Starfield's Writing Is Pure Cringe

[@SamEmilio2]

"They left so much to the player's imagination that in the end they forgot to say anything" Absolutely BRUTAL

[@BigBoyBelisaurus]

I thought I was quite kind in that line :)

[@RealKeetz]

@@BigBoyBelisaurus You. Are. A. SAVAGE. 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@BooDamnHoo]

The problem is if they actually said something, in the current year it would be woke, anti-white, anti- male, super-cringe. Better that they say nothing. Today's writers CANNOT stop themselves from injecting LOTS of their lefty political crap into EVERYTHING. This game did actually add a "pronoun" selection in character creation and those "pronouns" are NEVER used throughout the game (thank God).

[@RaphaelAmbrosiusCosteau51]

@@BooDamnHoocry more

[@BooDamnHoo]

@@RaphaelAmbrosiusCosteau51 Oooo. You sure got me there. That's Kamala level ownage.

[@Jeff-cn9up]

Emil Pagliarulo (Bethesda's head writer) is, unfortunately, a none-too bright egotist hack writer. Try explaining that to him, though. Even though there's a mountain of evidence going back all the way to Oblivion and beyond.

[@averymicrowave1713]

I think the issue is that - even if the fans as a whole hate him, he's too entrenched in the company to leave, and too egotistical to allow actually good writing to flourish. Plus people apparently like his shitty writting if his Dark Brotherhood questlines are anything to go by (trite by all accounts, but there's people that prefer slop because good writing is apparently too complicated to be in a video game), and the fact that he worked on Thief 2 (probably getting coffee or something).

[@cyprus1005]

The KZbinr Creetosis made a video about Emil’s writing faults I recommend to check it out

[@Andy-qf1kc]

​@@averymicrowave1713people just like being assassins not the story

[@prophecyking3448]

@@Andy-qf1kc Exactly, people love Dark Brotherhood in Oblivion for the first part, the chain of one-off creative assassinations, not for the rubbish railroaded plot with the purge and dead drop switcheroo.

[@VampiricBard]

@@cyprus1005 I saw that video and the other one on Emil as well. I enjoyed both immensely. :D

[@patwilson2546]

What's out there? Rocks and an abandoned outpost, that's what's out there.

[@OrangeNash]

And how did it change humanity? Not at all. Most things, computers, buildings, guns are the same as 300 years before. We did forget the wheel, though. Apart from that, it's USA in space forever.

[@Thehintercast]

In my opinion Barrett is the perfect representation of what is wrong with the writing. His writing is so abhorrently childish and It seems like the person who wrote him has never actually talked to a human being in their life. I’ve never seen such a horrible attempt at making a “charismatic” and “funny” character in my life. Every line of dialogue that leaves his mouth seems worse than the last and treats the player like we are a 11 year olds in the way it expects you to be impressed with the most trivial and childish rhetoric.

[@Thehintercast]

AND HOW IN THE WORLD DO YOU INTRODUCE THE MOST INTERESTING FACTION IN THE “STARBORN” AND WE CANT EVEN TALK TO THEM????? ARE WE SERIOUS??????? To think I was more excited for Starfield than Baldurs Gate 3🤦🏽‍♂️

[@bawkbawk3236]

My favorite part of the Starborn is that their objection to me searching for artifacts boils down to: "We had a meeting, decided we don't like you, and don't want to see your ugly face in any other universes."

[@kadendusk]

You know, if they just said that to my face... I'd be way more likely to want to fight them over multiple universes just to hear them get more and more annoyed about it lol, "ok, I have almost all the space magic in this one and then I'll..." (sees the PC at the last temple) "No, no no no, WHY ARE YOU HERE AGAIN!!!"

[@Jot78]

Man I haven’t seen the Skyrim trailer in YEARS and I still get chills. Such a stark contrast to today

[@WK-47]

For real. Of course a lot has changed culturally in the 10+ years since, but even as a modern Bethesda game it feels like it's from another era.

[@bluedogz1624]

@@WK-47The time gap between Morrowind and Skyrim is lesser than the gap between Skyrim and Starfield

[@Chtigga]

To keep it 100, the writing in Skyrim wasn't great either.

[@revalution1965]

⁠​⁠@@Chtiggaabsolutely not but at least it was technically so epic in scope you could ignore the stupid writing just for the for the fact that you’re fighting literal dragons alone lol

[@beniron5807]

Man I had taken time to learn how to properly say some of the shouts back in the day. It was so good. But yeah, I completely dropped the main quest when I found a talking dog and then got lost in the world. Eventually I got reminded that I still had to save the world. So I stopped robbing the shop owners blind and quickly murdered the super dragon and went back to raiding come crypts and getting my dead dude mask collection.

[@eleosiluvatar7828]

I didn't find the companions likeable at all. They annoyed the fk out of me each in their own ways. I preferred to ditch them whenever it was permitted by the game.

[@HolyApplebutter]

The fact that they get hot-glued to you for like the first hour of the game after arriving at Constellation made my blood boil.

[@spike178]

Yeah way better off playing solo.

[@billjacobs521]

But then how will they berate you for daring to think differently from them, if they aren't stuck to you at all times?

[@nugsboodlepoo]

They are utterly insufferable. They all just trauma-dump on you and whine about their exes.

[@LifelessTooth]

Emil Pagliarulo: "I got so passionate writing the background for the 3 religions in Starfield that it caused me to have my own crisis of faith in real life." Starfield's religions: 1. We're atheists that respect all religions, but are more concerned with scientific progress than preaching. 2. We're space Christians that respect all other religions and try to explain scientific discoveries in made up biblical terms. 3. We believe that God is a giant snake in space that will eat everyone who doesn't believe in him, and we'll kill everyone who says otherwise.

[@GeneticSteve]

He's a moron who thinks he's clever 🤣

[@Screamingmanta]

tbh the snake guys kinda have a point.

[@kalashnikovdevil]

The snake guys seemed kinda legit at least.

[@GeneticSteve]

@@bokrugthewaterserpent3012 lol

[@1234wowww]

​@@bokrugthewaterserpent3012love the comment lol, I was reading it like "what crock of shit is thi-" and then immediately cut to laughing

[@Cloud_Seeker]

What people often forget is that liking something doesn’t mean it is good.

[@Helperbot-2000]

Thats exactly what i keep saying too.

[@bizznick444joe7]

Disagree. If people like something it is good to them. That's all that matters. It doesn't matter what other people think what matters is what you think about it. I've seen this tired example of people saying anime is bad because it uses less animation frames. And I have to ask why does that matter? If people enjoy A PIECE OF MEDIA AND ART that's all that matters. If people like Picasso jumble mess then they like it that's all there is to it. If anime has found a way to make their art enjoyable using as minimal effort as possible who's the winner? That's like if I could build a rocket with a paper clip and a piece of wood while you need billions of dollars of chrome and diamond to build one who's got the superior skill?

[@Grobut81]

@@bizznick444joe7 Most of us like junk food, but that doesen't make it good quality food, and we all know that it isen't. Most of us like a braindead action movie, but we are under no dillusions that it is some great work of art or anything. Most of us play/watch/read media that we would call a "guilty pleasure", something that we know is of poor quality, but which holds a place in our heart due to nostalgia or other factors. So no. Sometimes people just like rubbish things. That doesen't mean we should all lower the bar into the floor and proclaim everything to be great, because someone, somewhere probably likes it. We need to have some standards to measure things by, or else everything degenerates into low effort, lowest common denominator trash.

[@Cloud_Seeker]

@@bizznick444joe7 Good is not a subjective statement. It is an objective statement. You liking something is your opinion and nothing less. You can't say product X is a good quality product because my opinion think it is. People can like pretty much anything in the world. That also include eating literal feces. However. Are you going to stand here and argue with me that feces are good food because someone finds it good according to them?

