A step back in what sense? Technically? Yeah probably. Starfield is the first Bethesda game to have working ladders(one slight sort of exception in Fallout 4) lol. But in terms of story, and world building, I think it's fair to say Starfield is much ahead in that.

[–] NoMoreCocaine@lemmy.world 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

That'd be more meaningful if Bethesda had ever managed to create a story with any worth. Sometimes the bones of a decent story are there, but the execution is usually amateur hour.

[–] aidan@lemmy.world -3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

In my opinion Starfield has the best story Bethesda has written. Not entirely saying much, but the main story and the side stories are at least more interesting and less predictable that Fallout 4 and Skyrim quests.

[–] SquirtleHermit@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Assuming you haven't already, you should give Morrowind a shot. If you can get past the dated graphics and mechanics, the story is by far Bethesda's best work imho.

[–] aidan@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, I have played Morrowind(well actually TES3MP) and in terms of flexibility and story Morrowind is definitely great, my issue is that my least favorite aspect of Bethesda games are the tedious winding dungeons(why NV and Starfield are my favorite because they have the least of that) and Morrowind unfortunately has a lot. One aspect of Morrowind that I really enjoyed actually though, was the opportunity to be given information to actually take notes on(I wrote down directions quest givers gave for example) and Starfield was the only other Bethesda game I've played with a taste of that. Although unfortunately much less.

[–] SquirtleHermit@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Man, feels like we played totally different games regarding Morrowind. Most of Morrowind's dungeons are the smallest of any Bethesda game, and honestly it had the least amount of quests that even sent you to dungeons. Still, if you found them tedious you found them tedious. (anychance you installed other mods besides MP?)

All the same, I think the story is by far Bethesda's magnum opus. (I mean Bethesda proper, since New Vegas was Obsidian and all)

And while I find exploration in Starfield to be extremely tedious, I will say they employed a "Skyrim/FO4" style sensibility where each dungeon should roughly take 10-20 minutes, making for nice bite sized chunks of gameplay.

I completely agree that NV had stellar use of dungeons that almost never overstayed their welcome.

Though if you want real tedium, in both winding dungeons and exploration, give Daggerfall unity a try. Great game, but my god does it go on and on and on.