The worst part is that it wouldn’t be that hard to “up” the level of Bethesda games. More focus on the writing, both story and characters would go a long way.
Dropping the whole “It’s one big world, no transitions.” goal. Make cities huge, with transitions and fill them with stuff and people. More “inhabited biomes” so to speak.
Choice & Consequence. Having different paths the players can go down. Locking players out of certain content and areas because of their choice, isn’t a bad thing. It just encourages multiple playthroughs. As well as adding multiple ways to dealing with a problem.
Not forcing motivation or character upon the player. The “chasing after a loved one” motivation in Fallout is terrible. And being a ‘shiny superman’ in both TES and Fallout is boring. We need more grey-area to move around in.
There’s clearly more that could be added to the list. But these four points alone would elevate their games to a more passable grade.
I honestly haven’t seen anyone write about ‘how bug free’ the games is.
Most of the praise I see usually revolves around it being a complete game, a big game, nonexistent microtransactions, the characters, the story, the freedom, even how pretty it is. But not that it’s bug free.
Because it’s definitely not without bugs. Hell, there’s a lot of small details that could do with tune-up. And some got addressed in this patch. And I’m looking forward to Patch 2 as it’s supposed to improve load-time, which would be very nice indeed.
Oh no, there’s absolutely effort put into the graphics. It’s just everything else that’s missing.
The overall writing and direction in Bethesda’s games is piss poor as they haven’t prioritized it in some time. Even TES suffers from this. But I guess that’s more about the crowd they’re trying to appeal to.
It’s all cool if you like Bethesdas version of the Fallout world. But not everyone else subscribes to it.
And for reasons that are quite valid. As Beth’ has deviated far from the roots of the franchise.
In my personal opinion, I think what irks me the most is that all of Bethesdas missteps are fairly easily fixable. They just seem to refuse to do so for some reason.
A bit more focus on the overall writing would go a long way and wouldn’t have to interfere with the gameplay in the least for people who don’t care. It’s an intricate part of world-building for those that do enjoy it and serves to drive the player forward. Also helps the ‘suspension of disbelief’ and all that.
They don’t need to reach the heights of the old CRPG makers of the 90’s. Just make sure your “Antagonist” has a proper response when you put in an option to ask him Why he’s doing what he’s doing, you know? Stuff like that. As well as maybe not retconning the timeline of the universe just to fit an inconsequential quest-line and then recon it again in the next game… Stick to the established lore.
Secondly: Better implementation of a few new/borrowed features, like base building, that might fit the game. Instead of haphazardly throwing everything currently trending at the wall in the hope that some of it sticks. Take one thing and do it proper, otherwise just don’t do it at all.
Then there’s the Radiant-Quests in F4. This is just a poor excuse so as to not bother with making actual side-quests. There is a limit to how far they can execute their motto of “Keep it simple, stupid.” This is one of those limits.
There’s probably a couple of other things I’m forgetting. But I feel these little changes would help elevate Beth’ just a bit out of the meme-pit they’re currently in.
At the risk of sounding like a cynical bastard, I’m gonna address some of your points.
Just let me start off with: If you enjoy the games, great. More power to you.
The lack of depth isn’t just reserved to the RPG mechanics. The story, the dialog, the characters… everything is lacking in depth. All the “Environmental Story Telling” in the world can’t make up for the neglected writing.
And everything that has been added isn’t new by any stretch of the imagination. It’s all borrowed from other current franchises, then half-assed and shoveled in by Bethesda. The loot system being one of the few things that actually works as intended.
Pac-Man is old as balls and I haven’t seen anyone trying to pass it off as something new. Hell, even The Legend of Zelda series still follow the exact same premise of the very first game on the NES. The sequels get bigger, smoother and more beautiful. But it’s still the same game at it’s core, because it actually works.
Next point: All games launch buggy. Yep, and it has become a bit of a meme with Bethesda for a reason. Their newest games still have the same game-breaking bugs in them as Morrowind did. Some have even gotten worse. The modding community are literally fixing the same stuff, every title. Which is amazing, as Beth keeps updating their crappy Engine, but at no point in 21 years did they take the time to iron this shit out.
I do agree that we shouldn’t be shitting on a game before it comes out. But it’s not like people have zero idea what they are in for. From what has been shown, Starfield just looks like Fallout 4 with a fresh coat of paint. And there is a bit of a track-record to back most of the assumptions up.
As i said: If you like the road they have been taking with their games and you enjoy them. Keep enjoying them.
I think there’s just a general sense of disappointment from a lot of old players. And it builds up fast in the echo-chambers of the internet and can come off as aggressive even when it wasn’t the intention. And it works both ways. Dear lord, have I met some angry people defending games, simply because they can’t fathom the idea that they might just like playing a ‘bad game.’
The ‘Thought-Bubbles’ do have a bit of a weird timing. I have to have chosen what to answer before the others are done talking most of the time. It’s not always optimal. The voice acting, though, is out of this world.
Then you should know the content quality of their games have gone steadily down since Morrowind, as they have prioritized trend-chasing over, pretty much, everything else.
It culminated in 76’s concept and I highly doubt they are done with it.
I don’t think I have a lot to add to what was already said here.
But I will say that the Baldurs Gate series already had a pretty big following. It had an established fan-base, like Fallout. But unlike Fallout, Larian chose to stick with what people liked about the originals and expand upon that.
So there’s another tiny reason to add to the collective.
Less ‘Skyrim in Space,’ more ‘Fallout 4 in Space.’ They are really leaning into the “Build Your Own Trash-Fort” aspect, as with Starfield, you not only build them on every planet. You get to ride around in them between planets.
I get that ‘Builder Games’ are big money, but dear lord…
Without actually remembering anything too well, I do believe marketing around Morrowind was mostly graphics related. It was Beth’ switching to full on 3D and Morrowind was pretty advanced in that regard.
I mean, the screenshots in the magazins sold themselves to anyone with the mind for fantasy. Hell, it’s still the most beautiful and alien world to come out of Bethesda to date.