r/XboxSeriesX • u/Turbostrider27 • Dec 04 '23

Xbox wants Starfield to have the 12-year staying power of Skyrim Discussion

https://www.pcgamesn.com/starfield/popular-like-skyrim
1.8k Upvotes

85% Upvoted

1.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

118

u/RMoCGLD Dec 04 '23

Skyrim was lightning in a bottle. So many things made that game special to so many people and I don't think Bethesda are gonna be able to replicate the success of it again.

91

u/Left4Jed2 Dec 04 '23 edited Dec 04 '23

I disagree. The work that was put in Morrowind then Oblivion, Skyrim was easily going to be a great game. With the improvements they made to Oblivion and how easy it is to pick up/get into... word of mouth spread and boom!

Problem is we have waited TOO long for the next elder scrolls single player game, expectation of the new game will be too great.

25

u/marbanasin Dec 04 '23

I loved Starfield, but the valid criticism I've seen is that it really feels like a hyper polished game from 5-7 years ago.

Returning to Elder Scrolls - Bethesda was setting the bar with those games. But now that they've been away for 13 years or whatever from Skyrim I'm just not sure they can as seamlessly intercept the current cutting edge.

For me, I still really dug the structure and vibe of Starfield. There were some bugs that took away from the experience but it also completely pulled me into 150+ hours in about 8 weeks which is unheard of for me. But I'm also not sure if they continue producing for the past gamer rather than the future that they'll be financially viable on 5-6 year dev cycles.

7

u/flirtmcdudes Dec 04 '23 edited Dec 04 '23

bethesda has been dumbing down their games since morrowind. Each new game slowly removes more RPG elements, removes choice or consequences, etc etc etc.

Starfield is their latest and its just a husk of what RPGS used to be... its barely even an adventure game. I have 0 faith that TES6 will actually be worth a purchase, and will likely just feel like skyrim with new graphics and the same old dated gameplay from decades ago. I've put up with it since oblivion, but starfield showed me that I just dont think their studio is capable of making a RPG by todays standards anymore. This is a studio that thrived a decade or two ago, and hasnt done anything to stay current since then... and their games show it.

From game engine, to lead devs... they are just too far into smelling their own farts to make enough change to turn it around.

1

u/marbanasin Dec 04 '23

Eh, that's possible as well and I don't disagree with the dumbing down aspect. I did feel things like the ship builder and outposts add a layer that at least makes up for the skill trees. And to be honest, I felt the skill tree here was better implemented than Skyrim which allows you to eventually become a king of all trades.

Personally, Oblivion was my sweet spot. A bit more approachable than Morrowind, but still pretty robust in the role playing and specialization needed when specing.

2

u/flirtmcdudes Dec 05 '23 edited Dec 05 '23

Outposts and ships were mostly pointless though… like basically filler content. None of the game felt cohesive or like systems interacted with each other…. It was just this barren theme park made up with lots of imo mediocre parts.

Oblivion and Skyrim were still interesting to explore and find loot, or slowly level up your weapons or spells by using them…. Or finding strange new places or quests even if the writing and story wasn’t that great. They’ve gone so far backwards with starfield and simplifying things it’s just…. Boring. I don’t care about anyone or anything in it… planets and cities are kinda dead and boring with nothing going on…. Enemy AI is terrible and every fight feels the same and I feel like fights were worse than mass effect 1, a game that is beyond old…. It’s like why am I playing this?

I was super disappointed, looked forward to starfield a lot. I think I’m just done with BGS games and what they have become. Sad because I really had fun with their older ones

11

u/[deleted] Dec 04 '23

[deleted]

2

u/marbanasin Dec 04 '23

Yeah I was gonna say - I think it's probably useful for a creative studio to at least have an outlet for ideas they want to explore, which could maybe help them either trial stuff for the core brands, or even just give a healthy break so they can return to the drawing board a bit refreshed after spending like 20 years on just 2 IP.

So I do hope both Fallout and Starfield have helped them hone their strengths and realize some of their weaknesses.

2

u/Goatmilker98 Dec 04 '23

They honestly shat the bed, it really does feel like a game made for 2015, loading screens around every corner, "1000 planets" that are all identical with a different skin on top. And while 30fps is fine I guess, it's still pretty shit for a massive publisher with the resources and time Bethesda had. Wtf were they working on all this time

0

u/raynorelyp Dec 04 '23

If they just made it better than 30fps, I would probably love it. Instead I’m not sure how anyone is playing it.

2

u/marbanasin Dec 04 '23

The FPS didn't bother me at all. It seems the recent patch shows that something higher than 30 is likely possible on SX, but not sure that will be a near term goal of theirs.

1

u/raynorelyp Dec 04 '23

And when they do that, I’ll stop complaining

1

u/JasonDeSanta Dec 04 '23

They should have scaled up their studio to work on two different IP simultaneously at the very least. How the hell are we supposed to get a new Elder Scrolls and Fallout while Starfield is also in their rotation, I have no idea.

Maybe with the Microsoft money and their focus on Game Pass, we would see them grow much bigger in the coming years, but it’s quite discouraging to see how a new mainline Fallout game is a decade away.

3

u/Neirchill Dec 04 '23

With fo76 you can see what happens when their main team isn't running the show.

1

u/Neirchill Dec 04 '23

Honestly it's kind of a point in Skyrim's favor that it removed/simplified so many mechanics from previous games but it's still so loved.

1

u/Spaced-Cowboy Dec 05 '23 edited Dec 05 '23

No the problem is that Bethesda is over reliant on gameplay loops and filler/autogenerated content. They have seemingly lost any interest in storytelling, or roleplaying.

They want to build a theme park and they keep trying to streamline bringing it to life. Each game is just more and more wasted potential.

Imagine if Starfield had the writing and quests of Red Dead 2? Imagine if the open world was even half as interesting?

1

u/sirdavos95 Dec 04 '23

The difference is support.