There’s a quote from Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy that I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. “Space is big,” he writes. “You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the drug store, but that’s just peanuts to space.”
Starfield may as well put this quote on the cover page of its design document. The deafening prerelease hype for the game emphasizes its inclusion of “over 1,000 planets,” across hundreds of realistically rendered star systems throughout the galaxy. That promotion has also focused on just how much stuff there is to do across those myriad planets; Bethesda Head of Publishing Pete Hines said in a recent interview with IGN that he’s spent 150–160 hours in the game and “hasn’t even come close” to seeing everything.
So, I love Daggerfall. Daggerfall is one of my favorite games, I still haven’t finished the main story mostly because I keep getting distracted doing side quests and personal goals. Daggerfall is also ridiculously big, I believe it’s one of the largest games ever. It’s also got some very bland towns outside of the major cities. I’m ok with that, because it kinda makes sense that this random town I wandered into is 6 houses and a tavern. That works for a medieval fantasy game, especially because Daggerfall is so damn charming with everything it does. Thing is, Daggerfall is pretty far removed from today’s Bethesda. And if Bethesda promised what Daggerfall is, today. I wouldn’t believe them. I see Star Field as a sci fi Daggerfall, but I just don’t believe they’ll nail it in the way necessary for that largely empty space to be charming like Daggerfall is. I say this mostly because of how bland I felt their recent games characteristics are. I’d be happy to be proven wrong tho, and maybe I’ll try it out some time in the future.