opinion: The next Bethesda role-playing game is still flying under the radar. Yet it will be a crucial signpost for the future of Open Worlds.
Okay, what’s wrong with us? Are we completely addicted to madness? In just a few months, Bethesda’s first single-player role-playing game in a whopping seven years will be released – and we’re sitting here quietly twiddling our thumbs?!
I have to admit it myself. Although I’m looking forward to Starfield, I’d rather devour even the tiniest tidbits of information about Elder Scrolls 6, or Fallout 5, which currently only exists on a piece of paper. And although I have some idea what that’s about, I’m almost angry at myself. Because Starfield concerns the hell out of all of us – even if we have absolutely no desire for space. Because it tells us more about Elder Scrolls 6 and Fallout 5 than many might realise.
space, well
I know, I know. Medieval fantasy and post-apocalypse are way cooler than a sterile space station. The always with their planets and their spaceships and their white walls and um… alien plants or something. Well, what exactly will the setting of Starfield actually look like? To be honest, at the moment I can only fantasise about it. Because the following pictures are almost all there is to see about Starfield so far:
And it’s probably also this scarcity of information that makes our hype lukewarm at best. We’re hardly used to that in 2022, after all, it’s now more of a standard to be provided with detailed images, videos and information about big blockbusters months or even years in advance. Even with Elder Scrolls and Fallout, the advance information was usually scarce (after all, the point is to explore these worlds on your own), but: Starfield is new.
We humans are terrible creatures of habit. Yes, yes, Starfield. Never heard of it. Tell me more about Elder Scrolls 6! It’s not going to be at all easy to heave us out of our metaphorical armchairs with perfectly settled butt prints and send us off into space. “But is it really all that dramatic?” you may be asking yourselves now. And the answer is not even that simple.
Starfield who?
A little digression: For this article, I plunged into the depths of Google Trends. And if you compare the search interest before the release of Skyrim with the current search interest of Starfield, then the Himalayas are competing with my sledding hill around the corner. And that’s regardless of the time period.
Even in January 2022, around 50 times more people are searching for information on Skyrim than on Starfield. Granted: Skyrim also only reached its peak shortly before its release in autumn 2011 and it can be assumed that there will be much more info on Starfield at E3 2022 – and interest will then also increase drastically. Whether it will ever reach the level of Elder Scrolls or Fallout is more than questionable, at least according to the current data.
In terms of search interest, it is currently only on a par with Elder Scrolls 6 and Fallout 5, and these two games, unlike Starfield, will probably be many years in coming. But they’re also the reason why Starfield shouldn’t be ignored – at least if you’re the slightest bit interested in open-world RPGs.
Wayfinder for Elder Scrolls 6 and Fallout 5
I remember exactly how my jaw dropped back then when I started Skyrim for the first time. I had still been playing the predecessor Oblivion regularly until the release and the leap that awaited me was gigantic. Wow, the characters now bend their knees when going down a flight of stairs! Just kidding, it was more than that of course. And to be honest, my fingers are itching to see the technical state of Bethesda’s in-house Creation Engine in 2022.
Because when I think of Bethesda RPGs, Fallout 4 is the most recent image I have in my head (Fallout 76 aside). It’s hard to imagine what Bethesda role-playing games could look like today – at least potentially. And that’s exactly one of the questions Starfield will answer for us. It will show us where we currently stand. How much Bethesda has evolved. And not just in terms of technology. The animated gifs released in January fuel the hope that Bethesda is venturing into something truly new, at least visually.
Many of the open-world mechanics were almost revolutionary back then. Today, it’s almost mandatory for NPCs to have their own daily routines. And dynamic quests that we stumble upon in the world are practically standard in a good open-world game. But Bethesda’s worlds have always been special and have always pioneered later virtues – perhaps with the exception of Fallout 76.
So I hope that a new Bethesda RPG will bring another movement into the genre. With new ideas, modern mechanics and things that will be part of the good tone of the Open World in a few years. And if not? Well, then it’s all the more important to find out now. Who knows what influence the feedback on Starfield will have on upcoming RPGs.
Starfield has a massive cargo on board. And November 2022 could be a turning point for Bethesda role-playing games – and possibly even the whole open-world genre. So I’m going to get over my “space, well” attitude and see Starfield for what it is: a role-playing milestone. Good or bad? We’ll see.
