Former Bethesda designer Bruce Nesmith has been dropping a lot of takes recently, and the newest interview reveals his thoughts on Starfield. Nesmith has a long history of creating RPGs, ranging from writing Dungeons & Dragons modules to working as the lead designer for the Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim. While he departed Bethesda before the release of Starfield, he worked as systems designer during most of its development.
Speaking to FRVR, Nesmith notes one of the essential challenges of Starfield was that "space is inherently boring." While he considers himself an "enormous space fan," the emptiness of space required planetary exploration to pick up the slack. Unfortunately, "when the planets start to feel very samey, and you don't start to feel the excitement on the planets, that's to [Nesmith] where it falls apart."
Nesmith isn't a Starfield hater, to be clear. He calls it a "good game" on the whole, then loops back to declare it a "great game" after acknowledging the pride he takes in personal efforts and those of colleagues during Starfield's development. It's merely a question of what it's living up to, and Nesmith doesn't think it's of the "same calibre" as Fallout or The Elder Scrolls.
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