Bethesda’s upcoming space RPG, Starfield, gives players a chance to explore the galaxy and live in an expansive universe alongside NPCs and companions in a surprisingly personal and familiar way. The overwhelming scope of the game as players travel to distant planets and meet new civilizations and races can appear a bit contradictory to the idea of a close familial feel. Developers balanced that by adding a small but important feature from Fallout 4 that helps to bring the game down to Earth in an immersive way.
When Starfield releases later this fall, players can meet aliens and robots from across the galaxy, yet developers are taking steps to ensure that despite the massive size of the game, it will have a feeling of everyday life. As the makers of Skyrim, it should come as no surprise that the game is going to focus heavily on its story and characters. Ships will be able to be customized to be nearly anything a player wants it to be, and the NPCs and companions will have a vast array of dialog options for various situations. The epic journey’s heavy focus on the narrative means that player immersion will be a strong component of its success.
During the Starfield Direct on June 11, 2023, Executive Producer Todd Howard showed gameplay for Starfield. During the presentation, there was a scene where Howard’s character is greeted by the robot companion, Vasco, on his ship where Vasco says “Welcome home, Captain Howard.” Howard confirmed that yes, players’ names will be used by Vasco. This small detail is reminiscent of Fallout 4 and brings a personal touch to the game.
In Fallout 4, when the player returns home they find their robot companion Codsworth addresses them by name and warmly welcomes them home (as long as their name is among those Codsworth is programmed to know). Although Starfield’s Vasco and Fallout 4’s Codsworth look vastly different, the similar touch of using a player’s name is a welcome carryover, and using the title of Captain could add a little dopamine rush for players to hear themselves addressed as such. It is currently unknown if Vasco is, like Codsworth, the only character capable of using the player’s name, or if any other robots, NPCs, or Starfield companions will also use be able to.
Vasco is likely going to have a long list of pre-determined names to use in the tailored dialog, just like Codsworth, and will otherwise default to a generic line if the player has chosen a name not on the list. Regardless, this small detail is one that can help draw players into the game even more with the sense of immersion that would come from hearing a robot address them by name. Codsworth wasn’t an exceptionally large part of Fallout 4, but this one feature carrying over to Starfield will certainly add a nice personal touch to a game that’s shaping up to be incredibly vast.
2023-06-14 06:30:03
Article from screenrant.com