[@bizznick444joe7]

@@Cloud_SeekerYou will have to explain to me how liking animation that has less frames is unhealthy like eating feces if you're comparing the two. The dislike of feces is linked to actual health. Feces is 60% bacteria, not a lot of understanding is there when there's such a diverse biome of bacteria living there, and no feces is made the same they all have different hosts of bacteria therefore you don't know which ones can wreck your body or not. But it is known that feces do have a high concentration of vitamin B12 which humans are lacking in. But in any case eating feces and watching anime is very different things as anime watching isn't something we do out of necessity while eating is something we do out of necessity.

[@BarbosaUral]

I'm not a Bethesda fan boy. But I am a 67 year old Skyrim fan boy. I played Skyrim since Special Addition came out and 95% of that play time is a modded Skyrim. But Starfield? I played 74.5 hours and uninstalled it. I give the game a 4.5/10 and that's for the art department because the game looks pretty good. Excepting water. The game was over hyped, falsely advertised (simply listen to Todd explaining all the cool exploration we can't do), horrible optimization, no immersion, uses a crap engine, totally crap UI, bug filled, glitch filled, crashes, repetitive, boring, broken stealth, horrible perk system, janky base building (with little instruction), janky ship building (with little instruction), copy/pasted POI's, absolutely dreadful and contradictory companions who don't care who or what you are other than you're important, no-name citizens that walk back and forth on an invisible tether and many times get in your way, weak main and side missions, overloaded cut scenes and load screens, mediocre gun play with bullet sponge targets. Really bad circa 2011 AI. There are no real choices with consequences. Any choice you make still takes you on the direction Bethesda wants you to take. Thus, the traits and abilities you pick in character generation have little to no benefit. There is no depth or relevance to this game and its components. This game has no role playing despite it being labeled an RPG. This game has no soul. The junk you pick up is pointless, extremely underwhelming carry weight, arbitrary level farming to mend/boost your XP/perks/ money, vendors with little money, NO MAPS, companions scolding you one after the other because you chose the dialog Bethesda didn't want you too, more loading screens in five minutes of play than the entirety of Elden Ring, 300 years of human fiction with nothing to really show for it, no challenging locations or bosses. And no reason to actually make an outpost to farm stuff because you can simply purchase it at a vendor. A "2023 next gen game" with 2006 water graphics? Starfield is fundamentally flawed on so many levels. It is NOT open world. It's plagued with bad game design decisions, half baked systems, bland & uninspired writing and outdated quest design. It isn't "Skyrim in Space", nor is it "Fallout in Space". Starfield is a downgraded, mediocre and soulless mixture of Skyrim & Fallout 4, without the free world exploration and the charm of neither. It's a regression from Bethesdas previous titles in all aspects and the saddest part is that it took them 8 years to create this piece of mediocrity with unparalleled boredom. Mario Cart is more fun than the spaceship battles in Starfield. What's even worse is that devs had ALL the creative freedom to write whatever the hell they wanted; there is no established lore that restricts them from going crazy. And yet they went for the most banal unimaginative take on sci-fi. Funny thing with Londinium - I decided to try landing randomly on the planet, ignored the UC ship telling me to stay away and menu clicked my way down there. As soon as I got out, another random ship came a few hundred metres away, as they do. I wandered over, found it was a Freestar Ship that had landed at a "small settlement" or something like that. On Londinium. The planet that was quarantined because it was over-run with monsters. Sigh. Later, I’m desperate to complete the main quest so I can finally uninstall. I made it to the buried temple - which is of course just another copy paste junkyard. Sarah said she wanted to speak to me and told me that Barrett was worried about her back at the lodge. Well, Barrett fraking died on the Eye when the Hunter attacked about 30 hours ago! What little immersion I had left was instantly taken away! TLDR; Abysmal writing. The worst part is they made a world (worlds) that were already explored. It all feels like we were late to the party. Every planet is littered with copy/pasted factory’s and outposts, you are never more than a 1000 meters from a structure. The whole colonial war already happened and you just get to hear about all the cool interesting events that already occurred. No matter how far you go, there are almost always humans waiting for you there. Even the plants & wildlife that you need to scan already have names. Therefore, locations have already been discovered in the past. What really burns my backside is that New Game + merely allows you to replay the game over again with the same or different companions; ie., Sarah becomes a potted plant, all the Constellation members are children and I think the very worst is all the Constellation members are you with different personalities (and that's to name just three of the 10 or so variations you get. Not only that, when it comes to the writing and consequences of going through the Unity, Sam Coe's questline revolves around restoring a relationship with Cora's mother, Lillian Hart, yet when it comes to the Unity, Sam shows not the slightest consideration of Lillian in allowing young Cora to go through the Unity. I would think she would be devastated. Also, if you do NG+ to bring all 24 powers to level 10, that means you'd have to jump through 1200 glowy-glitter things in 240 temples. No, thanks. This game was labeled as "Next generation" gameplay? Don't stop to think Bethesda will fix anything other than the most egregious problems and that modders can "fix" the game when Bethesda won't. I've come to the realization that the game is fundamentally flawed in a way that no mod or update can actually fix. It's the base level structures of the game that are so unappealing. Modders can come very close to it, but I don't see that as a modders unpaid job. An example would be that modders made Skyrim better. But they didn't "fix" it. As I sit now with 74.5 hours into Starfield, I honestly don't think I'll ever play this game again. At least not without a Cyberpunk 2.0 and DLC type upgrade. And this Bethesda mediocrity has me very worried for Elder Scroll 6. Don't settle for mediocrity.

[@BigBoyBelisaurus]

I should hire you for my writing department.

[@BarbosaUral]

@@BigBoyBelisaurus Thanks for the compliment.

[@_indrid_cold_]

Wow, you said everything I think, better than I can think it. Fabulous comment, thank you for composing it because I enjoyed reading it very much.

[@BarbosaUral]

@@_indrid_cold_ Thank you for the compliment!

[@trueselfgames]

This is THE perfect comment.

[@loserinasuit7880]

Its like Bethesda is deathly afraid the player will miss content so they will do everything in their power to make nothing matter. Sure you can be the Assassin and Thief leader of skyrim, authority will still be chill around you

[@rottingpotatoes2483]

It’s funny how everything they talk about in the trailer ends up being all the actual game story is.

[@CPSPD]

It’s so annoying. There’s no narrative thread at all, barely any roleplay potential, no choices to make. What’s the point 😭

[@veryrare432hz]

@@CPSPDwasting 5 years for this

[@BigWheel.]

Bethesda is trying to min max profits on RPGs, they want to make you an "endless" rpg that you can playthrough once. That way they can sell you another RPG when they make one. Only problem with this strategy is that Bethesda takes forever to release new RPGS and they are almost never refined at launch.

[@wolfwing1]

Hey I'm offended not all of starfields writing is pure cringe, alot of it is just pure shit.

[@2265Hello]

Star fields writing legit feels AI generated

[@Ayo601]

@@2265HelloEven an AI could eventually make something decent. Starfield’s writing feels passively aggressive laziness.

[@2265Hello]

@@Ayo601 nah I’ve seen plenty of ai writing it’s about the same level especially the way most ppl use it. But yes Starfield is lazy because of Todd’s poor management of the company, Bethesda’s poor R&D, and the lead writer being a legitimate lazy hack. Mind you I never thought any of the writers in Bethesda’s history were blow me out of the water amazing. Imo Kirkbride is overrated but at least he came up with interesting ideas and liked what he was doing, But the current lead writer is just full of excuses and gives writers a bad name. The reason I believe he wasn’t fired yet is because of nepotism and it would cost time and money to find a new lead writer.

[@WackyIraqi777]

Multiple people have said many of the quests could literally be emails, and I agree, I hated most of them and felt like they were busywork.

