I was watching "...why Skyrim?" by Razbuten on sloptube this aft and it's so weird that it finally took Starfield for people to realise. Like Fallout 76 wasn't enough, only now are negative things people were first saying about Skyrim in 2012 finally bleeding into mainstream consciousness. It's so wild, like wow they ruined the magic system? The game has worse writing than a PS1 era Mega Man X game??? Skyrim is just shitty Game of Thrones?? Welcome to thirteen years ago!!
Bethesda hasn't made a really good game since 2002, but it'll probably be years before that realisation sinks in.
Yes they are utterly gone. Lots of NPCs do not even move anymore lol.
Major downgrade. The very limited dynamic stuff that npcs did was good and it felt a bit like Shenmue to me.
For real, just like going to someone's house and they aren't there, they're at the alchemical shop or whatever slapped. It gave the faintest sense that the world continues to turn when you aren't in frame.
Also some random behaviours like Ma'iq the Liar shooting off in search of caliper tongs was very funny. They coulda built on this!!