Why Starfield Worries Me

Since E3 Expo is no more, we get this hodge-podge of summer gaming events that showcase the "next big things" in gaming, and since Microsoft's acquisition of Bethesda last year, there was one showcase that would (or should) outshine the rest, and that is the Microsoft Showcase, which showed the next big games coming for Xbox and PC within the next 12 months.

However, I must say, that this showcase was somewhat bland.

Make no mistake, Xbox tried to outshine the relatively low-brow and uneventful Sony State of Play last month that showcased relatively little, besides a Street Fighter 6 I am interested in. However, I don't think Xbox succeeded by a large margin.

Without further ado, here are my thoughts on some of the titles shown:

Redfall looks ok and I mean that whole heartedly. It looks like a tamer version of Back for Blood, with less tricks, less enemy types, a story that probably does not matter, and gameplay that looks jankier than a PS1 title. It doesn't excite me like Arkane's past works, which usually are original in some capacity and contain an interesting and unique gameplay design that carries the title. Prey's prop hunt mechanic and open-end design made it a treat to play and gave players nearly full control to complete a task. The Dishonored series created an assassin game where the goal is to kill as little people as possible, and then there is the twist on the rogue-lites with Deathloop. All of these have a twist (or gimmick) that makes the game an interesting and easy to boot up title, with usually an easy to follow story with character. And I feel like that is missing here. I hope I am wrong because I like Arkane's titles, but its definitely a title I don't have on my radar.

A Forza Motorsport reboot got announced that flexed it's graphical and technical muscles, and rightfully so, it looks great. The developers flexed new technical aspects of the game, from how the track temperature changes throughout the day, and what that does to tire temperature and grip, or their new damage system to the vehicles, and of course, the adaptive ray tracing technology. However, those are all neat, but does it play well? Gran Turismo and F1 have always been my go to's when it comes to track based racing games, and I have usually sidelined Forza to the Horizon series because those are more arcadey and I like exploring the in-game recreations of vistas from around the world, and playing around with the large pool of cars. I understand the move back into racing simulation, but I don't know how well it will fare going forward. Probably decent due to it being a Game Pass title, but it is a game I would probably not purchase outside of Game Pass.

Another disaster in the making is the title As Dusk Falls, a stop motion, comic style game that twists on the gameplay design of Detroit: Become Human, with a butterfly effect choice system that effects how the story progresses. Personally, I think the story could be intriguing, but I think that it will be a miserable thing to play. The stop motion graphics are janky and hard on the eyes, and it isn't all that pretty. It is a design choice that has me shaking my head because it doesn't look fun to play. Yay, the story might be good, but who cares? I don't want to play it if my eyes bleed, when it could have been done as a short series with the same effect. I don't know how this made the final cut for the show, but it did, and it was worse off because of it.

Some titles were missing from the event. I would have liked to have seen some new stuff on the Fable reboot, and Avowed from Obsidian. We did hear from Obsidian, but it was with the indie title Pentiment, which looks artistically interesting, but overall gameplay looks iffy. Similar to As Dusk Falls, I feel like this is a title which relies too much on its gimmick of art style and choices, rather than with strong gameplay and storytelling. It has my attention more than As Dusk Falls, and I'll probably check it out because of Game Pass, but I would never purchase it. Minecraft Legends looks like a fun little jaunt, but I probably won't play it, and the Riot Games announcement was surprising, but I'm not going back into the toxic waste dump that is League ever again, so I'm not super excited about it, but to each their own.

Diablo 4 is the only game that left me somewhat excited, due to the nature and strength of the series, but also because I felt that the gameplay showed probably made a case for it to be another great title. Moving away from the controversy at Blizzard, I want to only focus on the title itself. Diablo 4 looks like more Diablo, which is great. I have pumped hours into Diablo 3, both solo, and with friends. Couch Co-op is back, and I love that they still have that after it was omitted from other titles, such as Halo Infinite. Diablo 4 also has some neat tricks, like a pvp area with a neat twist targeting the best players, and a new open world design, and of course, horses. It looks like Diablo 3 with some quality of life improvements and newer, more modern game design choices. It was one of the titles shown that I was pleasantly surprised by, and will most definitely be playing.

Finally, I want to talk about Starfield, which everyone knew was the flagship of this event, and I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw, but I am also worried. To me, it looks like Bethesda's take on No Man's Sky (yes, that disaster turned comeback story) a game that I personally believe is ambitious, but flawed enough to be a title not worth playing unless you are already deep in that rabbit hole. By what I mean, is that don't play No Man's Sky unless you have already finished what was the base game.

Now it's Bethesda's turn at the space simulator rpg, and some things look exciting. I like the idea and presentation of designing my own ship, and I like the revamped version of the settlement system from Fallout 4. What I also appreciated was the art design choices. It looks like it's own thing, rather than Fallout or Skyrim with a coat of space paint.

I liked the skill system, and how I didn't hear the character speak, which I hope never happens. This is supposed to be a player-choice driven rpg, I don't want a Fallout 4 system of speech. I also liked the overall gameplay itself, the gunplay looks like a traditional fps, and if they can pull it off, I like the idea of ship combat, even if it looks very shallow as a mechanic.

However, what worries me is how ambitious the title is, and of course, Todd's promise of a "thousand" planets to explore. Even if they deliver on that promise, how fleshed out will these worlds be? Will it be like the worlds from the first Mass Effect, which is just an empty landscape to drive around, or will they be filled to the brim with activities and life? We won't know until beta testing begins, but I would take this claim with a grain of salt.

The next thing that worries me is the presentation itself. This showcase looked more like a gameplay demo, rather than actual gameplay itself. I think Bethesda took a page out of Ubisoft's book and made a demo for the event itself, and the final version of the game will be wildly different from what we saw. I say this because everything looked nice. Too nice. It also played out like a demo that was meant to showcase what the game can be, not what it is. It's like a car salesman showing you the exterior, but not what's under the hood. I expect the usual Bethesda jank at launch, but I have more worry with this title.

I have other concerns about gameplay. Being able to explore entire planets? Okay, will it be like No Man's Sky where it is a drop in through gameplay, or will it be a cutscene? Is it open world, or different sections of map? How does the faction system work? Will it be fleshed out like New Vegas, or will it be shallow like Skyrim's? Is there more choice with handling a situation? There was a diplomat play style shown, can I talk my way out instead of shooting my way out? All of these center around player choice and freedom in game design, and I believe that this is and should be a major concern for players.

All in all, I thought that the Xbox Showcase was uneventful, and although the tried, was not as exciting as it should have been. There was something missing from what was shown, and that was character. All these games, besides maybe Starfield and Diablo 4, lacked in my opinion, uniqueness and character that we see with the greats of gaming. It all felt like more of the same, and less of anything different.

Playable day one on Xbox Game Pass.