About the ending of Starfield...

 New beginnings

So I've finished Starfield and am steadily working on my review of the title whilst fighting my addiction to the blasted thing, and one topic that's been bouncing around my head for a while now is the very unique way in which Bethesda chose to handle the ending of their game, and how I think it was in direct response to one of their keymost narrative issues shared by almost all of their games. Although in the very discussion I am of course going to be discussing huge spoilers about how the game ends and that is going to ruin the moment for some people out there. And for those who are unsure about whether or not that's worth worrying about- I will say that it's actually a very cool finale moment with some interesting connotations that is best experienced in person and not summarized here in this blog. But at the end of the day I ain't your daddy; do as you do.

Spoiler Warning over- so the end of Starfield pits us with the revelation that the mysterious Starborn race who have been trying to seize control of the artefacts are actually multiversal warriors wrestling for control of the key to the 'Unity'- the centre of said Multiverse. We also learn, seemingly, that at least the Starborn are actually alternate universe variants of members of Constellation, although I'm not sure if that's true with all of them otherwise it would make a quite a grim proposition to be constantly offing fellow companions on your journeys. (And it would paint a strange conclusion that your lodge of explorers turn into homicidal god-like creatures twisting the timeline into their eternal battlegrounds) Oh, and of course the finale of the game involves crossing over the Unity and becoming Starborn, crossing over into another Universe and thus beginning your journey anew, reborn, keeping only your knowledge and talents as the entire state of the world resets itself.

This quite novel take on the 'New Game Plus' allows for the 'seemingly endless' feeling of playing a Bethesda game to come across as quite literal, as questlines, big flagship moments and quest decisions (so glad this game brought back regular quest decisions.) can be made under the same character without having to resort to starting afresh and going through that, rather dull, intro section. (And people drew complaints at Skyrim's intro constantly- the nerve...) But aside from merely resetting everything, the way the game reintroduces the main plotline intentionally uncouples the player from one of the largest narrative problems that practically every Bethesda games has had- the core conflict rubbing up against the open world.

When we're brought to a brand new Bethesda world I'm sure most people's innate most instinct is to hurry off into the middle distance and starting living the life of a hermit, surviving off the land and slowly opening themselves up to discovering every street vendor, then taking on pocket questline, then larger quest chains. But we can never quite feel comfortable rushing off into the unknown thanks to the hooks of the main narrative which forever locks the player in a 'world is ending you should really focus on this' style scenario. Sure, you can put it off if you want- but the nagging feeling gnaws at the back of your mind and disincentivises free exploration. Not to mention that most usually these core narratives characterise your player in a certain way, plants them into a particular role and gives them the 'correct' moral compunctions so that any deviation off to your own direction feels near bipolar. But Starfield actually tackles this directly.

The very conceit of the Starborn is that when they are reborn in the world it is a different universe and they themselves are, understandably, different for having gone through that ordeal. We see for ourselves very clearly the effect of prolonged relic chasing in The Hunter and The Emissary, how they hardly resemble the versions of themselves that you know from the prime universe and each blame their changing moralities and world views on living as multiversal travellers. Throwing you into a fresh world under that premise, whilst giving the player the ability to skip the particulars of the main story altogether and instead use Constellation as a resource to track down the relics- well, it unburdens the player and really sets their motivation to be whatever they want it to be. They could chase power by grabbing relics and entering new game plus' forever, they could settle down in this new universe, they could go through the same adventures they already did, they could try to set on fire as much as they can reach to see how badly their new world can burn. There are no more strings on them!

Of course, the very idea of the renewing world works wonders for how Bethesda handles a great chunk of their content in the game- with generated content along side hand-crafted and placed challenges. I think few can argue that a lot of the generated content feels like fluff because there's little really out there to find or do beyond amassing various randomised loot drops like this entire game is some sort of ARPG. (Which it isn't.) But because this game has a built in a cycle or repeating and renewing the worlds it uses, there is space for modders or even Bethesda themselves to add in new structures, tweak more interesting items into loot pools, to respond to feedback and get the generated content feeling the way it should feel to make this game pop like it's supposed to. Was that an intentional step made by Bethesda- I don't know- but I think it's a handy coincidence given this is the first time the company has relied so heavily on the work of their computed algorithms alongside the core game.

And then there's the core premise of the game: pure exploration. Chasing the very expanding horizon knowing that you'll never quite reach it. With each new Universe the circumstances change, the locations of the artefacts change and the chance renews that you'll come across something you've never quite seen before. Add in the potential for updates, modding, the horizon can stretch on and on seemingly forever. All of this made possible because of the Starborn plotpoint and which uncouples the tradtional constraints of an video game by it's own length. I'd actually argue that it's this, more so than the game itself, which makes Starfield unique as a Bethesda property. Otherwise it can simply be called Oblivion in space. (Those who say 'Fallout 4' in space are looking only at surface level similarities. This is clearly closer to Oblivion in substance.)

Altogether I think the ending of Starfield is perhaps it's greatest asset, and probably the only thing that saves the game from falling into the territory of just being 'average'. Of course, it also requires that players invest a simply ludicrous amount of their free time in order to reap the most reward, which is in of itself a hassle because your average gamer isn't going to bother to stick around until hour 30 where 'it gets interesting'. A stroke of genius might be enough to make the Starfield of tomorrow the kind of game with the staying power to last those 10 years until the next outing. Or probably 15 now with the bloating of development projects that all the industry seems subject to. But again, this is simply 'potential', it's up to Bethesda and the community to capitalise on the great lay-up which is the Starborn proposal.