Bethesda's design philosophy will need to be radically altered if Starfield has any hopes of standing out as its own IP. While it makes perfect sense for the studio to compare new projects to its greatest success stories, the constant callbacks to Skyrim's achievements in Starfield's marketing doesn't do the upcoming title any favors.

Starfield will need to do quite a lot to separate itself from Bethesda's two dominant IPs. Fallout comparisons are also incredibly likely, as that is Bethesda's most prominent sci-fi property set in the dark wastes of the future, and has featured both aliens and space travel. Thankfully, it looks like Starfield should be Bethesda's most ambitious game yet. Solely by nature of its development, it has to be - the new Creation Engine developed especially for the game is a landmark for a Bethesda.

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With the promise of an entirely new set of building blocks for Starfield's vast universe also comes an implication that the game will be different enough from its predecessors to need the new engine. There are many things the game can do to prove itself worthy of these high expectations, and looking toward Bethesda's modding community could be a good indication of what needs to be totally different in Starfield.

Why Starfield Needs to Switch Up Its Formula

Over ten years of Skyrim's market dominance has had a huge impact on the state of the modern open-world RPG. It has become the benchmark for a lot of AAA titles with the same format, and the Bethesda open-world formula also extends into its modern 3D Fallout games, which employ a very similar structure. Arguably the most competent execution of this mechanically is Fallout 4, even though its main story suffered as a result for some. If Bethesda wants to prove it really has made a significant leap forward in terms of its development style, Starfield has a lot of work to do.

Mods Show Where Starfield Should Go

If there’s one way to find out what a Bethesda property might need at launch, it would be looking at what fans have added. Bethesda’s titles are among the most modded games of all time, with everything from Skyrim horror mods to entire fan-made game remasters. Sometimes fans make entirely new creations that get catapulted to huge mainstream success, like time-looping title The Forgotten City. In its original mod format, the game won an Australian Writer’s Guild award. It was downloaded millions of times by fans who adored both its unique take on time travel and how it revolutionized the way Skyrim could be played.

While the most modded games on platforms like Nexus Mods are Skyrim and its 2016 remaster (each boasting over one billion mod downloads), the Fallout series is not far behind. Fallout 3, New Vegas, and 4 all feature in the top five most-modded games on Nexus. On one hand this shows how passionate Bethesda’s fans are, but it also undeniably shows that there are things fans wished the games did more. This becomes more obvious when the most popular mods are examined. Some are relatively simple graphical remasters, whereas others are full-blown remixes of the games’ basic mechanics and systems.

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Combat Can’t Be An Afterthought

Some of the most common mods that appear across Bethesda's classic titles are combat remasters. Sometimes, these mods make Skyrim act more like Dark Souls, and other times they make New Vegas' combat resemble more contemporary FPS titles. Although a large part of the appeal of games like Skyrim and Fallout is the exploration, they are largely combat RPGs. These more modern iterations of Bethesda's games offer far less in terms of non-combat options for encounters. However, the combat mechanics often feel a bit floaty, and don't tend to have the weight that one might want from the kind of realism Starfield is going for.

What Starfield needs is a set of mechanics more like Arkane Studio's Prey. Prey's combat, like a lot of Starfield's, takes place in space and uses its futuristic setting to great effect. There's an array of inventive weapons available, and its combat system has held up well since release. If combat across Starfield's planets is possible, it should be as reactive and satisfying as possible - which should hopefully be easier in the new Creation Engine.

Starfield Needs a Quality Main Story

Fan verdicts on Bethesda's games vary, but many tend to concur that the side quests are more narratively strong than main quests, which often become bloated. In addition, some of the most popular story mods for Skyrim, Fallout 3, and Fallout 4 skip huge amounts of the openings. The crawling baby sections of Fallout 3 are particularly egregious in terms of pacing, and are a huge target for removal. Starfield, with its protagonist being part of the exploration company "Constellation," has a great chance to start its story in the middle of the action.

For Starfield, there does not need to be mountains of exposition or a missing child/father/sibling whose disappearance is drowned under a sea of fetch quests. There is a huge wealth of classic authors that Starfield's hard science fiction could draw upon for inspiration. The recent Outer Worlds shows some ways Starfield could craft a compelling main campaign, and help set it apart from older, outdated Bethesda games.

Starfield releases on November 11, 2022 for PC and Xbox Series X/S.

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