Starfield: a new ultra immersive special simulation game inspired by the famous RPG Oblivion

Todd Howard (game director), Emil Pagliarulo (design director), Will Shen (lead quest designer) and Istvan Pely (lead artist) gathered for a new discussion around Starfield. The next big project from Bethesda which relies heavily on its immersion and the freedom left to the player to live its story.

A personalized experience

In this meeting, the developers strongly insisted on their desire to fully invest the player in the created world.

It's the level of immersion that we focus on, you're not just playing a game, you're living in this world, in this universe. It's a gigantic open world where the player does what he wants. You feel your impact on the world . You feel like you are there. In some types of entertainment, you follow an experience. You see what the creators want to show you. We want to put you in a situation where you decide...that's what makes video games the best form of entertainment.

To achieve this, the studio will strive to have credible NPCs, both visually and in terms of the interaction that the player will have with them in Starfield.

The technology starts from a scan of real models, like the photogrammetry of our landscapes. We apply the same to the people in game. It's not just how your character looks, we want interactions with NPCs, all characters to have a real impact and make you feel like they're real people. , you are real and your interactions are real.

In the midst of these non-playable characters, the player can also rely on Companions . The latter will comment on events, on what we are watching. In itself, nothing new, but to see how far the concept has been pushed.

Starfield takes up the "old codes of hardcore role-playing games"

For the team, the title is a return to basics that will allow them to reinstate elements, but approaching them from another angle:

We don't just create role-playing games, we create simulations that lead to crazy things that can happen, unexpected things. A lot of us have been doing this together for a long time and with Starfield, it's good to revisit things we haven't done: the stories, the traits, the character definition, all the stats . There are so many games now that offer this, that people are ready for a game that takes on the old codes of hardcore role-playing . Things we used to do, but approached in a new way. We always allow players to create interesting, unique characters. This game is a strong build up.

Since we are doing in the old, the Oblivion game resurfaced during this conversation when touching the dialogue system. Indeed, Starfield will have a mini-game of persuasion similar to what Oblivion offered at the time, without being a copy-paste. The idea is really to be able to have real conversations during which the player will have "the feeling of persuading someone of something" .

Finally, we also had a few words about Factions. There will be in particular the Colonial Union which represents the idealized future of the Space Republic, the Liber Astra Confederation which is oriented space western fantasy and finally Ryujin Industries, which symbolizes the big companies and for which you will have to try to get hired. This is the faction with the best introduction according to the developers.

Unfortunately, no gameplay snippets punctuated the video, only new concept art. Starfield is expected for November 11, 2022 exclusively for Xbox Series and PC.