are only a part of the full game, which only excels if the other parts are done right. As stated by Bethesda’s Todd Howard:
"I think most people who aren't making games confuse the word 'engine'. They think of an engine as one thing. We view it as technology. There are lots of pieces, and with every game, parts of that change. Whether it's the render, the animation system, the scripting, the AI, the controls [and] some of it's middleware, [like] Havok Animation."
As Starfield and The Elder Scrolls VI are being made on the same engine, gamers can gauge their strengths and weaknesses at the earliest in November this year, when the former releases on all platforms. It is important to note that visuals were never the strong suit of Bethesda RPGs in the past. Skyrim and Fallout 4 both had serviceable graphics considering when they were released, respectively.
While modding is enormously popular for both titles, and broadly for both of these franchises, even the bulkiest mod setups for these games fall far short in terms of the level of graphics that have been showcased in the Unreal Engine 5 recreation of Skyrim. At this point in time, one can only speculate based on educated guesses about how good The Elder Scrolls VI looks when it comes out in, say, 2025-26.
The release window for The Elder Scrolls VI is still years away.
Note: The article reflects the views of the writer.
