(Image credit: Bethesda)
According to Bethesda’s Todd Howard, Starfield’s atmosphere is reminiscent of Red Dead Redemption 2 more so than that of No Man’s Sky or Mass Effect.
When questioned by IGN if the Elder Scrolls series, Fallout, No Man’s Sky, and Mass Effect served as inspiration for Starfield, Howard pointed to Rockstar’s open-world Western masterwork as the more likely source of inspiration.
I think you could look at the other science fiction video games and say, “Okay, this is science fiction. That’s how it is. In the nitty-gritty, I can see parallels between Elder Scrolls and Fallout in terms of the mechanisms we implemented, the way the game feels in your hands, and so on.
But believe it or not, it is the video games themselves that transport you to another planet. Also, I think it has more of a [Red Dead Redemption 2] vibe as a circulation. It’s like I’ve achieved the American dream. In this, you get to experience what it must be like to be an explorer in a science fiction story, which might sometimes involve being on a desolate planet with nothing happening.
It’s the second time today a major upcoming game has been linked to Red Dead Redemption 2, with the creative director of Star Wars Outlaws calling the comparisons between the two games “terrific.”
It’s smart marketing to draw parallels between your game and one of the most recognisable IPs of all time, but we won’t know how Starfield’s massive world stacks up against Rockstar’s sandbox until the game’s September 6 release.
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Having graduated from Arizona State University with a degree in English, I first found employment as a copy editor before branching out into freelance work for publications like SFX, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG. Since joining GamesRadar as a Staff Writer, I’ve been assigned to the West Coast, which means I’m responsible for running the office out of my home and writing about whatever terrifying video game I’ve been too afraid to finish.