this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2023
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I really really hope that the expectation vs reality of Starfield is the final straw that makes people pause the next time a game markets itself as having an scope and quality that is absurdly beyond anything else on the market.
We have seen this story time and time again and the claims never, ever, materialize on launch. Maybe they get closer to the initial scope over the next few years if they can afford continued development and support, but that's exactly the point, that you need way more man hours and budget than what is acceptable in a realistic development cycle to reach that kind of scope while maintaining overall quality of the game.
The next time that a game claims to have absurd size or whatever million planets or that you can be anything you want or whatever other immense thing like that, ask yourself what parts of the game have taken a significant backseat to achieve that. Because we are well past the point of the industry having proven that the limitations for the scope of a game are not technical anymore, but budgetary. And there's only so much that can be done in 8 years.
Its more than that. Its bland. Fucking Skyrim had more going for it than neon. Tavern wenches shows more skin than Neon Workers. People actually bleed in skyrim. Drugs even, I think skooma has better writing tham Aurora.
SF is just corporate.
The fuck?
Uh huh......
Or....maybe just going for a different tone that doesn't fit your dark gritty sensibilities?
Maybe, but it feels more corporate and sterile than just a different tone. Like they wanted more but had to reign it in.
There's literally no evidence they ever considered another tone. They were clearly going for a Star Trek tone, not a space opera.
Considering all their past recent games had those aspects at least somewhat... It's odd that they sterilized it so much in comparison.
Compare that to BG3 where there's like... Full on sex and people can explode into a bloody mess
Okay, but just because they're not titillating the desires of teenage boys doesn't mean they "sold out" or "got more corporate". They've been pretty consistent about presenting their creative vision for the game since the beginning.
Also, you're premise is wrong. I just shot the hell out of someone iin the game and there were absolutely blood splatters all over the wall and floor. Have you played the game, or are you meming influencers?
That said, I would never consider Beth games to be particularly risque. They've always faded out sex scenes. Oblivion and Skyrim aren't particularly bloody games. Fallout's bloodiness is more in line with the IP and considerably tame compared to Obsidian's games.
Maybe you're thinking of mods. I dunno.
There is blood splatter, but it looks silly, when you loot things off of dead bodies they still have the same suit/helmet/whatever left on their bodies you supposedly just looted.
I've put over a hundred hours into the game, I'm not a teenager, and the game is definitely more tame/sterile/corporate in many aspects compared to previous games. Remember bloody mess in Fallout? Or the fact you can goo enemies with laser weapons? Yes fallout under beth is definitely more tame even then compared to Fallout 1 and 2 but still Starfield has none of that.
There's dibellla in Elder Scrolls, and cannibalism, and skeletons (im mot talking about like necromancer skeletons, literally bones for corpses of prior-dead, in Starfield there are corpses but it's always the "frozen over" look, even on warm planets with atmosphere where decomposition should definitely have taken place instead)
Need I say more?
The blood looks way better than vanilla Skyrim did...
Also you've gone from calling the game "corporate" to "tame/sterile" which seems to be an admission that you now understand this was a purposeful and consistent creative choice towards building a "positive sci-fi" world ala Star Trek. A choice they were pretty clear to market and a choice you disagree with. That's fine. It doesn't mean it's a bad game, it just means you weren't paying attention and bamboozled yourself into thinking this game was ever designed for your sensibilities. Not every game made by a studio will be the same - especially when it's a new IP. Hell, Tango made Evil Within and Ghostwire then turned around and built Hi-FI Rush.
Oh well. But since it's a Beth game, you can be rest assured that there will be a ton of mods to help your realize your dream of watching people die and decompose in the most realistic way possible. Heck, there are probably already a bunch that do.
Lol alright bud
I disagree they said it was Star Trek like at all, this is most definitely not Star Trek utopia the game, you've got Neon as a shining example of the corruption and corporate espionage aspects (not that it's a bad thing at all, just not in line with classic trek ideals)
I know newer trek has moved away from the utopia aspects a lot, partially why I don't enjoy them nearly as much.
I do think (like with most beth games) the game itself is a great framework for modders to really make the game their own.
Oh, also, I never said it was a bad game, I just noticed they sanitized it a lot compared to what I was expecting, it was noticable to me as some who who has thousands of hours in prior beth games, modded and unmodded.
Wait, so first you were complaining it's not dark enough and now you're complaining it's too dark and not utopian enough? Bro...
Also, I said they were trying to capture the tone of a positive sci-fi story like Star Trek, not create star trek fan fiction. The game world shows significant progress towards solving various social, equality, and health issues, but we haven't quite gotten rid of money, and as such, greed. For this reason, we still have economic disparity, corporate evil, pirates that do evil things for money, and a monopoly banking system that uses it's power to use an abuse it's opponents.
Furthermore, there's plenty of people who have a problem with an overbearing singular government and want to do things their way - thus why the freestar collective and crimson fleet exist.
Its earth + 1, better, but still flawed. Which is honestly, a lot more realistic than star trek ever seemed to be. Perhaps they wanted to show a "missing link" between current humanity and star trek humanity. There's progress, but there's still work to do. Which, given the lack of aliens, its probably a good move to make sure humanity still manufactures drama.
Regardless, the theme and tone of the game can be best described as "hopeful and wide-eyed optimism", which is very different from the distopian unease of Fallout and sweeping fantasy epic of Skyrim and, starfield was very clearly marketed as such from day one.
No no no, I'm saying your claim that they said it's supposed to be like Star Trek (which I never saw mentioned at all) doesn't make sense.
Though I agree with your latter paragraphs 👍
I'll add, I'm not a hater and have absolutely defended the game in many aspects (check my post history if you'd like), I do think there are valid criticisms and odd choices though. I'm at 177 hours with it, played through all the side quests I could find and started ng+, made it most of the way through again but now I'm already at the point of, "eh, theres not a whole lot left to do but rehash what I've already done for slightly better rewards"
I have high hopes for the mod community as they have been able to consistently breath life and add addition QoL fixes to Bethesda games for years, and I am massively appreciative of them giving me more reasons to jump back into some of my favorite games :)
They never said "star trek in space" because, first of all, that's redundant, and second of all, would invite lawsuits. I'm not even necessarily saying that they're copying star trek in any way.
I'm using Star Trek as an illustration of the positive sci-fi genre and the tone they were putting out in their marketing. No, its not literally star trek - but unlike their other titles that are either distopian sci-fi or a semi-dark epic fantasy, this one has a more positive tone - there's a sense of hope and compassion that even persists in more distopian areas like the well, cydonia, ryujin, and ebbside. And furthermore, the main story's focus on the excitement and wonder of exploration, and traversing the unknown, is a love note for Star Trek and all the sci-fi novels strewn about the environment.
And though this clarification is quite separated from it's context now, I only brought this up to say that this game is far more hopeful and optimistic than their previous games and I feel like their marketing illustrated it quite well. And the reason it matters is beacuse the lack of the "darkness" and "grittiness" you are looking for can be explained by this difference in tone.
Lol yeah I was derping when I wrote that first part clearly
Honestly, seeing this AAA game play like a shit-tier shovelware game on my pretty fucking robust Linux gaming PC makes me kinda fine with Star Citizen taking its sweet time now.
LOL star citizen is taking its time to vacuum up money, not develop a good game. They haven't even decided on a flight model. In a flight game. After a decade.