Bethesda is a gaming giant that made its mark on the industry through franchises such as Fallout and The Elder Scrolls. Both franchises have been wildly successful, solidifying Bethesda as a master of crafting immersive open-worlds that players can lose themselves in for years. For its next release, Bethesda has decided to make a risky move and release a new IP (as all new IPS carry inherent risks) titled Starfield. As the name might suggest, it is a sci-fi game that will allow players to take to the stars and explore foreign planets and their foreign ecosystems.

It has been revealed that Starfield is an unimaginably massive game that will feature over a thousand planets. As players adventure across different star systems, they will come across other life forms. Hopefully, humans are not the smartest folks around, and there are alien races that are also intelligent and capable of advanced reasoning. Having them around will allow the game to critique humans and make insightful commentary on the species. Furthermore, as complex as humans are, they are quite boring compared to the aliens that could be dreamed up, and players should have the opportunity to shed their Homo sapiens skin in favor of something a little more outlandish.

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Alien Races Are an Opportunity to Critique Humans

starfield planetscape

During 2022's Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase, players got to learn a bit more about the upcoming space game. It begins in the year 2330 in The Settled Systems, which is an area of the Milky Way where humans have set up camp and colonized. It is a rare time of relative peace because, during twenty years prior, there was a heated conflict between two factions called the Freestar Collective and the United Colonies. Players enter the game during this time of peace, motivated by the desire to discover what lies beyond the horizon. The game plants itself firmly in the sci-fi genre, and it is influenced by sci-fi franchises such as Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica.

The story presented is an interesting one. However, it is also a somewhat cliche one that has been explored several times throughout sci-fi, including in franchises such as The Expanse. The idea of humans warring in space in the future is a tired trope, and unless Starfield can throw something new in or innovatively approach the trope, it is likely to feel uninspired to anyone familiar with sci-fi. This does not mean that the game is doomed to fail - plenty of games have taken relatively simple plots and managed to wow the whole gaming world - but it does not give much confidence that the game will have an engrossing or unique story.

One of the ways Bethesda can spice things up is by ensuring that players do not always see things from the perspective of humans, forcing players to critique their species. This can be done by including intelligent alien species in Starfield who can look upon the human race and form their own opinions on them. The game could do this by featuring cutscenes from the perspective of aliens who are watching humans colonize the stars and may have harsh opinions about it, or at the very least, have alien companions or NPCs who comment on this expansion.

Alternatively, Bethesda could allow Starfield players to choose an alien race as one of the playable characters, which would make replays far more interesting. During one playthrough, gamers could see things from a human perspective, and during a second playthrough, they could be part of an alien faction that loathes humans for good reasons. However, from what has been shown of the character creator at the Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase, it does not seem like this will be a possibility.

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The benefit of having aliens in Starfield is that they can provide an outsider's perspective, which can encourage players to look at their species in new ways. This opens up the door for the game to make some pretty clever critiques of various aspects of human nature, including the incessant desire to acquire and control, and the seemingly unavoidable impulse to war. Having alien species that are more intelligent than humans could also be a humbling experience, especially if they have lots to say about the human race.

Humans Are Too Boring For Starfield

starfield created character

Starfield's character creator is impressively robust, and players can mold all aspects of their character's physical characteristics, right down to their body size, skin tone, and walking style. Players can also alter their character's personality by selecting a background and traits which determine what skills they will start with. Although it takes inspiration from past Bethesda games, this is easily the studio's most ambitious character creator to date, and players will likely spend hours getting their playable character just right.

Regardless of how much customization is available, it is impossible to cloak the fact that humans are just too boring for a game like Starfield. It does not matter if the human is a cyberneticist or a blue-skinned chef; in a game where players can jump between planets aboard a spaceship, they will always be wondering about other intelligent species. Bethesda can give players all the guns and cool outfits possible, but a little green guy with pointy ears is still going to be infinitely more interesting. For a game as large as Starfield, it would be great if players could witness the universe from different perspectives, and not be limited to the viewpoint of humans.

At present, not much is known about Starfield, and Bethesda may still have plenty of tricks up its sleeves. Although no intelligent alien species have been revealed yet, it does not mean that they will not make an appearance. Already, gamers have found clues about intelligent life in the Starfield trailer, which does raise one's hope that they will be encountering intelligent aliens. Regardless, after the long wait, gamers are more than ready to start their space journey.

Starfield is scheduled to release in 2023 on PC and Xbox Series X/S.

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