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 wouldn't fit Starfield's more serious and realistic approach.

Starfield, Bethesda's latest sci-fi adventure, was originally planned to be much more violent, according to a former Bethesda artist. While Bethesda's first-person shooters like Fallout are known for their gore, Starfield took a different direction. The decision to tone down the graphic violence was deliberate, despite initial plans to include it.

Violence is still a core element of Starfield, with gunplay and melee combat playing significant roles. Many players have praised the combat mechanics as a substantial improvement over those in Fallout 4, showcasing the attention to detail in shooting and melee systems. However, Bethesda chose to scale back the more graphic elements of violence.

In an interview with the Kiwi Talkz podcast on YouTube, Dennis Mejillones, a character artist who worked on both Starfield and Fallout 4, shed light on the reasons behind this decision. He revealed that the game was initially going to feature decapitations and other kill animations, but technical challenges prevented this. The complexity of animating such violence across the numerous suits and helmets in Starfield posed significant difficulties, potentially leading to unrealistic or buggy visuals. Given the persistent technical issues Starfield faced even after multiple updates, avoiding further graphical complications seems to have been a wise choice.

Starfield Cut Decapitations for Technical and Tonal Reasons

The decision to cut graphic violence wasn't solely based on technical difficulties. Mejillones also highlighted how the humor associated with Fallout's gore doesn't align with Starfield's more serious and realistic tone. Although Starfield includes nods to Bethesda's more lighthearted and violent games, such as the recent addition of Doom-inspired content, it primarily aims for a more grounded sci-fi experience. Over-the-top executions might have disrupted the game's immersion and felt out of place.

Some 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 humorous violence could have exacerbated these concerns, making the game feel even less immersive. Ultimately, Bethesda's choice to reduce the level of gore in Starfield, while breaking from the studio's traditional approach to violence, appears to have been the right move to maintain the game's intended atmosphere.