Skyrim misses an opportunity for hand-to-hand combat

Skyrim gives players a ton of options about how their Dragonborn fight, but it misses an opportunity by underutilizing unarmed combat.

Skyrim gave players plenty of opportunities to customize their character's playstyle, but they missed the opportunity to expand a potentially interesting fighting style. While Skyrim undoubtedly offers a lot of options, this makes one option that's been overlooked all the more prominent. Looking at the game as a whole, it seems easy to overlook unarmed combat in Skyrim compared to other features.

In Skyrim, players can specialize in four main combat methods. One-handed weapons, dual wielded, or paired with a shield; two-handed weapons that trade versatility and speed for higher base power; archery, which puts the player in the role of a stealthy medieval sniper; and magic, mostly destruction magic that involves combat. While Skyrim's magic spells are lackluster, especially compared to the earlier games, the game's magic is still handled better than its bare-handed mechanics.

Skyrim's Unarmed Combat Recieved Barely Any Attention

While many games offer unarmed combat as an emergency or early game option, Skyrim only offers a few specific buffs involving unarmed combat. Many of these are types that are sure to show up early in the game, so they give players an idea that it might be valuable However, the options are so few and far between that they don't help.

Argonians get a small bonus in unarmed combat, while Khajiit gets a significant bonus, which actually makes unarmed combat a good choice for them in the early game. Additionally, hostile characters in Riften Ratway have a pair of enchanted gloves that increase unarmed damage, though players will need to significantly improve their Skyrim enchantment skills to take full advantage of this enchantment.

There is also a perk in the Heavy Armor tree that increases unarmed damage while wearing gloves, and one in the Vampire Lord tree that further enhances damage while transforming. Here are four ways to boost unarmed damage throughout the game, all of which are pretty spread out. Since there are no weapons or other skills available for unarmed characters, this means that any character that focuses on unarmed will essentially need the exact same build.

Even if players seek each of these advantages, unarmed combat is still hampered by its slow, awkward swing and lack of real options. The developers added specific unarmed finishers Looks pretty good, so they obviously took great care in including it in the game. As it stands, freehand builds are, at best, only available for difficult challenge builds in Skyrim.

Skyrim Had Potential For Unarmed Weapons And Skills

The Fallout game, also produced by Bethesda, has unarmed combat as a fully realized skill, with its own perks and weapons to use. Despite the many differences in design and setting between Skyrim and The Elder Scrolls, Skyrim is as capable of hand-to-hand combat as Fallout. In fact, it can do so by following a similar blueprint.

While Skyrim certainly can't include something like New Vegas' shotgun-powered ballistic punch as a weapon, it can easily use effective unarmed weapons. For example, claws or bagh nakhs are valid choices, as are spiked gloves. In addition to the generic damage-boosting perk, it can include additional abilities to fight with unarmed weapons that can match Skyrim's powerful stealth archer build. For example, New Vegas features armor-piercing properties for unarmed weapons, and Skyrim can easily do the same.

Unarmed combat in Skyrim may be The game gets a lot more depth with weapon selection and perks, but for whatever reason, it doesn't get any attention in the game. While there are plenty of options for all of the game's other combat methods, unarmed combat doesn't receive the same love. Skyrim has perk trees for every skill in the game, but unarmed combat ends up being the odd number.

Unarmed Builds In Skyrim Could Have Opened A Lot Of Character Opportunities

The build players choose in Skyrim is inspired by the type of character they want to create, and even though Skyrim's Dragonborn isn't like the Dungeons & Dragons' Dragonborn, players still have plenty of freedom. For example, a dragonborn who is a noble knight can wear heavy armor with a sword and shield. Likewise, those who want their dragonborn to be sneaky thieves can dress them in dark leather armor and have them walk around with bows and arrows. There are plenty of potential fantasy-themed character ideas that could also be done for unarmed characters.

Since all armor options are already available in Skyrim, players can design a gladiator-type character, wearing armor And fight every enemy they face with their fists. Another option is to make a brawler specifically designed around brawls that you can engage in, where a rude client can take a punch and hit back instantly to build an effective tank in skyrim. An unarmed player can also create a monk-like structure, one of the few fantasy archetypes that Skyrim lacks.

One of Skyrim's greatest strengths is that a player's Dragonborn can be heavily customized to their design, weapons, and playstyle. By leaving out a plausible way to play an unarmed character, the game basically blocks out a whole host of potential character concepts. While the traditional fighters, mages, and rogues are still available, players who want to make Dragonborn boxers will have to change their plans.

Skyrim is arguably the greatest game in the The Elder Scrolls series, but it could have done better with more unarmed combat options. As it stands, the game's unarmed mechanics feel like unfinished afterthoughts, with only a few pieces left to be forgotten. If Skyrim had more implemented unarmed options, it could have given players more.

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