The Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase at this year’s Summer Game Fest gave players an extended look at gameplay for Starfield, a demonstration that simultaneously illuminated the gradual evolution of Bethesda’s RPGs as the studio continues work on The Elder Scrolls VI. One such change isn’t necessarily new territory for Bethesda, but instead reverts a feature from Fallout 4 that was poorly received. Starfield‘s player character will be a silent protagonist, a good sign for the roleplaying and immersion aspects that provide a significant amount of replayability to the Elder Scrolls games.
For decades Bethesda’s open-world RPGs had a signature dialog system, presented from a first-person perspective and without voiced lines for the player. Fallout 4, released in 2015, did away with this in favor of a voiced protagonist, which severely limited dialog options. Games with similar mechanics, like Mass Effect, show Fallout 4‘s dialog system faults, and how the necessity for voice acting limits the open-ended character creation Bethesda is known for.
Luckily, the footage shown for Starfield at the Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase looked to return to Bethesda’s old system. This was later confirmed by Bethesda Game Studios on Twitter, with an assurance that Starfield‘s dialog would be presented in first person and without voice lines from the player character. Most likely, this means conversing with NPCs throughout the game will operate in the same way it does in Skyrim, the developer’s last single-player RPG before Fallout 4. It would seem that Bethesda has recommitted to its design roots – at least in this one aspect – which bodes well for The Elder Scrolls 6.
TES 6 Is Less Likely To Suffer Fallout 4’s Roleplaying Pitfalls
While there are Fallout 4 features worth saving for TES 6, such as settlement building and thorough weapon customization, dropping the voiced protagonist will help expand TES 6‘s roleplaying opportunities. Fallout 4 had plenty of build variety, but with there being only two voice options (essentially masculine or feminine), the player character couldn’t feel as unique as the silent, blank slates of previous Bethesda games. The Elder Scrolls especially, with its many different species to play as, excels at letting the player embody a personalized hero. There’s a certain cinematic quality to expansive voice acting and seeing the protagonist during dialog, but it doesn’t mesh well with Bethesda’s sandbox game design.
Starfield dropping Fallout 4‘s controversial feature doesn’t guarantee the same will be true for TES 6, but it would seem Bethesda has acknowledged the consensus of silent protagonists being preferable in its particular brand of RPG. With the exceptionally open-ended nature of games like Skyrim and Oblivion, a silent protagonist is more easily utilized as a self-insert for the player. Starfield will hopefully have many viable builds as well, but it’s reassuring to see Bethesda’s silent main character come back prior to The Elder Scrolls 6, that way an Argonian archer doesn’t sound exactly like a Dark Elf mage. Fallout 4‘s voice acting doesn’t make it a bad game by any means, but many would consider its role-playing potential to be far below that of Bethesda’s earlier projects.
