Starfield is what happens when you mix an ambition-less out of their prime Bethesda with modern writing, with all the tropes and cliches that comes with that.
Bethesda truly feels like many once great companies of old. A rockstar out of their prime riding off of the popularity they had when they are younger. There is a reason why most of famous musicians either end up dead (most of the times by their own actions) or end up out of their prime, tired and feeling like they dont gotta try as much anymore because of their reputation (along with the fact that quite a few key members either retired or died, which does show).
Starfield is when that tired rockstar in their 50's wants to make new material but still act like they are in their 20's/early 30's again but also dont want to put as much effort as they once did because they are older and bought into their own hype that they are just "that good" and fans will eat up anything they make. So they make it and the result is something that feels familiar but that is lacking the love, "polish" (for Bethesda standards) and ambition that it once had way back when. Without mentioning the complete lack of that "edge" that made them so appealing, especially with the younger crowd...because to have an edge these days requires you to be ready to offend someone and we dont want that today, do we ? It may hurt sponsorships, cuz thats all that fucking matters now. And while it still sells based on hype alone, veteran fans cant help but feel like the magic is gone and that their rockstar truly has gone corporate and sold out.
My analogy aside...
I cant believe I will say this but they were able to somehow strip even more RPG elements from their games and I thought it was impossible after Fallout 4 but they found a way. Does Bethesda even makes RPGs anymore? They seem to now do shooters with very light RPG elements, it really makes me fear for TES's future.
Fallout 4 truly wasnt just a dud. It wasnt a mistep when Bethesda tried to do something new and now this would be them returning to playing safer with a new IP. Nah nah. The harsh truth is that...
Fallout 4 was a bad omen
The universe feels oddly lazy and limited. One thing about their games, even one they didnt create like Fallout, is the creativity and variety behind them, we had races in those games with their own set of morals, cultures, ethical views and stuff but this game feels like a "diverse" melting pot where everyone barely stands out. Some people defend the lack of alien races in this as saying that it would be "too much like Mass Effect or something" and, fair enough, there are space centered stuff that doesnt have aliens but it feels like Bethesda should have taken a crack at it given how both TES and Fallout have them so it would be them at least in familiar territory and thus more likely to produce something good, right? No, all we got are humans and more humans. Humans are boring, damn it. Or rather, correction, modern humans are boring and oh boy, we sure got a lot of modern humans in this FUTURISTIC game. The nice thing with a futuristic setting is that, for the most part, you do have some freedom to go a bit out there if the circunstances allow it, want to have a planet with space amazons in a civil war about if they should be more open to men? Go right ahead, just make it make sense within the universe. Want a race of lizard men suffering from a disease that is turning them feral ? Do it at your heart's content. But what is done with this ? Shockingly basic factions that could be interesting if you did something with them but, like always with modern Bethesda, execution left a lot to be desired. The setting of humanity needing to leave Earth to settle among the stars is interesting but they dont draw any sort of emphasis to the wonders of exploration or the tragedy of losing Earth (there isnt even a twist where maybe there are still living people on Earth but, silly me, that would possibly lead into a possibly interesting faction of characters you could understand and connect with). Again, there are interesting ideas here but, god damn it, seems like thats all Bethesda is made of these days, interesting ideas that, without execution, are meaningless. Also the art style they went with is rather inconsistent, sometimes it feels retro while sometimes it doesnt. At first I thought they would take a pulpy direction with the space stuff like Fallout with its 50's culture, with aliens and evil emperors and green skinned babes and believe me, I still think it would have been way more creative and endearing to go on that direction. A love letter to classics like Flash Gordon, you know? But of course, they go for something safe, inconsistent and generic.
At least the side quests are good? I wouldnt go that far. While some consider it better than the main story, that really isnt saying much and if there is something Synthetic Man exposed in his video is just how fucking linear most of them are by having nearly every named NPC essential.
*sigh and rubs eyes in frustration*
I get why some games dont allow you to kill certain characters, sometimes they are necessary to survive for the plot to happen, the game is still bound by rules that you can bend but surely cant break or else the whole thing falls apart. Bethesda's relationship with that game design approach always has been rather mixed. In Morrowind, when an essential dies, the game basically warns you that the main story is basically unwinnable now, saying for you to load an earlier save to prevent this or, if you want to, stick around in this world and keep doing side quests or something. The message can be a bit annoying and even immersion breaking, sure, but even then, the game simply warns you that you broke the sequence of events but you arent forced to do them either way. Then Oblivion introduced the amazing concept of essentials just getting knocked out and just getting back on their feet like nothing happened for the most part. Its awkward as hell but I get it and I say that it and F3 kept it at a minimum when possible. And, I know its not Bethesda, but New Vegas allowed you to kill almost everyone, with the exception of Yes Man for the sheer reason that its to leave the door open for ONE ending at least. Skyrim kept that stuff and I guess it still wasnt that bad, then F4 came out and there was an increase of the essential NPCs but then Starfield happened and...and...