[@bizznick444joe7]

Eh I would be the judge of it. I haven't given it a chance I just don't care for Sci-Fi and futureistic games. It's just another Star Wars or Overwatch wannabe. Still waiting for that nitty gritty Starcraft kind of future where gasoline fuels ships and they look ugly as shit.

[@lastexile6924]

I liked F4 even with all those problems...but Starfield was terrible lol

[@wingedhussar1453]

Fallout 4 was just as bad.i actual played starfield more as its not a joke

[@5226-p1e]

agreed, FO4 isn't nearly as bad, and the game gives you way more choices, it sucks that the player is always the sole survivor, but it would have been nice to play the game as not being the sole survivor, i can with mods like start me up, but not many mods offer this alternative, in start me up, it's roughly the same vanilla quest, but the dialogue is changed to where your just someone who came across the vault and a recorded message, it just would have been better had the game already came with that as a choice.

[@Catgroove92]

Fo4 has more handcrafted world that Bethesda is pretty good at despite their flaws. Starfield really lacked that.

[@SunBearDabs]

@@wingedhussar1453starfield was way worse

[@twotamatos]

@@SunBearDabsI still see fo 4 as the pinnacle of awful games it’s like the Indiana jones episode of South Park where there r kids like me n most the other cast who are like vomiting at how they saw Indiana jones being… while then there r people like u and whoever else that go I THOUGHT FO4 WAS PRETTY GOOD! Like butters

[@xebatansis]

"You didn' t trust the science" is all I need to know about the level of writing in this game.

[@BigBoyBelisaurus]

Oh, yeah, and it's "SETTLED SCIENCE". Like science is ever settled. Still a lot of annoying people in the 24th century, I guess.

[@BigWheel.]

"I talk about how much I hate religion on reddit while making science my religion" type beat.

[@hunterkiller1984]

​@@BigWheel.The Entire writing has reddit/Twitter vibes tbh...

[@mlmii1933]

Don't forget about how cringy and insulting you are to the Vanguard pilot with the artifact.

[@thesorrow7499]

For 48 hours I was patiently waiting for when the story gets good. As i approached the ending, it hit me - Starfield is Midfield. The writing is Safe, Bland, Uninspired, Unimaginative. The big heads at Bethesda are in the bubble of their own greatness.

[@Rootiga]

the worst part is the characters/npcs. they are all clones, identical complete and total lack of personalities with the exact same moral compass.

[@SpoopsAHoy]

Some say that a completely bland and boring story is an even greater sin in writing than a objectively bad one. There's nothing bad to make fun of, it's just frustrating and soul sucking.

[@xxXXRAPXXxx]

"The big heads at bethesda are in the bubble of their own farts" There i fixed it for you.

[@angrypidgeon1714]

I don't even want to know what Midfield is

[@seb2750]

I finished the game, went into NG and .... thats it? I do this shit all over again groundhog day? I deleted the game and finally installed BG3.

[@dksoulstice6040]

Emil's writing style is keep it simple stupid (Not using it in the correct context, because Emil isn't very bright) because gamers don't care about good writing. Hand them a story and they'll ball it up and make a paper airplane out of it. This is his mindset. He will never write good stories.

[@BigBoyBelisaurus]

But on the other hand he wants to be like Nolan, so he needs to superimpose false nuance on the simplest of stories. It's bizarre.

[@trigovai6258]

To be fair he will not write a good story simply because he is incapable of it. Kiss principal is just an excuse, considering that he doesn’t even understand what it is and how to use it.

[@adavis5926]

I found Starfield so boring and the character's so one dimensional that I took it off my PC. I think Skyrim was Bethesda's high point. They haven't progressed beyond it.

[@lordrefrigeratorintercoole288]

I bet even the multiverse agrees with this statement

[@lennartj.8072]

They actually regressed with this one

[@uuddlrlrbas9904]

Honestly skyrim is almost as bad, it just has an incredible amount of background story from better earlier games, and it had some god tier music design.

[@lukasp5892]

@@uuddlrlrbas9904yeah let’s be so for real… the characters in Skyrim are about as “deep” as a cardboard cutout. And I say that as someone who considers Skyrim their favorite game of all time. Atmosphere, lore, music, and “vibe”. That’s what makes Skyrim special. Oh and mods. Lol

[@BigWheel.]

​@uuddlrlrbas9904 agreed. Writing aside, skyrim isn't even a good RPG when it comes to builds/playstyles. Theres fundamentally no build diversity. And the game is so brain dead easy that even nonoptimal "builds" will work. You can just do whatever and build into whatever whenever you want, which is nice. But it makes zero sense that my frail spellcaster character can suddenly decide he wants to fight with 2 handed Warhammers or that my orc warlord suddenly decided he wants to become a student at the college of winterhold. At least in fallout 3 you could lean into a specific playstyle and you'd have to build into those choices because you had limited levels. Borderlands 1 does a better job of creating build diversity than skyrim. Ultimately Borderlands is more of an RPG than skyrim in that aspect.

[@Mohgenstein]

Emil Pagliarulo, the man who held a sort of Ted Talk where he said that he believes that anything beyond simple stories and characters in games don’t matter. That’s why Bethesda games seem like they’re targeting PG audiences with their shallow writing. How is this dude still working at Bethesda?

[@rajatwtf]

Because they have received so much praise for Skyrim, that they now love the smell of their own farts. I hope they see the depth of witcher writing and adapt some of that for tes6

[@ellipsisYTB]

I got into Fallout with New Vegas. I played F4 next. Did not like the story, but since it was an improvement from the old Fallouts, I loved exploring all of the open world, crafting armor, modding weapons and killing everyone in VATS. The story was half good atleast. I really wanted to love Starfield. After FO76, i had no expectations from the technical aspects of the game, but I never imagined the writing could get any worser than F4. Starfield main story is half fetch quests and the other half some multiverse garbage that only serves to push you into NG+ if this playthrough of torture was not enough. The trailer is fully misleading to build up hype as you pointed. This loading screen sim is just not fun.

[@Hanoua2]

Jumping from Baldur's Gate 3 character writting and relationship to Starfield was like a slap to the face. I don't remember the last game where I was so desinterested and bored out of my mind with the npc companions.

[@rottingpotatoes2483]

Finding the nature of the artifacts would have been much better as a background goal instead of being the main point. Great stories generally involve human nature/conflict as a main story point.

[@billjacobs521]

I think that was the point of the Starborn, but they failed to realize there was no real humanity to them. Which was probably the point, asking you if you want to become like them, endlessly seeking power, but yeah, it didn't work like they planned.

[@chengong388]

The biggest plot hole in FO4 and a constant annoyance, is the insistence that there’s no way to tell if someone is a synth, except there’s a giant fucking vacuum tube in their head. Apparently X-ray doesn’t exist in the FO universe, even though the institute can apparently scan every atom in your body to teleport you. But I still loved it, way better than Starfield.

[@billjacobs521]

Yeah, that always seemed like the guys making items and loot were totally separated from the writers.

[@BigBoyBelisaurus]

Well, you can always pretend it's only the 2nd gen synths tha have giant tubes in their heads. Not sure if anything in the game contraducts such head cannon.

[@johnnysatanseed4770]

​​@@BigBoyBelisaurusI think he's talking about syth components, the little plug that comes out of all synths, even Gen 3, you would think since advanced medical practices are still available in fallout that an X-RAY would show that thing in their skull.

[@Jimmyinvictus]

Just finished watching the whole video, and there is so much to unpack here-but rest assured, I found myself nodding in agreement so many times, I thought my head might roll right of my neck. While your editing has gotten better and better over the years, this video-while im sure it was a monster to finish-really shows off all that experience; I'd hit the 'like' button a hundred times if i were able just based on the editing alone. Bravo, sir!

