Ex-Starfield Artist Explains Cut of Graphic Violence

Summary

• Starfield's lack of graphic violence was an intentional choice due to technical issues and to maintain the game's tone.
• Dennis Mejillones, a character artist who worked at Bethesda on Starfield and Fallout 4, explained that graphic violence didn't fit Starfield's intended atmosphere.

Starfield, Bethesda's latest sci-fi adventure, was initially planned to be much more violent, but a former Bethesda artist has shed light on why it didn't turn out that way. While Bethesda's first-person shooters are known for their gore, the studio chose to take a different approach with Starfield. The decision to limit graphic violence was deliberate, even though the game still features intense gunplay and melee combat, which many players consider an improvement over Fallout 4.

Dennis Mejillones, a character artist who worked on both Starfield and Fallout 4, discussed the game's approach to violence in an interview with the Kiwi Talkz podcast on YouTube. He revealed that Starfield was originally going to include decapitations and other kill animations. However, technical challenges arose due to the variety of suits and helmets in the game, making it difficult to animate such violence without it appearing unrealistic or buggy. Given Starfield's ongoing technical issues even after several updates, the decision to avoid further graphical complications seems justified.

Starfield Cut Decapitations for Technical and Tonal Reasons

The decision to remove graphic violence from Starfield wasn't solely due to technical difficulties. Mejillones also noted that the gore in Fallout contributes to its humor, which doesn't align with Starfield's more serious and realistic tone. Although Starfield occasionally nods to Bethesda's more lighthearted and violent games, such as the recent addition of Doom-inspired content, it aims for a more grounded sci-fi experience. Over-the-top executions could have disrupted the game's immersion and felt out of place.

Fans have expressed a desire for more realism in Starfield, particularly criticizing the game's nightclubs for feeling tame compared to other gritty sci-fi titles like Cyberpunk 2077 and Mass Effect. Adding tongue-in-cheek violence might have exacerbated these concerns by making the game feel less authentic. Ultimately, Bethesda's choice to tone down the gore in Starfield appears to be the right move, even if it deviates from the studio's traditional approach to violence in its shooters.