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
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221

u/Algorhythm74 Dec 04 '23

There are some fundamental issues they likely can’t change.

  • The core characters are uninteresting, bordering on unlikeable.
  • There are no real stakes that drive the narrative, thus very little emotional motivation outside of living your space fantasy.
  • Living a “space fantasy” is wasted by being a load screens simulator.
  • No real choices, you can join any faction, and Sarah Morgan is going to dislike 90% of what you do no matter what.
  • The game and graphics are dated for a 12 year life cycle (sure some vistas a pretty, but the faces and eyes…)

More content can give you more to do in the gameplay loop, but it doesn’t solve for some fundamental design decisions they made early on - which I’m not sure can be changed or undone.

39

u/caverunner17 Dec 04 '23

The Bethesda straight on faces during conversations are just dated as hell. It was weird 12 years ago and still is weird today.

8

u/Emerald_Talon Dec 04 '23

Yup, final fantasy 16 was what I played before I tried starfield and man it’s crazy Bethesda won’t put in the work for cinematic camera angles and movements for dialogue. Every single conversation in FF16 had at least some sort of cinematic angle to it, and all important conversations had legit camera movement just like a movie or show. It’s just crazy Bethesda just went “meh” and did the straight on face thing

54

u/donkdonkdo Dec 04 '23

It always blows my mind looking back at constellation and its awful characters. The whole premise easily allowed for a number of characters to be straight up evil, or at the very least neutral (we’ll do whatever it takes in the name of science and discovery!) yet apparently they’re modeled after the magic school bus.

They’re all such insanely bland goodie two shoes we might as well have teamed up with the Boy Scouts.

22

u/BusyFriend Master Chief Dec 04 '23

Even the so called “bad girl” Andreja is a goody two shoes.

It got old and annoying being scolded by everyone as well.

15

u/connor24_22 Dec 04 '23

It feels so “safe” and cookie-cutter. Like the whole game was made for people who have never played a video game before. It’s so disappointing given they had so long to work with it, surely they could have done something better.

I’ll compare it to the sense I got playing Fallout 3. There were people and creatures that were downright evil, taking advantage of the world they inhabited and its lack of a society. Then you had characters that were trying to grasp onto some semblance of hope for humanity, even if it meant they’d have to give their life.

It’s hard to understand how both games were made by the same studio.

9

u/Banjo-Oz Dec 04 '23

That is what killed it for me.

Everyone is so BLAND, too. Not just moralistic, but blandly moralistic. A religious fanatic with high morals would at least be interesting.

0

u/[deleted] Dec 04 '23

I feel like in real life if you joined a gang of rich scientists, they would behave the same way. Somehow, I doubt they would be ok with blowing people’s heads off for the sake of discovery.

1

u/donkdonkdo Dec 04 '23

They weren’t a gang of rich scientists though

1

u/[deleted] Dec 04 '23

Which one isn’t?

1

u/Mando177 Dec 04 '23

I remember Sarah telling me how in constellation they don’t judge what you do as long as you keep it from interfering in their work, and I was like sweet that sounds great. Then I stole a fan from a UC facility and she immediately got mad at that

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u/indiekid6 Dec 04 '23

How can you say the graphics are dated? Did you not see that detail on the sandwich?

2

u/Gyro_Zeppeli13 Dec 04 '23

He’s saying that if the game is going to last for 12 years then in the future they will be too dated.

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u/indiekid6 Dec 04 '23

Yeah I know mate I was being sarcastic

3

u/Gyro_Zeppeli13 Dec 04 '23

Got it lol 😂 just woke up and haven’t had my coffee yet. I see the sandwich part now lol 😂

2

u/indiekid6 Dec 04 '23

Haha enjoy your day!

1

u/zerovampire311 Dec 05 '23

Stiff personalities and quite literally stiff, everyone looks like they have a broom handle firmly lodged up their asses. Did any of them play Cyberpunk and seriously not notice how lifeless their characters are in comparison?

18

u/Woirol Dec 04 '23

You know, I never really thought of the fact that there are no stakes. Why is there an external threat to the galaxy? Instead it's just explore and try to emotionally connect with soulless characters. I can choose from the widest selection of sidekicks to go with me on missions, and countless nameless crew members on my ships, etc.

4

u/Lotions_and_Creams Dec 04 '23

It honestly felt like it was geared towards younger audiences than FO and Skyrim. It's still technically M, but the entire story and universe is extremely PG. That makes the story and universe incredibly boring and bland compared to the countless other Sci-Fi/Space media out there.

1

u/Woirol Dec 04 '23

Understood, but you can just stop playing the main quest, and there isn't any negative effect to the world, and nobody is requesting help. The only thing close is when you're escaping the lodge.

The artifact pieces should have awoken or summoned an ancient race that is hell bent on destroying the world. Blah blah.

I guess I just wanted a more, Mass Effect type story. Also Mass Effect style alien races. Not everything is humanoid.

3

u/Lotions_and_Creams Dec 04 '23

you can just stop playing the main quest, and there isn't any negative effect to the world

I could have been more clear. What you mentioned, to me, feels like a symptom of making the game geared towards a younger audience. There are no stakes, no wrong decisions, etc. The game is far too Star Trek and needs to be more The Expanse.

