Cyberpunk's storytelling makes Starfield seem ancient
Cyberpunk's storytelling makes Starfield seem ancient
Starfield's storytelling can't compete with modern greats.
This article speaks right out of my soul, when comparing Starfield and Cyberpunk 2077 2.0.
The quest qualtiy itself is comparable, but the delivery of Starfield makes it solely my job to create immersion (which I can and will do), while Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 grabs me by my balls and drags me into the world.
Spoiler for a small quest in Cyberpunk
When the barkeeper leans slightly forward, looks carefully right and left to make sure no one is listening and then tells me he suspects his wife sees someone else, I smell his parfume and I notice he relaxes his hurting back by stemming his arms onto the desk, because he is doing a double shift. Having Silverhand commenting on every step of the quest and turning it into a noir detctive story, making fun of me, added more immersion to a "follow person, report back"-mission. That I then can just call the quest giver on the phone, as a normal being would feels life like.
A similar quest in Starfield:
I talked to the barkeeper in Starfield from the wrong angle and he only turned his head and it was very uncanny valley, because over the whole conversation I was questioning how he can still talk with a broken neck.47Every Starfield quest:
Questgiver: "Hello, I don't know you stranger, and I don't trust outsiders. Can I help you? Oh, you want a quest? This evil company in Neon does bad shit and I need you to inject this virus and make sure it doesn't get back to me. Also, the mayor here is evil AF. Don't say that out loud, he has ears everywhere. I trust you stranger with my life. Have 8000 creds for picking up my mail, and 2000 creds and a unique purple gun for blowing up half of the city."
30I talked to the barkeeper in Starfield from the wrong angle and he only turned his head and it was very uncanny valley, because over the whole conversation I was questioning how he can still talk with a broken neck.
They might have fixed it by now but a certain little fortune teller has a very similar issue in an elevator in cyberpunk.
17For a fortune teller, that's a feature
7After helping him out I had a certain Ripperdoc showing which arm he operates with by raising it. Only his arm rotated backwards as if his elbow was turned around 180 degrees, arm clipping through his biceps.
But at least in Cyberpunk I've got the feeling that a bug like this is an honest oversight, whereas Starfield gives me the feeling that Creation Engine (2.0 these days?) should have have been killed, burned and buried after Skyrim. Each game since (and including) Oblivion I've felt like I'm looking at limitations I already noticed in the previous game built with Creation Engine or NetImmerse/GameBryo.
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Starfield is ancient according to the developers, they’ve been working on it for 25 years
40If this is work of 25 years, it's honestly quite sad.
26It's always like this.
When you work on something for longer than 5 years, the tech and expectations from competing games will run ahead of you.
And you can't just rewrite the story and engine and map and characters every time you get delayed.
So you should just shoot every AAA project that lags more than 5 years on the spot. It's way too late for it at that time. And start from market analysis, not just rewriting everything in the 'current engine and style'.
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Bethesda makes Starfield seems ancient.
39They're good at that. I remember trying Skyrim when it was new and we all didn't know there would be like 15 rereleases and it felt weirdly dated. I couldn't really put my finger on why, it just felt old.
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I absolutely don’t get why Bethesda sold Starfield as a "new generation rpg". It’s nothing but an archaic game with old mechanics. Don’t get me wrong, I’m really enjoying my time on the game so far (30/40h).
22I think what starfield is missing is full body animations that go along with conversations, seeing NPCs pick stuff up or pace around while talking and communicating through body language
21Both are behind Baldurs Gate if we're making comparisons.
17well, yeah. It's a Bethesda game, of course their storytelling is bland af
15I know everyone says it, but FUCK they should let Obsidian do the writing, and they need to drop that ancient game engine. Microsoft has probably killed this company.
Fallout: New Vegas had some of their best story telling. The Outer Worlds had awesome lore too. I'm really surprised they didn't bring them along.
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Bethesda has put themselves in an awkward spot by promoting niche and deep RPG mechanics for so long, and then becoming such a AAA developer with entire keynotes dedicated to previewing them that they no longer want to risk making deeper complex mechanics because they're scared of "confusing" the base audience.
I want to say they need to take Starfield as a wakeup call, in comparison to games like BG3. But they don't need to, because Gamepass numbers are practically imaginary sales numbers, and we're just going to hear about how well it sold for the next half-decade.
13Lemon juice makes oranges seem sweet.
10Don't get me wrong, I love starfield, but the creation engine and faux rpg thing they have going is starting to heavily show its age.
3Starfield bad. Cyberpunk good
0Neither Cyberpunk nor Starfield are rushing to win any awards for their writing. I’m playing the expansion for Cyberpunk at the moment and it’s average at best.
-2Mass Effect and Dragon Age makes Cyberpunks story telling feel ancient as well in my very firm opinion.
-2You're welcome to your opinion but those are some old games. Are you sure it's better or is it nostalgia?
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Soyberpunk vs Shartfield is a really hard argument.
-3Thank you for being this obvious.
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