[@BigBoyBelisaurus]

I can't wait for part two! Also, thanks, Jimmy. I mean, I'm not a pro writer, but sometimes it looks like some people in the industry just decide to ignore the most basic, obvious stuff.

[@jimclayson]

@@BigBoyBelisaurus You don't have to be a world-class chef to realize your dinner's been over-seasoned and half-baked. My faith in Bethesda's culinary skills continues to wane. If Oblivion and New Vegas had better graphics and user interface, I'd gladly go back to playing them on loop instead of bothering with the inferior products we've seen in recent years.

[@fffrrraannkk]

Hopefully Skyblivion delivers, so you'll get your Oblivion wish. There's a decent chance it outclasses Starfield (which would be hilarious). @@jimclayson

[@honinakecheta601]

When this game first came out, I remember the staunch supporters would jump down the throats of ANYONE that talked bad about it. I remember one dude posted a youtube short about how he thought starfield would be bad, and his comments were riddled with hate and the like to dislike ratio was even worse. That guy basically predicted everything that happened to starfield and the die hard Copers are quiet as a church mouse

[@BlueBD]

just go to NoSodiumStarfield. Those same people are still their completely fellatiating the biggest flaws of starfield. they are the example of why nothing will change at BGS

[@hunterswepic]

In 2021, I made a Reddit post on r/Starfield speculating how I thought Bethesda would handle handcrafted areas vs procgen areas and the fast travel system. In hindsight, I got it down to a t, with all the various loading screens and limited zones. The comments all said that my thinking was outdated and all these other games have created seamless travel systems and that it would be “easy” for Bethesda to implement. Use an outdated engine for your game and produce outdated ideas ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[@dragani2330]

I only watched some trailers, some basic gameplay with standard conversations. Philistine, risk-averse, uncreative storyline and gameplay. Orders of magnitude worse than Fallout or Skyrim. No rough edges, absolutely nothing new in any respect. Not even in terms of pure graphics.

[@dragani2330]

@@hunterswepic Its not an engine related problem. A bad story/writing can not be fixed with a better engine.

[@hunterswepic]

@@dragani2330No, I know. I was just highlighting how much of that sentiment was held prior to launch

[@gabrielt6570]

To me the worst part of the game is having literally zero exploration. I could live with all the bad writing if there were small hand crafted maps on a few planets that were fun to explore. This proc gen crap is not actual exploration at all. I seriously can not understand how they thought this was a good idea.

[@fearlesswee5036]

Bethesda seemed to mistake the appeal of exploration as being the act of walking to places itself, and not the act of coming across a new, interesting place full of lore, environmental storytelling, and unique things to see and experience. So they went "Let's make it so you can walk FOREVA! That'll mean infinite exploration, right!?" but there's like... 5 buildings to explore, copy-pasted across the whole universe, and the worst part is those 5 buildings don't even have anything unique, interesting, or fun in them. It'd be one thing to have 5 fun dungeons copypasted everywhere, but it's another to have 5 boring empty dungeons copypasted everywhere. I also can't get over the huge plothole of Constellation being the "last space explorers" or whatever, and this whole setup that all other people no longer want to explore space or whatever... but EVERY planet in the freakin' universe is LITTERED with human buildings and spaceships constantly landing and taking off. Sometimes the procgen even falls apart and you get one of those relic temple things... with an OCCUPIED RESEARCH OUTPOST not even like 50 FEET from it.

[@johnalbertson79]

Thank you for citing the authors of the clips. I hate it when someone reposts the hard work of others but never give them credit.

[@darthmango]

Uninstalled it day one. The minute homie gave me a ship for just being a warm body in the area, I knew it was gonna be downhill from there.

[@2138Dude]

Fallout 4's writing is on next level compared to starfield. I've played games for more than 20 years, and it feels like Starfield was not written by humans. That's right, procedurally generated storylines. That's what we get nowadays

[@gabrielt6570]

I have a hard time believing they worked 8yrs on Starfield and it's this bad. I suspect this game and Avatar 2 were thrown out at some point and quickly re-made using AI. Just a hypothesis but it would explain a lot of things.

[@gloryshadow8710]

You can always play Baldurs Gate 3 wink wink 😏

[@gabrielt6570]

@@gloryshadow8710 I'm playing Remnant 2 for now. I would have a hard time getting into turn based combat but I'd probably like everything else about the game.

[@gloryshadow8710]

@@gabrielt6570 Understood! Just saying that Baldurs Gate is so insane (or insanely good?) that it was definitely written by humans 😎

[@eightlights4939]

As soon as the dude handed me the keys to his ship I immediately refunded the game.

[@nunyabizness6376]

I've been playing video games (especially rpgs) for thirty plus years. I knew starfield was garbage in the first half hour. Uninstalled and never looked back. The arrogance of anyone to say "you need to play more" or anything like that, is appalling. My time is too valuable to waste out on garbage. Fuck you bethesda. You broke my heart for the last time.

[@billjacobs521]

Eh, I have good games with a rocky start. I think it's silly to insist that NOTHING can be overall solid if the very beginning isn't great.

[@nunyabizness6376]

@billjacobs521 agreed but rocky starts have potential and explanations. This is too big to fail

[@miguelpereira9859]

I can do this with movies too. I only need to watch a few minutes or even a few shots to tell how good it's going to be. You get this sixth sense after consuming a bit of content on what makes a film/book/game click

[@aakkoin]

Naming the city "New Atlantis" is kinda like naming a boat "New Titanic"

[@Nuniixo]

Titanic 2: Plunge Harder

[@aakkoin]

@@Nuniixo lol

[@FozzieOscar]

Starfield sets up so many game mechanics and just.... doesnt use them... The game explicitly tutorialises non-lethal weapons, and at no point are they actually able to be used, not even when you are doing a quest where you are a cop who might want to arrest non-compliant people. The whole premise of new game plus gets utilised so little, usually just being the occasional alternate speech option. The very first thing i did in new game plus was head back down to Vectera, I could not talk to anyone, could not tell them the pirates would be back, could not prevent Barret from being captured, all they gave me was the "get going" generic dialogue. Just some examples of many It's almost as if they didnt have a design document

[@RudalPL]

I think Starfield's story would be way better if it was Barrett's story. He would be a Starborn. That's why he knew where is and how to recognise the first artifact. That's why he knows the right answers in conversations and can get out safe from difficult situations as he knows the outcomes already. This time though he wants to set things "right". Here's where our character comes in and helps/messes all up and take over the Unity. That would lead to the New Game + loop.

[@publiusdos5925]

Barret or the player character are the only two characters the Hunter should be. The Emissary is a waste of time. The Hunter is thematically the interesting one. Having the Hunter be some sanitized Catholic priest you have a five minute conversation with as a shock reveal is beyond stupid.

[@BigBoyBelisaurus]

Starfield's Story would be better if Barret's side story even mattered as a side plot. But no.

[@Here_is_Waldo]

I spoke to someone who said they didn't like Starfield, so they gave it an 8/10. They DIDN'T LIKE IT, but still gave it 8/10, 4 stars out of 5. I'm convinced this is where the positive reviews come from, people who don't understand fractions.

[@ramireza6904]

Yeah... clearly. On steam there are about 30% of ppl liking the game... THIS CANT BE. NOONE likes Starfield! /s

[@Here_is_Waldo]

@@ramireza6904 There's nothing wrong with liking a game, but this person specifically said they DIDN'T like the game. Liking a game doesn't mean it's good, and 8/10 means it's incredible with just a couple of faults that aren't that important. No. You can like Starfield, you can spend hundreds of hours in there, you can think it had more positives than it did negatives and give it a positive score. Someone who really enjoys it could give it an 8/10, but someone who DOESN'T LIKE THE GAME giving it that score is an idiot.

