About 6 months away from its arrival on Xbox consoles as well as PC, Starfield remains hidden in the dark. the RPG from Bethesda Game Studios (BGS) still displays disproportionate ambitions and such a project inevitably raises crazy expectations.
If no delays disturb the party, Starfield will be released on November 11, 2022 on Xbox Series X|S and PC. After almost three decades punctuated by The Elder Scrolls and other Fallout, the American studio is about to offer us its first new license in more than 28 years. Suffice to say that the stakes are immense and that the hopes are innumerable among lovers of the RPG genre. Here are our personal expectations!
An immense but mastered universe
Bethesda Game Studios has announced that Starfield will basically be a kind of “Skyrim in space”. The player will be able to freely explore a map that already promises to be gigantic. If starting our ship and setting off to conquer new horizons will inevitably be exhilarating, we hope that Bethesda will be able to impose some limits.
Varied points of interest (and not hundreds of “?” please!), random encounters with opponents and even more or less scripted events will absolutely boost progress.
Finally Satisfying Gunfights
This is generally a weakness of Fallout with BGS sauce... The shooting phases were too often overrated and apart from the VATS mode (which slowed down time to allow targeting a specific part of the body), we felt little of satisfaction after knocking out a survivor or a disgusting monster.
The deal will have to change with Starfield since our avatar should have access to equipment as futuristic as it is lethal to face the dangers of Colonial Systems. And since the talented teams at ID Software (another studio owned by Bethesda) are pretty good at bringing credibility to in-game weapons, it would be wise to see them bring their expertise to Starfield.
More “human” companions
Whether in Skyrim or even Fallout 4, the sidekicks able to accompany our avatar act more as an extension of our inventory than as a true companion on the road. Blame it on too limited dialogues and the impossibility of establishing a tangible relationship with them. The fourth Fallout was beginning to bring some depth to this level, but it remained fairly anecdotal.
Starfield would be inspired to include a more worked relational system. Spend time with this or that sidekick to consolidate their confidence in our hero, participate in side activities with them, get to know them over the course of the adventure... The developers will absolutely have to shape a solid background for each sidekick.
An immersive scenario through dialogues and the environment
Here again, we are faced with a weakness that is found in each production of Bethesda Game Studios. In the end, few players take the trouble to complete the main quest, the pace of which is often much too slow, the missions relatively mundane and the protagonists unremarkable. Beyond the simple sandbox teeming with possibilities, the world of Starfield must be interesting to explore through engaging objectives and a successful environmental narrative.
We can for example imagine that a city destroyed during a mission will be rebuilt over the hours spent in the game (which was not the case with Kvatch in Oblivion or even Helgen in Skyrim). We must make the universe believable, alive and above all evolving.
A console-optimized interface
For almost 30 years, the PC has been the platform of choice for BGS. So that ergonomics has never been too much at the rendezvous joystick in hand. However, considerable progress will have to be made in this compartment with Starfield on Xbox. And it is above all on the inventory side that progress will be required.
In an RPG, the player spends a lot of time in menus and developers should pay special attention to the interface in general. Even if it means creating one adapted to the controller for consoles and an alternative for the keyboard/mouse combo.
JVFR
Side quests worthy of a witcher
If Fallout 4 was released in 2015 like a certain The Witcher 3, Bethesda's RPG was years behind in terms of quest scripting and especially on side missions. Blame it on characters that are too smooth and agreed objectives.
More generally, Starfield has an obligation to appropriate the innovations introduced in Western RPGs in recent years. Say goodbye to FedEx quests!
JVFR
A real leap into the unknown
Science fiction works too often tend to reuse the same codes by offering settings that are too close to those of Earth and alien races opting for a too human morphology. It was one of the (broken) promises of No Man's Sky, but let's hope to see Bethesda dare to surprise with Starfield.
The most exotic planets could thus defy our imagination with astonishing forms of life or even inconceivable physical anomalies until today. Because if the game will necessarily be fiction, a small “realistic” aspect à la Interstellar would allow its universe to stand out.
JVFR
Customization at all levels
To come back to something more playful, let's talk about all the customization dimension finally little used by BGS apart from the ultra-complete character editor at the start of the game. Since the player will be the proud owner of one or more ships, one can imagine the possibility of customizing the interior and exterior of these space vehicles.
We obviously want the same thing for the appearance of our future avatar. A system of crafting weapons and resources is not to be excluded either. Of course, if Bethesda decides to ignore it, we can imagine that the mods will be able to compensate for this potential shortcoming.
JVFR
Connected yes... but not too much
After the sad Fallout 76 experience, Bethesda Game Studios will probably avoid incorporating connected elements into its game. We already know that Starfield will be a purely solo title, but an online aspect could however bring a little more to the experience.
Players would leave messages to each other across the universe to indicate a nearby danger or secret. A multiplayer mode completely separate from the single player could also do the trick and it is not insane to think that a second game (on mobile for example) will be developed in parallel to develop the lore of Starfield.
JVFR
We want... info on The Elder Scrolls VI
This may seem off topic since it is indeed Starfield in question... However, like any self-respecting open world, the game will be teeming with easter-eggs and other winks to unearth. And since it's an entire portion of the galaxy that will open up to us, the developers will necessarily hide some crisp details on a wall or at the bottom of a cave.
Moreover, since The Elder Scrolls saga takes place on another planet called Nirn, why not refer to it in Starfield or even allow a part of it to be explored. We are probably dreaming a little too much since the two licenses have nothing to do with each other...
