r/XboxSeriesX Nov 20 '23

Starfield is still being worked on by 250 Bethesda devs Discussion

https://www.pcgamesn.com/starfield/bethesda-team
1.8k Upvotes

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u/supernewf2323 Nov 20 '23

Is it really though?

It's essentially fallout/skyrim in space. but.. also with 80% of the game being repetitive and beyond boring.

My worry going into it was it was going to be TOO big.

and after spending around 50 hours with it i was 100000% right.

What good is 1000 planets. if only like 20 of them are actually interesting?

15

u/BitingSatyr Nov 20 '23 edited Nov 20 '23

what good is 1000 planets if only 20 are interesting?

Because you have the choice of whether or not to visit those other planets. Todd was pretty clear in pre-release interviews that making 1 planet is basically the same amount of work as making 1000, so they might as well include them for atmosphere rather than come up with some contrived reason as to why you’re limited to 2-3 systems.

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u/Thorn-of-your-side Nov 20 '23

I explored every system and only found so many unique events. Would be nice if more systems had a "this quest will always be here" event in them. Finding the crucible was interesting, but theres nothing else like it in the far corners of space

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u/PM_UR_PROBLEMS_GIRL Nov 20 '23

If I play an open world rpg I don't want to be parlyzed by choice if 95% of the choice is not worth it anyway

1

u/cardonator Craig Nov 20 '23

The only time you're "paralyzed by choice" is when you choose to do something random. Most of the worlds simply aren't worth visiting and once you realize that the game feels better. The vast majority of the planets I have visited are randomly selected to place the artifacts on (and, yes, several of them were bland). I have gone to a few spots in the same systems just to check it out, but there is really very little reason to branch out.

I found that fine in this game. There is plenty to do and enjoy just blazing through the larger stories and tackling some side content along the way. I never found myself particularly bored, though I did run into the same POIs a few times (which would easily be my largest complaint about the game that hopefully they are working on in some capacity).

It seems to me like a lot of people went into this game thinking they could just randomly select a planet and have an exciting adventure. As someone who was disappointed by this in multiple space games in the past decade already, I never expected that was going to work and was therefore not disappointed by the fact that it doesn't really.

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u/PM_UR_PROBLEMS_GIRL Nov 20 '23

"It seems to me like a lot of people went into this game thinking they could just randomly select a planet and have an exciting adventure"

Yes because that's normally the case in bethesda games. You find a random building/cave and it turns into a cool dungeon/mission/piece of lore.

I was hoping for fallout in space but instead got here's a bunch of factions worth doing and not a lot else

1

u/cardonator Craig Nov 20 '23

I've had that experience in BGS games before, however I would hard disagree that the majority of "random locations" in Skyrim in particular but even in FO3 and 4 turned into anything cool. There are plenty of them where you fight some things and then leave.

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u/TurkusGyrational Nov 20 '23

But there's an overwhelming problem of density here. You can make as much procedural content as you want but if it takes me 5 minutes to walk from one location to another, or if each "tailored" planet has only one small city, then in reality Starfield is an extremely small game, just with an enormous skybox.

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u/[deleted] Nov 20 '23

It's essentially fallout/skyrim in space

I don't know what insane expectations people had, but this was my exact expectation. And this is what I got. It's like people have no idea what kind of games BGS makes.

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u/AuthoritarianSex Nov 20 '23

It's a step down from Fallout/Skyrim in terms of RPG mechanics or world exploration

A bunch of procedurally generated planets or outposts doesn't really change that

3

u/Westdrache Nov 20 '23

Hoooooow? How can you strip away even more RPG elements from F4 and Skyrim and still be left with a game?

Those 2 are barley RPGs on their own (Skyrim is a lot more of an RPG than fallout tho)

0

u/cardonator Craig Nov 20 '23

Eh, I don't really agree with that. The problem is that in saying that it's "essentially fallout/skyrim in space" people aren't usually talking about just wandering around, they are talking about the gameplay loops, missions, characters, etc. that make up the core game. And that's exactly what it is.

I'll agree that it's soft-RPG, but BGS has been softening the RPG elements for two decades now. Starfield is obviously a heavily market-researched game that is targeting the greatest audience, and I think the sales numbers on Steam alone (estimates put it between 2-5 million sold) speak volumes about how successful that has been.

Obviously that doesn't mean it has no problems. I just think people are a little crazy acting like this isn't a space translation of Skyrim and Fallout 4.

1

u/AuthoritarianSex Nov 20 '23

While none of what you said is incorrect, I don't see what that has to do with my comment. It is absolutely a step down from Fallout/Skyrim in RPG mechanics and world exploration, while still maintaining the same gameplay loop. I know Starfield was a huge financial success, but I still the game was underwhelming in all honesty

0

u/[deleted] Nov 20 '23

[deleted]

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u/supernewf2323 Nov 20 '23

i am saying fallout/skyrim in space like it was a great thing 10 years ago.

At this point, Starfield is a mashup of a bunch of concepts that are done better in nearly every AAA game these days. It's honestly disappointing.

3

u/attilayavuzer Nov 20 '23

No game stands up to that level of scrutiny. Feels disingenuous to compare every system in a game to another AAA game that specializes in that system.

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u/supernewf2323 Nov 20 '23

I can understand where you are coming from

but when they are drastically worse. it's a fair assessment.

for example.

Skyrim/fallout are better games than starfield in terms of the rpg elements, the writing. the dungeons. everything.

every shooter made since 2015 or even earlier. has better, more responsive combat.

Starfield feels like they bit off more than they could chew. Realized it like 2 years ago. And said. "Meh,. lets finish this up and release it"

1

u/LasCoL Nov 21 '23

Teleport to instance, walk from one pre-marked POI that you’ve already seen to another, and repeat. Definitely not what I was doing in Skyrim or FO

3

u/Coreldan Nov 20 '23

It's still a pretty easy 100 hours of mostly unique content. But sure, doing 2000 hours is gonna get repetive

1

u/fingerpaintswithpoop Nov 20 '23

Is it really though?

1000% yes.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 20 '23

Procedural generation needs to die as a concept in game development. Especially so in single player games.

5

u/Westdrache Nov 20 '23

Hard disagree, it just needs to be done well.

Check Minecraft, that shit just works.

Or play a couple of rounds of 7 days to die, with their poi system and the insane amount of possible POIs I really think 7 days has one of the best procedural generations of all games, and I really enjoy it!

Hell, even NMS gets a kick out of you in the first 7-10 planets

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u/nullSquid5 Nov 20 '23

it has its place, it just can’t be what a whole game revolves around.

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u/cest_va_bien Nov 20 '23

Once I went to the moon and earth and found absolutely nothing I knew this game was not going to be what I wanted.