StarfieldisBethesda’s swing at space realism. The developer dubbed it NASApunk,a phrase that previously didn’t even have a meaning, in an attempt to coin a word that would accurately describe Starfield’s more grounded, realistic brand of science fiction. In many respects, Bethesda succeeds. Starfield feels like one of many possible futures, one where humans are a spacefaring species intent on colonising whatever they feel like, in which we arestillat war with each other, in which corruption and capitalism have a vice grip on our societies even after hundreds of years among the stars.
In many ways though, its realism is a hindrance. There are so many ways in which staying true to life ends up in a gameplay system that makes me want to tear my hair out. For one, it takes ages to fly between planets in your ship, which means I fast travel everywhere – I don’t feel very strongly about this,because I was going to do that anyway, butmany players have taken issue with it. I’mconstantly trying to find ways to make moneybecause I never have enough credits to purchase a new ship. And god damn it, the injury system makes my head hurt.
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In Starfield, there are a whopping 18 status effects called ‘afflictions’, each needing a specific item to cure it. I got Frostbite from loitering around the Red Mile too long, and I’d left my Heal Paste on the ship, so I had to risk the coldagainto get to it. I fractured one of my limbs in a fight with a shockingly large and hostile creature, which I needed an Immobilizer to fix. Get an infection? Antibiotics. A puncture wound? Bandages. Brain injury? An injector.
Each status effect has a prognosis, describing how likely you are to heal from it on your own. The prognosis gets better with time, but you only begin to recover from it at a certain point. Some afflictions cause secondary effects, like laceration causing ‘pain’, which drains oxygen every time you take damage. I get it, it’s supposed to reflect real life, but goddamnif it isn’t annoying. Healing afflictions don’t heal your health, either, and you know how in Skyrim food can do a pretty good job of healing you? Not so in Starfield. I picked up so many Chunks trying to stockpile for an emergency in which I ran out of medpacks, only to realise each heals like, five health maximum. At this point, it’s easier to hunt down a doctor and beg them to fix me. Mass Effect’s omnigel, a weird medical sludge that healed any and all ailments, would be preferable to Starfield’s litany of realistic medication.
It’s not like everything in Starfield is realistic, which is why this one upsets me so much. The developers obviously tried to balance realism with fun and practicality, but it seems like a lot of the game’s realism is manifested in making things slower and more finicky. It’s important to ground the game’s story, yes, especially because the main quest has you chasing down mysterious artefacts. But when it comes to actually playing the game, realistic mechanics weigh the game down as much as one too many adaptive frames in my backpack.
