Starfield is one of the most anticipated games of the year and for good reason, they come from a studio that has a history of making some of the most iconic games of all time, Fallout and Skyrim being the titles that stand out for their setting and detail.
I'm very excited for what they can bring forward with Starfield and while it seems like a huge gamble I want to keep my thoughts in order to talk a little bit about the issues to be addressed for this game.
Just hearing what this game is going to be about we can already see a lot of people getting excited, even though we've seen a lot of space games over the last 10 years there seems to be something special about Bethesda that particularly excites gamers, and I can see it.
"We've never gone this deep on a video game from us," Phil Spencer
I was there when games like Skyrim and Fallout 4 were released and I can't praise Bethesda more for aiming high with their games having an RPG with a linear story that have been some of the best times playing anything.
After so much success Bethesda seems to be going through some turbulent times in the last few years, the release of Fallout 46 has been one of the studio's biggest flops having both gamers and critics arguing that the game was a big mess.
On top of that the company was acquired by Microsoft for their world domination plans, in fact Starfield has been touted as the first game they've made under their new owners and it's an exclusive to their console of choice the Xbox as well as giving a focus on the PC and cloud gaming model.
I can see why people are excited about this game, the worlds seem massive, on a scale that even games (yet to be officially released) like Star Citizen can't seem to match, plus Starfield comes from one of the studios that specialises in making interesting open worlds, again I refer you to games like Fallout or The Elder Scrolls.
Their presentations, especially in terms of gameplay have not surprised me too much, I would also say that the footage they have released so far invites concern about whether this experience will be a buggy shroud as has been the custom with other Bethesda games.
But most of all there is a very obvious concern about the technology the studio uses and its limitations, for several years now it has been, maybe that speaks better of the ability this studio has to make such polished experiences but personally I feel that old bethesda is years behind its competitors in terms of technology.
I'm not saying they can't pull this off, after all they have Microsoft behind them as a babysitter and all that implies, they could make a move with AI to create the 100+ planets they intend to build, with organic interactions, interesting to explore and interact with.
Just based on the previous games I can say that we will see a couple of main cities where most of the action will take place, the Bethesda team have confirmed that there will be huge settlements on some planets that will contrast with smaller ones as we explore planets, it seems to be all under control and yet I'm worried about the amount of content they are proposing to do in Starfield.
All I want is for there not to be a repeat of the disaster that has happened in other games of this ilk, where we have an excellent amount of planets to explore, only to find that most of them are empty and without much to do, in recent interviews with one of the main developers of the game they commented that most of the exploration would have to be done on foot, and that's already a bad sign at least from an exploration point of view.
If they can polish up what we've seen in the trailers, the FPS and manage to harmoniously blend the shooter, exploration and resource management aspects I think there's a good chance Starfield can compete to be one of this year's stellar (pun intended) releases, just don't get your hype too high, at least not at the moment.
I end on a positive note, because despite all the red flags Bethesda has been cultivating over the years I think it would be great if they could knock it out of the park with this game, it's everything a lot of gamers have wanted and I hope they can pull it off.
"Some people still play Skyrim. Fallout New Vegas - even Morrowind! Bethesda Game Studios has always made endless worlds and systems that can be enjoyed for decades and decades. This time they have not made a world, but a universe in which to go on many, many adventures, scripted or unplanned, to explore the sea of stars that surrounds us and simply to live in. There are questions that won't be answered until liftoff, such as the outcome of the procedural elements, but all signs point to 6 September 2023 being just the beginning: Starfield will probably be played for many, many years to come,
All yours, @slashint - Gamer, Video Game Analyst.