[@auntdee845]

THANK YOU! At last someone pointing out a thing among many things that infuriated me. Every member of Constellation wants me to jump to a new universe...no choice is given for even my spouse to agree when I say I want to stay with them. The whole thing contradicts everything the "story" has said before. I married Sarah. She said had she loved Aja, she'd have quit Constellation to go be with her. She tells me how happy she is we'll spend our lives together; nothing is more important. Then, she shoves me toward the Unity. In the Unity, the fake me tells real me that our devotion to our marriage is an example to others who get married. Yes because devotion is jumping away to another universe and never seeing each other again. Everyone except Barrett expresses apprehension about the dangers of going, but then if I turn back they're disappointed and tell me I must go. And even my dialog choices don't let me give reasons why it makes no sense to go or why I don't want to ever do it. No one questions why the Unity was made, why anyone would want to jump, who besides the genetic "Creators" made it. They'd be more concerned over the dangers of a piece of candy a friend game them. It's like a bad use of the bad things in the Mass Effect 3 ending. Beyond that, the Pilgrim's writings and even what the Hunter says demonstrate how bad going into the multiverse is, that it destroys your humanity and your connection to pther people, but still I want to go? And Sarah wants me to? I didn't help people and fall in love in this universe to jump to another and leave this all behind. And so much of the dialog is like confusing things, as if going to another universe and doing things impacts your real universe. The inanity of even wanting to find artifacts and yo use them is only reinforced by the fact that one helped destroy Earth. All I want to do is find and destroy them. I want to banish the Hunter and Emissary (seriously a bad guy named the Hunter...a 10 year old wrote this) from every reality. And the Starborn with such memorable lines, " you don't deserve this. You must die." Honestly, generic mustache twirling idiotic bumbling bad guys whose existence tells me I don't want to do what they do. But then the stupid story claims I want to be just like them. 🤦‍♀️ No choice.

[@Buzani27]

Goodsprings tutorial is better written than the entire Starefield game.

[@thomaspaine7098]

A McDonald’s commercial has better writing

[@512TheWolf512]

Emil "never listen to criticism" Pagliarulo and Todd "if it doesn't work don't improve it, cut it" Howard simply can not make anything good anymore. sadly.

[@DoDaDaDaDaCaDa]

Todd Howard is like a human shield to Emil Pagliarulo lol

[@TheRavenShadowsWolf]

Martin; yes. Absolutely. Serana = no. Because there's a point where the prophecy (which is revealed in that final scene with Serana and the BBEG to have been bollocks all along anyway) states specifically it needs the blood of A daughter of Coldharbor. Not which one. Not that it has to be JUST that one. Serana's mother is still in the game; so you could remove Serana and still have that point as a driving narrative. There's also the point that without EITHER of those two, you have NO known direct daughters of coldharbor so Harkon's ambition is thwarted before it even starts. Since the third elder scroll is tied to figuring out the Dawnguard prophecy and has no impact on the main game at all, Serana really DOESN'T matter that much to either plot. Other than being forced on the player to make it SEEM like she matters (and the fact they locked her mother in a magic box, so she HAD to) I'm also still pretty salty that you can't marry her. Yes, I know what happened with Malog Bal; but victims of that sort can still HEAL from such traumas, and find love in healthy, stable relationships. There are plenty of examples in the past of women that have been "graped" for their first time. Bore out the child as consquence before they even understood the mechanics of their body, and moved on. To find said husband they did love and make a new life - there was a story in the news years ago about an adopted daughter who found her birth mother and had it explained in this EXACT circumstance. So Serana not being marriageable was retarded on Bethesda's choice. I'm also still peeved that Bethesda has effectively made Bethesda.Net inaccessible on consoles presently. (Sometimes you delete a game because you're done with it for a bit; but that doesn't mean you'll never play it again - and I can't get my mods back because I can't access the freaking server. As far as I've looked up there's some sort of bug thing, or trick to it = but it's still bullshit that it happened at all)

[@BigBoyBelisaurus]

But Serana is quite essential for the questline to even start and allign the goals of the bounty hunters with those of the vampires. She is an example, not necessarily the best, but she matters for the plot and has some reasons to do what she does in it.

[@Malaclypse_the_Third]

I give Into the Spiderverse and Everything Everywhere a free pass for using the multiverse because they use the it in a different way and as a central point of the story rather than a crutch. The big problem with Multiverses' is that the idea encourages laziness.

[@PhoebeTheFairy56]

The first spider-verse had the multiverse at the center of its story too, all of them do

[@lumeronswift]

And it doesn't make multiverse any less garbage in a story - to enjoy any stakes in a multiverse story, you have to close your eyes to the fact that something, somewhere, somehow, a better outcome has resolved the quandry the hero is facing in a different way, or something or someone could blunder onto the scene and mess up any progress at any time (out of nowhere). The problem with multiverses is the problem of infinity - stories need to have a definable scope.

[@Malaclypse_the_Third]

That's not really how Spiderverse uses the multiverse though and in EEAaO infinity as a concept making everything pointless is the point of the plot. Any work of fiction that ignores or deletes consequence is an issue and that can happen without the multiverse stuff if the story gets carried away.

[@PhoebeTheFairy56]

@@Malaclypse_the_Third yeah, Spider-Verse stuff is more about bringing pre-existing characters together than creating new ones just for the one story, and when they do create new characters it's less "what if this happened slightly differently" and more "what if spider-man was a sentient vehicle" (for example)

[@user-zn5zr2ed3x]

Everything at once is actually response to multiverse nihilism, its anti multiverse, or at least its about weight of such idea

[@IssDiddy]

Starfields opening hours were really good, also refreshing to see a more grounded space setting, but the more you play starfield the worse it gets, not just the writing but the game itself, they’ve somehow gone backwards since Skyrim (which was kind of the first stepping stone)

[@publiusdos5925]

The ironic part is that the main plot of Starfield would actually work as a Skyrim sequel, with some meta commentary about restartitis, mods, and different player characters from different playthroughs. Elder Scrolls lore even implies a multiverse of sorts that always converges the same way after the games are over with. But doing that would require someone clever in the writing room.

[@MyAramil]

@@chuckles9767 Right? its like frosting on a cake, if the cake is shit, all you have is frosted shit. And no one likes frosted shit.

[@billjacobs521]

I strongly disagree; the opening hours are so bad it's literally a meme--"The game gets good after 12 hours!" You find a thing, you can't hardly talk about, random pirates attack, you leave, you are forced to follow the plot for a while (no exploration for you in this space exploration game!), you fight more random pirates, you finally get to Constellation and get dressed down by a bunch of losers who never actually DO anything, and finally start getting sent on what are practically radiant quests for a while. There's no energy to anything, it's all flat and lifeless--it's like if you went to a Renaissance festival and all the performers and vendors were bored and resented their jobs.

[@WK-47]

Skyrim was certainly a turning point, but it goes back much further since writing as well as RPG authenticity has been on the decline since Morrowind. Fallout 4 was arguably the first time the game struggled to make up for its narrative flaws, then 76 really exposed the cracks in the design as well as the engine (okay, it wasn't solely the work of BGS, but it's still a Bethesda product, and it seems they had more to do with it than it was initially suggested). It's why many players like me, who started their affair with Beth in the 2000s, grew to expect less of the game and more of the modding potential, but things have reached a point now where we're prepared for TES6 to nuke the franchise. It's a shame, but at least we'll always have the older, better games maintained by the community.

[@CarlzoneN]

It's because the rest of the game, like 95% is just copy pasted planets, quests, locations etc. so once you've played the fist few hours there's basically no new content. Starfield is a good example of quantity over quality.

[@Glinko]

Something about Bethesda releases across the studios working under it, is that the writing is more often than not is friggin atrocious. The example i've been burnt by is Rage 2, and what happened with Wolfenstein after The New Order.

[@miguelpereira9859]

Even Doom Eternal's story was a let down for me

[@JoshuaKevinPerry]

My favorite part was being a human e-mail system, delivering messages. If they were clever I'd think they were mocking FNV fans.

