There’s a quote from Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy that I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. “Space is big,” he writes. “You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the drug store, but that’s just peanuts to space.”
Starfield may as well put this quote on the cover page of its design document. The deafening prerelease hype for the game emphasizes its inclusion of “over 1,000 planets,” across hundreds of realistically rendered star systems throughout the galaxy. That promotion has also focused on just how much stuff there is to do across those myriad planets; Bethesda Head of Publishing Pete Hines said in a recent interview with IGN that he’s spent 150–160 hours in the game and “hasn’t even come close” to seeing everything.
So, I love Daggerfall. Daggerfall is one of my favorite games, I still haven’t finished the main story mostly because I keep getting distracted doing side quests and personal goals. Daggerfall is also ridiculously big, I believe it’s one of the largest games ever. It’s also got some very bland towns outside of the major cities. I’m ok with that, because it kinda makes sense that this random town I wandered into is 6 houses and a tavern. That works for a medieval fantasy game, especially because Daggerfall is so damn charming with everything it does. Thing is, Daggerfall is pretty far removed from today’s Bethesda. And if Bethesda promised what Daggerfall is, today. I wouldn’t believe them. I see Star Field as a sci fi Daggerfall, but I just don’t believe they’ll nail it in the way necessary for that largely empty space to be charming like Daggerfall is. I say this mostly because of how bland I felt their recent games characteristics are. I’d be happy to be proven wrong tho, and maybe I’ll try it out some time in the future.
I just… man, this isn’t my first rodeo with Bethesda, or the 25-year-old game engine they’re still using.
If there’s more than one major town and five different things to do, I’ll be surprised.
I enjoyed them through Oblivion, then Skyrim gives us generic fantasy land with generic fantasy lads and watered down gameplay…
… Then nobody shut the fuck up about it for 12 years. 🙄
As someone who started with Morrowind, I prefer Skyrim over Oblivion. The Oblivion setting is better but the scaling just made it SUCH a slog.
However, I hated Fallout 3 and didn’t even bother with 4 so I agree bethesda games have become less interesting over time.
No doubt…
Are we going to get 25,000 planets with repeating assets and only one town? I’ll have to take your word for it, I don’t have a platform to play it.
25,000 planets, but only 10 faces and 5 voices shared among all the inhabitants of the universe.
“Is that Patrick Stewart?”
“Yes, and so is he, and him, and that guy, and that dude, and those guys, and that lady…”
Maybe the planets are more like asteroids, just as Skyrim’s cities are more like neighborhoods. ;)
Yep same. I’ll wait till I read reviews from gamers I can trust if it’s worth playing.
I really hope it is.
Unreal Engine is a 25-year-old game engine, too.
One’s a company’s pride and joy and the other is a crutch because they don’t want to spend the money to move forward. Good comparison of a bad example.
*Apparently they actually modified Creation for this game. Color me surprised.
It doesn’t use the old engine.
