Following the reveal of the next big Bethesda RPG Starfield, director Todd Howard disclosed some further details about the game, claiming it will be "NASA meets Indiana Jones meets the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen."
Howard spoke with the Telegraph via a video call following the showcase during the Microsoft/Bethesda Games E3 2021 event. The trailer for the game revealed no gameplay but instead presented a cinematic that focuses the visual aesthetic and overall tone of the game. Unlike exaggerated futuristic interpretations of science-fiction such as Fallout, Bethesda opted for a more grounded style inspired by NASA. Howard said, "This isn't Star Wars, or Star Trek, it's kind of its own thing – and I think as we show more, hopefully, it'll carve out its own niche. It's still a game but it does like to give you this sense of, 'I buy the reality of it', right?"
The realistic NASA influence is evident in the design of the ship presented in the cinematic. While still an evolution on the current technology, aesthetically it maintains a practical and complex appearance.
"So if you look at the ship – you can probably design a much sleeker ship 300 years in the future, right? But this has touchstones back to the current space programme," explained Howard. "So in your mind, you can draw this line between them. Like there's various guns the player has, and other weapons and things like that… but the more exotic ones feel exotic in the reality of the game versus not."
While Howard teased that some more advanced sci-fi elements would still appear in the game, his comments suggest they will not be commonplace. He also explains that the developers did extensive research to help create a more realistic take on space travel. Howard said the developers went so far as to speak to Elon Musk's SpaceX team to better understand the logistics of some of the game's intended concepts.
The game's Indiana Jones inspiration comes from its emphasis on exploration and discovery. Starfield is set to be enormous, learning from the longevity of games such as The Elder Scrolls series. Players will have a large degree of control over their character through several elaborate roleplaying features. Howard said, "It's got some really great character systems – choosing your background, things like that. We're going back to some things that we used to do in games long ago that we felt have really let players express the character they want to be. So I think when you see it being played, you would recognize it as something we made."
Starfield is an RPG developed by Bethesda Game Studios and will release on Nov. 11, 2022 exclusively for Xbox Series X|S and PC.
Source: Telegraph