I haven’t played Starfield yet, but from what I’ve read it seems to be the next step in the procedurally generated games that Bethesda is heading towards, and I really hope it makes them rethink things for their next game.
While I’m sure that there are people out there who enjoy the fact that there are infinite fetch quests in Skyrim, it’s hardly a feature that anyone really raves about. In fact, the Minutemen quests in FO4 were often the subject of ridicule when the game came out. But at least in those two games, the Radiant quests had the possibility of taking you to an interesting location you hadn’t been to before.
Like you said, one of the key features in any Bethesda game is the exploration, but the more they rely on procedural generation, the less interesting exploration becomes, and the gameplay and writing of their games just isn’t strong enough without the finely crafted world-building they’re known for.
exocrinous@startrek.website 6 months ago
Isn’t Daggerfall procedurally generated?
fartsparkles@sh.itjust.works 6 months ago
And Arena. And they were pretty boring for exploration too. Fast travel was essential. It was a marvel at the time but walking over bland terrain for hours got old quick.
Back then, it was just epic to have an epic-sized game with decent combat and magic. They’re dime a dozen now.