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u/MrLionOtterBearClown Dec 04 '23

Yeah the ship has already sailed on this being the next Skyrim in terms of popularity. Just not going to happen. I couldn’t put skyrim down for months in 2011-12 and immediately did a 2nd play through and a 3rd one when the 2nd DLC came out. Probably had like 500 hours on vanilla skyrim on 360, 12 years ago.

I had to force myself to play starfield. There were a few little like 2-3 hour windows where I got immersed but I feel like I got nothing done during them and it was discouraging.

Even if mods fix all of the above issues in your comment (and they probably won’t) my Xbox Series S would crash in .02 seconds trying to run that many mods if it was even technologically possible.

2

u/nevermore1845 Dec 04 '23

Let's not forget about you're essentially preying on emotional vulnerability of characters you're able to date.

Dead husband? Oh we'll take care of it. Care to give a kiss by the way?

Not ready to commit a relationship and you cringe every time I try to flirt? I'll keep hitting on you until you say yes, no matter how inappropriate the timing would be.

4

u/[deleted] Dec 04 '23

[deleted]

1

u/Algorhythm74 Dec 04 '23

Yeah, it’s a difficult balance. I think this game suffers from trying to please too many masters. They want it to be a deep and engaging RPG that hard-core players play for 10 years, and they also wanted it to be this mainstream summer blockbuster type movie event in video game format.

1

u/Chmielok Dec 04 '23

Tbh 1, 2 and (partially) 4 apply to Skyrim as well. I’d add borderline unusable UI which seems to be getting worse with every Bethesda game.

1

u/Kreason95 Dec 04 '23 edited Dec 04 '23

I don’t disagree with most of your points and I’m definitely not a starfield apologist (it is mid as hell). That being said, the first couple point can definitely be changed. They’ve historically done new set pieces and a new cast for most of their major DLCs. The fourth would also be included in this.

The third point probably can’t be and it’s the biggest issue in my opinion. I also don’t necessarily think the game has bad graphics at all and most games that have such a long lifespan get graphical updates over the course of their life.

I’m doubtful that they’ll make this game last that long but I am hopeful that they’ll at least get it to a point where it’s a very good game. We’ll have to wait and see.

1

u/Algorhythm74 Dec 04 '23

I hope so too. My intent was not to trash it, I wanted to love the game so badly. I’m the guy that got the controller, the headset, the early access, and even the series skin.

But I’m also not gonna be an apologist, I’m gonna call it as I see it – and this game just doesn’t hit or resonate in the way not only do I think it should based on the previous games, but in the marketplace today, with some games that are doing some amazing stuff.

It really dawned on me when I re-watched interstellar the other week. Clearly, that was an inspiration, and while I don’t think they should copy it – Starfield should be its own thing, it became super clear to me that there’s no drive or any real emotional stakes in Starfield. Interstellar was a deep moving emotional movie about a father and a daughter, and used space in the concept of time in an interesting way – I was engaged.

Starfield Seems to try to go there, but the mix of voice performance, no impending threat, and wonky graphics. Just creates a disconnect. If every character in constellation died, would shrug my shoulders and go well that’s a relief now I could really go do what I wanna do.

1

u/Kreason95 Dec 04 '23

I totally agree. I love Bethesda games but I’m pretty bummed by how fast starfield lost my interest. I obviously want to enjoy it. I hope I can one day

1

u/drunkpunk138 Dec 04 '23

The loading screens are the nail in the coffin for me. I can handle poorly written characters, quests that just have you walk back and forth between locations with zero additional depth or gameplay, boring story, and zero interactivity allowing you to be everything and work with everyone.... I won't love it, but I can deal. I can't deal with a loading screen every two minutes in between all of that. And that's a fundamental issue they can't fix.

1

u/Algorhythm74 Dec 04 '23

What hurts more is that it was a conscious design choice (or rather concession) to make this game the way they wanted to make it.

It’s not a limitation of PC or console power - it’s a limitation of initial poor design.

1

u/drunkpunk138 Dec 04 '23

Yup and that just tells me that their technology just isn't where it needs to be to meet Todd's vision. Which I get, and I guess he thought it was a sensible sacrifice, but it's a deal breaker for me.

0

u/SomewhereAtWork Dec 04 '23

I still can't fathom how Sarah Morgan is supposed to be your love interest. She's the most annoying and unlikable twat in the whole game.

I can't stand her for more than 2 minutes.

0

u/Algorhythm74 Dec 04 '23

No joke, I went back and made my character as ugly and unholy as sin - then I romanced her just to punish her. I made her sleep with me, and my guy was f’d up. LOL

So I guess that’s a form of role playing.

1

u/flirtmcdudes Dec 04 '23

More content can give you more to do in the gameplay loop

which is pretty boring... their entire skill system, leveling system... loot etc are just not fun. Everything starfield tries to do, other games do better. Their really isnt a reason to come back to starfield and mods and expansions wont fix that

1

u/etheran123 Dec 04 '23

I agree. And I actually like the game, put about 70 hours in, and would rate it a 7.5/10 probably. But the issues it has are so fundamental that Im not sure mods or updates will help.

1

u/cutememe Dec 05 '23

You gotta add copy and pasted same few bases on barren, boring planets that are pointless to "explore" anyway.

2

u/Algorhythm74 Dec 05 '23

Yes, I don’t disagree - but I was listing things that they really couldn’t improve on due to the scope of the project (I.e. getting voice actors back to change/improve lines).

I actually believe the POI’s will be fleshed out more over time and updates.