In the ideal open sandbox RPG, you can do anything, go anywhere. Depending on the developers, the result of the game can favor lawfulness or chaos. For instance, in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, you aren’t given any missions that include stealing from others; you’re not even given the option of killing NPCs. For Skyrim, the phrase “You either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain” rings especially true the longer you play the game.
Maybe Skyrim’s chaotic nature was hinted at the beginning, as we ride the oh so long and annoying carriage ride to our fateful execution-to-be-halted. We start as a perceived criminal, whether you want to play your character that way or not. But Skyrim is a hard game to play lawfully. In fact, it’s a game designed for you to be chaotic.
There aren’t many quests that ask you to do the right things. It’s often go to this cave, fight these draugr or maybe bandits or necromancers. Sometimes it gets switched up and people ask you to steal something back for them. Now, it’s fair to say that in a game where combat is the main mechanic that it’s hard to be completely lawful, but I’m talking about lawful within the confines of the game.
Narrative Quests
While there are a lot of one time quests in the game, there remain a handful of really compelling story lines. Unfortunately, the best ones are for factions that aren’t necessarily good. The Thieves Guild and the Dark Brotherhood have wonderful stories they tell and great game play that goes with it. In an ideal sandbox RPGs, you’d have the option to take down these groups rather than returning them to their former glory.
Apparently, the Thieves Guild story line was going to have that kind of alternative story where you take them down instead, but it was scrapped. With the Dark Brotherhood, you can talk to a guy and be asked to kill assassins, but it’s just raiding their home and killing them – no story, no specially designed quests to take down this shadowy organization. Just an outright slaughter.
Sandbox RPGs Don’t End
A lot of story games have an ending to them. More and more lately, like the most recent releases for Pokemon, we’re seeing “after game” content: extra story content you can continue playing after the main story has ended. In sandboxes, there isn’t really a definitive end. You can keep and keep playing. Returning the the phrase “living long enough to become the villain” is the forefront of Skyrim. When you’re done adventuring, you could put the game down and call it quits there. Maybe kill a few more dragons, find a few more words of power, but if you were intent on playing a good person in the game, that’s where you need to set down the controls.
I’m not arguing that Skyrim needs prioritize lawful characters and quest lines, only that it favors one style of game play. In games where I’m given choice on whether to help an NPC, I usually do. Playing Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey lately, I rarely steal. On top of that, I’m not asked all that much (if ever) to rob innocent people or murder someone who has slighted the other, and when I am, I’m given the option to not do that and still progress in a story line.
In Skyrim, I can remember far more quests in which I’m asked by daedric princes to commit atrocities in order to get a really good item than I can remember any quest lines for the gods in the game. The only one I can think of is the one for Mara, where a priest of Mara asks me to help lovers unite. It was really nice helping people, but the developers favored dark rituals, evil and powerful forces, rather than letting me fight against evil.
It’s like they said, “well, you saved the world. Time to doom it all over again.”
Video Games Deconstructed 