Honestly I don’t think the engine is the big problem here. There are some issues that are engine related but from a technical perspective the engine is not why Starfield failed. Making the most boring perk choices is not an engine problem. Putting the quests on rails with the illusion of choice is not an engine problem. Replacing the entire space travel aspect with menus wasn’t an engine problem because the star systems were to scale. The core issue is the game design. It’s simply that the game is plain boring. The perks are boring. The starpowers are boring. The way to get starpowers is boring. The quests are boring. The enemies are boring. Every other weapon besides kinetic weapons is boring. How do you decide to make space game without actual space travel still boggles my mind.
I think if Bethesda had taken the time to get the design aspect of the game in a good place people would’ve given them a pass on the loading screens or needing to jump ship to get to the next cell on the planet or even the poor performance. When the best part of your game is the ship builder, that offers minimal gameplay experience, you’ve fucked up the design. I don’t know if it’s Todd calling the bad shots or the lack of new blood, but Bethesda is in need of a shakeup.
And then people wonder why I have more hope for Star Citizen (currently on Alpha 3.22.x and about to go to 3.23, which will likely involve a big number of features being completed) which has been in development for 12 goddamn years, than I do for Bethesda games. Fallout peaked at New Vegas and 4 was just borrowing from Obsidian’s successful design.
Freaking Cyberpunk 2077 and No Man’s Sky were able to be fixed, this is a corporate culture issue.
The Outer Worlds has zero spaceship flying, still feels like a more expansive universe.
The problems aren’t just game design, but writing as well, The Outer Worlds feels real because the characters do, Starfield (from what I played), felt like a bunch of stereotypes playing their roles.
That was my impression as well. Everyone you meet seems to be some frontier redneck, either mining, farming or hunting outlaws. It could be a serviceable backdrop if you were just passing through, chasing the action, but somehow, most of the quests and plot feel like a chore in slow motion.
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: [email protected]
Video game news oriented community. No NanoUFO is not a bot :)
Posts.
News oriented content (general reviews, previews or retrospectives allowed).
Broad discussion posts (preferably not only about a specific game).
No humor/memes etc…
No affiliate links
No advertising.
No clickbait, editorialized, sensational titles. State the game in question in the title. No all caps.
No self promotion.
No duplicate posts, newer post will be deleted unless there is more discussion in one of the posts.
No politics.
Comments.
No personal attacks.
Obey instance rules.
No low effort comments(one or two words, emoji etc…)
Please use spoiler tags for spoilers.
My goal is just to have a community where people can go and see what new game news is out for the day and comment on it.
Honestly I don’t think the engine is the big problem here. There are some issues that are engine related but from a technical perspective the engine is not why Starfield failed. Making the most boring perk choices is not an engine problem. Putting the quests on rails with the illusion of choice is not an engine problem. Replacing the entire space travel aspect with menus wasn’t an engine problem because the star systems were to scale. The core issue is the game design. It’s simply that the game is plain boring. The perks are boring. The starpowers are boring. The way to get starpowers is boring. The quests are boring. The enemies are boring. Every other weapon besides kinetic weapons is boring. How do you decide to make space game without actual space travel still boggles my mind.
I think if Bethesda had taken the time to get the design aspect of the game in a good place people would’ve given them a pass on the loading screens or needing to jump ship to get to the next cell on the planet or even the poor performance. When the best part of your game is the ship builder, that offers minimal gameplay experience, you’ve fucked up the design. I don’t know if it’s Todd calling the bad shots or the lack of new blood, but Bethesda is in need of a shakeup.
And then people wonder why I have more hope for Star Citizen (currently on Alpha 3.22.x and about to go to 3.23, which will likely involve a big number of features being completed) which has been in development for 12 goddamn years, than I do for Bethesda games. Fallout peaked at New Vegas and 4 was just borrowing from Obsidian’s successful design.
Freaking Cyberpunk 2077 and No Man’s Sky were able to be fixed, this is a corporate culture issue.
The Outer Worlds has zero spaceship flying, still feels like a more expansive universe.
The problems aren’t just game design, but writing as well, The Outer Worlds feels real because the characters do, Starfield (from what I played), felt like a bunch of stereotypes playing their roles.
That was my impression as well. Everyone you meet seems to be some frontier redneck, either mining, farming or hunting outlaws. It could be a serviceable backdrop if you were just passing through, chasing the action, but somehow, most of the quests and plot feel like a chore in slow motion.