[@user-zn5zr2ed3x]

>new vegas mailman >Conquers whole region >Intergalactic explorer/colonist >Delivers mail

[@nomoredamnnamestouse]

Ironically we can do that better in real life, because at least we have working land vehicles here.

[@billjacobs521]

I almost wonder if the story was an afterthought. Like, maybe their initial idea was just to throw you into their massive world and the artifacts and powers were just things you could randomly find (or find via random side-quest), but eventually, a few atrophied neurons fired off somewhere and they at least managed to realize that would be a disaster. So they cobbled together this crap and stapled in on.

[@AndrewBrownK]

there is a checklist of space exploration tropes that they deeply admired and wanted to recreate in their own way, but they failed to synthesize and integrate it into a compelling and motivating whole

[@BananaGatorProds]

The more media surrounding Emil's shitty writing I consume the more I realize that this dude *really* needs to go to therapy for whatever the fuck happened during his childhood surrounding religion and religion adjacent things. It feels like almost every single story he writes he feels the need to relate it to religion in some way or another, specifically Catholicism. I dont think his "crisis of faith" had anything to do with the actual writing of Starfield's religions. I think it has to do with the fact he has some religion based mental trauma that he refuses to try and confront because when he does he has a complete breakdown. This is of course entirely speculation and likely isnt true. Point is the guy clearly has issues.

[@SpoopsAHoy]

I do want to mention that the scene where you are chased by The Hunter is actually entirely devoid of stakes and a sense of real danger. I found another analysis of starfield as it compares to Cyberpunk's DLC which really showcases Starfield inability to properly storyboard (Spoilers Below! I'll try to put it far enough into my comment so you need to click 'read more') The comparison of The Hunter's chase scene and the spider/crab-like machine that gets hijacked is startling. One is a spectacle of sheer robotic engineering and firepower, the other is a faceless dude who's got just any old weaponry. The dialog and fear from the President who you are safeguarding really exemplifies the horrible situation you are in and their scattered feelings as shit goes down. Everyone else in Starfield just repeats the same line over and over again. The sheer destruction of the spider bot is palpable, massive lasers that cut through concrete, it's turrets shred through steel like butter. The Hunter aimlessly walks around your ship waiting for you to take off. You're character V is emotive and expressive and gets into jams throughout the scene and it shows their characterisation well. The player in Starfield is mute and never changes animations. I could keep going, but I think you get the point I'm trying to convey. Bonus unrelated take: Genshin Impact, a game with a rather good story but asinine and crack adelid ability for 'storytelling' is still better than Starfield's slop.

[@Grobut81]

At this point, comparing Cyberpunk to Starfail almost feels like arranging a fight between a rabid pitbull, and a newborn toddler. The massacre is fun to watch for a little while, but over far too quickly.

[@el_buro]

Its devoid of stakes unless you have a bounty in UC because you're trying to get out of the city without your bounty increasing to the several hundred thousands

[@SmokersTars]

Ive been preparing a script for a Vid on Pagliarulo, and the hateful hack actually made enough noise where he's now in spotlight and it will feel wrong :C And yeah, the multiverse Idea made me thing that you'll be able to screw around with Main quests a lot in NG+. After seeying all they added, the whole thing just seemed wrong

[@Kaeram_Archives]

When you showed the comparison between Starfield's narrative trailer, and the Skyrim narrative trailer, I noticed two things: One: Starfield comes off very namby-pamby with the introduction, while Skyrim comes off very badass and exciting. A proper medieval fantasy to get you excited. And two: Skyrim's trailer still makes me all tingly inside after all these years. Starfield barely made me feel anything. Can we have games like Skyrim back, please?

[@themagalanium9491]

I wouldn't have a problem if it wasn't for the fact that there are fucking essential NPCs in a game about the Multiverse

[@geovane19]

I disagree with you on Far Harbor, but it would take too long to explain why and I'm lazy, but one thing I'll say is that nobody believed Far Harbor to be a writing masterpiece, just competent, which is far above what Bethesda managed to provide since Fallout 3.

[@ramireza6904]

Fun Fact: The same person that was responsible for Far Harbor was also responsible for the Starfield Main Quest.

[@Fernybun]

@@ramireza6904 how the mighty... no that's too much credit *ahem* , how the decent enough have fallen.

[@dudemantype]

Q: what's out there? A: Star born Q: who are they? A: no fucking idea. The end. Starfield, ladies and gentlemen.

[@Naruku2121]

You know what's sad, they could of leaned in to the whole multiverse concept in a way that worked. Have actual choice and consquence, remove essential tags on most if not all NPC's at some point. Let character's die let quests become incomplete-able as a result. Screw around in the first playthrough, go to the next universe, maybe there's some characters you want to try and save this time around so you can do certain quests. Maybe allow you to be more self-aware and mess with certain chars by telling them that they died in another universe or you killed them and have their reactions play out. Not perfect still, but it would feel like a sandbox and give reasons to NG+

[@Shadowhunterbg]

I wonder, did i get this right? In Starfield some scientist knew that inventing a grav drive will destroy Earth's atmosphere but did it anyway because it was worth it in the long run. So... if he knew that why didn't he invent in, idk, on the Moon? Or a space station?

[@fireballdick]

Because then Bethesda would have to make the earth an actual planet

[@publiusdos5925]

Because the scientist was operating with cartoon character logic, like all people in Bethesda RPGs since Fallout 4, (Skyrim was more of a mixed bag. The Thalmor may as well be running around yelling, "Cobra," and Harkon's plan in Dawnguard was on the same level as the grav drive mad scientist in Starfield.)

[@UmmerFarooq-wx4yo]

​@@publiusdos5925wrong... do I need to waste my time explaining it?

[@billjacobs521]

@@publiusdos5925 Skyrim has flaws but neither thing you mentioned was one inherently.

[@leonst.7471]

Its almost like commercialised corporate driven media sucks.

[@TheSultan1470]

oh really?

[@HolyApplebutter]

Honestly the worst thing Marvel has done is made it so multiverses get hated on just for existing. Don't get me wrong, I understand the feeling, but they're such a cool thing when done properly, as seen by Everything, Everywhere, All at Once, Spiderverse, and the first couple seasons of Rick & Morty. With them you're able to see the sometimes slight, sometimes massive variations left upon both characters and humanity, and allowing them to interact with one another. The number of stories that could be told with such a thing are endless. But then there's the MCU, who typically use it as nothing more as an excuse to put a different actor in the same suit. No substantial differences, maybe an excuse to throw X character into the plot, hell, it even spawned the idiotic line of "I love you in every universe." And as a result of the MCU's shit writing, it's gonna become a risk going anywhere near multiverses, and that's just kind of a shame.

[@billjacobs521]

So it's fine if you don't take it seriously and it's just a joke mechanic, or for stories where the whole point is "Everything you do is pointless."

[@HolyApplebutter]

@@billjacobs521 Sure, if you're fond of the most surface-level takes of a movie. It's more about the process of finding that nothing in life matters on a cosmic level and grappling between nihilism and absurdism. It's about appreciating the little things you have in life, and attempting to make the most out of the life you have rather than what could have been. It's about realizing that just because life doesn't have some grand purpose that you can't still create your own. Honestly its format is one of the strengths of the movie, as it can be enjoyed a goofy kung-fu action movie with multiverses and powers, while also having more under the hood.

[@HolyApplebutter]

@@billjacobs521 And that's not even mentioning you ignoring everything else I said just to diss one of the pieces of media I mentioned.

