The last game in the Elder Scrolls series, Oblivion, was released in 2006, a year when the graphical and processing power of the Xbox 360 was defining the current generation of videogames and sprawling games like the PlayStation 2's °kami were stretching the previous generation to its limits. Oblivion presented an open world, traversable for hours by foot; and a high-fantasy backdrop involving trans-dimensional gates, an ancient covenant, and magical things like that. The game was praised for its beauty, size, and ambition.

Skyrim,...