As far as Bethesda RPGs go, Starfield is seemingly the studio’s most maligned. With the release of the game’s huge Free Lanes update, the sci-fi game is currently seeing a large resurgence in players with many experiencing the game for the first time.
While Free Lanes isn’t as game-changing as some would say, it’s a clear sign that there’s still a lot Bethesda could do with the world of Starfield. As the studio commits to “years” of additional updates to the game, we may see even more substantial features come to the game in the future.
In a recent roundtable interview to press, thanks GR, Bethesda Game Studios boss Todd Howard explained that Starfield’s unpopularity with some Bethesda fans comes from the fact that it’s “creatively different” from the titles they’ve done before.
“When you’re doing a certain type of thing for, in my case, 20 years, we want to try some other things and learn from that.”
Todd Howard on Starfield and Fallout 76
Howard explained that every series Bethesda has jumped into has not started out popular, including the studio’s flagship Elder Scrolls series. “If you look back at the beginning of Elder Scrolls, beginning of Fallout, they’re a little bit the same,” Howard said. “And then, you find an audience that loves that.”
While Bethesda likely could’ve made single-player Elder Scrolls and Fallout games every few years forever, Howard explained that they needed to break from the formula and try something new with both Starfield and Fallout 76, the latter of which also has years of additional updates planned.
“I think it’s true that Fallout 76 and Starfield clearly – they’re creatively different than what we had done [before]. And we really wanted to do that,” the Bethesda boss said. “When you’re doing a certain type of thing for, in my case, 20 years, we want to try some other things and learn from that. We have ideas that we want to get out there.”
Fallout 76 and Starfield are still flawed Bethesda experiences, but they are unlike any other games out there. While The Elder Scrolls 6 and Fallout 5 are guaranteed smash hits whenever they finally release, sometimes creatives do need to try something brand-new, and Starfield is certainly a unique beast.
It’s clear that Bethesda has learned a lot from the release of Starfield as well. Developers who worked on the game have admitted that the game’s massive reliance on procedural generation did stop the game from reaching the “calibre” of Fallout and Elder Scrolls, although even proc-gen POIs have been improved in the game’s latest patch.
“When the planets start to feel very same-y and you don’t start to feel the excitement on the planets, that’s to me where it falls apart,” former systems design lead Bruce Nesmith told FRVR last year. “I was also disappointed when, pretty much, the only serious enemy you fought were people… there’s lots of cool alien creatures, but they’re like the wolves in Skyrim. They’re just there, they don’t contribute, you don’t have the variety of serious opponents that are story generators.”
While procedural generation can’t be ruled out, it seems that Bethesda is returning to its usual hand-crafted worlds for The Elder Scrolls 6. With the game not expected to release for a number of years, there’s still a lengthy wait ahead of us until we can finally get our hands on the game, but there’s still hope that the game will be a masterpiece.