[@thefactory7221]

I liked Far Harbor because it has more endings than the main game, the latter of which has two, with four tones of "blow up the Institute" constituting half the choices. Looking back, there's only one real good ending for Far Harbor(the one where DiMa comes clean and you gather enough clout in the Harbor's denizens to *not* enact a witch hunt), and DiMa's only really endearing when he has Nick Valentine present to bounce a pingpong ball of NPC interaction... something most players won't know about unless you *exclusively* have Nick as your follower for every DiMa-related interaction. You can also be honest with the one-dimensional storytelling and blow up everybody on the island for funsies. By the way, I still find it weird that The Railroad thinks it's okay to neuter the Synths via blowing up their birthplace; the writers also missed a chance to have Poetic Justice be the Railroad ending, with the Institute being taken over by The Railroad. But then someone would have to write a questline where this victorious Railroad would have to fight The Brotherhood of Steel, and that seems like too much work when you can just attach a radiant quest system to the Settlements that Need Your Help.

[@johannlothe]

It feels like the people behind this game has never had an original thought or any sense of wonder ever in their entire lives. Shallow and pretense doesn't even begin to describe it.

[@B-zk9bt]

I thought Starfield was going pretty well, and then they dropped an awful multiverse reveal. It made everything I had been working towards, null. Because, my actions didn’t matter.

[@MyZk089]

What if we live in a multiverse in real life? Do our actions not matter then? Just asking for your take on it

[@BBaaaaa]

@@MyZk089 Really? They're talking about their actions in the context of *the game* and how it matters to the game, real life philosophy and applications into this just derails their point since real life is complex. Especially since our life isn't developed by bethesda and their habit of oversimplifying everything... lol

[@MyZk089]

I mean, saying that "my actions in a game didn't matter" is kind of silly, the actions in a game will never matter - it depends on how the game "rewards" you by saying "the world reacted like this and that to your actions" - the old school classic way of doing this is a slide at the end with a narrator droning about what your actions resulted in; Having a multiverse in the game doesn't really "make actions null and void" in and of itself - it's how the game rewards you, you can still have a narrator droning on in the end of the game, even if it's a multiverse or whatever, because you're still affecting "your own prime reality" :p@@BBaaaaa

[@wolfwing1]

sad thing is, the trailer could MAYBE be effective if the game felt even 1/1000th that exciting. The discovery of the artifacts is so profound and amazing and important that it could change everything....that not even your own fellow members are all that interested in it. And as soon as your done...you go to the next universe and nothing changes for them except your gone.

[@SeMetin]

Tbh. I'm pretty sure Earth is a barren wasteland because Bethesda would have to recreate every city on earth. Since you can land wherever you want that would be quite impossible.

[@BigBoyBelisaurus]

Probably. It still leaves a stench affecting the story.

[@Fernybun]

then why even set with a barren wasteland? explode the damn thing off, at least that would be more interesting than barren planet#1324 but it's named Earth

[@Nuniixo]

Just make a bunch of Megacities and the rest a wasteland as people moved from rural areas into the industrial and urban ones

[@SeMetin]

@@Nuniixo Bethesda's cities are incredibly small and terribly designed. I can't imagine them creating interesting megacities.

[@kylegivens3120]

Multiverses aren't the problem, it works just fine for an existing element within a setting. Bethesda's presentation of a multiverse is simply unsophisticated and ultimately pointless, because absolutely nothing is done but the same thing over and over again. Marvel and DC's presentation of multiverses are done for the sake of telling a completely different story or a slightly different story away from the main canon or just to tell a different version of a canonical storyline within that timeline, it works there in that regard, usually anyways.

[@unicyclepeon]

To me, Sarah Morgan was the MOST cringe part of the game, with the other Constellation members being close. The only character I actually liked, and identified with, was the HUNTER, because by the time I met him, I was already annoyed by the terrible story, so I was jaded and just ready to shoot everyone in Constellation. I liked the ship builder and the combat though.

[@sidvanhound]

I think you spent more time and effort creating this than Beth's team of story writers did with their job.

[@easternlights3155]

I think that even the oft-cited RPG fuck up of choices having no consequences could have worked in Starfield if handled properly. In Dragon Age II (spoilers follow) no matter what you do, one of your siblings dies, you lose your mother and the ending is the same no matter your choices, Kirkwall is torn apart and the Mage-Templar starts. The difference is, the writers made it the point of the game. The whole storyline is you fighting a losing battle and the quests are just damage control. The whole game plays out like a greek tragedy, so when there are no multiple endings, it doesn't feel disappointing, because the theme of the story that in a society as fucked up as this one, one person can do nothing to prevent it from collapsing. In the hands of better writers, Starfield could have pulled something similar.

[@wudan0]

youtube algo blessed you, put you in front page for me! Quality video! hope you grown and dont stop making videos mate! subbed!

[@nickjohnson3619]

Hack screen writers got more out multiverse theory than any physicists

[@acetrigger1337]

The way that Starfield pretends to have in-depth religion factions, but then just stick to the old "1 good, 1 questionable good, 1 raider" factions.

[@Gandhi_Physique]

I think multiverse is an interesting concept.. but it isn't done well in any media I have seen. I'm sure it could be done though.

[@dedokodo5]

Spiderverse?

[@Gandhi_Physique]

@@dedokodo5 I haven't watched a Marvel movie since the first Iron Man, with the exception of the 2 Deadpool movies.

[@marcuso.530]

​@dedokodo5 Spiderverse is a great example of this. Also, if you're not looking for superhero stuff, Everything everywhere all at once is the epitome of a great multiverse story. Both keep the story focused on the individual characters and their search for meaning, which is what every multiverse story should at least feature.

[@g4merboie789]

I like it in rick and morty. It shows how stupid it is most times, but the fact that what Rick hates is himself kinda creates a parallel with parts of your personality that you know are bad. Other than that, it's a good way to make fun but inconsequential stories.

[@dragani2330]

Multiverse is an excuse for bad writing. Plain and simple. Dead characters are resurrected, everything exists in all variations infinitely. Nothing has any meaning, no action any logic consequence. Just switch universe, done. Worse than all these time travel movies, they at least follow a limited number of timelines, so actions have irreversible impacts. But they also lack logic, using multiverse aspects to fix the worst logic plot holes.

[@marcuso.530]

I respect your opinion on multiverse stories and humbly disagree with it. I enjoy multiverse stories. The only thing that is wrong with them is when they are written horribly (excluding spiderverse, the MCU and starfield fall into this list). It's like time travel. I HATE time travel stories, but when they're written good, I can somewhat get behind them.

[@christophertrost8017]

Did anybody else find the moment that you visit your first alien temple and gain a gravity-based superpower to be "genre breaking"? This was a sci-fi exploration game (sort of) and what you discover are various superpowers. I quit playing the game for 3 weeks when that little reveal happened.

[@radicalcentrist4990]

I have no problem playing games with bad stories either, but if the story is supposed to be the point, then no, that's just a bad game.

[@havocthehobbit]

multiverses done well can be great. I think time travel in non time travel centric mediums is the the most egregious mechanism .

[@MyAramil]

This. I am hating time travel in most franchises as it just does not make sense or is so ill thought out.

[@KaineMikulas]

Multiverse stories aren’t inherently terrible, but introducing them to stories that aren’t already based around them sets it up for failure. Everything Everywhere All At Once and the Spider-Verse movies are properties that START with these ideas in mind, hence their success. Tacking them on last minute without buildup is why it’s so bad

[@LordCritish]

The most important aspect of the new, and hip team at Bethesda is their pink and violet hair colors.

[@TheSultan1470]

Eugh, reminds me of my hemorrhoids

[@claireastral4429]

Cringe is a compliment for starfield's writing, as if it had a personality to be called cringe, void of all soul and humanity is a better description, at least they hit rock bottom and can only go up from here, right?

