Bethesda’s open world games offer some of the best examples of free play. They are true sandbox games, which is why I was excited about Starfield, until studio head Todd Howard confirms that there is no continuous space travel from planet to space.
Essentially, that means you can’t board your ship and fly it from the planet’s surface directly into outer space and then back down. Instead, you board your ship, presumably seeing a brief lift-off cutscene, but you have no control over it until the ship is in space. Although it looks like you can land anywhere, just approach the planet and select a point on the map, like fast travel.
“People were asking, ‘Can you send ships directly to the planet?’ No, Todd Howard unequivocally confirms. “On the surface it’s one reality, and when you’re in space it’s a different reality.” As for why Bethesda chose not to allow players to seamlessly pilot ships between space and the planet’s surface, Howard says the team didn’t want to waste time developing something “that isn’t that important to the player.”
It’s important to me, Todd. I understand there’s a lot of engineering behind this, and I have no idea what development hurdles Bethesda will have to overcome, especially if it’s still based on the build engine, which still has loading screens for indoor locations. I fully respect and do not want to underestimate the effort that will be required to achieve this feat.
But for me, Bethesda RPGs are about direct control, immersion, and freedom. Skyrim and Fallout 4 are not the best in terms of their individual parts – areas like story, characters, shooting, quests or even world design are better done in other games. Instead, Bethesda’s games will make you question yourself by showing you a location and saying, “Okay, do what you want.” That great mountain in the center of Skyrim? Raise it up. See that cool satellite dish from Fallout 3? Approach him and examine him inside. Games like Elden Ring (or Zelda: Breath of the Wild for those working part-time on consoles) also do a good job, but when it comes to turning exhilarating freedom into sheer fun, Bethesda always wins. I can’t fill the house with wheels of cheese in Elden Ring.
This is one of the reasons why the lack of manual movement between the planets and space is so painful. I have been a fan of science fiction and space exploration all my life. I love both Star Wars and Star Trek, ha! exit the planet’s atmosphere, teleport to another star system, dive to a new planet, land, and walk. Despite loving games like Mass Effect and Knights of the Old Republic, not being able to manually land on planets without a loading screen was always a bummer, but back then I accepted the limitations of technology.
Step into No Man heaven. Although not a perfect game, the developer has finally managed to fulfill my lofty sci-fi aspirations. Being able to exit or re-enter the atmosphere anytime, anywhere is amazing. I assumed the technology was finally in place. Now I just have to stick to the role and bingo, my ideal game.
The idea of the creators of Skyrim and Fallout 3 to create an ambitious space RPG with many planets, space travel and all its characteristic freedom filled me with pure emotion: especially part of freedom. To be honest, it never occurred to me that Starfield wouldn’t fulfill my lofty spaceship aspirations the way I can ride a horse to the top and then roll a wheel of cheese down the throat of the world. In fact, no one’s Skyrim.
It seems I was too optimistic. What’s even more disappointing is the claim that this feature is “not that important.” I will answer by saying that it is vital for immersion. The difference between my custom-made spaceship landing cinematic and the way I do it myself, knowing that the planets are real things that I can miss and possibly crash into, is critical to the believability of the universe. This difference is felt in No Man’s Sky.
In fact, if planets aren’t real things in that sense, I’m not interested in Bethesda’s take on space travel. I don’t expect Starfield’s spaceflight to compete with Elite Dangerous or their dogfights to take on Star Wars squads. I mean it is Can yes, but as mentioned above, no system in a Bethesda game can be best in class. However, given the smooth transitions to planetary surfaces, interplanetary flight becomes an essential component of the freeform immersive space RPG that I and many others want. Without these transitions, spaceflight already seems aimless.
Of course, the game isn’t out yet, and Bethesda could very well create a significant spaceflight that stands on its own alongside a shared planetary experience. However, the game as a whole already seems underrated to me, as does my enthusiasm. Some people have expressed concern that the 1000 Starfield planets on offer will be boring and would prefer fewer planets with more detail. I wouldn’t go that far, but I will say this: I’d gladly give up 990 of these planets so I could manually orbit them, fly through the stratosphere, and then fly over New Atlantis before ascending and taking to the skies. . .
Source : PC Gamesn
