Released in 2023 after several delays, Starfield sure was one of the most eagerly anticipated games of that year. And although it did garner a solid Metacritic score of 83 and kudos from the top video game outlets, some felt the game did not live up to expectations, that something was missing…
After all, Bethesda Game Studios (the people behind Starfield) has something of a sterling reputation in the video game world, being behind the iconic Elder Scrolls and Fallout games. But was Starfield on a par with these? Not according to former Bethesda designer Bruce Nesmith, who said so in an interview with FRVR (via GameSpot).
“I don’t think it’s in the same calibre as the other two, you know, Fallout or Skyrim, or Elder Scrolls rather, but I think it’s a good game”, said Nesmith in the interview.
Starfield being a “good” game is something most people can agree on. When compared to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, though, or Fallout 4, it’s obviously not a game that reaches the same heights. But still, Bethesda should be commended for attempting something new with Starfield, a big space faring RPG, with numerous planets to explore.
Actually, the huge number of planets on offer (1,000!) was one of the game’s main selling points. Bethesda resorting to procedural generation (in other words, randomness), though, meant that these frequently looked very similar to others you had visited before (a sore point with critics), plus some were pretty empty too… This is something that Bruce Nesmith raised in his interview with FRVR.
“When the planets start to feel very samey and you don’t start to feel the excitement on the planets, that’s to me where it falls apart”, said the man.
Besides visiting a variety of planets, players also got to travel across the galaxy in their spaceships, but the game also faltered there according to Nesmith. In fact, he called space “inherently boring”, which is surprising taking into account he called himself an “amateur astronomer” and a “space fan” in his interview with gaming outlet FRVR.
Starfield also received criticism from some due to its lack of enemy variety, and Nesmith echoed this, saying that the only serious adversaries were the humans, and that “cool alien creatures” in the game were basically for show…
Was Starfield as good as it could have been?
“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”, said the ex-Bethesda man.
I also agree with his point about Starfield being received differently if it was made by another studio besides Bethesda, as obviously expectations were sky high and almost impossible to meet as release date came in September 2023 after a very long wait – the game was famously announced in 2018, together with The Elder Scrolls VI!
However, the game might get a new lease of life next year with the release of the game’s PS5 version, with Microsoft (who own Bethesda) expected to continue the trend of bringing its top Xbox exclusives to Sony’s console.
Also, a recent teaser by Bethesda suggests another expansion for Starfield is in the works, one which will likely be released together with the PS5 version of the game (hopefully it will be better than the badly reviewed Shattered Space expansion released last year).
So maybe Starfield could be an unexpected hit on PS5 next year, especially if it contains more fixes and improvements over the original PC and Xbox versions, meaning video game fans yet to play the game will have it on their radar for sure.