this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2024
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Well...except the next installations of Fallout and Elder Scrolls. Let's be honest, that's what Microsoft were really buying, and neither are anywhere near a release.
Judging by how Starfield turned out, will missing either of those games (which are almost certainly going to be using the same incredibly outdated engine) be much of a loss?
For those of us that miss the lore and story/atmosphere of this games, absolutely.
Don't get me wrong, Starfield has made me truly worried about the next installment, and I truly believe that milking Skyrim has ultimately left Bethesda in a position where open world gaming just leapfrogged them. The likes of TOTK and Elden Ring have absolutely shattered what they can show to deliver in a supposedly improved generation.
All I can hope is that Bethesda really look at the feedback they received, and take the time to make the necessary changes to their engine. That alone might be enough to at least give a retro feel to the games. I'll still eagerly await them, but my hopes for them being GOTY are long gone.
The engine isn't why Starfield sucks. Sure, the constant loading isn't great but it isn't the reason there's nothing fun or interesting to do. It's also a solvable issue, but they haven't made the investments they need in the engine.
Starfield is just soulless. The characters are boring, the stories aren't interesting and don't let the player choose fun options. The universe is static and nothing matters. There's just no reason to be involved in the world, so there's no reason to want to be in it.
They could fix this. I'd say the way they need to go to do so is to stop targeting literally every player. They need to figure out who they're making the game for and target them. I'm a big sci-fi fan, and I like older Bethesda games. I should have been an easy target for Starfield, but I hated it, not because of the engine but because the stories, characters, and universe weren't engaging. The engine is an easy target to complain about, but it isn't what's holding them back. Indie games can do more with worse engines.
The engine really isn't suited for the kind of game Starfield wants to be, so it really works against it. But you're right, even if it were a new shiny engine with the same writing and characters, it would still suck. Likewise, if it had the same creaky engine but actual good stories and characters the constant loading would be easier to overlook. It just has the worst of both worlds.
Neither of which will matter.
Bethesda's game design is just too old. Playing Starfield felt like playing an RPG from a decade ago. Bethesda just got complacent from back when they were one of the only companies that could seriously do an open-world RPG, now we have CD Projekt-Red and FromSoftware with wildly different, significantly more innovative gameplay experiences. Hell, even other AAA devs like Capcom have been able to outperform in the open world space, Dragon's Dogma 2 was a ton of fun.
No, sadly I think the design is too new. Morrowind was 22 years ago. It is the direction I'd like to see them go again. A complex world that feels lived in, and actually gives players options to play how they want and figure things out for themselves. The newer boring "design for everyone" approach sucks. There's no soul and nothing interesting.
FromSoft is somewhat notoriously old-school. Their game design has directly evolved from their older games. Look at King's Field and then look at Dark Souls. There's so much similarity. Yeah, ER is more cleaned up with a fuck-ton more money and technology available, but it's essentially the same design.
Obviously Balder's Gate 3 is just an evolution of classic RPG design, and it did very well. I'd argue CDPR also has taken classic RPG inspiration more than modern ones. A modern RPG design wouldn't do half the stuff Cyberpunk did, because it's not targeting everyone (and no one).
Modern AAA design doesn't pick a target. Their target is everyone and everything, so they do nothing well. Classic design is knowing who your game is for and making a game for them and not anyone else. Bethesda is doing the former.