Unsure what the skill check is? Let us explain!
Players embarking on their grand adventure with role-playing or related video games often encounter the concept of a skill check and may wonder what that means. Read on to find out!
Skill Check Meaning in Games
Originating from tabletop RPGs, a skill check (or ability test) in video games is a mechanic determining whether the player’s playable character can do something. While in most games, the only requirement to do this ‘something’ is to have the required skill or ability at a certain level, sometimes the process happens via a virtual dice roll (a skill modifier).
What is Skill Check?
Whenever your character chats with NPCs or tries to pick a lock, a skill check determines how far they can proceed. Let’s say you want to get through a door you don’t have the key to – this situation demands the lockpicking skill. When you interact with a door, the game informs you what talent level is required to get through the door. Assuming you have a virtual picklock and the ability at the required level, you pass the test and can further explore the area. It’s an example of the most basic, stat-based check.
Timed tests work on slightly different principles – in that case, the character must perform some action within a specified time limit. It often involves fast button-clicking, aiming, or interacting with some digital action display. Quick Time Event is an excellent example of a classic timed check, but not all QTEs are timed skill tests.
Games with Ability Test
Dead by Daylight
Since Dead by Daylight is a survival horror game pitting a group of survivors against a merciless Killer, it doesn’t give players enough time to enjoy classic stat-based tests. Instead, they have to undergo a series of timed tests in the form of incredibly intense Quick Time Events.
Baldur’s Gate 3
As one of the best representatives of the RPG genre, Baldur’s Gate 3 runs on the legendary Dungeons & Dragons tabletop role-playing game’s mechanics. Therefore, the video game involves classic skill-based tests modified with bonuses or penalties based on the roll of a virtual die.
Fallout
In the Fallout series, success in skill tests largely depends on the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attributes the player assigns to their character throughout the game. While all the former letters represent specific skill levels, the last one goes for luck, which can trigger random success at skill tests.
Video games are complex constructs, but all their mechanics exist for a reason. In the skill tests case, that purpose is the challenge: providing more immersion and fun. After all, we wouldn’t even want to develop our playable characters if it weren’t for the omnipresent skill tests!