Bethesda’s recent video series, ‘Into The Starfield’ has shed light on some of the design philosophies and theory behind these mechanics being developed and have given a greater insight into the inner workings of the overall game. With the latest installment released last week, I’ll bring us up to date on everything we know about the game so far.
The Player Character
As part of Constellation, a ‘NASA meets Indiana Jones meets League of Extraordinary Gentleman’ type organization, you will play as an explorer charting the unknowns of space.
In this second video the team discusses character design and being able to utilize ideas and tweaks that until now, with today's software and capabilities, weren't possible even a few years ago.
Todd Howard, Director and
Executive Producer at
Bethesda Game Studios
Todd Howard explains, “A lot of us have been doing this for a long time together, and it's nice with Starfield to go back to some things we didn't do, the backgrounds, that traits, the defining your character, all those stats; and I think there's so many games now that do those things that people are ready for, something that that does a lot of the things that, you know, older hardcore RPG's, something that we used to do. Doing those again in a new way.”
Lead artist Istvan Pely described his vision on character aesthetics saying, “We've always allowed the player to, you know, to create really interesting, unique characters. This game we've definitely severely leveled up. The tech is based on scanning of real-world models...it's not just the appearance of your player and all that, but you know, we want all the personal interactions of NPC's and other characters in the game to be as impactful as possible, and for that you have to believe these are real people. You're a real person interacting with real people."
Starfield Lead Artist Istvan Pely
While no specifics have been given on exactly what players can expect, it does appear that character development is being set up at least as robust and maybe even somewhat more complex than what we’ve seen in the past.
The Open World
Set in 2310, players will exist in an open world called ‘The Settled Systems’ that Bethesda has told us is a ‘vision of the future, grounded in reality.’ While there hasn’t been an inordinate amount of discussion of the in-game world, and even less footage, some aspects have been revealed.
Back in June of 2021, E3 gave us insight on three of its ‘player hubs’, each of which has its own uniqueness and culture, reflective of the promised diversity among the unknown planets explored by the player.
Among those revealed are:
Neon City: This ‘pleasure city’ started out as an industrial fishing conglomerate until they discovered that the fish could be processed into a recreational drug that came to be called Aurora. With Neon City being the only place Aurora is legal, people flock from all over to enjoy this city’s libations and the pleasures it has to offer.
New Atlantis City: The capital city of the ‘United Colonies’ described by design director Emil Pagliarulo as, “The most powerful established military and political faction in the game.” He continues stating, “The city is a true melting pot and its residents come from every race, creed, and ethnicity; and in a lot of ways New Atlantis is a true reflection of the future of our world.”
Neon City: The Pleasure City
Akila City: Akila serves as the capital city for a ‘loose confederation of three distinct systems’ called the Free Star Collective.
Pagliarulo highlights its culture stating, “The city itself is home to a variety of people, but they all have one thing in common: They believe in the sanctity of personal freedom and individuality.”
Akila City is also our first encounter with aliens, just outside the city’s massive walls, described by Pagliarulo as, “a cross between a wolf and a velociraptor.” It would seem by these comments that these hubs are not only for player use and habitat, but also for gameplay and progression as well.
Akila: A 'Melting Pot' Of Personal Freedom.
Factions
As has been expected since its announcement, Starfield will lean heavily into its faction system.
Will Shen, lead quest designer, describes his perspective on factions saying, “One of the big choices is which part of the game world am I going to engage in? We always make a bunch of different groups that represent some of the major factions in every game, and in this one we've got the United Colonies, that represents the future of Space Republic idealized, you also have the Free Star Collective, which is the space western fantasy people that are out there on the frontier. We've got Ryujin Industries, which represents corporate life. I think it has one of the best starts of any of the factions.”
Todd Howard continued, “...approaching it that way we’re like OK, what makes the world feel whole? What are the groups that would make it feel whole and believable, and then how does the player interact with them? You know, what we're doing with the Crimson Pirate’s fleet as well, they're not just this foe, let the player join them. What does that mean?”
Unidentified Faction Rendering
For a lot of players, factions have been a mainstay, and even a requirement, for the hours and hours invested in today’s triple A RPG’s. Many will point back to Obsidian Entertainment’s Fallout New Vegas as the as the pinnacle, at the time, of what a robust faction system could add to the immersion of the game and how a ‘miss’ at this level could be remembered and talked about for years.
Companions
Little has been revealed about companions other than they do exist, and the design team is taking them seriously.
Expanding on how important the companion’s awareness of their situation and what was going on around them through comments they would make to the player was important to them, and even described by Will Shen as, ‘one of my favorite parts.’
Todd Howard stated, “So something we really leaned into on this game, how those other characters felt about you.”
An Eager Companion
Shen described incorporating your companion's feelings towards you through a persuasion ‘mini game’ saying, “We sat down, and it was funny. We didn't start with, let's do an evolution of, let's look back at the old oblivion system, but there are a couple of beats there you have to think about, what's my risk here, right? Which one do I wanna choose? We didn't want it to be a system where there was definitely the right thing to say.”
For many, Bethesda games have always had a robust and interactive companion system, setting the bar for them in Starfield even higher. While we may not have anything concrete or specific, it is heartening to know that the development team recognizes their importance to the player base.
While many see Starfield as a way for Bethesda to clean up their name after the somewhat lackluster debut of Fallout 76, some will see this as a bridge to the future release of Fallout 5.
Starfield has the potential to be just as big and as long lasting as some of Bethesda’s other IPs and would introduce a whole new genre to their particular style of storytelling.
We’ll follow up and update this article as more information becomes available.
Are you looking forward to playing Starfield, or worried it's going to be a letdown? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
WRITTEN AND EDITED BY Silek
IMAGES SOURCED FROM Bethesda and IMdb
Really am looking forward to it though =D