Seems like every named character reacts to getting shot to death by falling on all fours and having a stomach ache! Its absolutely immersion breaking and it really exposes the sheer lack of alternatives and it seems that you cant kill people that even would make sense plot wise for you to off right now. Jesus Christ...even Fallout 4 allowed you to OFF The Father right away, sure, it would understandably turn the Institute against you but, hey! THAT MAKES SENSE IF YOU ARE AGAINST THE INSTITUTE! But no, these wont die until the game devs decide you want them to die, they dont even allow failure to be an option, you either do it or gtfo. And of course, most of these named NPCs tend to be sarcastic and witty with all the wonders of a post MCU culture where they are either sarcastic assholes or teenagers in adult bodies and, of course, a lot of swearing. You know...sci-fi media of old tended to keep swearing at a minimum when not outright not having them at all. Not because they couldnt but because of the message that it sent, Star Wars as an universe unbound by things like that and Star Trek was a future where we evolved beyond those petty insults and assumed a more sophisticated and wiser way of speaking because thats how men of old saw the future. They saw a world where we, as a society, evolved beyond our petty differences and worked together to achieve a stronger future for humanity. Swearing was just seen as "primitive" when people of the future learned what they are and even demonstrate confusion over how people could just speak to each other like that and expect anything to get done ( Star Trek 5 is all about showing how behind we are to these futuristic flawed but still enlightened men). And it seems like the more distant we grow from the time of when these were made, the more we just begin to infantilize the speech of the future and look, Im not going to finger wag and say "no swearing" but it feels like even in the early 2000's, that was kept at a minimum because swearing wasnt replacement for dialogue. Now it seems like any space setting these days tends to have modern speech, right down to the needless swearing. And Starfield is sadly no different and it just sucks you out of the experience because it reminds you that the writers of these things probably unironically browser reddit and post unfunny unoffensive memes. Some idiots will try to convince you that it is "realistic" that way but, even if you go along with this argument, so what? Does it add anything to have such a vulgar and modern way of speaking? In a time where the future is looking worse by the year, isnt the prospect of an ideal future to follow that much more important? Star Trek was idealistic, sure, but still making sense within its internal logic and its whole intent was to inspire the people of the present to do better so maybe, just maybe, we CAN achieve something akin to that.
I wont go into the whole pronouns thing, seems like everyone already did either with the "its true" take or the "Its just pronouns, why are you so mad?" take (a few reviewers did show their true colors by taking the latter stance). It should be clear where I stand and its not even necessarily out of an ideology thing, but simply because of a setting thing. How much self importance you need to have as to believe that something as pointless as gender ambiguity will be something that will survive among the stars ? Humanity would have way way more to worry about than that. Its immersion breaking because this isnt here because of the setting, no, this is here for the sake of a small number of the audience who COULD take an issue with the lack of pronouns. Its a reminder that this isnt a living breathing universe for you to explore and live in it, no, its basically a theme park and you are at the ticket booth that asks your prefered pronouns. And you know? I can even say that despite all, that doesnt bother me that much because I guess you can make the stretch that this is a liberal future, it does seem to be so but I digress, my real issue is that of the cultural hypocrisy around this issue. Its like schroders's pronouns, both a big and no deal at the same time with these people. They say its no big deal and not worth a fuzz but they seem more than fine with absolutely shutting down any mods that remove gender speech under the grounds of "isms" and "we are a private company that can do whatever it wants (until a private company we dont like does something we dont want)". Nexus is rather shameless with that, they allow rape mods and yet an optional mod that allows the pronouns to be removed are A-okay...and yet, imagine, if you will, a mod that adds those to the other Bethesda games, that mod would stick around. Its the shameless hypocrisy that gets me and the fact that if it was a conservative site doing this with pronoun adding mods, the news would be demanding it to be shut down forever and its owners to be shamed into killing themselves.
With all of that said, fine, keep your fucking pronouns but I ask you, how will you justify that shit in The Elder Scrolls 6 and Fallout 5? Not only it wouldnt make any sort of sense for these to be a thing, the former because its a middle earth styled fantasy land and the latter because people ACTUALLY DO have bigger things to worry about than gender, like radiation and Labrador sized scorpions but it also wouldnt make sense for them to SUDDENLY be a thing, I just cant imagine how either setting can justify it. And the sad thing is? They wont need to, it simply is a thing now, immersion and lore consistency be damned. "Take it or leave it, nerds, we dont serve you anymore." I can expect a bigger backlash from these among TES and Fallout fanbases but then again, maybe not that much because just take a glimpse into the reddit and discords of both franchises and you see that these people arent just okay with it, they are legit BEGGING for it.
Gaming is dead and gamers killed it.
This is already pretty long as is so I will give some closing statements. I sort of tricked myself into believing Starfield was better than it actually was, most likely because of an internal hope within me to see Bethesda back after such a long hiatus since F4 with a game that feels a return to form, especially with a new IP. But just like hearing a new album from your favorite rockstar after years of no new material, you realise that its just not the same anymore. It has some traits of what it once was, sure, but so much feels lacking that it really makes you wonder if its even from the same creators anymore. What they made before gave you so much joy and you cant say it was rose tinted glasses because their old stuff does mostly holds up (mods do help out). Its just that you gotta accept that times have changed and they simply lost their edge, it sadly happens to most stars, they fade out sooner or later. Now they are simply another player within the industry they once revolutionized because they simply cant be bothered anymore and much rather milk their own hype until the end of the days. Will mods save Starfield or at least make a more interesting experience? The answer is a giant "maybe", we also cannot act like a lot of the modding scene isnt corrupted by the same shit infecting gaming and it seems like at any moment, the wrath of the greed of these companies may befall upon us all and it doesnt matter if they destroy historical mods that were there since the beginning...history and its meaning to many doesnt mean jack fucking shit to them.
Starfield depresses me because it is the confirmation things wont improve with Bethesda and there are still many things I havent spoken about like the still barren dialogue options (they have wisely ditched the voiced protagonist but it still mostly feels limited and with modern dialogue to boot). But like I said, this is long enough as is so this is where I sign out, with the complete acceptance that the Bethesda we once knew truly is gone and that Im officially dreading for the future of TES and Fallout now. And if you are smart...
So will you
