Starfield is the first new IP that Bethesda has worked on in decades, and many fans are excited to see what the developer comes up with for its new science-fiction space epic. Games like Mass Effect have already had a huge influence on recent RPGs set in space, and telling a new original story this late in the game will be no easy task for the Skyrim studio.
Judging by the initial images and teasers released for Starfield, Bethesda appears to be going in a relatively “hard science fiction” direction with the game’s genre, which could help distinguish it from past RPGs as well as other Bethesda franchises. With that in mind, here are 5 sci-fi tropes the developer should avoid in Starfield.
Humanoid Aliens
Different entries in the sci-fi genre have dealt with alien species in wildly different ways. Shows like Star Trek had many aliens which were almost biologically identical to humans, even coming up with an explanation deep in the franchises’ lore. Ultimately, this was easier to produce with human actors and makeup, but as a result of the establishment of the trope, even video games like the Mass Effect series have some very human-looking alien species despite not being limited to human actors.
If Starfield has aliens, which is likely if the game’s open-world is going to feel lived-in and worth exploring, Bethesda should avoid making them similar to humans. Starfield’s aliens could push the boundaries of what players’ are able to empathize with, and its aliens could be far more interest if they challenge players with completely different forms of expression. In short, they could be alien in more than just their superficial appearance, and through that players could explore more than just physical space but also be confronted with different ways of experiencing that universe.
MacGuffins
Bethesda RPGs are generally known for their level of freedom and their opportunities for exploration, not the strength of their main plots. As a result, both the Bethesda-produced Fallout games and The Elder Scrolls series tend to have stories which focus on finding a single arbitrary object made central to the plot, also known as a MacGuffin.
Starfield needs to tell as story which finds a way to synthesize Bethesda’s famous levels of freedom with more creative and character-driven storytelling tropes. If players find the plot is driven by a search for an obscure object of immense power, it is likely even the space setting will not be able to make Starfield feel like a brand new experience for seasoned RPG fans who have already played TES and Fallout.
The Chosen One (In Space!)
With the new Dune movie right around the corner, one of the most famous hard sci-fi franchises has been thrown back into the spotlight, but there’s one big trope used in the books that Starfield needs to avoid to tell a new story that will separate it from both other space epics and the studio’s previous titles. From Paul Atreus to Neo to the Dragonborn, certain sci-fi stories establish their main character as the “chosen one” with special inherent abilities that make them vital to the story.
Starfield needs to tell a story where the player’s motivation aligns with the player characters, not one where they are compelled to act by a unique fact they find out about themself. Ideally, Starfield would hit the right emotional beats in the right places to draw the character into the main plot without discovering that they are inherently tied to it.
In Skyrim, the player is only really drawn into the main story through the discovery that they have a dragon’s soul and are the only person who can stop the end times. The Starfield protagonist shouldn’t feel like such an arbitrary blank-slate – the game should tell that character's story, even if the character and their decisions are chosen by the player. If it can pull that off it might feel like a truly next-generation RPG.
Human Super Genius
It’s a common sci-fi trope to have one character who is unimaginably intelligent. This trope is common across all different types of science fiction from Doctor Who to Shuri or Tony Stark in the MCU. Even Obsidian’s recent space-opera RPG The Outer Worlds features a character based heavily on Rick Sanchez from Rick and Morty, in turn a parody of Doc Brown from Back to the Future, showing just how pervasive this trope is but also how oversaturated the genre is with it.
Science fiction doesn’t have to be made interesting by the presence of humans with super intelligence – one of the most fascinating things about human scientific process is its ability to proceed without the need for individual genius, with space exploration one of the best examples of human cooperation and people standing on the shoulders of giants rather than individuals taking credit. In any case, it’s an overused character at this point, and Starfield could be driven to tell a more interesting story if Bethesda avoids this trope.
One Planet, One Biome
Star Wars is a big perpetrator of this trope. Each planet, despite usually being habitable with breathable air and stable gravity, only has one biome. There are desert planets, ice planets, ocean planets, and the alien races on them tend to be themed as such. Earth has a huge range of biodiversity, and Starfield shouldn’t reduce each planet to a single theme. Otherwise, it begs the question why the story should be set in space at all if planets only end up representing different biomes found on earth.
For now, however, many of the main details about Starfield and its plot have yet to be released. With Bethesda’s recent acquisition by Microsoft, many fans are looking forward to the company’s future with equal anticipation and trepidation. Starfield could be a game-changer for Bethesda, but if the studio is embarking on its first new IP in years, it will also likely need to make sure that the story it tells feels just as original if the game is going to be a success.
Starfield is currently in development.