[@xxfalconarasxx5659]

Multiverses aren't inherently bad. Multiverses are a central plot element in games like Half Life and Remnant, and both of those games are excellent. The problem with the depiction of multiverses in Starfield and the MCU is that in the former, it only exists to justify New Game Plus in universe, and in the latter, it exists for the purpose of lazy nostalgia bait, allowing for crossovers without breaking established canon. In Half Life and Remnant, the multiverse isn't portrayed as near identical parallel universes, but vast alien worlds that incite mystery and intrigue in the players exploring them.

[@billjacobs521]

I like how a third of the comments are just defending the device of multiverses. Guys, they are generally shit. Even Star Trek's multiverse stories are pretty shit. Just having an alternate universe where random things are tweaked is not interesting, it's just random. The only value they have is in the character writing, telling some personal story of how the CHARACTER changed as a result of their experiences, but that's a pretty universal rule, and generally requires ignoring the multiverse as much as possible in a story ABOUT it.

[@georgeoldsterd8994]

Characters forgiving the PC for past transgressions was a thing in Fallout 3 as well. The best example that comes to mind is in Point Lookout, where you're given the chance to betray Desmond and blow up his base of operations (the manor he hangs out in), only for him to show up in the evil brain's lab some time later, giving you "one last chance".

[@bread7932]

Never dawn on me before but in the Skyrim trailer the "nobody wanted to believe... believe they even exist" part doesn't make sense considering one was used to conquer the Summer-set Island by Tiber Septum.

[@artemisfowldragon]

I think the only good executions of a Multiverse film are basically the ones that focus on different “Yous” instead of “Look at these different places we’re desperately trying to make look interesting”. Examples are the Spiderverse movies and Everything Everywhere All at Once

[@Metal-Gamer999]

I love your takes and editing style. Keep up the good work!

[@notlekrut]

Multiverse storylines aren't inherently bad. The issue is that it's usually done poorly. It can be done properly

[@DearMink_X]

Why couldn't they just make the grav drive on mars

[@BigBoyBelisaurus]

A simple question that undermines the entire "shock reveal".

[@DearMink_X]

@@BigBoyBelisaurus I forgot the exact reason why the scientist went on with making the grav drive on Earth but I'm pretty sure it was because he was being influenced by a Starborn and believed that humanity needs to get out into the stars in order to find the artifacts and become a grander species no? If you just let it be built on Mars then humanity wouldn't be down like 7-10 billion people, meaning there'd be billions more to find artifacts, billions more to help build ships and get settlements down and of course Earth wouldn't be destroyed and there'd be more time to research better technology with all of the labs or equipment and top scientists who would've been killed on Earth.

[@Juhno]

Skyrim was fun. And it looked nice (mountains, northern lights, snow..). But it was too big, too shallow, generally quests and NPCs were meh. And that plot was wank. Especially that civil war stuff.

[@storkyfallout6516]

Congrats on blowing up mate. Expecting good things from ya.

[@LilPorcelynDoll]

Don't forget they wouldn't even allow you to agree with Matteo that dreams were important. The conversations were so full of flowery words it just felt like someone wanting to sound smart but who really wasn't and just used big words to fool you. It made me so uncomfortable I just pushed on to the awful end. Also seriously no one saved any animals, not even pets? WTF Chocolate Labs

[@grayearly3116]

Yeah I never bought the game because I never could understand what it was about from the trailers, but it seems the game was indeed about nothing.

[@ertymexx]

I disagree about the beginning. I have never felt so forced into a story as in the beginning of this game. But I agree with the rest. Starfield has no real theme, and despite that it still fails with its teams. 😛

[@AraiiarA]

Multiverse has the potential to be a fantastic storytelling tool, focusing on characters mainly. It's really overused now for pure hype and nostalgia bait though, but I swear when it's done properly multiverses can probide so much characterization, focusing on the "what ifs" For example: In another universe Starfield was a good game with a good story. Wouldn't that be cool to explore?

[@PhoebeTheFairy56]

One example of a unique thing you could do with the multiverse is exploring interpersonal connections between people from different universes

[@Umbra_Ursus]

Unfortunately, that *could* be one of the universes: Say, that universe had a starborn that actually figured out the point of all this space magic crap. Maybe he's concluded it's the classic "Things beyond our understanding", maybe it's all some alien experiment, maybe it's literally just us playing with radioactive alien trash and thinking it's something cool... Literally any other than "It's shiny space stuff, so we want it".

[@user-zn5zr2ed3x]

Multiverses always kill any weight to the story because, you know, we watch one of the what if, and ultimately its doesn't matter because other equaly important what if happens, will happen, and already happened

[@AraiiarA]

@@user-zn5zr2ed3x not "always". Look at stuff like Everything Everywhere All At Once, or Spiderverse. They work because they understood how to use the concept of it properly, and because it was the intended design from the start.

[@billjacobs521]

@@AraiiarA The only reason EEAAO worked was because the whole point was that it doesn't matter. So, fine, there's ONE story you can tell.

[@TheZamaron]

I find the line from the trailer really funny “human settlements throughout the galaxy”. I play alot of Sci Fi, I play Star Trek Online and watched a video talking about the stellar cartography of our galaxy in relation to fiction, and Starfield’s setting is barely out of the core systems of Star Trek’s Federation, which is a very small section of a quadrant. Man this game’s setting is so small scale.😂😂😂

[@siyzerix]

Multiverses CAN be done interestingly IF they're well thought out. For example, have some realistic boundaries for them. Like they can only be just variations of the most basic variables of our universe. For example a universe where the speed of light is slightly different or massively different, etc. That way you can have universes where its pure energy, pure void, etc. Another rule you could have is no 2 universes can be exactly the same and must not be having the same time. As in they can't have the same exact laws of physics/basic variables. It can be close, very close, but not the same. This could make each universe truly unique and avoid the issue of infinite versions of the same universe. Or mitigate it by a lot. Another aspect would be time. A universe much younger than our own or one much older or another one a similar age. You can combine all these to create universes where life is possible and others where its not. The expanse sorta does hint at a multiverse given the ring space occupies a space in a much older universe with completely different laws of physics. This is the type of stuff you don't see in mainstream Sci fi. And it is 100% more interesting than the crap we're fed today. Multiverse is just an excuse to sideline your decisions. It just irks me how much lack of creativity is in most multiverses. Just the same stuff over and over again.

[@MyAramil]

A multiverse novel that utilizes it fairly well is Neal Steaphenson's Anathem, (spoilers so if you have not read or listened, skip this please) In the novel, the planet is visited by aliens in a large ship, It turns out that the aliens are humans from other universes, They had found a way to one way travel to a new universe. It also takes a lot of energy to do so, so Its not like they can just do it all willy nilly

[@Erowens98]

Bethesda became so concerned with making money they forgot how they used to make money.

[@travisadams6279]

Soon as I saw you reference Mauler I knew this was gonna be good. Great video.

[@skipperbentdk]

It had strong female characters 10/10 in ESG Score

[@homiesoprano]

Oblivion > Skyrim New Vegas > Fallout 4

[@goreobsessed2308]

I think thats why alot of us like far harbor their isnt any straight out good group to work with. You just make the best choices you can.

[@BigBoyBelisaurus]

Yes, but it's only because none of the key NPCs can think straight. Not because the issues they face are as complex as they make them to be.

[@tudomerda]

The first mod I installed was the "skip dialogue" mod, and then I uninstalled the game as I couldn't stand the copy paste of everything.

[@EinFelsbrocken]

Hilarious writing and editing. Good shit; its gonna blow up! 😁

[@grimreaper63151]

3:14 from what I heard, far harbor’s story was written by some one else. So the person who wrote the vanilla story for fallout 4 I don’t think had anything to do with it. The writer for vanilla fallout 4 however, did also write the story for starfield

[@ramireza6904]

Wrong. The Person that was responsible for Far Harbor (Will Chen) was also responsible for the Main Storyline of Starfield.

[@grimreaper63151]

@@ramireza6904 never mind then .3. Thought I heard different