Starfield: I’m as concerned as I am excited

Domagoj Belancic

12/6/2023

Translation: Jessica Johnson-Ferguson

Bethesda gave us a generous peak of Starfield at the Xbox Games Showcase. The gameplay revealed looks spectacular. And yet, I’m sceptical. Not least because of Bethesda’s disastrous launches in the more recent past.

Bethesda’s Starfield has the potential to be one of the greatest and most spectacular role-playing games of all time. According to game director Todd Howard, it’s the culmination of over 25 years of RPG experience. It’s Bethesda’s opus magnum – a masterpiece created to outshine everything that’s been released to date.

Accordingly, Howard seems self-confident during his 45-minute presentation of the game. And rightly so. The gameplay presented looks incredible. The game mechanics look sophisticated, the worlds are incredibly beautiful and the orchestral soundtrack has the stuff to give you goosebumps.

But despite all the hype around the game, I can’t shake the feeling that something’s not quite right. Starfield might go down in history as the best game of all time. Then again, it could be just another colossal Bethesda flop. The following points make me worried.

1. Pesky bugs at launch

Bethesda’s known for launching games in an unfinished state. Classically, they’re full of nasty bugs, glitches and performance problems in the first weeks and months after release. Back in the Fallout 3 or Skyrim days, the community didn’t take these issues too seriously. The funny glitches were accepted, because the huge game worlds alone were so impressive.

While launch problems of this kind were rather the exception 10 or 15 years ago, they now go hand in hand with the publication of AAA games. Many publishers release half-finished games in beta, hoping their fans will test the game at full price. The patience and acceptance of gaming fans are further strained with every disastrous launch.

During the gameplay presentation for Starfield, you got a good idea of how huge the game world will be. Over 1,000 planets spread over more than 100 star systems are waiting to be explored. Now that’s impressive. But if Bethesda isn’t capable of releasing an open-world map without bugs, how are they going to manage an entire galaxy? I’m pretty sure Bethesda fans won’t react as generously as they did back in the Skyrim days.

2. 30 fps on consoles

Besides bugs and glitches, I’m also worried about the performance on consoles. In an interview with IGN, Todd Howard confirms that the game will run in 4K at 30 frames per second on the Xbox Series X. On the Series S, it’s 1440p with 30 fps.

Don’t get me wrong, I’d say a well implemented 30 fps for a game like Starfield is totally fine. It’s not a shooting game that requires ultra-fast reflexes. Starfield’s a comparatively slow single-player game with lazy shootouts.

Still, it would be nice if the game offered the choice of 60 fps with lower resolution and fewer graphical details. The Performance Mode option is standard for PS5 games from Playstation Studios. In some graphically and technically simpler games, such as Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, there are even 60 fps with ray tracing.

According to Howard, the game theoretically runs at up to 60 fps on the Series X. However, the frame rate is limited to 30 fps because Bethesda prefers a consistent gaming experience without stutters. Fair enough. After all, a good 30 fps mode is better than a stuttering performance mode. Still, I don’t trust it and am mentally preparing for frame rate dips into the low 20s.

3. Decreasing quality in Bethesda games

In their Fallout 3 and Skyrim days, Bethesda was untouchable. The studio was synonymous with quality. After the launch of Fallout 4, their image began to crumble. Not enough innovations compared to the predecessor, outdated game mechanics and outdated graphics caused disappointment among fans and critics alike.

Fallout 76, the last big Bethesda game, was the nail in the coffin for the studio’s once flawless image. The game was almost unplayable at launch due to its bugs. Aside from the technical issues, the gameplay on the online version of Fallout was also boring and repetitive. So what has happened to the former premium games company?

With Starfield, Bethesda now has the chance to stop this downward spiral and catapult itself back into the ranks of the top international studios. Nevertheless, the decreasing quality of Bethesda games still makes me sceptical.

4. How boring is outer space?

Bethesda didn’t hold back with the superlatives in the description of Starfield. It’s all about bigger, better and more spectacular. You can explore over 1,000 planets with your spaceship. Some of them are procedurally generated, others are handmade.

Given the size of the Starfield galaxy, I wonder how exciting – or how boring – exploring this huge open world will be?

Having countless planets doesn’t necessarily equal good open-world design.

For me, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom currently offers the best open game world there is. Why? Because the path to your destination is packed with exciting distractions embedded in the vast landscape. It also feels as if all the elements of the game world were deliberately placed. You constantly come across new secrets, items and side quests. The game rewards curiosity and encourages you to explore the game world thoroughly.

For the life of me, I can’t imagine Starfield giving me a similar open-world gaming experience. It’s game world is simply too big for it.

Will I still find it exciting to explore a randomly generated planet the tenth time round? How good is the design of these giant handmade planets? Will my curiosity be rewarded, or will I be sticking to the main quests because there’s not much going on in the vastness of space?

I fear my initial fascination with this seemingly endless game world, will be replaced by a longing for a smaller, more intimate open-world map relatively soon.

5. Face animation from yesteryear

Some of the game worlds featured in the gameplay presentation looked stunning. The multitude of planets showcased detailed surroundings, unique alien designs and atmospheric lighting. The cities and spaceships also looked remarkably good.

Unfortunately, this graphical splendour makes the dead faces and facial animations of the NPCs all the more noticeable. Sure, the heads look better than they did in previous Bethesda games. However, compared to the rest of the game’s visuals, they look like relics of a (console) generation long gone.

It’s a pity, especially given the fact you’ll spend a lot of time talking to NPCs. Not to mention all the shooting, flying and exploring you’ll be doing with them. Their dead eyes and doll-like facial animations are bound to pull me out of the immersive game world every time.

Hoping for the best, preparing for the worst

Don’t get me wrong. I want Starfield to be a hit. The material shown so far just feels too good to be true.

So until the launch of the game, I’ll be caught between hyped and sceptic. I’m hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. In the best case, Bethesda will not only be setting new standards for open-world games with this game but also revolutionising the entire video game world. In the worst case, it’ll be a buggy game with substandard performance and an empty open world. The truth will probably lie somewhere between the two.

What do you make of the new Starfield gameplay? Were you impressed by the presentation or are you still sceptical?

All announcements from the Xbox Games Showcase are summarised in this article:

Domagoj Belancic

Senior Editor

Domagoj.Belancic@digitecgalaxus.ch

My love of video games was unleashed at the tender age of five by the original Gameboy. Over the years, it's grown in leaps and bounds.

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