Skyrim, or How Not to Make a PC Game

Spurred by the console-friendly interface that was retained in the PC version of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Mr. Schwarz has taken to his Gamasutra blog to vent some frustration over the game’s UI. I share many of the same concerns, though I’ve adapted throughout my first day of playing:

The first sign things aren’t as good as they could be comes before the game even begins. The main menu is as sparse as can be, but is lacking features as basic as the ability to change settings before jumping into the game. Why is this the case? I can only speculate, but it probably would have required Bethesda to edit a couple of lines in an XML file somewhere, far too much effort to even bother considering. Things take a nosedive soon after, as one realizes that not only are there standard menu items missing, but that the mouse doesn’t even seem to work half the time. That’s right, even on the main menu, most of the “buttons” you’ll find don’t actually do anything – you need to use the keyboard.

This inconsistency in where the game allows mouse controls extends to the main game even once you’re past all the introductory stuff – even in character creation I found that the assigned hotkey to finalize my character, “R”, didn’t work, while clicking the tooltip did. Many more critical game functions, such as manipulating the world map, or assigning favorites and hotkeys, feature similar inconsistencies, with some hotkeys not working and others being mandatory. The game is also quite poor at communicating certain information in the interface itself (the first time I went to a shop, I accidentally bought a ton of equipment because it wasn’t clear if I was buying or selling), but those are more general interface concerns I’ll save for another time to pick on.

Other issues, like mouse acceleration being forced on and impossible to remove without an INI tweak, or the game defaulting to “Xbox 360 Controller – On” when started, even without a controller plugged in, or needless breaks from convention (“Tab” instead of “Esc” to exit menus) show just how little thought or care was put to the PC version’s interface, and how little priority was given to this version in the game, or foresight given to what its players might want and expect.