Starfield & Fallout 4 Share Bethesda’s Greatest Open-World Design Flaw

06.05.2024 - 11:15 / screenrant.com / Ben Brosofsky

and represent fairly different implementations of Bethesda's open-world formula, but when it comes to their shortcomings, they both end up falling into the same trap. There's always a certain level of familiarity to Bethesda RPGs, from the strong points like worlds full of varied possibilities, to the weaker elements like outdated engine design. Not everything has stayed the same over the years, however, and the newer ideas in and are exactly why they don't measure up to the best qualities of Bethesda's most memorable games.

Although bringing the series into a 3D first-person perspective might be the biggest shift in the franchise, 's changes feel like more of a breaking point in the series in some core regards. One particular bummer was the switch to a voiced protagonist, which resulted in a simplified dialogue system that lacked the clarity and richness of prior games from Bethesda. In this case, ended up going back to the tried-and-true formula instead of following in its footsteps, but some added features that proved more generally popular have stuck around to cause more insidious problems.

The ability to build highly customized and complex settlements was one aspect of that made it stand out. Settlements are a balance of both aesthetic design choices and management demands, and they play into a gameplay loop of improving equipment to tackle the Wasteland more effectively. follows these up with a similar system of building outposts, but looking at both games in overview, it's easy to see how the mechanic is causing problems with the experiences as a whole.

In both cases, building a settlement or outpost can be a cool way to feel a sense of impact on the world of the game, and it contributes in some capacity to the idea of RPG freedom that Bethesda cultivates. It can also make coming back to the game time and time again more attractive, even after completing story content. For those uninterested in these systems, they can mostly be ignored after some minimal engagement, which can make them seem like innocuous additions.

Unfortunately, examining the opening hours of is one good way to see how quickly the settlement focus can negatively impact the game. The opening hours in the wastelands of and are immediately exciting, with the interesting locations of Megaton and Goodsprings immediately beckoning. In, those hubs of possibility are replaced with the significantly less involving area of Sanctuary, where the quests available are generally focused on settlement-building rather than memorable characters or forays into the rich lore and texture of

The sense of emptiness in might work for a wasteland setting, but it isn't great for the series, and confronting players with a world to build up rather